by Sarah Mason
“Well, she is an actuary.”
“Clemmie, you told her that Morgan would pee on her if she stood still for too long. She told me.”
“Yes. Well. He might have done. I didn't want to see those beautiful shoes of hers ruined. So you've finished with her?”
“Yes. I didn't really want to do it in France but once I'd made up my mind I had to get it over with as soon as possible. I spent some very uncomfortable nights sleeping on the floor. The fact that I thought you were giving me the cold shoulder ensured those last few days weren't exactly memorable. So, can we take up where we left off?”
“And where was that?” I ask, just wishing he would get on with it.
He looks deeply into my eyes and smiles gently. “Here . . . ?” He leans toward me. This is it! At last! I close my eyes and wait expectantly for the soft feel of his lips . . .
“Clemmie darling! There you are!” bellows my mother. I hastily open my eyes again. Am I destined never to kiss Sam? “Where on earth have you been? We will need you for the next scene. I want you to do something.” What is she going to want me to do? Plunge naked from a burning stagecoach? Scalp someone with a tomahawk?
“Sorrel, Clemmie isn't going to be around for the next scene.”
“Why not?”
“She has a previous engagement.” He pulls me to my feet.
“How do you mean? You two aren't . . . ? You are, aren't you? Oh my darlings, how perfectly sweet. Don't let me stop you, just pretend I was never here. I must go and tell Barney, do you mind me telling Barney? It's just that I'll need him to do your bit, Clemmie.”
Sam makes a be-my-guest gesture. “I think he already knows anyway, Sorrel.”
“And Gordon has just arrived, so are you sure you don't want to stay?”
“Quite sure.”
“Well then, you two just carry on . . .” She stands and looks at us expectantly. “Oh! Do you want me to go?”
“No, it's okay. We'll go.”
I follow him back into the hall. Everyone is on the stage and they watch delightedly as Sam leads me to the exit.
“So where is Charlotte?” I ask to cover the silence and my embarrassment. “Will she still come down to the house?”
“Oh, I think so. She's gone back to London for now but she said something about coming to surf with Barney at the weekend. Typical, isn't it? They always end up liking Barney in the end. She wants to go worm-charming with him too. That reminds me, I really need to talk to Barney about the Catherine affair.”
“Oooh, no need. I think that might have resolved itself. Probably best not to mention it at all, I think he's a bit embarrassed.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he's gone off her.” I cross my fingers and grin at him.
He pushes open the exit doors and we emerge into the fresh, cold air. I have to pause for a few seconds until my eyes adjust. I shiver slightly; my dress isn't really designed for Cornish nights.
“Do you want my jumper?” asks Sam.
I hesitate. It's an automatic reaction to refuse anything from him and it's high time that I stopped it. “Yes, please.”
He wordlessly hands it over and I snuggle down into it. It smells deliciously of him and I try not to look as though I'm sniffing it but just taking deep breaths of air.
“Was Charlotte upset?” I ask.
“A bit, but I don't think it was entirely unexpected. She knew I liked you.”
“Did you?” I ask in delight, overtly fishing for compliments. “For how long?” I know damn well from Barney.
“Oh, more or less forever. Or at least it feels like it. I came back from London for you, Clemmie.” This bit I don't know so I will want him to go over it at least twice.
“When? That Christmas?”
“Yes. I went to look at my parents' old house and to visit some relations. I thought it would help. I wanted to find out some more about them, my aunt never told me very much, but then I realized that all the while my real family and you were back in Cornwall. That's why I decided to leave London, I just didn't belong there. And I came back that Christmas to ask you out and there you were with Seth. Absolutely loved up.”
“Oh Sam. You should have said something,” I say. I'll save my news about Seth for later because for now I just want to talk about me.
“Well, I thought you would probably break up if I gave it some time. None of us really liked Seth. So I waited.”
“Why didn't you say anything when we broke up?”
“And when would that have been exactly? In the half hour between you splitting up and you getting on a plane?”
“You still should have said something,” I insist.
“But you were so brokenhearted. Should I have offered to shag you senseless? Let me give you a good seeing to and maybe you'll feel better?”
“But I didn't have any idea.”
“Most of the family knew. Barney, your dad and your mum.”
“Not Holly?”
“No, not Holly. She'd left home by the time everyone else guessed. She knows now though. I called her as soon as I reached Bristol to see if you'd said anything to her so don't be surprised to find a dozen messages on your mobile.”
“I never said a word to Holly about it. Didn't want her nudging me every time you came into the room.”
“She says those social pages of hers have been really well received. Apparently everyone is rushing out to buy cowboy boots and wondering why the whole of the Cabinet has been having a secret summit in France!”
“I'm glad, she deserves it. Did you say my mother knew?” I ask suddenly.
“Yes, she guessed. She never mentioned anything?”
“No. God, that sounds far too subtle for her! She did try to warn me off you when we were in France.”
“I think she was trying to protect me. She knew how long I'd waited for you. Besides, they really liked Charlotte.”
“Well, I don't think they've seen the last of her,” I murmur. “I thought you fancied Holly! You always kiss her and never me.”
“I hated touching you when I thought you didn't want me. I was just too uncomfortable.”
“Where are we?” I ask suddenly, looking around me. I have been walking in a daze.
“At my house. You didn't think we were going back to yours, did you? You must be mad. What with Norman and Morgan and God knows what else. Besides, I heard a vicious rumor that Gordon is coming to stay.”
“You're right, I'd rather be at yours.”
And this time, in the dark of the Cornish night, Sam really does kiss me. Properly. And just between you and me, he really does kiss rather well. Wave upon wave of beautiful kisses. That is until Trevor wanders along and shines a flashlight in our faces.
“Bugger,” says Sam. “We might have to go back to the Côte d'Azur to get some privacy. How do you fancy a little holiday, Clem? Just the two of us . . .”
About the Author
Sarah Mason is a full-time writer and lives in Cheltenham, England, with her husband, daughter, and her West Highland Terrier. Society Girls is her third novel. Her first novel, Playing James, won the Parker Romantic Novel of the Year award in 2003.
Also by Sarah Mason
Playing James
Praise for
Playing James
“A wonderfully entertaining English export that will have the reader rooting for Holly and rolling on the floor laughing.”
—Booklist
“A most impressive debut novel. Highly recommended.”
—Library Journal, starred review
“. . . Genuinely funny . . .”
—Kirkus Reviews
“A hilarious and touching book that moves at breakneck speed . . . a wonderful debut.”
—Romantic Times,
“[Sarah Mason] delivers well-drawn characters, a serviceable plot and quite a lot of humor . . . a winning combination.”
—Contra Costa Times
“. . . Sweet and self-effacing.”
—Entertainment Weekly
Society Girls is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Ballantine Books Trade Paperback Original
Copyright © 2004 by Sarah Mason
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in paperback as High Society in Great Britain by Time Warner Paperbacks, an imprint of Time Warner Book Group UK, London in 2004.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mason, Sarah.
[High society]
Society girls : a novel / Sarah Mason.—1st American pbk. ed.
p. cm.
Originally published: High society. London : Time Warner, 2004.
eISBN 0-345-48473-8
1. Young women—Fiction. 2. England—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6113.A85S63 2005
813'.6—dc22
2004062342
www.ballantinebooks.com
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