Country Plot (15 page)

‘If that's a sore thumb,' he said, looking at her admiringly, ‘then – whack my opposable digit with a hammer, baby, cos I'm
on
with that.'

She laughed, feeling a bit better. He really was extremely good looking, with hair a shade darker than his sister's, and a fine, straight-nosed, classy sort of face, not quite as chiselled as Caroline's and, instead of her cool blue eyes, rather fascinating hazel ones. And she always liked men who made her laugh. That's why it was such a mystery that Patrick had stolen her heart. Oh Patrick! But she mustn't think about him now. ‘Well,' she said, ‘I did think I might as well have something I'd wear when I go back to the real world. They had it in black, but I like this colour.'

‘It's genius to wear something like that with red hair. What do you mean, the real world?'

‘Oh, I don't mean it insultingly,' she said hastily. ‘I suppose I've been in London so long everything else seems a bit surreal.'

‘I always feel that way when I'm
in
London. Oh, hello, Helen. How are you?' He turned politely as one of the other guests came up to him, and Jenna, remembering what Kitty had wanted of her, moved away to circulate and speak to everyone else in turn.

In this way, she found herself eventually with Alexander, detached for the moment from Caroline, who was talking to a thin elderly man that Central Casting would have snapped up for rector parts.

‘Hello,' Jenna said politely.

He didn't smile.

‘Problem?' she asked brightly.

‘If you must know,' he said, ‘I don't think that dress is at all suitable.'

She wasn't entirely surprised. ‘Kitty loves it,' she said. ‘And it's her party.'

‘Kitty's polite.'

‘So what's wrong with it?'

‘You know perfectly well,' he said, glaring at her cleavage.

She had felt uneasy about it all along, but she wasn't going to let him criticize her. ‘I can see you enjoy looking down on me,' she said.

Two spots of colour appeared in his cheeks and he looked away.

‘Look,' she said, ‘I don't know what your problem is with me, but I'm just here, at Kitty's request, to do a job. I'm not part of your local society, and I don't have to fit in with it. When the job's done, I'll be off, and out of your hair.'

His eyes returned to her face. ‘Is that what you think? Then you must be extremely un-noticing. Kitty's very taken with you, and she's enjoying having you here.'

‘Well, what's wrong with that?' Jenna said indignantly. ‘I just don't get what you're in a state about.'

His nostrils flared. ‘I'm not in a state. I never get in a state—'

‘
That
I can believe,' Jenna said.

He breathed hard. ‘I'm very fond of Kitty, and as her godson I have every right to be concerned about her. I don't want her to be hurt, and I don't want her to be exploited.'

She lost her temper a little bit. ‘I don't know what the hell you think it is I'm doing here,' she began, managing to keep her voice to a low hiss, ‘but you've got some cheek coming here criticizing my appearance and implying – well, I don't know what you
are
implying. That I'm some kind of crook?'

‘I didn't say that. But this so-called
job
of yours—'

‘It's something Kitty wants doing – which, by the way, I would have thought
you
were the ideal person to do, if you could have been bothered.'

‘I couldn't possibly find the time,' he said, indignant in his turn. ‘I have a business to run and it's full-time work. But even if Kitty does want you to do this, you don't have to embarrass her at her party by turning up looking like a—'

Fortunately, since Jenna had a half-full glass of champagne in her hand, he didn't finish the sentence. ‘Like a what?' she demanded.

He waved a hand. ‘Shocking pink and slashed to the navel—' He took a breath and started again. ‘You must
see
it isn't appropriate,' he added, his tone more propitiating.

‘But you didn't say what you think I am,' Jenna growled menacingly.
She
wasn't ready to fold. ‘What am I?'

‘I think you're just like your mother,' he said coldly.

At that moment Jim appeared between them and said cheerily, ‘Good party, isn't it? Wonderful to see Kitty entertaining again. And Mrs Phillips cooks like an angel. You must have the inside track on what delights are before us, Jenna. Care to give us a preview?'

