Chapter 32 #2
Kate and Sarah were sipping the last of the Champagne when Lara appeared.
They stopped drinking and stared at her.
She could not have looked more different than the woman Sarah had taken Florentines to a few weeks earlier.
Gone were the work-a-day clothes, the untidy ponytail and the frowning, pensive expression.
Lara McGregor looked happy. And she looked beautiful.
Her dress was a pale shade somewhere between green and blue.
The colour seemed to change as Lara moved.
It had a halter neck tied at the back with a bow and fell to the floor in a slight fishtail.
All along the bottom and part way up the skirt of the dress were embroidered wild flowers.
As she walked it looked as if Lara was walking through a meadow.
Her two new friends gave her a round of applause.
‘You know what,’ Sarah declared, studying her in some surprise, ‘you’re an old romantic, Miss McGregor.’
Lara had not thought about it before. But, on consideration, she supposed she was.
Becky was the first person Lara saw at the entrance of the manor.
She was standing by the double doors distributing glasses of fizz to the new arrivals.
The large, square entrance hall was lit by lanterns, firelight and the glow thrown from hundreds of fairy lights that covered the enormous Christmas tree in the corner.
The hall was already starting to fill up with guests.
‘I love your dress,’ Becky said to Lara.
Lara smiled appreciatively, mouthing ‘thank you’ as she accepted a glass of wine.
Kate loitered a bit longer, checking that Becky was happy with her new haircut.
Lara wondered if there was anyone who wasn’t a client of Kate’s.
The three women and a ghost then made their way to a less crowded area under the main stairway, greeting friends and customers as they went.
In the taxi on the way over, Lara had explained that she would be trying to have a number of conversations with people during the evening.
Earlier, Abby and she had decided that she should try and drop a ‘depth charge’, as Abby called it, in the vicinity of Richard and Pinky.
She should look for an opportunity to unsettle Jason in the hope he would give something away, and possibly say something pointed to Julian and Joe.
Kate and Sarah were keen to help, but Lara was reluctant to involve them after her ‘fall’.
She didn’t want to put her friends in danger.
After a lot of pestering and Abby’s prompting, ‘They are grown women and loved Lady Porter just as much as you,’ Lara gave in.
So it was agreed that Kate would try to find out about Joe’s family background and Sarah would give Pinky the impression that everyone knew about her and Julian in the hope that this would reveal something.
They had just separated in search of their quarries when Lara felt fingers close on her elbow.
Despite the safety of the crowd, her heart was racing as she swung around.
She was inordinately relieved to find Joe standing beside her.
He was wearing a retro dress suit and looked attractive and stylish, in a dishevelled sort of way.
He caught Lara’s hand and pulled her out of the melee.
‘I didn’t think you were coming,’ he said, smiling at her.
‘Shall we head to the bar? They’ve started serving cocktails and I could do with one.
I’ve been up a tree all afternoon.’ He laughed and guided her through the mass of people.
In the library that now housed the cocktail bar, Joe suggested Lara stay near the doorway where it was quieter while he fetched their drinks.
As he headed to the bar, Lara looked about her for Abby but she had disappeared.
Lara heard them before she saw them. Julian and Sebastian were heading towards her.
Her father had once told her that there are only two basic instincts, flight or fight.
For one instant Lara thought she was going to run.
And then she recalled that she was a McGregor and hers was a fine medical family who did not use the tradesmen’s entrance.
So she shook out her hair, which she knew to be gloriously glossy.
She smoothed her dress, and she brought the heels of her exquisite pink shoes together in the manner of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. This made her laugh to herself.
And that is how Julian Armstrong saw her. A beautiful smiling vision, with her head held high and a very becoming flush on her cheeks. His reaction was everything she would have wished for. Julian halted midway through a sentence and simply stared at her.
But now it was all too late. A month ago, she had dreamt of stopping this man in his tracks. But as he stretched his arm out to grab her waist and pull her to him she did not see the fabulous face or the sensual lips. Abby was right. Julian Armstrong was as appealing as pond water.
