“Thanks so much. What about Annabel? And her family?”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” she said, moving lanes as we sped down the motorway. “I’ve already told them.”
“You have?”
“Yeah. They’ve been up in Derbyshire for Christmas, so we had them over for dinner the other night and I explained the whole saga. They’ve already kept one secret for me so I hoped they wouldn’t mind keeping another. It made Annabel’s year. You should have heard some of her catty remarks. They were inspired.”
“Aren’t you worried she’s going to tell?”
“I guess I’m secretly holding on to the fact that she wouldn’t go that far.” She shrugged, then shot me a sly grin. “That, and the fact that I knowplentyof her secrets. She knows that if she spills mine, I might spill hers.”
I know Cordelia would never do that. But I guess it’s a good thing that Annabel might think differently.
It’s both weird and wonderful to be back at Dashwell. Going up the drive toward the imposing house, passing all the trees decorated with thousands of fairy lights, I got a shiver down my spine at how grand it all was and how nervous I felt to be there. But as soon as I got to the bedroom where I stayed last time, ushered Cordelia out of the door to her dinner, and plonked my case on the bed, I felt strangely at home.
I’m in the middle of steaming my bridesmaid dress when there’s a knock on the door.
I immediately panic. I’m in my winter pajamas! They’re neon-green flannel with bright orange carrots all over them! Cara and I bought a pair each because we thought they were hilarious!What was I thinking getting into these so early?Have I got time to change?
There’s more impatient knocking on the door and I reluctantly put down the steamer and walk over to open it.
Please don’t be Tom, please don’t be Tom, please don’t be Tom…
“Jonathan!”
“Hey, Sophie.” He grins, as I breathe a sigh of relief.
He steps forward and gives me a giant hug. He pulls back to step past me into the room, revealing Lady Meade right behind him.
“Hello, Sophie,” she says. Her eyes flicker to my pajamas and she does her best to cover her alarmed expression. You need to understand that they’reveryloud pajamas.
“Hi, Lady Meade.”
“May I come in?”
“Of course!” I step back so she can walk into the room, joining Jonathan, who is standing by the full-length mirror, busy checking his reflection from various angles, sucking his stomach in and prodding it.
“I ate too much at dinner.” He sighs. “Probably shouldn’t have had Cordelia’s sticky toffee pudding as well as mine.”
“How was your journey, Sophie?” Lady Meade asks politely, giving Jonathan a stern look that immediately makes him break from his reflection and turn his attention to me. “I hope the traffic wasn’t too bad.”
“It was fine. We got here in good time. How was the dinner?”
“Great fun,” Jonathan declares. “Nicholas has so far done five speeches. I think he has at least one more in him.”
“You should join us,” Lady Meade says. “You’d be very welcome.”
“Thank you, that’s really kind, but I have lots to do for tomorrow,” I tell her, gesturing to the steamer.
“Sophie,” she says, clasping her hands together and looking me in the eye. “I want to apologize to you most sincerely. I should never have accused you of leaking the story to the press. I’m embarrassed by my behavior and I hope you can find some way of forgiving me.”
“Uh… sure,” I say, taken aback by her serious tone, and wishing I weren’t in stupid carrot pajamas. “Water under the bridge.”
She smiles warmly at me. “Thank you. You’ve done so much for Cordelia. I’ll never forget it.”
“Oh, well”—I wave my hand about, brushing her compliments aside—“I’m just pleased that it all worked out in the end. The most important thing is that you and Cordelia are happy, Jonathan.”
“We both owe you a lot,” Jonathan says, beaming at me. “Thank you for being here.”
