by Jill Mansell
No, no, of course that wasn’t what he was suggesting. Honestly, what was happening to her? It was as if all her hormones had woken up after a hundred years and started going completely haywire.
All a-fluster, she said, “Of course he can. Marty can hold anything.” Good God, my hormones have turned into innuendo-laden teenagers. “I mean, it’s fine; we’re not busy. Most people don’t start coming in until midmorning. What is it you want?”
Oh, phew, and there was that smile again; he really did have a way with him. Not to mention a girlfriend.
“Come with me and I’ll show you.” As he spoke, Declan lightly touched her arm. “I’m in need of your expertise.”
The Valentine Hotel was just outside Stanton Langley. When you reached the traffic light at the end of the main street and turned left onto Norton Road, the hotel was less than half a mile farther along on the right. As Declan pulled into the parking lot, the possibility that he’d booked a room for them bounced into Coral’s head like an exuberant puppy. OK, stop this; stop it right now. You’re being ridiculous. The next second, she saw the sign next to the entrance announcing that the local estate agent was holding a property auction here today.
There, see? Calm down, woman. Get a grip.
The auction was taking place in the Wedding Room, complete with glittering chandeliers, full-length ivory silk curtains, and light sprinklings of confetti on the polished oak parquet floor, left over from last night’s party. Most of the assembled bidders, by way of contrast, were a lot less glamorous.
“This one,” Declan murmured, pointing to the number in the catalog. “Lily told me about it yesterday. What do you think?”
They’d taken up positions at the back of the room. His warm breath in her ear was doing nothing whatsoever to calm Coral’s heart rate. He was considering buying a house on the edge of the village? Right here in Stanton Langley?
Oh, come on, idiot. He’s a property developer.
“To fix up and sell? Good idea!” She bent her head over the catalog so he couldn’t see her face and realize she’d been thinking rogue thoughts. “It’s a bit of a mess but easy enough to renovate. Old Malcolm lived there, but he died at Easter. Sad, but he was ninety-three.”
“And do you know any of these people?” Declan discreetly indicated the rest of the room. “I’m the outsider here. Any information gratefully received.”
He was wearing the same aftershave as before; it smelled delicious on his skin. Gathering herself, Coral glanced around. “The three men standing by the door are builders,” she whispered. “The tall woman in the red shirt runs a vacation rentals business. Those two over there are a husband-and-wife team who do rent-to-own. And the skinny guy at the front works for his dad; they’re in property development too.”
“Thanks.”
“I don’t know any of the others.”
“That’s fine. If I’m bidding with them, I can’t go too far wrong. It’s the one-off buyers who fall in love with somewhere and get carried away that you don’t want to go up against.”
Coral nodded, impressed by his professional attitude. “Do you get butterflies when you’re bidding?”
Declan shook his head. “I’ve been doing it for too long. That doesn’t happen anymore. I’m used to it.”
Of course he would be by now. Gosh, he was so cool.
* * *
Lily saw Declan and Coral making their way into the yard. “There you are! Where have you two been?”
“Hello.” Declan greeted her with a hug. “Sorry, there was just a little something I needed to do.”
“What kind of something?” Lily asked, because he was looking incredibly pleased with himself.
He held up a bunch of keys on a cheap plastic key ring. “Just bought a house.”
She stared at him. “What?”
“Weaver’s Cottage.” Coral was grinning.
“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” Lily let out a shriek of delight. “You actually did it!”
“You were right about it,” Declan said. “It has real potential.” He jangled the keys. “I’m heading back over there now.”
Oh, this was exciting. “Can I come have a look at it with you? We’re not busy here.” She looked at Coral. “Is that OK?”
“Go on,” said Coral. “It’s fine.”
Declan said, “Brace yourself, though. The rooms are very purple.”
But when they reached the cottage, all the work that needed doing seemed straightforward enough. Having been assured by Coral that Dempsey’s was the best local building contractor by far, Declan had approached Bill Dempsey at the auction and arranged to meet him at the property. Within twenty minutes, as they made their way through the brightly painted rooms discussing ideas and taking pages of notes and measurements, he’d hired Bill to do the work that needed to be done. Ten minutes after that, he’d put calls through to the best local landscape gardener, the best painter and decorator, and the best kitchen fitters in the area.
“Blimey,” said Lily, impressed. “You don’t hang about, do you?”
“Ah, well, time is money.” Declan looked amused.
Lily pointed to the narrow window at the side of the cottage, which had no view to speak of but would get the sun in the morning. “You could use stained glass in that frame.”
“Can you find some for me?” Declan asked.
“Definitely. Or there’s a guy in Chipping Norton who makes it. You could commission your own design…and this could be Coral wanting me to get back.”
It wasn’t Coral. When Lily saw who was calling, she said, “Oh, let me just take this,” and slipped outside, leaving Declan and Bill to discuss lintels and stripped-out door frames.
“Hi,” said Eddie Tessler.
“Calling me again in the middle of the night? More jet lag?”
“Maybe, but I’m about to solve that problem.”
Her ear was still tingling from the sound of his voice. “And how are you planning on doing that?”
