Miss Impractical Pants (23 page)

“We might see summer for a few hours today.” He half grinned, helping her into his tuxedo jacket, which he’d been carrying over his arm.

As they came up the stairs from the tube station, Katie was pleased to notice that despite the spongy clouds, the sun was attempting to rise. The streets were speckled with only a few haggard-looking people making their way home from their Friday night pub crawl. Walking among them, Katie didn’t feel too self-conscious about the appearance of Lucas and her sharing his tuxedo at dawn.

“It’s just a few houses up this street,” Lucas informed her.

Now that she was more alert, his feathery accent tickled every nerve down her spine. Her eyes honed in on her whereabouts and she was surprised to find that she recognized this street. She hadn’t paid attention last night when they’d picked him up because it was dark and
she was too engrossed in conversation with Sidney, but she definitely knew this street—she’d passed it many times on the Big Bus Tours.

“You live here?” She failed at sounding unimpressed as he led her to the end of a row of fancy three-story white brick buildings.

Lucas opened the
iron gate
that permitted access to his building. Katie made a little skip toward the perfect Mary Poppins home, but stopped as she heard a strange clinking noise. She turned just as a burly man dressed in dark jeans, a sweatshirt, and a ball cap leapt out from behind a tree, snapping pictures of the two of them. Katie knew she should bolt inside, but she was frozen in place, like a deer in the headlights, while the photographer had his way with her image.

Lucas shouted a few expletives at the photographer before jumping protectively in front of her. Holding out a large hand toward the lens he hustled her into the building.

“
Wh
...What was that?” Katie heaved shakily when they were behind the safety of Lucas’s door.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“Oh well…I guess strange things happen in big cities,” she chirped, happy to let the incident go.

“Yeah, guess so.” But he didn’t seem so certain. “Well, make yourself at home.”

His home felt oddly familiar and welcoming, and without ceremony she fell back into the plump leather sofa. She studied the lacquered antique moldings and bookcases of dark wood with familiarity, and then the brown sofa she was sitting upon. The room was almost identical to Mr. Scott’s library, but instead of hundreds of books in the cases, Lucas had removed some shelves to accommodate
his giant television and stereo system, and where Katie’s favorite tall leather-backed chair should have been were a couple of red leather space-age pod chairs. Katie’s eyes rested on the funky chairs that wouldn’t have dared to even think about setting foot—rather, pedestal—in Mr. Scott’s home.

“They were a gift from Mum,” Lucas clarified, amused at Katie’s gawking. “She’s been trying to encourage me to modernize my flat.”

“Why? I like it this way. It’s almost exactly like Mr. Scott’s home.”

He pressed his lips into a smile that she couldn’t decipher. “That’s because it
is
his home. Actually, Uncle Avery owns the building. I’m sort of managing the property for him.”

Katie’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a silent “Oh” as she tried to catalogue this bit of information.

“
Which reminds me…
” He was suddenly off on another track. “I promised I would call Uncle today and let him know how you’re doing.” He dashed into his bedroom, his words trailing behind him. “We’ll have to call him from the car.”

Ten minutes later, he returned wearing loose-fitting jeans, an untucked designer button-up, and a delicious smile that gave Katie the urge to lick her lips. Her eyes narrowed as she discerned certain wisps of his shaggy hair curled from dampness. Reaching out her hand, she stepped toward him and squeezed a tuft at the back of his neck. “No fair! You showered!”

***

“Hello Katie, lovely to see you again.” Lady Waverly’s small voice was warm and as silky as her flaxen hair. She clasped both of her
smooth, powdery hands over Katie’s. “Welcome to Pellyn Hall. I’m so pleased you’ve come.”

Katie gave her most brilliant smile and tried not to notice how her hands looked like man-hands inside Lady Waverly’s dainty clasp.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Katie replied with the proper amount of gratitude and politeness.

Dropping the formality, Lady Waverly turned to Lucas. “So, how did you manage to get her here?”

His grin was sinister.
“Blackmail.”

“Brilliant!” Lady Waverly’s tinkling laugh rang through the grand foyer.

Katie savored every detail of her surroundings as Lady Waverly escorted them through the main rooms on the ground level before leading them into the garden through a set of heavy French doors. She wasn’t fanciful enough to believe brunching in a noble’s country estate was anything more than
a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Katie noted with admiration how Lady Waverly seemed to float rather than walk. She wore a notably expensive ivory-colored ensemble which no doubt had been custom tailored to fit her petite frame. An ivory silk scarf wrapped her shoulders and flirted airily with the breeze behind her. Katie thought she looked like a graceful fairy and tried envisioning herself in the same outfit. The result was disheartening. For the remainder of the day, she could not erase from her mind the image of herself looking like a posh, lumpy sofa.

“Denny should be here shortly,” Lady Waverly told them after they were seated in a freestanding glass conservatory. “He’s just making sure the meeting room is ready. He’s hosting some Members
of Parliament today to discuss whether we’re going to allow the government to lease some holdings we have in Bosnia.”