As he pressed closer, Lara was caught between Julian’s hip and the wall, unable to move.
His hand started to creep up her bare back towards the nape of her neck.
It was like he had completely forgotten about his comments to her at the theatre.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Lara brought her heel down hard on his instep.
He jumped in pain and leapt back. ‘Julian, has no one ever told you that women hate gropers?’ she said pleasantly.
Totally unused to being rebuffed, Julian quickly recovered and tried to laugh. ‘Hey, look, come and join us,’ he said. ‘You know Jess and Seb, don’t you?’ Julian said, waving vaguely at the others. She heard Jessica mutter, ‘Oh, do shut your mouth, Sebby.’ He was openly gawping at Lara.
Lara looked back at Sebastian, who was so red tonight he was almost purple and at Jessica who was squeezed into an unbecoming peacock-blue dress, and she wondered why she had ever wanted to hang around with these people. She also began to wonder where Joe was with her cocktail.
Joe did not appear, but Becky did, offering the group canapés. Lara took one and whispered to her, ‘How’s it going?’
‘Fine,’ Becky replied vaguely.
Lara looked back at her, but it was clear Becky was distracted.
She seemed to be trying to get Jessica’s attention.
Becky moved around closer to her, holding out the canapés, leaning her head towards hers.
Jessica waved Becky away without looking at her.
The bar was now full of guests and the volume of chatter and laughter was increasing.
Lara’s attention was drawn back to Julian.
He was smirking at her, clearly expecting an answer to a question he had asked her.
‘Sorry?’ Lara said.
Julian began to look disconcerted and tried a bit harder. ‘You are so sexy, you know that?’ he breathed into her ear.
Lara ignored him. She was far too interested in Becky’s strange behaviour. Even though Jessica had turned her shoulder, Becky was still nudging her arm with the canapés platter. Jessica glanced round briefly, glaring, and then went back to chatting. After a pause Becky began to nudge her arm again.
Jessica swung her whole body around to Becky ‘What part of “not hungry” don’t you understand? These are can… a… pés,’ she said the word slowly, as if talking to an idiot, ‘we don’t have to gobble them down like the burgers you obviously live off. Now leave me alone,’ she said dismissively.
This was a mistake. Becky was a sweet girl and she was a shy girl, but she also had a temper.
Becky slammed her metal tray down on a nearby table so the canapés jumped, as did most of the people near her.
The bar fell silent. ‘I wasn’t offering you food.
I can see from the huge knickers you’re wearing that you don’t need any more ca…
na… pés,’ she aped Jessica’s exaggerated pronunciation.
‘What I’ve been trying to tell you ever since you came out of the loo, is you’ve got your skirt caught in your knickers and we can all see your very large arse.
’ Becky picked up her tray, turned and walked away.
Jessica was scarlet, fumbling behind her to pull her dress down. ‘How dare she, that grubby little…’ She got no further. That ‘little’ florist was marching back towards her.
Despite the fact Jessica was a good foot taller than Becky she took a quick step backwards.
‘By the way,’ Becky announced loudly, ‘your husband didn’t buy you any birthday flowers.
He persuaded my boss,’ she gestured at Lara, ‘yes, the woman there, that Julian Armstrong’s drooling over.
He persuaded her to give him some of our old stock as freebies.
We had no idea the tight arse was planning on giving them as a gift.
If I’d known they were for you, I’d have suggested he buy some COW parsley!
’ Becky turned and disappeared once more into the crowd.
‘I can explain, sweetie…’ Sebastian started. But Jessica was gone, heading towards the ladies’ loos. ‘Sebby’ cast an agonised look at Julian and headed off in pursuit. Lara could not speak for laughing.
Julian frowned at her. ‘Aren’t you going to deal with your staff?’ he said pompously.
‘Of course I am,’ Lara said seriously, ‘I’m going to give that “town girl” a raise.’ Julian started to speak, but Lara cut him short as she spotted Joe approaching with two cocktail glasses.
‘And now I’m going to have a drink,’ she said, walking away.