Authors: Mandy Baggot

Public Property (13 page)

BOOK: Public Property

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And Nicholas definitely hadn’t told her. His assistant probably sent her a bossy email and she probably deleted it.

‘
Well
,
while you
’
re on the phone to her you can ask her to check appointments for
next month
and then we can make a firm date for the wedding
.’

‘
I will
.’

‘
No sec
ond thoughts this morning then?’
Nicholas asked her
. H
e cracked some eggs into a pan.

‘
No
,
but I had a rather terrifying dream about an Elvis impersonator
. H
ey
,
did you make tea for the photographers when you got up?
’ Freya asked.

‘
No. I looked out and there was only one guy there and I didn’t
recognise
him
.’

‘
Well Donn
y will be there by now
.
I’ll make a pot
.’

‘
You are
crazy,
you know that
,
don’t you?
’ He shook his head at her.

‘And that
makes you crazy for wanting to marry me
.’

The phone rang and Nicholas crossed the kitchen to pick up the cordless handset stationed on the wall.

‘
Hello
…o
h hi
Sasha
.
That’s OK…
I’m fine thank you and you?
T
hat’s good
…
ye
a
h
…uh huh…well that was good thinking…’

‘
Hey
,
does she want t
o speak to me at all?
Her boss?’
Freya
asked
.

‘
Freya’s right here
. Y
e
a
h
,
I
’ll put her on…
yes OK, I will
,’
Nicholas said
. He
held out the receiver for Freya to take.

‘
Hello
.’

‘
Hi
,
Freya, I’m sorry to bother you at home this early but I wanted to remind you about your visit to Carlton General today. I meant to mention it yesterday but
I had
my meeting with Heather Malco
lm
and
it went right out of my head.’

‘
That’s OK
.
M
y fiancé is thankfully better
organised
than me and
he also has a PA who emails lots
of
intricate looking
schedules
. But thank you for reminding me. Have I got anything else booked in for this afternoon?
’
Freya wanted to know.

‘
No
,
but there
’
s a message from Jonathan Sanders on the
answer phone
suggesting he meet you for lunch tomorrow to discuss the plan he put to you yesterday. He was a little vague
.’

‘
Jonny
,’
Freya
said out loud
.

‘
Shall I call him back to accept or did you want to do that?
’
Sasha
questioned.

‘
Sasha,
are you in the office right now?’
Freya
asked. S
he moved from the kitchen out into the hallway.

‘
Er
, yes I am
.’

‘
Sasha
,
it’
s not even eight
.
W
hat are you doing there? Don’t you have a bed to be in?
Or someone else’s bed to be in?’
Freya asked her.

‘
Well
,
Heather Malcolm accepted m
y
proposal for the college football photographs so I wanted
to make a start with the
organi
s
ation
.’

‘
Sasha
, why can’t I be as efficient as you?
’

‘
I
…’
Sasha
started.

‘
This afternoon we
’
ll do what I said yesterday
. We’ll
turn off the phones and get stuck into something. Maybe we’ll go out somewhere and take some pictures
,’
Freya suggested to her.

‘
I
’
d
really
like that
.’

‘
Good. Well, while you’re on the phone and in the office
,
c
ould you check the diary for next month and see
when I have some free time? I’ll need a week or so clear
,’
Freya said.

‘
Y
ou’re pretty busy
.
There are meetings about the Every Day
project
,
but there is a
reasonably clear
week at the end of the month.
T
here are o
ne or two appointments but…’
Sasha
began.

‘You mean around Christmas.’

‘Yes.’

‘
Could you cancel th
ose appointments
? And give me the date of one of the Saturdays either end of that week
,’
Freya asked her.

‘Twenty second?’

‘
Great
.
That’s perfect
.
Right, well could you book me out that Saturday and the whole of
the following
week?
’

‘
Are you taking a vacation
?
’

‘“
Holiday
”
,
Sasha
.
Yes
I
am
,
a honeymoon
.’ She smiled to herself.
A honeymoon.

‘
Oh. Well, that’s great, congratulations
.’

‘
Thank you. Well
,
I shall see you a bit later and if
Milo
at the patisserie has any new recipes he
’
d like me to try out
,
save me something for this afternoon
,’
Freya finished.

‘Sure. S
ee you
.’

Freya
returned to the kitchen and replaced the phone on the wall
.

‘Everything OK?’
Nicholas asked
. He butter
ed
toast.

‘
Everything’s fine
.
I
n fact you
’
d better call your brother later and make sure he can get here for
the twenty second of December.’

‘
You’ve decided on a date
.’
He turned
to face her.

‘
Can you make
it
?
’

‘
I think I
’
m supp
osed to be meeting with Arnold
Schwarzenegger that day
, but I’m sure he’ll understand
,
’
Nicholas replied, slipping his arms around her waist.

‘
Tell him
you’ll be back
,
’ Freya suggested with a laugh.

‘
I
’
ll tell him I can’t meet him because I
’
m going to be made
the happiest man alive.’

‘
You’ll make me blush and you know I hate blushing in front of Willis
.’

‘
He’s gotten used to it. Come on, let’s eat breakfast and then I’ll call Matt, tell him the good news
.’
He let her go and picked
up the plates from the work top.

Twenty second of December. She was going to be a winter bride. Now the date was set she had to think about what she wanted and where she wanted it. Where did she start?

‘
So, who’s Jonn
y
?’ Nicholas asked, sitting down at the table.

‘
Jonny?
’

She swallowed. She should have told him yesterday. Whatever she told him now, after the event, was going to sound lame.
Unless she lied to buy time.
Why did she need to lie? There was nothing between her and Jonny.

‘
Ye
a
h,
Sasha
said something to you on the phone and you said
Jonny
in kind of a weird way
.’

‘
Oh
,
Jonny!
That
Jonny! Oh
,
that’s
Sasha
’s latest guy.
He
’
s not
hing to write home about and if you ask me she could do a lot better than him. He stood her up last week with no good excuse
.’

There was the lie, tripping from her tongue. She sat at the table with a thump.

‘
She seems quite a nice girl
.
S
he certainly likes to talk
.’

‘She is nice and talented.
O
bviously not as talented as me, but I
’
m trying to pass on a few things to her
,’
Freya told him.

‘
So,
December twenty second.’
He looked across the table at her, a smile on his face.

‘
Yep,
twenty second of
December
,
it’s a date
.’

If God didn’t smite her for the lying.

Ten

The car
arrived to pick them up at ten. Roger, Nicholas’ bodyguard
, arrived in it
.
As much as Freya liked raising money for charity
,
she absolutely hated the meet and greets. Meeting the people
was fine, she loved talking
.
B
ut being photographed from every conceivable angle and
being
asked
endless questions by journalists was
her idea of
h
ell. Even though she had endured months of it
already
,
she still didn’t seem to get any better at it. She slightly envied Nicholas’ relaxed demeanor in dealing with it all. He was excellent at being amiable to
anybody and
every
body
.

Another reason Freya
disliked public functions was
the fact she felt she had to consider carefully what she wore.
Too formal and she would be thought of as too business
-
like,
too casual and she would
be
seen as not serious enough
. It was a nightmare.
Usually she didn’t care what people thought
,
but the charity work was important to her.
Today she had opted f
or a smart grey trouser suit and a black shirt
.