Chapter 6
Six
The pub is packed the following evening. Jasper had put me on the earlier shift, so I’ve technically finished for the day, but when I hear all the noise of the customers from my room upstairs, I feel the need to go down to offer my services.
‘We’re fine,’ Jasper insists, opening a bottle of champagne to a loud cheer from the crowded bar as it pops. ‘You’re meant to be having the night off.’
‘What’s going on? Is it some kind of party?’ I ask, marvelling at the number of people in there, whilst dodging out the way of the other bar staff trying to keep up with the orders.
‘It’s the polo set,’ he tells me, placing the bottle in an ice bucket and selecting a number of champagne flutes. ‘They won their match today and the team have come to celebrate, along with their supporters. We’re in for a big night.’
‘Good for business.’
‘Very good. Hey, if you want to stick around, I can introduce you,’ he offers, reaching for the card machine and punching in an amount. ‘If you’re going to be working with them, you might want to meet them before you start.’
‘You know I haven’t made my decision yet, and it’s likely a no.’
‘I still think you have nothing to lose by giving it a go,’ Jasper maintains, holding the machine out to the paying customer who already looks a little worse for wear.
‘You always wanted to work with horses when you were a kid, didn’t you?
And trust me, Lady Maycourt would not offer you the job if she didn’t think you could do it. ’
‘I’ll get out of your hair,’ I say, acknowledging the jostling crowd waiting for him to take their order. ‘Shout for me if you change your mind and need some help.’
‘Will do,’ he assures me, before turning to greet the next person to grab his attention.
It’s a beautiful evening, cold and crisp but sunny, so I make myself a cup of tea and grab my jacket as I head through the back, wandering out into the beer garden.
There are only a few people out here, sitting around the picnic tables smoking, so I get a table to myself and take a photo of the view to send to Sam.
Ash
*IMAGE*
Come visit soon?
Sam
Hell yeah!
Whoa that is STUNNING
Beats my view right now
Ash
What’s your view right now?
Sam
I’m in a queue for the bathroom
I’m at a bar in Peckham
There’s only one cubicle available
ONE
Ash
Hot date?
Sam
Ha
I wish
Pop-up fashion event
I’m here for work
On Monday, you can cheer me up with pictures of your new colleagues?
Ash
IF I take the job
I’ll inundate you with photos of horses
Sam
I meant the hot polo players
Ash
Oh
Sam
Remind me to take the piss out of you next time we speak for referring to horses as your new colleagues
Got to go, I’m next up!!
Thank God
I’m about to wet myself
xxxx
Putting my phone down, I sip my tea and look out across the tranquil view, wondering if I’m jealous of Sam at her event in London.
It’s the sort of thing I spent my weekends doing.
Part of me misses the excitement and glamour of it all.
But then I inhale a deep breath, gazing out at the fields stretching for miles, and feel a sense of contentment.
For now, I’m in the right place. No one here has mentioned Chris Courtney to me.
I’m not alone in having a scandalous past. After Lady Maycourt’s spontaneous job offer yesterday, I did some googling on her and discovered that she has had her fair share of the spotlight.
She was born into a big polo dynasty in America with generations of her family involved in the sport either as players or patrons, usually both.
The daughter of a famous player, she became a popular socialite until she fell for a man her parents disapproved of and eloped with him.
By the sounds of it, it was the wrong decision; he spent her money, then left her for a Swiss heiress.
Heartbroken and humiliated, she fled to England and later married her perfect match: the Viscount, a passionate polo enthusiast with his own team.
From what I’ve read, Lady Maycourt is very well respected in the sport, known for her extensive knowledge that’s been drilled into her since the day she was born.
But that still doesn’t mean I trust her judgement when it comes to me.
When I think about her job offer, I get a rush of tingles swirling around my stomach: part excitement, part fear. The idea of working with horses sounds amazing and I never thought I’d have the chance. But the reality is, I know nothing about them or polo.
I’m thinking about it when I hear someone walking towards my table. I swivel on my bench to greet them, assuming it’s Jasper. Instead, I find Mateo towering over me.
‘Can I join you?’ he asks.
‘Uh… sure.’ Taken aback, I watch as he slides into the bench opposite. ‘Congratulations on your win today.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Was it a good match?’
He considers the question, resting his elbows on the table. ‘We could have played better,’ he answers eventually.
‘But you still won.’
‘Yes. There’s a lot of work for the team to do, though, before the big tournaments of the British season.’
I nod, not really sure what else to say and wondering why he’s come out here. He’s not smoking and he doesn’t have a drink with him. During the silence that falls between us, I pick up my cup of tea and take a sip. Finally, he speaks.
‘Eliza told me that she’d offered you a job.’
‘Eliza?’ I frown and then say, ‘Oh, you mean Lady Maycourt?’
He nods.