“By flying back to the place whose time zone I’m compatible with. What are you up to tomorrow night?”
Caught off guard, Lily said, “You’re coming back to Stanton Langley?” Oh God, what a stupid thing to say. Of course he wasn’t doing that.
Eddie laughed, and she felt even more ridiculous.
“Not quite, but I’m flying into Heathrow. Now listen, would you be free?”
She proceeded with caution. “To do what?”
“You told me the other week you’d always fancied the idea of going to a movie premiere, remember?”
“I remember. And you said they were boring.”
“And you said maybe I thought they were boring because I was a miserable old sod.”
Oh yes, she did remember coming out with something along those lines. Lily batted away a hovering wasp and said, “Bit rude of me. Sorry about that.”
“No problem. So how about it?”
“How about what?” She held her breath; no way was she about to jump to conclusions and make a fool of herself twice in two minutes.
“I’m going to the premiere of Catcher in Leicester Square tomorrow night.” Patiently he spelled it out for her. “You told me you’d always wanted to go to a premiere. So would you like to come with me to this one?”
Ask a silly question.
“Seriously? I’d love to. You mean I’d actually get to walk on the red carpet?” Oh wow, this was thrilling…
“No, I’d just sneak you in through the back door.”
What? Disappointed, Lily said, “Oh, right.”
“Kidding,” Eddie said. “Of course you’d be on the red carpet. But I’m warning you now—people will want to know who you are.”
“That’s OK. It’s not as if they’ll be interested once they find out I’m a nobody. God, thanks so much for inviting me, though. What tim
e does it start and finish, so I can book my train tickets?”
“Hey, no need. I’ll send a car to pick you up around three, if that’s OK, and book you into a hotel for the night. Do you have to be at work the next day?”
Lily pictured the work schedule, pinned up in the office. “Yes, I do. I’d need to be back by ten, ten thirty.”
“Fine, we’ll arrange that, then. And I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon. What are you going to do with your hair?”
What was she going to do with her hair? Her hand, moving instinctively to her head, encountered a sticky clump of old spider’s web from where they’d explored the dusty attic of Weaver’s Cottage. “I’ll probably wash it,” she said.
He laughed. “Are you going to enjoy yourself at the premiere?”
“Are you serious? Of course I am!”
“In that case”—Eddie’s tone was genial—“I promise I will too.”
Chapter 23
Casually dropping the news into conversation in front of Dan was, needless to say, the best bit of all.
They’d already booked a table at the Star that evening so that Declan could meet Patsy, Sean, and Will. Then Dan had ended up tagging along too—well, limping along—what with him being incapable of preparing his own food. The weather had been warm enough for them to eat outside in the pub garden beneath the trees strung with silver fairy lights and hanging jars of citronella candles.
Watching them, Lily glowed with happiness at the way the group had so effortlessly expanded to include Declan. Everyone liked him, and he in turn was getting on with each of them. As darkness fell and the stars came out, stories and memories continued to be swapped. Refilling their glasses with wine, Dan said, “When I was five or six, I remember Lily’s mum explaining to me how a pulley system worked. She threw a rope over one of the low branches of the ash tree in our garden to show me, then she went into the house, and I tied the rope around Lily’s waist and tried to haul her up into the tree.”
“Except you let go and dropped me, and I landed splat on the ground,” Lily protested amid collective laughter at the memory. “All my growing-up years, you kept coming up with brilliant new ways to torture me, and I never had the chance to get my own back because I was two years younger than you.”
Dan clapped his good hand to his chest in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? Are you actually serious? You were always getting your own back on me! What about the time I fell asleep on the sofa before my first date with Cara Mason and you drew giant eyelashes on my face with marker?”
Oh yes, that had been brilliant. “You couldn’t have been that excited about the date if you could fall asleep two hours beforehand. Plus,” Lily reminded him, “it’s not my fault you woke up and went out to meet her without even bothering to look in a mirror first.”
“Why would I look in a mirror?” He mimed confusion. “I’m not a girl.”
Patsy joined in, giving him a nudge. “And there was the time I was too busy to cut your hair, so Lily offered to do it instead. Remember that?”
Dan shuddered. “How could I forget? She actually made me believe she could do it.”
Lily grinned. “That was to pay you back for telling everyone on the school bus that I was wearing my first-ever bra.”
“What?” Dan did a double take. “Hang on, that was when you were twelve. The hair-cutting thing happened a whole year later.”
“And do you remember how long all the boys made fun of me by twanging the back strap of my bra? They kept doing it for months,” Lily said. “Anyway, I got my revenge in the end, and it was worth the wait.”
“What about the time we went on that school trip to the water park?” Dan’s dark eyes glinted in the reflected candlelight as he shook his head sorrowfully at her. “I still don’t know how you managed it, but I know it was you who swapped my swimming trunks for a bikini.”
“I have no idea why you’d think that was me.” A decade on from that triumphant occasion, Lily gave him an innocent smile. It had actually involved creeping into his house the night before and replacing the trunks in his sports bag with the old-fashioned pink bikini she’d bought for fifty pence from a charity shop.
