Wild Grapes

by Elizabeth Aston

  “Let her be, Pa. I knew who she was. I’ll explain later. There’s no harm done.”

  “No harm done? A stranger living in my house, under false pretences? An impostor, pretending to be a member of the family. Who is she, anyway?”

  “She is Gina Heartwell, but not your cousin, just the same name. She is also my daughter,” said Serge.

  Victor looked nonplussed. “Your daughter?” he said, astonished. “What is all this? And why has Georgie arrived now, to make a scene?”

  He didn’t wait for an answer, which was as well, since nobody was going to try to explain it to him at the moment. He turned on Harry. “You had an announcement to make,” said Victor. “You told me you had something you wanted to say when Aimee had cut the cake. Is it anything to do with Gina?”

  “No,” said Harry. “And I’ll do it now.” He stepped forward, and lifted a hand to quieten the hubbub.

  “Just a word,” he said. “First, I’d like to propose a toast to Aimee. Happy birthday, to a delightful and beautiful sister!”

  There was a tumult of applause and cheers, and Aimee smiled and waved; the smile faded as she watched Harry hold up his hand again.

  “This seems an appropriate place for me to make another very happy announcement, when so many of the family and our friends are here. I’d like you all to know that I’m going to be married.”

  Shouts of approval and more hums and comments rumbled round the onlookers.

  “Who to?” shouted a guest. "Who’s the lucky girl, Harry? She’ll have to move fast to keep up with you.”

  Friendly laughter; then Harry pulled Zoe, half-protesting and laughing, forward. “This is Zoe, who has said she will be my wife.”

  Fergus looked at Gina, who was standing stock-still, biting her lip. Victor, with a loud and unprintable exclamation, rushed away to clap Harry on the back and give Zoe a more than fatherly embrace.

  “Good going,” said Fergus gloomily. “He met her all of three hours ago.”

  “They’ll do very well together,” said Gina. “Fergus, can we just slip away?”

  “I don’t think so,” said Fergus. He watched Aimee sink a silver knife into her cake, giving a gentle shriek as she did so. Guy took over, cutting and handing out creamy, alcoholic portions at incredible speed with the assistance of two po-faced caterers’ people.

  “Tell me, Gina,” he said offhandedly, looking up at the monstrous moon. “If I’d met you three hours ago, would you agree to marry me?”

  “No need to rub it in, Fergus,” said Gina crossly. “It was a silly plan and bound to end in tears.”

  “Whose tears? I’m not crying. And why should you cry?”

  Gina turned her head to hide the tear which was trickling slowly down her cheek.

  “Because I wanted to stay in England so much. And because I’ve grown to like these people, and now what will they think of me? Of course, I’m glad for Zoe. It wouldn’t have worked with Harry, I can see that. It’s just a good thing he found out what he was really after today and not on Saturday.”

  She sniffed. “And now I’m in the same old muddle.”

  “Georgie’s back,” said Fergus. “Let’s go and find her, and we’ll hang her upside down and pull all her toenails out until she hands over your passport. And I think a refund for your ticket, too. God knows, she can afford to pay her own air fare to America. She didn’t need to steal yours.”

  “Verisimilitude,” said Gina.

  “You haven’t had enough champagne if you can say that,” remarked Fergus. “She could perfectly well have left you a clutch of loot for the ticket, but she didn’t. That’s Georgie all over, and I just hope that one day soon, she gets her come-uppance.”

  “Not she,” said Gina, cheering up for no particular reason. “The Georgies of this world never do.”

  Georgie was exercising her charm on Julia and Hester. “Just a practical joke,” she was saying glibly. “You know what a trickster Harry is. Of course, I never thought she’d take it so seriously. Never mind, now I’m back, I’ll stay for a few days and get to know you all properly. Oh, and I’m going to get married, too, how’s that for news? To an American. He’s gay, which means no trouble, and I get a passport just the same.”

  “Then you won’t need Gina’s any more,” said Fergus. “Hand it over, Georgie.”

  “She gave it to me of her own free will,” said Georgie carelessly. “In any case, she can have it back when she gives mine back. I’ll need that now.”

  “You stole hers,” said Fergus. “When you broke into my house in Oxford. So you’d better find it pretty quick, and also you can pay Gina for the air ticket you removed at the same time.”