‘Yeah, she came yesterday. It was a bit out of the blue, to be honest.’
‘It surprised me, too,’ he says.
‘She didn’t tell you beforehand?’
He shakes his head. I’d assumed from the way Lady Maycourt had spoken about how Mateo had been the one to notice the bond between Serafina and myself, that he was on board as she was when it came to offering me a groom’s position.
But from his furrowed brow and hard-set mouth, he doesn’t seem thrilled at the prospect.
‘Have you ever worked with polo ponies before?’ he asks.
‘No.’
‘But you’ve worked in a stables?’
‘Never.’
A muscle in his jaw twitches. ‘Are you a good rider?’
‘The last time I rode a horse, I was eight.’
The creases between his eyebrows deepen as he continues to look at me across the table, troubled by this information.
‘Hey, I didn’t go looking for this job. Lady Maycourt came to me,’ I remind him, trying to read his thoughts from his stern expression. ‘She told me that she thought I might be able to help you with Serafina.’
He looks thoughtful. ‘Yes, I can see why she might think that. You had a way with Serafina and she’s given us lots of trouble. I would like to use her this season if at all possible. And maybe she will be easier to control if someone she trusts, someone like you, is around, but…’ He trails off.
‘But you don’t think I should take the job,’ I finish for him, affronted even though, as a professional polo player, he has every right to think I’m not right for the part.
I don’t think I’m right for the part.
But he doesn’t need to know that.
‘This is a serious sport,’ he says firmly, his dark eyes boring into mine, but I hold his gaze, refusing to be intimidated. ‘I want to make sure that my team is the best they can be, rather than thinking of this as an opportunity to play with pretty ponies.’
I snort. ‘She didn’t invite me to be on the Maycourt polo team, Mateo. She asked me to be a groom.’
‘The grooms are as much a part of the team as the players,’ he says sternly.
‘They do most of the work, they prepare the ponies for the match and the players have to trust their grooms implicitly. Look,’ he places his palms down flat on the table to impress his point, ‘I want to make sure that if you decide to take this job, you know what you’re walking into. ’
‘Lady Maycourt seemed convinced the most important thing was that I had a connection with Serafina. The rest she said I could learn as I go along.’
‘It’s hard work and long hours.’
‘Nothing I haven’t done before.’
‘You said you haven’t worked in stables.’
‘Yes, but I’ve worked in fashion.’
The corners of his lips twitch. He’s fighting a smile.
‘Trust me, Mateo,’ I say, leaning forward on the table myself, ‘if you think that working in a polo stables is hard, you should try working in the fashion industry. I doubt you’d last a day.’
That does it. He can’t fight the smile any longer and as it creeps across his lips, I sit back, satisfied.
‘Well, I can tell you are Jasper’s sister,’ he says, amused as he drops his hands from the table. ‘There were people who didn’t think he had it in him to take over this pub when he first arrived, but he had plenty of fight in him.’
‘We’re not afraid to rise to a challenge,’ I confirm.
‘I see. So you are taking the job then?’
I hesitate. While I formulate an answer, we’re interrupted by someone calling his name across the garden.
His eyes flicker over to the girl standing in the back doorway to the pub, beckoning him to come back and join everyone inside.
I glance over my shoulder to see who it is.
It’s a different woman to the one I saw in his car.
This girl is blonde too, with charcoal-lined eyes and an unimpressed expression, wearing a butter-yellow maxi dress and cropped white blazer.
When I turn back to Mateo, he offers her a polite smile but doesn’t seem in any urgency to move.
‘I think your girlfriend wants you,’ I say when he doesn’t budge.
‘A friend,’ he corrects.
‘What are you even doing out here?’ she cries. ‘Fitz has just bought another bottle of champers. He wants to toast the team. Come on.’
‘One minute,’ he responds, unaffected by her efforts of persuasion.
She huffs and spins round, stomping back inside.
‘Can I ask you something?’ I say when he shows no intention of following her.
‘Please.’
‘Did you come out here to persuade me not to take the job? Is that what’s happening?’
He raises his eyebrows at the blunt approach, but doesn’t flounder at it. ‘No. I didn’t know enough about you to persuade you one way or the other. And it’s not up to me to make that choice for you.’
‘But now that you know I have no experience, your worst fears have been confirmed.’
‘As I said, I wanted to make sure that if you were to decide to become a Maycourt groom, you understood the weight of the role.’
I wrap my hands around my mug of tea, lifting it to my lips. ‘I understand.’
He watches as I take a sip. ‘Good. In that case,’ he swings his legs out from under the table and stands up, ‘I will see you on Monday morning.’
‘I haven’t said whether I’m taking the job,’ I remind him as he walks round the table.
His lips tug into a small, secretive smile as though he knows something I don’t. He sticks his hands in his pockets and wanders back into the pub to join his friends.