Chapter 2 #3
One of his friends, a man with curly blond hair, grabbed the man’s arm. ‘Hey. Come on. That’s enough.’
But Fox ignored him. He waggled his champagne glass close to my face.
By now, some of the surrounding guests had picked up on the bubbling tension. A few heads turned in our direction.
But I didn’t care. I couldn’t just ignore what he’d been saying.
The freckle-faced critic dismissed his friend’s request to pipe down. Again, he waggled his glass from side to side. ‘Be a good girl and top this up for me, would you?’
I could feel curious stares behind me. I looked from the half-empty champagne glass to Fox’s sneering face and back again. He gave it another swish and tapped the side of it. ‘Refill?’
A slow, tight smile slid across my face. ‘Certainly, sir.’
The voice from his right, which belonged to his other friend, also sounded embarrassed. ‘Guy. Stop it. You’re behaving like an ignoramus.’
But I was too caught up in what I was about to do.
Eying his chubby outstretched hand, I accepted his flute and set it down on my tray with a clatter.
Temper was racing through me. Dismissing the ramifications of what I was about to do, I put the tray down on top of an occasional table beside me and grabbed one of the fresh glasses of champagne.
I spun round, raised it in the air and was about to cascade its contents all over the top of that bullish, red head of his, when a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed my wrist. I stared down, incredulous. It was the morganite cufflinks again.
‘No. Don’t. He’s not worth it.’
The intervening man snatched the glass of champagne out of my hand.
‘Hey! What did you do that for?’
My voice died.
I was looking up into those deep, dark brown eyes again. But I didn’t have time to recover myself. I was aware that the owner of said eyes had thrust the glass back at Fox. He glowered at him. ‘Here’s your refill.’
Fox took it. ‘Thanks, friend.’
Morganite man pushed his face closer to Fox, who took a faltering step backwards. ‘I’m not your friend. And I didn’t do it for you. I did it for this young lady here.’
I watched, open-mouthed, as the ruddy-faced Fox gulped and dropped his eyes to the polished floor.
But that wasn’t the end of the drama. Before I knew what was happening, I found myself being steered by the elbow out of the garden room by the man with the cufflinks.
I was aware of intrigued guests watching us leave.
The handsome stranger spotted a quieter part of the hall, over by the grand staircase and guided me over there.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?
’ I gasped, wriggling my elbow free. My face was sizzling with consternation.
Now that I was out of the garden room and not the spectator sport, I seized another chance to look again at the man who’d taken the glass from me and removed me from the situation.
He towered over me. I reckoned he was in his mid to late thirties. The pinstriped three-piece suit he was wearing was beautifully cut. Lord knows how much it cost.
‘In answer to your question, Miss, I was trying to stop you from being sacked. Tipping drinks over guests – even if they are behaving like an utter knob – isn’t a good look.’
I glowered up at him. ‘I didn’t need your help, thank you very much. The twat deserved that champagne all over that posh suit of his.’
He raised his two slashes of dark brows at me. ‘Would he really have been worth losing your pay over? I think not.’
His enviable black lashes thrust down at me. I cleared my throat. ‘I’d better go. The boss is looking for me.’
My dark-haired rescuer appraised me. ‘Aren’t you going to thank me?’
‘For what?’ I bristled. ‘For stopping me from teaching him a lesson for once?’
Underneath, buried deep inside my common sense, I knew that he’d done the right thing by stopping me from doing something so rash.
I would’ve been dismissed on the spot and not paid a penny.
Probably been in the papers as well. Octavia would’ve loved that.
I just didn’t want to lose face and admit it.
Cold, hard reality started to bite. I folded my arms. ‘Come to think of it, I could still lose my job. No doubt that idiot will complain about my attitude anyway, if he hasn’t already.
’ Shit! I should’ve taken a breather. Counted to ten.
A sliver of panic shot through me. I really needed the money from this event today. Oh bugger!
The man pushed both hands into the pockets of his suit trousers. ‘No, he won’t. I’ll talk some sense into him. Make sure he doesn’t say anything to your boss.’
I blinked in surprise. I stood there, feeling self-conscious and laced and unlaced my fingers together. ‘Oh. Er. Thank you.’
‘Hey Daisy, sorry to interrupt.’ Iris had materialised at my elbow. She was grasping a tray of assorted, sharply cut sandwiches. She blushed up at my rescuer. ‘Sue is looking for you.’
I gave my dashing rescuer a brief nod of gratitude and hastened away, tapping furiously across the black and white tiled hall and back towards the kitchen.
