Ella sighed and then almost sagged with relief at the sight of frantic waving through the window.
Bets burst through the door, her happy smile at a lower wattage than normal. ‘Ella! Hi. How are you? Crikey, what a day, I’m dying for a drink and I brought old Grumpy Git with me.’ She tossed her head of curls over her shoulder towards Devon bringing up the rear.
‘Hi, Ella.’ Devon shook off his coat.
‘Devon, Bets, this is my friend Britta. She’s come up from London for a visit.’
‘Hi, Devon.’ Britta’s voice appeared to have dropped several octaves and had acquired a chocolate depth that Ella had never heard before. Oh Lord, it wouldn’t have occurred to her in a million years that Devon might be Britta’s type. She normally favoured emaciated artists whose facial hair outweighed their bodyweight and who rarely ever took their hats off. With his lush almost too long curls and broad shoulders, Devon made Britta’s previous conquests look like the living dead. With incredulous disbelief, Ella watched Britta.
Thankfully Devon seemed oblivious, but then he’d never met Britta before and had no idea that this was a far cry from her usual cultivated languid, indifferent air.
‘Nice to meet you.’ He stood awkwardly in front of them.
‘Who wants a drink?’ asked Bets, giving Britta a cheery smile to which the other girl responded with a cool nod. ‘After today, I need a very large one.’ She shot Devon a disparaging glance.
‘Just got one, thanks.’ As always with Bets, Ella felt as if a whirlwind had just passed by. Seconds later, Bets had abandoned her coat on top of one of the bar stools at their table and sailed off to the bar, cheerily hailing people as she went. A bit too cheerily. There was an almost frantic edge to her voice.
Devon smiled fondly after her and shook his head.
‘Do you mind if we join you?’ Despite the fact that it was a done deal, Ella liked that he bothered to ask. She gave him a rueful smile. ‘No, it’s fine. Looks as if Bets has already decided.’
His face dropped. ‘She’s a bit disappointed. Jack cancelled at the last minute. He was due home this weekend.’
‘That’s a shame.’ Bets had done nothing but talk about him the other morning as they did their usual walk.
‘So what do you do, Devon?’
‘I’m a vet.’
‘Oh! How interesting,’ lied Britta. ‘Lovely. Gosh, it must be so complicated. Knowing the insides of all those different animals. If Damien Hirst hadn’t got there first, you might have just given me an idea for an installation. It must be so fascinating dealing with them all day.’
Ella thought of poor Tess who’d been shut in the kitchen since Britta’s arrival in order to protect the purity of all those white clothes. Britta’s fascination had been in short order then.
‘Every day is different, especially compared to when I was in London.’
‘London? Where were you?’
‘Islington.’
‘Do you know the Green Bean bar?’ Britta almost batted her eyelashes at the mention of London. ‘Ella, they make the most amazing decaffeinated coffee. It’stheplace to go for brunch at the moment.’
‘What happened to Frankinelli’s?’ asked Ella.
‘That’s so last year, darling. Honestly, you are so out of date already.’ She shook her head and smiled conspiratorially at Devon. ‘So will you be going to back to London?’
‘Not sure.’ The familiar bleakness descended on his face but Britta missed it.
Ella wished she could have clued Britta in to spare Devon the obvious pain that her subtle probing dredged up.
‘I think you should. I can’t imagine there’s a lot round here to entertain a man like you. It must be quite limiting.’
Ella imagined that life with Marina must have been more than entertaining and wondered if maybe he’d had enough of that. Like her, he was looking for a period of respite.
Devon shrugged. ‘I’ve been quite busy running the practice for Dad.’
‘And trying to update some of his systems,’ added Bets as she came up behind him and handed over his pint of beer. ‘Poor Geoffrey isn’t going to be able to find a thing when he comes back.’
Devon laughed. ‘But it’s all right, because you’ll be there to find it for him.’ He shook his head. ‘Bets has taken complete advantage of me being here and has introduced all sorts of systems and new software while Dad’s not looking.’
