Chapter 27 #2
‘I know.’ They were thinking the same thing at the same time. She wondered if he’d noticed that Molly had been monopolising him, making her feelings for him obvious, and lowered her voice. ‘About Molly . . .’
He nodded at once. ‘She’s a great girl. But no.’
Leon’s mother had been accepting condolences from a series of guests. As she excused herself and made to leave the drawing room, Fen took a gulp of wine. ‘I need to have a quick word with Hilary.’
Jamie briefly rested a hand on her shoulder. ‘Go ahead. I’ll catch up with you in a bit.’
‘What is it?’ Hilary sounded exhausted when Fen followed her into the study a short distance down the panelled hallway.
‘I’m not going to be staying very long, and after today we probably won’t see each other again. So I came to say goodbye.’
‘Oh. Right.’ Hilary pressed a linen handkerchief to each eye in turn.
‘And to give you this.’ Fen removed the ring from her finger and placed it on the polished walnut desk.
Hilary looked at it, then at her, eyebrows fractionally raised. ‘Why?’
‘I’m not engaged any more. I can’t carry on wearing it. And it wouldn’t be fair to keep something that doesn’t belong to me.’
‘Leon gave it to you. It’s yours.’
‘I’d rather you had it.’
‘Because you want to prove to us that you weren’t with him for his money?’
Fen nodded. ‘Yes.’
His heartbroken mother wiped her pink-rimmed eyes again. ‘You didn’t need to prove it. We knew. Not on that first day, but afterwards.’
‘I loved him.’
‘We knew that too. And I’m sorry we doubted you. Or thought you weren’t right for him.’
‘Thank you,’ said Fen. ‘Well, I’d better be getting back—’
‘We were wrong. So wrong. And I want to thank you for making our boy happy.’ Only too well aware that Hilary wasn’t naturally the tactile type, Fen was touched to find herself caught up in a slightly awkward but still heartfelt hug.
The next moment she felt the older woman’s tears sliding down her own cheek and gave way to the pent-up emotion filling her chest. For several seconds they clung to each other, lost in grief, until the door burst open and a man Fen vaguely recognised as a co-worker of Leon’s said, ‘Fuck, sorry, thought this was the downstairs loo.’
It was twenty minutes later, while watching Molly make yet another valiant attempt at captivating Jamie, that Fen became aware of a slight commotion behind her and turned to see Sadie Ingalls making her entrance into the room.
Squeezing her way through the noisy throng, she reached Jamie and greeted him with a light kiss on the mouth before turning to Molly and saying, ‘Sorry to interrupt, but I had to come. Hi, I’m Sadie.’ She shook Molly’s hand, then returned her attention to Jamie. ‘How are you doing?’
‘Not too bad. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.’
‘You weren’t, but I couldn’t let you go through this on your own.
Managed to pull in a couple of favours and juggle my schedule.
And I know I didn’t get the chance to meet Leon, but I feel as if I knew him.
’ She tucked her hand into Jamie’s and gazed up at him.
‘Will you introduce me to Leon’s family so I can offer my condolences?
They won’t mind that I’ve gatecrashed the reception, will they? ’
All around the room, people were covertly admiring her elegant black silk jersey dress accessorised with silver necklaces, a dove-grey suede clutch and matching crimson-soled high heels.
Her hair and make-up were immaculate, her air of confidence mesmerising.
From this distance Fen might not be able to breathe in whatever scent she was wearing, but she guessed it would be exotic and expensive.
‘Just when I thought I might stand a chance after all,’ Molly said in an undertone, joining Fen after having been effortlessly cast aside while Sadie flashed her a dazzling smile and left the room with Jamie to seek out Hilary and Greville. ‘God, she’s glamorous. Did you notice the shoes?’
Ten minutes later, Sadie and Jamie were back. Fen, aware of them entering the drawing room, turned away to closely examine a framed painting on the wall behind her. Don’t bring her over here, don’t bring her over here . . .
Jamie brought her over. Of course he did.
‘And you’re Fen, Leon’s fiancée. I’m so sorry for your loss.
’ Sadie was using her carefully modulated TV voice.
‘It’s such a tragedy, my heart breaks for you.
’ She enveloped Fen in a hug, and there was the cloud of exotic perfume, almost exactly as she’d imagined.
‘You must be devastated. Poor darling.’ Now she was stroking Fen’s hair, as if she were a cat, and Fen’s emotions were confused.
She couldn’t tell whether it felt strange or actually quite comforting and nice.
A flash went off over to the left, as someone took a photo of their VIP guest. Turning to glare at them, Jamie said, ‘Really?’
‘Don’t let it bother you.’ Sadie shook her head at him. ‘They don’t mean to be rude. Maybe we should go outside . . . look how stunning the grounds are. It was lovely to meet you.’ She smiled at Fen, then at Molly. ‘And you too, Milly. Take care.’
‘You could come out with us,’ Jamie offered, but it was now six o’clock and Fen had barely slept last night.
She was wrung out and exhausted from having to smile and speak to people, many of whom she didn’t even know.
If Leon were here with her, she could probably power on through, but he wasn’t and she had neither the energy nor the inclination.
She and Jamie had supported each other up until now, but it was becoming apparent that he no longer needed her; from Sadie’s body language and the way she behaved around him, their relationship had clearly moved on, providing him with the diversion he needed.
For Fen, the idea of getting intimate with another man any time soon was unthinkable, completely out of the question. But looking at Jamie and Sadie now, it seemed obvious that they were already sleeping together.
The thought of it made her feel a bit sick, because he was evidently finding it so easy to cheer himself up after the loss of the best friend he’d ever had.
‘Thanks, but no,’ she told him. ‘I’m going to head home.’
Jamie looked concerned. ‘Are you sure?’
‘Honestly,’ Sadie exclaimed. ‘Is there anything worse than a man questioning a woman’s decision? Of course she’s sure! Look at her, she’s on her last legs, poor lamb.’ She wagged a playful finger at him. ‘If she wants to leave, she’s free to go!’
Fen nodded in weary agreement, the future revealing itself faster than expected.
She and Jamie had only ever been connected via Leon, their common denominator.
Now he was no longer here, there was nothing to keep them in contact.
They would go their separate ways and live their own lives.
She would see him on TV every now and again, and they might exchange a brief WhatsApp message at Christmas, but nothing more than that, because the link between them would have died along with Leon.
As for the lightning bolt of emotion that had so confusingly ambushed her out of the blue during their time in Venice . . . well, that had become the secret she could never reveal to another living soul. It was the source of her deepest shame.
She turned to Molly. ‘If you and Disa want to stay longer, I can get a taxi.’
‘Don’t be daft. Disa’s already said we’ll leave together whenever you want.’ Molly gave her a comforting squeeze. ‘I’ll let her know we’re ready to go now.’