Coral said, “Unless it was to pay Dan back for that rumor he spread about you having a big crush on Moggy Blake.”
“Oh, Moggy.” Lily groaned at the memory of the boy who’d smelled of cat pee and followed girls around meowing at them. The idea that she could secretly be lusting after him had been mortifying at the time.
“You know you really loved him,” Dan said.
Lily threw a french fry across the table at him. “You were a nightmare. You still are.”
Dan picked the french fry off the front of his shirt and ate it. “So you’re the one who hid my bicycle up a tree, yet I’m the nightmare.”
“You two are like a doubles act,” said Declan. “Seriously, you’re Tom and Jerry.”
Everyone burst out laughing. “That’s what Mum used to call us,” Lily explained. “All the time.”
“I was Tom,” Dan said. “She was Jerry. Mainly on account of her enormous ears.”
“I was Jerry because I was smaller,” Lily retorted, “and because I didn’t have fleas.”
“Don’t worry,” Patsy said. “They’re always like this. They love each other really.”
“In the nonphysical sense,” said Lily. “I’m not that stupid.”
“Lily prefers movie stars these days.” Dan’s tone was playful. “If they’re thousands of miles away and give her a quick call, that pretty much makes her day.”
Lily suppressed a yelp of triumph, because she’d known he wouldn’t be able to resist mentioning Eddie and making fun of her silly crush on him. It had almost killed her not mentioning it earlier, but now that Dan had done the honors, she could go ahead. And it was totally worth the wait.
Savoring the moment and taking a sip of ice-cold wine, she gave Dan the benefit of the insouciant smile she’d practiced earlier in front of the mirror. “Actually, he’s been in touch again.”
Ha, and this time she hadn’t blurted it out like a small child incapable of keeping a secret for more than two minutes.
Oh yes, being insouciant was definitely the way to go.
“He has? Did he send you another text?” Dan’s eyes were bright with mischief. “Was it definitely from him, or did he get his assistant to do it?”
So smug. So, so smug. Lily idly tipped her wineglass this way and that, then said casually, “Oh no, it was definitely his voice on the phone. He’s flying back to the UK this evening. The reason he called was to invite me to London tomorrow night.”
Ha. Ha! Fifteen love to me.
Dan had been lounging back on his chair. Now his shoulders stiffened. “Oh? To do what?”
“He asked me to go along with him to the premiere of Catcher. In Leicester Square.” Thirty love.
“So exciting,” Coral exclaimed. “Have you decided yet what you’re going to wear?”
“Either the yellow dress with the beading, or the red one.” It wasn’t as if she had many to choose from.
“Oh, the red is lovely,” Patsy said. “That’s my favorite.”
“Mine too, but we’ll be on the red carpet. It might make me…you know”—Lily gestured down at herself—“a bit invisible.”
“Catcher’s set in the future,” Dan said. “You don’t like movies set in the future.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Coral told him. “It’s a premiere! There’ll be all sorts of things going on!”
“How will you get home afterward?” Dan put his drink down on the table.
“He’s booked a hotel.” Forty love. “And a car to get me there and back.” Unable to resist, Lily added, “Well, a limo.”
“Of course he has.” Gone was Dan’s air of mischief; in the dim light and with his narrowed dark eyes and shadowed cheekbones,
he now resembled Mr. Darcy being all disapproving and taut-jawed.
Fantastic. Game, set, and match.
“I can’t wait,” Lily said. “It’s going to be amazing.”
“Just don’t—” Dan stopped himself in his tracks and exhaled.
“Just don’t forget to have fun?” Lily beamed triumphantly at him. “Don’t worry, I won’t!”
* * *
Dan and Patsy had departed, as had Sean and Will. With just the three of them left, they’d headed next door to Goldstone House. Declan had been finishing his coffee when Lily brought downstairs the box containing all the birthday letters from her mother.
When he’d finished reading them, Declan had to gather himself for a moment before he was able to speak. Finally he said, “Thank you for showing them to me.”
“I wanted you to see them.” Lily was winding a length of curly ribbon from the box around her index finger. “Aren’t they good?”
Declan nodded slowly, because they were better than good. Jo had taken care to make each letter appropriate to the age Lily would have been when she read it for the first time. As she’d grown up, the words and sentences had grown longer. “Her voice is so clear in them,” he marveled. “I can hear her saying every word.”
“I know.” Coral smiled. “We all can.”
In one of the earlier letters Jo had said, Darling Lily, I know you’ll always be happy with Coral and Nick. They love you so much—to the moon and back! And maybe one day they’ll have a baby of their own, then you can all be happy together! Oh, wouldn’t that be fantastic?
“Am I allowed to ask, or is it too personal?” Declan lightly tapped the relevant letter and looked at Coral. “You didn’t have any other children…?” It was a highly personal question, but somehow it seemed safe to ask it tonight.
Coral smiled briefly. “We tried, but it just never happened. Maybe we could have tried harder, investigated other avenues…but we had Lily, so somehow it didn’t seem as important. Thanks to this one”—she affectionately touched Lily’s shoulder—“we weren’t desperate. She was Jo’s gift to us. She was ours, and she was enough.”
