Well Groomed (65 page)

He flipped up the base the moment Tash poked her head around the door and, looking embarrassed, gave her his big, charmer’s smile. ‘Hi, angel – come in.’

The lofty, leather-faced David Wheaton, who was in the middle of telling the girl to buzz off, sharply added that Tash could fuck off too.

‘Listen, we are seriously behind time on this one,’ he blazed at Niall, not noticing that Tash was taking her time to go. ‘And you keep fucking back here to call your girlfriend, when she only lives two miles down the fucking road! Much as I admire your loyalty, and sympathise with the fact that you are about to get married, I have to INSIST on some fucking input from you here. I was told you were a bloody professional, not some sort of love-sick drama queen!’

‘Er, David,’ Niall looked at Tash, ‘this is—’

‘And you fucking drink too much!’ David broke in, glaring at the glass of scotch on the table. ‘I gather you’re going to AA with your beloved future wife right now, but I need you to cut down when you’re on set – it puts the others off.’

Picking up the glass, Niall poured its contents slowly and deliberately out of the window until he had gained David’s attention and shut him up.

‘Forgive me, David.’ He smiled apologetically. ‘This is Tash.’

David was all oozing charm the moment he realised that Tash was the mysterious fiancée. He kissed her on both cheeks with very chapped lips.

‘Delighted to meet you at long last, poppet.’ He beamed out a high-wattage smile, although his eyes were looking her up and down in amazement, taking in the dusty breeches, flat, dirty hair and spotty face. She knew she looked a complete, haggard wreck, a fact which hadn’t helped her hopeless gaucheness with Hugo in the kitchen.

Her face was aflame and she found that she couldn’t look at Niall at all.

‘I’m sorry to barge in, I can see you’re busy,’ she spluttered, turning to Niall and staring at his legs, aware that his smile had not faltered. ‘I just came to remind you about your AA meeting tonight.’

‘It’s Zoe’s dinner party tonight, angel.’ Niall smiled easily, but his eyes were hollow.

‘So it is,’ Tash said helplessly. ‘Silly me – I must have muddled the days up. What a prat I am.’ Trying to give a gay little laugh, which came out as a sort of guinea-pig’s death-cry, she escaped to collect Snob.

In the yard, Hugo was wearing a fresh t-shirt and conducting a fierce argument with Stefan and a groom about the fact that someone had cancelled an order of horse supplements. He barely noticed Tash creep past and collect Snob, fumbling hastily to tie his broken reins together to get them home, then tightening his girths with her hot face pressed to his smooth, twitching belly.

It was only when she led him out into the yard that Hugo shut up and watched her mount, blue eyes taking in the svelte bottom twisting up into the saddle.

‘You and Niall have a nice chat then?’ he asked disparagingly.

It was too much for Tash. She trotted off without another word, Snob’s hooves hammering out great echoing sounds on the Tarmac that caused a furious voice to shout ‘Cut!’ over a tannoy on the far side of the false hedge.

‘Apparently not.’ Hugo turned back to the others. ‘Now where were we?’ He glared at them for a brief moment before starting to walk towards the house. ‘Oh, fuck this,’ he sighed, ‘just order some more.’

Stefan and the groom exchanged astonished glances.

Half an hour later, Stefan tracked Hugo down in the attics, where he was buried in
Horse and Hound
, looking murderous.

‘The answer’s no,’ he said without glancing up.

Stefan hovered in the door. ‘I’m really worried about Tash,’ he started cautiously.

‘Oh, yes?’ Hugo flicked a page in boredom.

‘Well, aren’t you?’ Stefan looked at him in amazement.

‘Not particularly,’ he muttered. ‘Should I be? Don’t you think she’ll be happy with a bed canopy as a wedding present then? I thought it was rather apt given that Niall wakes up with a hangover every morning.’

‘Oh, c’mon, Hugo my friend,’ laughed Stefan. ‘You can see how unhappy she is too, don’t pretend otherwise. For someone who’s more or less sponsored her career, you sure as hell cop out when it comes to any emotional support.’

‘I pay her way to help Gus,’ Hugo snapped. ‘And because she’s a bloody good rider who deserves a break – you know how impossible it is to get started in this game without money. Her private life has nothing to do with me.’

‘So you wanted me to call you when she arrived today so that you could rush up to the house to check your investment, did you?’