It was like coming down to earth again with a solid bump. The rest of the room tuned in around her, and she blinked like someone waking. What on earth had been going on? Why had she and Alexander been at each other's throats? She didn't know the man from Adam. She looked round furtively, hoping no one else had noticed, as Jim obviously had. He had come to throw cold water on them like fighting dogs.

‘Oh, I couldn't possibly spoil the surprise,' she said lightly, managing to smile nearly normally. ‘But from the little I know, Mrs Phillips ought to be in the Michelin Guide.' She risked a glance up at Alexander, who was looking almost as bemused as she felt. She tried an apologetic smile on him and got a twitch of the lips in response. ‘You must have tasted more of her dinners than I have. How many stars do you think she should get?'

‘Oh, four, I'd say,' Alexander said. ‘Excuse me, I must circulate.' He gave them a nod that was almost a bow and moved away.

Jenna turned to Jim, wondering what he'd say, prepared to thank him for intervening, but he was too well behaved to allow her to mention it. ‘I think the waiting is almost over, anyway,' he said cheerfully. ‘I just saw Bill appear in the doorway, and it looks as though Kitty's gathering her chicks. Allow me to escort you to your escort. Young Henry's taking you in, isn't he?'

‘Yes – he's over there.'

‘You'll have a lively dinner companion, anyway. I think I've got Jean Longhurst on my other side, and she's very deaf, poor thing. It must be an awful affliction.'

He had talked her down to earth by the time he presented her to Harry, but he did it so naturally that she would have been left to wonder whether he really
had
effected a rescue, or whether it was pure chance, except at the last moment before he turned away, he whisked her champagne glass out of her hand and bestowed a fatherly wink on her.

The food was delicious. They started with a cold watercress soup, then went on to the duck eggs, poached, with the asparagus and a hollandaise sauce.

‘My first grass this year,' Harry said. ‘Bill always gets ahead in that walled garden of his.'

‘Microclimate,' Jenna said.

‘Are you a gardener?' he asked doubtfully.

‘Do I look like a gardener? But I can read. And we did a feature on walled gardens a couple of years ago, as I remember.'

‘What do you mean, “did a feature”?'

She told him about her job, in which he seemed interested enough to keep the topic going to the end of the course. Then some movement seemed to ripple round the table, and Harry, who had turned away from her, turned back to explain in a whisper, ‘You have to talk to your other side now. It's the rule.'

Everyone had turned to talk to the person on their other side. It seemed a nice, polite thing to do, she thought, but fancy there being an absolute rule about it! And fancy that everyone knew the rule! So she got a go of her other dinner partner, a spritely old man who turned out to be called Brian and to be married to the deaf Jean Longhurst. Perhaps this accounted for the fact that he was bursting to talk, and also that he didn't seem to require answers. He ran his sentences so seamlessly together, segueing from how jolly it was to be dining at Holtby House again, to how his dogs hated being left alone in the evenings and seemed to have a sixth sense about when it was going to happen, to the lunatic neighbours who had started
feeding
foxes at the back door and how they must be town people, to the shocking numbers of weekend homes there were nowadays and something ought to be done about it, to how the government interfered too much and didn't understand the countryside. Jenna had only to nod and murmur agreement, which left her free to enjoy the next course, which was stuffed roast leg of lamb, which Bill brought in on a trolley and carved in front of them while Fatty carried the plates round. The lamb was delectable, the stuffing piquant, and the gravy could have got up and sung opera, it was so artistic.

When the plates were cleared, Brian Longhurst laid a chalky hand over Jenna's and said, ‘I've enjoyed our little chat. It's a long time since I had the undivided attention of such a pretty woman. And your dress is beautiful, my dear.' Then he turned away to his other neighbour, leaving Jenna to realize that he wouldn't have said the last bit had someone not been criticizing it. She had a fair idea who it was. Caroline had been shooting ferocious glares at her down the table. Across from Jenna, Alexander had been giving her the occasional glance, which she was piercingly aware of even when she was looking elsewhere. Now and then, when she thought he wasn't looking, she stole a glance at him. He was still shiveringly attractive – but what a stiff! Once when she was looking he moved his head and their eyes met, and it was like an electric shock. She jerked hers away, and felt herself blushing. She wished she were down the other end of the table, where things were much livelier, and Mad Enderby was defying protocol and talking to a whole group of people at once, interspersing her remarks with jolly laughter.

