“What are you referring to, Wandsworth?”
The redhead on his left replies, giggling: “To his wife, of course!”
“Yeah, you’ve been hanging around with her for a while… we didn’t know you had a weakness for married women!” another comments.
“A weakness? Me? Come on, don’t be silly! Does she look like my type? It seems that you barely know me!”
“I don’t know if she’s your type, but you are certainly hers. Whenever you show up, she has a look of ecstasy on her face.” Says the man named Wandsworth. I already despise him.
“Well, you can’t blame her, she married an ice sculpture!” Carter replies.
“You’re admitting it, then! There is something!”
“No, I’m not admitting anything, because there isn’t anything. Yes, maybe Jemma has a crush on me. But I just go with the flow, here’s the deal. There’s nothing more satisfactory in the whole world than humiliating Parker, and it wouldn’t be the first time a woman prefers me to him. I’ll tell you this: from what Portia told me, it sounded difficult, yet she fell into my arms straight away!”
“Portia?” The two friends ask in unison.
“Yes, we bet on it, but I won’t disclose the details. All I’m going to say is that I was challenged to seduce Parker’s wife, and it seems to me that I’m quite close to the goal.”
“I would like to be in Parker’s head, just to know how he feels about being cheated on!” The third man laughs.
Carter is more and more amused by the jokes. “Trust me, you wouldn’t. Sometimes I wonder how the hell he could have married her… a broke make-up artist he picked up in some seedy district. She dresses like those transvestites you see at gay bars in Hackney, and when she talks… boy, I wish I were deaf. If she didn’t have nice boobs, I would have already given up on the bet and let Portia win by default.”
I feel tears running down my face. But I don’t feel like I did at the polo match. Then, I considered what the Triple Six said just as the slander of envious snobs, but Carter… he seemed genuine to me. I thought he was really interested.
What did the bet mean? Who the hell is Portia? And what about the other woman he stole from Ashford?
With my eyes full of tears, I drag myself back to the sofa but first I close the door behind me and turn the key multiple times to make sure that Carter can’t come in.
34
Ashford’s Version
During the hunt, I stopped several times to look for Jemma behind me, but neither she nor Willoughby were there.
A terrible thought crossed my mind and brought me out in a cold sweat. I remembered all my past experiences with Willoughby, and I instinctively came to a halt and turned round.
I handed over the field master’s job to Davenport and went back to look for them.
I found Poppy in the woods, she cantered towards me with a nasty wound on her belly.
A thousand dramatic scenarios passed through my mind, so I searched the woods hoping to find Jemma.
Nothing.
Finding no trace of her, I went to Avon House.
Just before going back into the woods, I hear a familiar and irritating laughter: Willoughby.
I open the door to the games room and find Carter with Wandsworth and Branagh, or as I call them, theDickhead Society. Willoughby, the biggest one, stands out in the middle, of course.
The chief dickhead turns towards me with a smile on his face. “Hey there, Parker! Caught up with the fox yet?”
“Where’s Jemma?” I ask, straight to the point. He’s the last one who saw her, I’m sure.
“Not with you, of course,” he replies with his usual insolence. “Join us, Parker. There is a free chair and Wandsworth is cutting the deck. Poker.”
“I don’t play for money.Idon’t need to get money out of others, you know.”