“That could be a real heated argument, I imagine,” Lucas commented.

“Yes, I imagine it will be,” Lady Waverly agreed.

Katie recrossed her legs, sat a little straighter, and nodded, hoping she looked as though she were up on current events.

“What are your views on Bosnia, Katie?” Lady Waverly asked. “It would be interesting to get an American perspective.”

Katie’s nodding came to a halt. She swallowed hard to keep her heart from jumping out of her throat. “What do
I
think?” she repeated, trying to buy time for an epiphany. “I think…”
Crappity crap craaaap!
“Well, I think that…”

Lucas and Lady Waverly pinned her with expectant stares, as if they were waiting for her to say something profound.

Katie shifted in her seat, noticing how the soft cushion did little to make her feel comfortable. “That is to say, my stance on the subject is…
hell,
I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Her heart leapt from her throat and tried escaping through her ear. She could feel it pounding against her brain.

A crooked smile meandered across Lucas’s face. He beamed at her as if she were a favorite toy.

Katie watched Lady Waverly’s reaction apprehensively. The lady’s face strained as if she were holding something back. Then her body twitched, followed by her lips. She no longer looked like a fairy. She gave one tinkling giggle, then opened her mouth and broke into a full-blown belly laugh.

Katie was so absorbed in gaping at Lady Waverly that she didn’t notice Lord Waverly’s arrival.

“Good gracious! What have I missed?” he boomed.

Katie squeezed her eyes shut, hoping to make herself invisible. She did not want to explain she was the reason for his wife’s unladylike cackling. She slunk deep into her shoulders and turned to face him. If Lord Waverly was going to grab her by the back of the neck and throw her out, she didn’t want to make it easy.

His face wore an odd expression, as if he were trying to recall something. He looked perplexed, but not angry.

Like an enthusiastic child, Lady Waverly leapt from her seat to seize her husband’s hand and led him to the chair next to her. An inkling of a smile crossed his face as his gaze floated from his wife to Lucas, then to Katie, and back to his wife. As Lord Waverly’s confusion seemed to give way to affection for his wife, Katie felt herself relax a little. She had the distinct feeling he was trying remember the last time he had seen his wife have a genuine laugh, let alone a sidesplitting fit.

Lord Waverly turned to his guests. “Hello Katie, Lucas. Thank you for coming. We need to have you over more often—you do my wife good.” His smile was now complete and his words were genuine.

Katie breathed for what seemed like the first time since their arrival.

“We were just filling Katie in on the newest conflict in Bosnia,” Lady Waverly explained, still fighting the giggles.

Her husband nodded; a practiced air of conversation overtook him. “Right, right, such a mess, with no easy solution—what do you
think, Lucas? Do you think the British government should get involved?”

“I really don’t see any way around it.” Lucas sighed, his demeanor now very serious. “No, I don’t want Britain to get involved, but if we don’t, I imagine Bosnia will have another war on its hands.”

Lord Waverly nodded. “I agree with you, but just for argument’s sake, why shouldn’t we just let them battle it out among themselves?”

“We saw what happened in the nineties—we have a moral obligation to help protect innocent people from being slaughtered. Second, we should consider our economic situation. We can’t afford to support many more people seeking asylum in this country. We’re already bursting at the seams with refugees and struggling to provide adequately for our own countrymen. We’d be fools to think we won’t have our own uprising if we foot the bill for thousands more coming in from Bosnia.”

Katie basked in the cadence of his accent, trying to absorb everything he was saying. The mental checklist she made on him already consisted of
gorgeous, tall, witty, luscious hair, sensitive, owns a tuxedo.
Now, she was compelled to add
intellectual, holds his own with England’s most influential.
It was hard not to compare that list against Jared’s:
short, balding, wouldn’t pick up a book if his life depended on it, likes to shoot furry creatures with Other Best Girl.

“Well said!” Lord Waverly’s enthusiastic approval broke into her thoughts. “That’s almost the exact stance I plan to take at the summit this afternoon.”

At that moment the breakfast trays were brought in.

“You know, Lucas, if you ever decide to give up the travel business, I think we could use you in parliament,” his Lordship suggested cordially.

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind,” Lucas replied with a modest but uninterested smile.

“So, where do things stand with our holiday?” Lady Waverly was anxious to get down to business.

“Thanks to Katie, we’re right on track. How she was able to do it is beyond me, but she has arranged for you to have the Peninsula Suite overlooking Victoria Harbor at the Peninsula Hotel.” Lucas’s eyes sparkled approval of his new employee.

“Brilliant!” Lady Waverly clasped her hands together. “Everything is going to be just brilliant. I have every confidence Katie understands exactly what this journey means to me.” She gave Katie a conspiratorial smile.

“I’m sorry to have to eat and run,” Lord Waverly pushed away from the table, “but my guests will be arriving soon and I should be prepared to greet them. Lucas, are you sure you wouldn’t like to stay for the meeting? I’d be very interested to hear more of what you have to say.”