* * *
For the last hour of the event, the cold, hard realisation that Fox might and very well could still lodge a complaint about me, throbbed away in my head. I could feel my chest prickling with worry.
But he didn’t complain. In fact, not long after our showdown, he vanished with his two friends, and I didn’t see him again for the rest of the lunch.
The more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that the knight in shining armour had kept his word and persuaded Fox not to speak to Sue about me.
As I helped clear up in the kitchen, I thought again about what had almost happened.
I’d let my emotions almost spiral out of control.
And although it would’ve been satisfying seeing that expensive champagne trickling down that bulbous face of his, I was taken aback at how glad I was that Cufflink Man had stepped in when he had. So was my bank balance.
Fox wasn’t worth losing today’s generous pay over.
And if I was to succeed in the acting profession, I’d have to learn to suck up negative reviews.
Although, there were negative reviews, and then there were the infamous ones penned by the likes of Fox.
They weren’t constructive reviews, they were annihilations.
Monty and Minnie Lockwood, who it turned out were the owners of Carston Manor, told us to avail ourselves of the downstairs shower room if we wanted to get changed at the end of the event.
We dashed in there once we’d cleared up. I enjoyed the hot needles of water, and once I dried off, I threw my jeans, glittery trainers and one of my pretty, sparkly cotton T-shirts back on. I stuffed my sweaty uniform back in my bag.
Relief swamped me as we prepared to leave. At least I hadn’t ruined my reputation in the hospitality industry.
We’d already been thanked profusely by Monty and Minnie, who said she’d had the most wonderful birthday. Monty also owned a very exclusive eatery in London’s West End, at which the rich and famous dined regularly, and so his list of celebrity friends over the years had become the stuff of legend.
Most of the guests had vanished by now, as had countless bottles of the champagne.
Sue and the rest of us made our weary way out of the side kitchen door, towards the staff parking. ‘What are you up to for the rest of your Saturday, folks?’ she asked us all.
‘A soak in the bath,’ sighed Iris, followed by Jasmine, who informed us she was going to take her dog for a walk and then collapse in front of the TV.
Jason revealed that he and his boyfriend were going to catch the latest Brad Pitt movie at the cinema, while Kieran was planning on going to a new nightclub with his mates. He let out a huge yawn. ‘That’s if I can muster up some energy.’
Now it was my turn to reveal my Saturday plans. ‘I’m about to drive up to Scotland. I’m going to visit my grandfather.’
Sue squinted in the mid-afternoon sunshine spilling through the trees. She jangled her car keys in her hand. ‘Goodness! That’s a long drive, but I bet he’ll be looking forward to seeing you.’
‘He is. I can’t wait to see him either. We FaceTime and call each other a lot, but I haven’t seen him properly for a good few months.’
‘Oh, that sounds wonderful,’ enthused Sue. ‘Whereabouts in Scotland are you headed?’
‘Highland area. Strath Ross.’
Sue’s mascara-lashed eyes danced. ‘I’ve never been as far as that. I’ve visited Edinburgh and Perth, though.’
‘Good job you’re not flying back,’ piped up Kieran, as he prepared to clamber into the driver’s seat of his black Ford Escort. ‘Nationwide IT failure at all UK airports. All flights cancelled.’
‘What?’
Our heads snapped round to see where the other voice had come from. It was my rescuer from earlier.
Kieran nodded. ‘It’s true, sir. Just saw it on my phone. Came up on the news.’
The man scrambled about in his suit pocket and pulled out his mobile. He jabbed at the screen. ‘Shit!’ He pushed a furious hand through his dark waves. ‘I don’t believe this.’
‘Have a safe drive to Strath Ross,’ smiled Sue at me, unlocking her car and dumping her bag on the back seat.
I made to walk across to where Marlene was parked.
‘You’re driving to Strath Ross? As in Scotland?’
Morganite Man’s questioning voice made me start. I frowned over at him. ‘Yes.’
‘When?’
‘I’m setting off now.’
He strode closer. A slow expression of hope spread across his face. ‘So, you can drive me there?’
My shocked mouth sprang open. ‘Sorry?’
‘To Scotland. You can take me there. You just said that’s where you’re headed.’
I floundered. ‘Yes, that’s right, but…’
He stuffed his mobile into the inside of his suit jacket.
I caught a flash of electric blue satin lining.
‘I was supposed to be flying up there this evening, but that’s not happening now.
’ He oozed confidence. ‘Under the circumstances, I think it’s the least you can do.
’ He flexed a brow, which made my breath catch. ‘I think you owe me one, don’t you?’