‘Something like that.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

‘You,’ Hugo looked up at him, his face ashen, ‘are not paid to believe me. And you’d do well to remember that the same bank account that covers Tash French’s expenses also mops up your exorbitant cost of living. You’re a superb jockey, Stef, but if you don’t shut up right now, you may well find yourself riding off into the sunset tomorrow.’

‘You can’t buy her, Hugo.’ Stefan shook his head. ‘Haven’t you realised that by now?’

‘Stef . . .’ he warned icily.

‘Your father left you with one hell of a financial legacy, but without a legacy to stand on emotionally, didn’t he?’ Stefan blinked his huge, pale eyes in astonished disbelief so that the blond lashes tangled like threshing chaff. ‘Kirsty thinks you’re a barbarian with women because you were so starved of love as a child, you are terrified of falling in love. You think it’s a sign of weakness, don’t you?’

‘Get out!’ Hugo snarled. ‘Don’t you fucking dare to condescend to me and make dim suggestions about my father based on the Scotch Brothel’s amateur psychology.’

‘But she’s right, isn’t she? I bet the old bugger’s way of stopping you crying was to buy you another pony, or send you packing on a skiing trip, or just thrust a tenner at you, wasn’t it?’

‘Not exactly.’ Hugo’s jaw was quilted with fury, his eyes so angry that Stefan blanched in terror. ‘He used to beat the shit out of me, if you must know. And unless you want me to do the same to you, I suggest you get out of here and leave me alone.’

‘Okay.’ He started to back hastily out of the room. ‘You win.’

‘That,’ Hugo said bitterly, ‘is one thing I haven’t done in a long time.’

THAT NIGHT, AS TASH and Niall walked to the farm from the forge, she finally tackled him about his drinking.

‘You have to come clean with me,’ she pleaded. ‘David Wheaton said how grateful he was that I was going with you to AA, and I simply didn’t know where to look. Plus he kept going on about the phone calls and the long lunches, and that’s just rubbish. You can’t use me as a cover up.’

‘My drinking’s not out of control, angel.’

‘It is, Niall,’ she protested. ‘I know I agreed to keep quiet about what’s happening between us for a while, but it’s killing me. I just can’t stand by and watch you drink your way into even more of a mess than you’re already in. I had no idea what ludicrous things you’d been telling people until today. I thought you were trying to sort things out, not make them worse.’

‘I am, angel, I am.’ He took hold of her hand and squeezed it. ‘But Lisette was getting suspicious that you never came to see me on set, so I started talking about the wedding to convince her that all was well. It just got a bit out of hand, that’s all.’

‘Out of hand?’ Tash laughed hollowly. ‘Christ, Niall!’ she snatched her hand away from his grip. ‘Can’t you see how much worse you’re making things? How long is this ridiculous charade going to go on?’

She wanted to scream, How long until you admit that the only way out of this mess is for you to sell Snob? But to say that was to accept it as a fact, and she simply wasn’t brave enough. However hard she told herself that there was no other solution, she was still clinging on to the tiny belief that a miracle would happen – she’d even blued a fiver on Lottery tickets in the desperate hope that she might scoop the Jackpot on Saturday night.

‘We wrap this location shoot in a week.’ He rubbed his forehead agitatedly, starting to walk faster, as though trying to run away from her. ‘If we can keep it up until then, things might work out, I promise you.’

‘But that’s not until after Badminton!’ she breathed, suddenly terrified.

She knew why he wanted to spare her until then. Waiting until afterwards to tell her would allow her one last ride with the horse that had taken her to such a giddy height professionally – at the biggest competition of their career. Yet if Snob performed at the trials as he had today, she realised, no one would want to buy him anyway. She felt utterly torn.

‘I spoke to Bob Hudson today.’ Niall was marching faster and faster along the lane now. ‘He’s working on one of the Hollywood deals, but it might take until the end of next week to come through – particularly as he’s demanding money up front and adding half a million on my asking price. If it pays off then I’ll be able to negotiate my way out of this thing.’

‘And if it doesn’t?’ Tash was almost running to keep up.

Niall put on another spurt of acceleration. ‘I think we should agree to keep quiet until Lisette’s wrap party – that’s the night you get back from Gloucestershire. If I still can’t get hold of the money by then, I’ll come clean there and take the consequences, I swear I will.’

‘But we’ll only have a week to cancel.’ She shuddered. ‘We can’t do it.’

‘We have to, Tash.’

