‘You don’t need a bra, but you can have this little cardi if you feel too naked. There. You’re decent but sexy. Take it off now so it’s clean for tomorrow. Would you like me to do your make-up?’
Susie’s professional hands made Cass’s eyes enormous and gave her cheekbones more definition. ‘The thing is,’ said Susie, blending in a touch of blusher, ‘that you’re not actually wearing very much make-up. All the more effective.’
There was a thump and an ‘Anybody home?’ from on deck.
‘That’s Bill. Join us when you’re ready.’
Cass was left in the bedroom, most of which was filled with a double bed and Susie’s clothes, to get her own clothes back on. But she knew already that wearing Susie’s would give her added confidence the following morning. And she’d need every bit of that confidence.
‘Don’t forget you’re being filmed,’ Susie had said. ‘Or that he will be watching it over and over. You need to have some definition round your eyes. But it’s goingto be a lovely day tomorrow, so that little sundress will be perfect.’
They ate in the bow of the boat, a makeshift table over their knees. They watched the sun set behind the trees and the large white houses that lined the canal. ‘This must be one of the most delightful parts of London to live in,’ said Cass. ‘Thank you so much for having me.’
Susie did not allow the evening to go on too long. ‘Cass has got an early start tomorrow, Bill, so we’ll need you to shuffle off now.’
‘I’m only staying for tonight,’ said Cass, who had stopped being shy of someone she had actually recognised from seeing him on television. ‘So you can come back tomorrow.’
Bill and Susie laughed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The following morning, Cass put on the sundress and cardigan Susie had given her. She had her straw shopping basket which held her overnight things and a little cross-body bag with her valuables. She felt elegant and chic, maybe even a little French. And she liked feeling different: it made her braver somehow. Although she knew that she’d been through real danger in Dominica, London and the meetings for this morning seemed far more terrifying.
Although Cass had been given instructions as to how she should put on her make-up, she just put on what she usually did, which wasn’t much, and fluffed up her hair. She couldn’t check her reflection because Susie was sound asleep with the boat’s only long mirror in her room.
Cass didn’t wake her. It had been arranged that she would slip off early for her appointment with Ranulph and the camera he would need to film her report. She climbed off the boat and on to the towpath, fully intending to take the Circle Line to South Kensington where she was meeting Ranulph. Susie had warned her that at eight o’clock in the morning it would becrowded. But when she found herself back on the street after the comparative peace of the canal towpath, she couldn’t face it. She decided to use the Uber app that Susie had insisted she put on her phone, and ‘damn the expense’, as Bill had expansively put it the night before.
She’d asked her driver to drop her off on the corner of the street so she could walk to the house number that Ranulph had given her. She hadn’t wanted to arrive in a fluster of finding her phone, and generally feeling like a country bumpkin who’d never taken an Uber before.
And so she saw Ranulph standing by the gate to the garden that was for residents only from several metres away. He was wearing a pale linen suit but the collar of his shirt was undone and his jacket swung open. His hair was quite ruffled and somehow the combination of the suit and the untidiness was incredibly sexy.
Cass gasped with the shock of seeing him again at the same time as he turned and saw her. She found herself smiling with sheer joy.
He set off towards her as she set off towards him and within seconds his arms were round her, hugging her so tightly she was lifted off her feet.
‘Oh, Cass, how I’ve missed you,’ he said into her hair.
And then he was kissing her. For a few blissful moments she was kissing him back, losing herself in the joy of it.
But then he pulled away. ‘I’m so sorry. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Do you mind following me? Weneed to get this filming over and done with. We haven’t got a lot of time.’
Bereft and deflated, she followed him through the gate into the garden.
It was beautiful. The lawn was like a bowling green, the sun catching drops of dew, making it sparkle like jewels. The borders were full of peonies, roses, lilies and dahlias, set off by simpler cottage garden plants. Pergolas were covered in fragrant climbers as well as roses and clematis and it looked perfect. The residents of the London square obviously spared no expense when it came to their bit of green space.
But Cass couldn’t enjoy it. Ranulph was kind and professional and yet she felt rejected. He sat opposite her on the bench, his phone at the ready. ‘Do you want to tidy your hair or anything?’
Cass burrowed in her bag and found a mirror in with her make-up. She looked at herself and pulled at her hair a bit but really she was wondering what on earth had just happened. Why was Ranulph behaving as if he’d done something wrong? And why couldn’t she take the initiative and say, ‘Please don’t stop kissing me, I really like it!’ But then it occurred to her – maybe he wasn’t pulling back because of her, but because of him? Maybe he and Becca had made a commitment to each other? Her spirits plummeted even more. Either he’d just been mildly unfaithful, or he hadn’t. She had no way of telling and she couldn’t ask.
‘I think that’s OK,’ she said, having tweaked her hair a bit and wiped a bit of mascara that had ended up under her lower lashes. ‘Oh, maybe some lipstick.’
When she had applied some, she put her shoulders back and focused on looking confident and positive for her film.
He looked awkward suddenly. ‘Erm – you don’t seem to be – erm – aren’t you cold?’ he said.
‘It’s very hot in London,’ she snapped, not looking at him.
He was disbelieving. ‘Oh come on! You’ve been in Dominica, in the summer. This is nowhere near as hot.’
