Chapter 44
The day went by in a flash. Felicity barely had time to look up but every time she did, there was an even longer queue of people for the signing table.
The whole place looked great, the children adored meeting the puppies and kittens and rabbits, and Saskia entertained them all with her stories of daring rescues and Andrea’s various antics over the years, which had them all transfixed.
It was James, though, who had had the really cunning plan.
They’d sourced an old room divider and set it up in front of the table with big signs about Diana Edwards and “her” work.
The squeals of delight and occasional screams of not-quite-horror-but-perhaps-extreme-surprise as avid fan after avid fan turned the corner into the makeshift signing booth and came face to face with Harry punctuated the day.
‘What a day,’ said Felicity, eight and a quarter hours later, kicking off her battered old Converse in the hallway of what she still thought of as James’s house.
As she wiggled her toes in the soft deep-pile carpet, she winced.
They ached as if she’d just run a marathon.
Or at least, she assumed that’s what it must feel like.
Never having run a marathon, of course, or even done any running of any kind since adulthood.
But in any case, her feet hurt quite a bit.
The day had been a huge success, the centre was packed out and Felicity spent most of it walking about, standing, pointing and lifting small puppies and kittens out of cages so their visitors could give them a stroke.
Not the most taxing of days but she had spoken so much it felt like she’d run out of words. Another unusual state of affairs.
‘You okay?’ said James, padding into the kitchen ahead of her and flicking on the kettle.
‘All good,’ she said, scooping up their little black cat Bobby Charlton and hugging him to her chest. He immediately started purring and rubbing his soft face on her chin.
Felicity giggled. ‘Hello, gorgeous boy,’ she whispered into his fur, carrying him through to the lounge and lowering herself gingerly onto the sofa, praying he wouldn’t jump off as she did so.
Mercifully, he stayed in her arms but he did look rather put out when she had the audacity to move forwards a few inches so she could tuck her legs underneath her.
Eventually, though, she was forgiven, and Bobby curled up under her chin and purred louder than ever against her neck.
After such a long day, it was just what she needed.
‘It went well, I think. Do you think it went well? I think it did,’ James was saying, carrying two huge steaming mugs of tea and a plate of biscuits through on a peculiarly chintzy tray that really didn’t go with anything else in that house.
‘All right, Grandma?’ Felicity laughed as he sat down. ‘I think you forgot the tea cosy.’
‘Right, let’s have this out here and now, Brooks. What do you have against The Tray, exactly?’
‘I don’t have anything against it,’ she laughed again, softly, ‘it’s just so… mumsy, that’s all.’ Felicity patted his arm (gently, so as not to upset the cat). ‘So… not you. Or Erika for that matter.’
A shadow passed across his face, just for a moment, as it always did at the mention of his ex-girlfriend’s name.
And then it was gone. He leant towards Felicity conspiratorially, reaching up a hand to give Bobby a little scootch on the head as he spoke.
Bobby responded with a little chirrup which made both their hearts melt.
‘Do you want to know a secret?’ said James, after a second.
‘Always,’ said Felicity, with a grin.
‘I bought it as a present for Erika. Because I knew she’d hate it.’
‘You didn’t?’
‘I did. Isn’t that awful? We were on holiday in some tourist village in the New Forest and I saw this dreadful tea set and tray, covered in flowers and a tiny dormouse and a fox and all that, and I thought, Erika would absolutely detest having that in the house. So I bought it.’
‘That’s terrible.’
‘It was a bit but you should have seen her face when I gave it to her. It was totally worth it.’
‘I’m surprised she didn’t smash it over your head.’
‘I’m lucky she didn’t.’
There was a pause.
‘I thought you two were perfect,’ said Felicity, in a small voice, trying to resist the urge to look away from those eyes of his.
James caught her eye, holding her stare. ‘Far from it,’ he said.
Something like relief washed over Felicity’s body at that.
Apart from the whole walking out on James at Christmas and breaking his heart into a million pieces thing, Felicity always thought Erika and James must have been relationship goals.
This exotic Japanese beauty and her blond titan.
Perfectly perfect in every way. James never really spoke about Erika, and certainly never said a bad word about her.
In Felicity’s mind, Erika was still really a rival, especially as she had made a play to get him back once before.
To hear James actually admit she’d been a teensy bit annoying brought Felicity a disproportionately enormous amount of joy. She bit her lip to try and hide it.
‘Of course, you realise you’ve made a grave error,’ she said.
‘Is that so? Do you think that’s why she left me? Is The Tray really that bad?’
‘I mean, it’s pretty bad,’ said Felicity, giggling so much that Bobby got the hump and leapt off her chest in disgust. ‘But the error is that you ended up with the bloody thing.’
James nodded seriously. ‘You’re right. That was an error.’
‘Anyway, moving on. Today went well, I thought,’ said Felicity. ‘What did you think?’
‘I think that tray is going to haunt my dreams,’ said James, taking a sip of tea. ‘But yes, Ms Brooks, today went very well. Do you know the total yet?’
‘We reckon about ￡1,000 on the door, or that’s what Andrea said.’
‘Plus whatever Harry’s crazy readers thought to donate?’
‘Plus that. I’ve got it in my bag. I don’t dare open it.’
‘Do it, do it, do it.’
‘Okay, fine. Hold on.’ Felicity attempted to jump up sprightly and then realised everything hurt and had to cling to the arm of the sofa for support.
‘Ow,’ she said, managing to hobble out of the room as the muscles in her legs seized.
She hobbled back in with an envelope full of cash and flopped down on the sofa again, all the while pointedly ignoring James who was watching her with great amusement.
‘You all right there, Crazy Cat Lady?’
‘How come you don’t seem to be even remotely sore after a day on your feet? And you have a bloody desk job. I should be used to it.’
‘What can I say, I’m a great specimen of manhood?’
Felicity laughed and punched him lightly on the arm. ‘All right, calm down, John McClane.’
‘Open it, open it, open it,’ said James, gesturing to the envelope.
‘Patience.’
But her hands were shaking. She didn’t even know why.
The day had been a resounding success, but a thousand pounds on the door wasn’t going to get them very far and even the contents of this envelope were unlikely to make that much of a difference.
So why on earth did she feel so excited?
Perhaps it was hysterics? Maybe she just needed a glass of wine.
Perhaps it was her blood sugar. She did feel a bit light-headed, now that she thought about it.
‘Get on with it,’ said James, laughing.
‘All right, all right, I’m doing it,’ she said, giggling, and ripping the top open.
Nothing in the world could have prepared her for what was inside.