‘Very,’ says India.
‘I mean, no way, right?’
‘He describes this fairy person, all tiny elegance,’ says India. ‘This woman is, well, normal.’
‘Can’t be her, then,’ says Keera. ‘Julia sounds like a supermodel.’
Chapter Thirty-Six
‘Come here! We’ve got a slight problem!’
Rose meets India and Keera at the French doors to the left of the villa’s huge wooden front door.
For once, she is not the picture of calm serenity.
Her silvery hair is tousled as if she’s been putting her sunglasses on and off her head, and there’s a hint of panic in her voice.
‘Follow me,’ she commands and takes them around the rear of the reception area and into an area markedPrivate.
She leads the way past an office and into what’s clearly the family part of Villa Artemis. It’s decorated in the same pale colours as the rest of the hotel, but it’s different, with bookshelves and lovely paintings on the walls, with green fronds from many plants spilling from macramé hanging baskets.
‘You are not going to believe what’s happened,’ Rose says.
India begins to mouth the words but Keera says them first.
‘That’s Julia out there, isn’t it?’ she says.
‘Yes,’ says Rose. ‘It is. We have ourselves a bit of a situation here and we have to be careful – I honestly have no idea why she came.’
India bites her lip.
She’s not sorry that she slept with Dan.
But Julia is now here and it is going to get very awkward. Just when India thought she was going to have a lovely, romantic fling with Dan.
No, she chides herself. Not romantic. Just the opportunity for lots of delicious sex with a handsome, very
talented man who is the first man ever that she doesn’t want a relationship with.
‘She doesn’t have to know anything, does she?’ asks India, feeling more than a little bit sad. But they have to be kind to Dan’s former girlfriend. She needs kindness and understanding.
‘Er—’ begins Keera but Rose interrupts her.
‘The problem is not so much that Julia is here,’ says Rose and she sinks down onto a big squashy cream couch. ‘The problem is that Danisn’there.’
‘Again?’ says Keera in exasperation. ‘What’s wrong with him? He hasn’t got lost in the mountains again, has he?’
‘Where is he?’ says India sharply.
‘I hoped you might know,’ says Rose.
India and Keera just stare at her.
‘We know nothing,’ says Keera.
‘Absolutely nothing,’ agrees India.
Rose sighs. ‘According to Julia, who must clearly have booked the first flight from London this morning, he phoned her last night and begged her to come, and he left her a message telling her he was “upset”. Her word. She just told all this to Adriana who is saying that she can’t give out details of the other guests. Which is true but also to buy time.’
