‘All dead,’ he’d said bluntly. ‘Or as good as.’ He never mentioned his family again. Not for all the time she knew him.
Chapter Seventeen
‘So, tell me why the bride is called Tigs, it’s a name I have never heard before. It’s very unusual.’
‘Unusual is the word,’ said Nina. ‘Her real name is Antigone, which I’m told she hated as a child and from the age of eight she was determined that she should be known as Tigs.’
It was Saturday morning, the day of Fabian and Tigs’s wedding and Nina was sitting in the passenger seat of Jakob’s car as he searched the car park for a space.
All the way here to the Dangley Court Hotel in Hertford she had been fighting the urge to tell him to turn around and drive them straight back to Cambridge. How on earth had she talked herself into believing this would be a good thing, that flaunting Jakob like some young trophy boyfriend would help her mother-in-law realise she had a perfect right to move on? No doubt Hilary, and everyone else for that matter, would think she was making an embarrassing fool of herself. And perhaps they’d be right.
It had been her need to release herself from Hilary’s possessive hold on her that had made her email Fabian and Tigs to ask if it would be all right for her to bring a plus-one. She hadn’t specified who it would be, and in return, doubtless snowed under with all the last-minute arrangements for a hastily thrown-together wedding, they hadn’t asked for any more information.
Almost immediately she had regretted sending the email, and she blamed Cassie for her part in convincing her that it would be great fun to go to the wedding with Jakob. Her encouragement had been offered during a perfectly idyllic evening at Hope Hall. Along with Ben, they’d been enjoying a picnic supper on the riverbank, complete with setting sun and a couple of swans in the water relishing the odd titbit thrown to them. During the picnic, and while Ben had wandered off to take a call on his mobile, Cassie had admitted that she’d recently had the ridiculous notion that Ben had been cheating on her, and all because she’d overheard him planning a surprise party for her fortieth birthday.
‘I let my insecurities get the better of me,’ she’d further admitted, ‘it just came out of nowhere. One simple misunderstanding and it led me to believe the worst of Ben. Even now,’ and she’d turned her head to look at Ben who’d had his back to them while talking to whoever it was who had called him, ‘there’s a part of me that thinks,but what if? What if he’s as convincing a liar as Drew was?’
Nina had been in on the secret – Ben having invited her to the surprise party he was arranging – so if Cassie had approached her, it would have been difficult to assure her friend that Ben was completely innocent without giving the game away. But that evening on the riverbank, she did her best to assure Cassie that Ben really wasn’t the cheating sort. ‘He’s crazy about you, completely devoted, you must know that in your heart,’ she’d said.
‘We never know for sure, do we?’ Cassie had said sadly. ‘There’s always something we keep from those we love. Look how Hugh kept from you that his mother had given him money to use for IVF.’
Reminded how angry it had made her feel when Hilary had literally demanded her right for a grandchild because she believedshe’d paid for that right, Nina had shared with Cassie what she was tempted to do, to have Jakob as her plus-one for Fabian and Tigs’s wedding. ‘It would be the most effective way to show Hilary she can’t hold me hostage to the past.’
‘Does that mean you’ve reached a decision about the letter from the clinic?’ Cassie had asked.
‘No. I still haven’t made my mind up. Maybe once this wedding is out of the way, I’ll be able to think more clearly,’ she’d said.
‘For what it’s worth, you should absolutely go with your handsome Norwegian. Remember, I met him in the gallery not long after he’d started working for you and I can personally vouch for his appeal.’
‘He’s notmyNorwegian!’ Nina had remonstrated. ‘But what if people think I’ve hired him for the day from an escort agency? Think of the humiliation!’ She was in danger of talking herself out of the idea once again.
‘Nobody will think that, Nina. You’re a fabulously beautiful woman who could have any gorgeous man on her arm as a plus-one.’
‘But the age gap, Cassie. There’s no getting away from that, Hugh’s family will think I’m some kind of ghastly cougar.’
‘Rubbish! The women will all be mad with jealousy and the men, well, they’ll be jealous too. Just go and have some fun. That’s my final word on the subject. But I’ll want all the juicy details on your return, especially your mother-in-law’s reaction!’
That was now very near to being experienced, thought Nina as Jakob nosed the car in between a Range Rover and a BMW. He had insisted that he drive as he wanted to give his new car a decent workout. ‘Boys and their toys,’ he’d said with a smile when he’d arrived at Hope Hall to pick her up earlier that morning in a shiny black Porsche 911.
‘I clearly pay you too much,’ she’d joked as he’d pressed his foot on the accelerator, and they’d roared off down the driveway.
‘Don’t be too impressed,’ he’d said, glancing at her over the top of his sunglasses, ‘it’s second hand.’
It was hard not to be impressed by Jakob, she thought now as after pushing open the passenger door to step out, and before she had both feet planted firmly on the ground, he had magically appeared at her side to help her, his hand outstretched. Then while she smoothed down the skirt of her pink Chanel suit – it was her one and only Chanel suit and it never failed to make her feel strong and confident when wearing it, which was why she had chosen it for today – Jakob retrieved his own suit jacket and pulled it on.
‘Will I do?’ he asked, adjusting the cuffs of his white shirt so they protruded the sartorially correct half an inch to show off his cufflinks, and then tightening his silk tie so that the knot was perfectly positioned. Still wearing his sunglasses and an outrageous quantity of head-turning sex appeal, he was the perfect companion for such an occasion, if only the circumstances were different. And if only he didn’t look so young!
‘You’ll do very well,’ she said, picking up the gift bag from the footwell of the Porsche.
‘I hope it would not be considered a workplace offence to say how lovely you look,’ he said.
Goodness he was disarming!‘Since we’re not at work,’ she said with a smile, ‘the usual rules don’t apply, so thank you.’
‘Excellent.’ He locked the car and raised his arm for her to take.
When she hesitated, he said, ‘Just while you negotiate the gravel in those heels; I know from my sisters how treacherous it can be. You don’t want to risk twisting an ankle and have me carry you in, do you?’
Recognising that he was teasing her, she did as he said and once they were inside, she left him in the reception area while she went to look for the ladies. She found there was quite a partygoing on when she stepped into the opulent cloakroom. It was crowded with attractive young girls wearing an assortment of skimpy barely-there dresses. Laughing and joking, they were taking selfies and applying make-up, at the same time passing around a bottle of champagne. Not recognising any of them and feeling about a hundred and ten, Nina decided they had to be friends of the bride.