‘So,' said Harry when they had settled down again, ‘why did you leave this job of yours? It sounds as if you enjoyed it.'

‘I did. But I got downsized.'

‘Wow.' He looked down her cleavage. ‘I wish I'd met you before.'

‘Don't be rude.'

‘Sorry,' he said with a grin, not seeming it. ‘And why did you leave London, that you say you've always lived in?'

‘Lost my job, lost my flat, needed a holiday but couldn't afford it. My brother said what you need is a job that's like a holiday, and my other brother found me this.'

‘Ah, that accounts for the rumours that you're here on a rest cure. I was imagining tuberculosis or a nervous breakdown at least.'

‘Do I look—?'

‘Of course not,' he interrupted hastily. ‘But it's better than Caro's theory, that you're here to lead Kitty to ruin.'

‘What
has
she got against me?'

‘You're a rival.'

‘What, for Alexander? No thank you!'

‘Just generally. She's used to being the centre of attention, the Belle of the County. Though it has to be said old Xander does keep looking at you an awful lot.'

‘Pure disapproval,' said Jenna. ‘Why did you say you didn't know what Caroline saw in him? He
is
terrifically good looking.'

‘But Caro's never cared about that. What she wants in her men is wealth and power. You should have seen some of her past efforts! Gruesome in the extreme. No, Xander's not rich or posh enough, with his piddling little furniture business, and his parents weren't anyone. And I can't believe she's in love. So what's she up to?'

‘You don't like her much, do you? Shouldn't you be loyal to your sister?'

‘Are you loyal to yours?'

‘I've two sisters and two brothers, and I adore them all, and we're all loyal to each other. That's what families are for.'

‘Someone forgot to tell mine that,' Harry said lightly. ‘There's only the two of us. And she's only my stepsister, anyway.'

‘Really? And I was thinking you looked so alike.'

‘Her mother divorced her father and married my dad. She doesn't look like her mother and I do look like my father, so I suppose her mother had a fixed taste in men.'

‘Hang on, I need a minute to work that out.'

‘Anyway, she was ten when I was born, so by the time the folks got together she was away at boarding school. I never really had much to do with her. She was just this bossy thing that appeared in holidays and nagged me for being dirty and noisy and annoying.' He grinned. ‘So I've made a career out of being annoying to her ever since.'

‘What happened to your mother?'

‘Died,' he said shortly. ‘I was just a baby, so you don't have to say “sorry”.'

‘If Caroline's mother married your father, how come you've got different surnames?'

‘Caro never dropped the Russell. Posher name, you see, and she needed that at boarding school, to keep her end up. Benenden – frightfully posh.'

‘I should have thought your father would have made her change.'

‘Oh, Dad didn't care. He soon divorced Caro's mum anyway, so it was just as well she stuck with the first name. Funny, though, even after the divorce Caro stayed friends with my dad. I think she spends more time with him than with her mum. Like calls to like, so they say.'

Before Jenna could ask more, the course came to an end. They had been eating poached pears with meringue and warm coffee-chocolate sauce. The pears seemed to have been poached in Poire William liqueur, to judge by their boozy taste. Now as the dishes were cleared, she asked, ‘What's next?'

‘Dessert,' Harry said.

‘We just had that.'

‘No, dear, that was pudding. Dessert is cheese and fruit,' he told her kindly.

‘God, the minefields!' she exclaimed. ‘I'm getting fork anxiety. And to think a couple of weeks ago I was sitting on the sofa in front of the telly eating rice pudding out of the tin.'

‘Sounds like heaven to me!' He grinned. ‘You mustn't think we go on like this all the time. Everyone enjoys the full fig now and then, but there are kitchen suppers too, with a huge bowl of spaghetti in the middle and help-yourself, and the Enderbys' barbecue in the summer.'