  Georgie laughed. “You’re Fergus McEttrick, aren’t you? God, you’re all so bourgeois in your family. I slept with your brother once, hopeless.”

  “I hope he wore a condom,” said Fergus.

  “Fergus!” said Gina, full of admiration.

  Condoms were Julia’s field, and she waded in. “Quite right, Fergus. And no, Georgie, you can’t stay here. I don’t think you’d be very welcome.”

  Hester smiled at Gina. “We’d very much like it if you’d stay on, though, Gina. We’ve all grown very fond of you.”

  “But I’m not one of the family,” protested Gina. “I came under false pretences.”

  “Never mind,” said Julia with a venomous look at Georgie. “At least you’re not vulgar.”

  Harry appeared, bearing a tray with champagne and glasses. “Someone told me you two hadn’t got round to the fizz,” he said to Fergus and Gina. He put the tray down and leant forward to give Gina a kiss on the cheek. “No hard feelings?”

  Gina looked past Harry to Zoe’s face, glowing with happiness. “Of course not. I’m very pleased. Really.”

  Fergus put his arm round Gina’s waist. “By the way, Aunt Julia,” he said casually. “Gina is going to be one of the family after all. She’s going to marry me. And I’m not going back to Oxford, and nor is she. We’re going on a world tour of vineyards, and then we’re going to buy one for ourselves and go in for a spot of viticulture and vinification.”

  Gina went scarlet. “Fergus, don’t be ridiculous. You don’t have to do this, my father will sort things out for me with the embassy, I’ll be okay.”

  “Good on yer,” said Esme, who had come into the tail end of the conversation. She gave Fergus a tremendous clap on the back, which nearly sent him flying. “Do you know anybody in the business in Oz? No? No problem, I’ll fax my dad about you. You can stay as long as you like, learn a lot there. Nothing he doesn’t know about Australian wines, and it isn’t all Chardonnay, either.”

  Zoe had taken Gina aside. “He’s not doing it out of kindness,” she was saying urgently. “Haven’t you got eyes? Can’t you tell?”

  “But Charlotte...” said Gina.

  “What’s Charlotte got to do with it? Except that you kept your hands off Fergus because you thought he Belonged to Another. He didn’t, he’s been in love with you for ages.”

  “I’m not in love with him,” said Gina defiantly.

  “Oh no?” said Zoe.

  Gina began to laugh. “And I can’t stand bagpipes, and I wanted to marry an Englishman!”

  “We Scots are better in every way,” Fergus informed her. “And no, you can’t live in this pretty and out-of-time part of the world, because we’re going to be abroad. However, we can come and stay - that is if they’ll have us.”

  Julia gave him an affectionate kiss. “Of course, Fergus.”

  “I don’t suppose you know anyone in America with a vineyard do you, Gina?” asked Fergus.

  She nodded. “It so happens I do. My ex-stepfather. Napa Valley.”

  “There you are, you see, I have to marry you. We’ll get married at once, and fly straight to America. Then Australia and New Zealand, then back to Europe: France, Spain, Italy. Hey, Serge,” he called, as his future father-in-law approached, deep in conversation with Victor, “I’m going to marry Gina.”
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  “I haven’t said I will,” Gina pointed out.

  “That’s because I haven’t proposed,” said Fergus at once, going down dramatically on one knee. “Gina, I love you madly. Will you succumb to midsummer madness and accept my hand, offered by the light of this radiant moon?”

  Gina gave a helpless laugh, pulled a merry-eyed Fergus to his feet and fell into his arms to the accompaniment of applause and cheers.

  Harry raised his glass in a salute. “Perfect,” he said. “Drink up, everyone. Dawn is breaking, and it’s Midsummer Day.”

  <<<<>>>>

  Copyright

  WILD GRAPES

  Copyright © Elizabeth Edmondson 2017

  The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual people living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Mountjoy Series

  Escape into another world and delight in the lives of the wild Mountjoys of Mountjoy Castle and a host of fascinating characters. This is the England of P.G. Wodehouse and Downton Abbey, where wickedness and scandal lurk beneath the superb self-confidence of the upper classes.

  ‘Wickedly amusing...Like good wine, very addictive. Strongly recommended.’

  – The Good Book Guide Children of Chance

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