‘I can’t let you carry on putting on an act and drinking yourself silly for another week just to let me ride at Badminton.’ She shook her head, knowing that to accept his offer would be hopelessly selfish. ‘You’ll be dead of alcohol poisoning by then. How on earth you had the gall to tell them you were going to AA is beyond me.’

‘Because I am,’ he said quietly.

‘You what?’ Tash stood stock still in the road.

He waited patiently beside her, hands thrust deep in his pockets, heels rocking. It was an intensely close night, forewarning a racketing storm later, and the hedgerows seemed to be drooping in the heat, the cow-parsley looking bitty and brown, like dispersing froth on a pint of beer. When Tash made no apparent move, he heaved a deep sigh.

‘I know I’m still drinking like a fish with a sore throat, angel, but I’m trying to get help. I truly want to stop.’

‘But when? I mean, how?’ She stared at him, still not quite able to believe it.

‘Zoe is going with me,’ he said after a pause. ‘To Marlbury – on Thursdays. We went last night. It’s in the United Reform Church Hall after the—’

‘Flab-busters session,’ Tash finished, not certain whether to laugh or cry. ‘I know when it is. Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘I thought you might be angry,’ Niall said, not quite meeting her gaze.

‘Angry?’ She felt her eyes filling with unexpected tears. ‘Christ, I’m so proud of you – I’ve wanted you to do something like this for weeks.’

‘You never said,’ he sighed, starting to walk towards the farm again. ‘You never even acknowledged that there was a problem. I thought you didn’t care.’

Tash bit her lip, knowing that however much she had cared, she had failed him again by not confronting him. ‘And Zoe saw it?’

He nodded. ‘And was brave enough to tackle me on the subject, put up with my denying it for weeks on end, and then bully me into going. She reminds me of Matty sometimes – ironic really.’

Even more ironic that Matty and Zoe were the first two people that Tash and Niall saw as they headed into the kitchen, fighting off the dogs’ exuberant welcome and handing over their gifts of wine and early-summer strawberries.

‘How lovely.’ Zoe took them, her arms now full of bottles, strawberry punnet under her chin. ‘Matty was just saying that he’s working on a new project about corruption in the racing industry. You should be able to help him out there, Tash.’

‘Yes, that’s a thought,’ Matty said, smiling stiffly.

Gaping at them both, Tash couldn’t possibly think how. She knew as much about racing as she did about industrial engineering. Then, looking from one to the other, it suddenly hit her that Matty was the man that Zoe had kissed at the party two years earlier. She found she couldn’t stop smiling as the penny finally dropped. She had always assumed it was Hugo, but one look at her brother’s guilty face told her otherwise.

Hugely embarrassed at meeting up again, Zoe and Matty were both behaving so politely to one another that they could have been two hosts of a regional TV news round-up, trading inane comments on a pastel settee. Zoe, floating around in an exquisite steel-grey dress which Tash was certain had once been a costume she had made for Rufus’s school play, was as cool and classic as an Art Deco statuette. She looked ravishing, if nervous.

‘I dressed to kill time,’ Zoe smiled when Tash complimented her. ‘You look gorgeous, too.’ Her eyes widened slightly as she took in what Tash was wearing. ‘In fact, you look amazing.’

Desperate to salvage some pride after such a hellish day, Tash had made a valiant effort to pull herself together and stop slobbing around like a heroin addict in the last stages of cold turkey. She knew she hadn’t a hope of competing with Lisette’s taste in couture, but she couldn’t bear the thought of Hugo seeing her looking as gross as she had earlier at Haydown. If he went for such overtly seductive women, she decided that she had to try and play the game. It was hopelessly shallow of her but she couldn’t stop herself. She’d even spent hours scratching around the forge for a pair of earrings shaped like stirrups which he’d once admired in passing.

She almost fainted when her brother nodded at her in polite approval and agreed that she looked very slick. He
was
on his best behaviour, she realised in amazement. It was the first compliment she had ever heard him pay her.

‘Thanks,’ she gulped gratefully, starting to feel slightly more positive about her choice. She was dressed in a pair of exquisitely soft DKNY leather jeans which Niall had brought her back from the States and she’d never mustered the nerve to wear. They were wildly sexy and made her legs look endless, but they were really far too hot for the sultry evening. Her plunging blue silk shirt was already sticking to her moist chest, and it was too humid to get away with much make-up – she’d just settled for covering her spots and pulling her hair back into a ponytail. At least working outside so much had given her a tan which her recent weekend in France had deepened, leaving a pink tinge in her cheeks that made her look healthier than she felt.