‘Blake and I are going to renew our wedding vows,’ she announced gleefully, bouncing excitedly as a ripple of applause went round the table like a Mexican wave and the waiters appeared bearing vintage Dom Perignon.
‘I got off the phone this morning from Frégate Island in the Seychelles and you’re all invited. Watch this space, darlings!’
Johnny was the first to move around to congratulate his parents. He had flown in from LA that afternoon where he was playing the second lead in a Tom Cruise movie. His latest girlfriend – a pretty bible-belt blonde hung on his arm and simpered in all the right places.
‘Who’d have thought it?’ whispered Molly Sinclair, seated to Cassandra’s left. Molly was an old friend of Astrid’s from her modelling days. ‘I thought Astrid would have been straight to the divorce lawyers after the Clover Connor episode.’
‘And give up all this?’ smiled Cassandra, touching the top of her champagne glass for the waiter to fill. ‘Would you?’
‘You’re so right, darling,’ purred Molly. ‘Infidelity goes with the turf. I bet half the people in this room have fucked one another.’
Speak for yourself, thought Cassandra, knowing Molly’s terrible reputation as a gold-digger around the society circuit.
‘Speaking of which,’ continued Molly, ‘you’ll never guess who I saw a few weeks ago in a very discreet little restaurant in Chelsea.’
‘Who?’
‘Your uncle’s wife with a man who most definitely was not her husband. I must say they looked very cosy.’
‘Rebecca?’ replied Cassandra, com
pletely surprised.
Molly put her hand over Cassandra’s. ‘Sorry, darling, I probably shouldn’t have said anything, it being family and all. But I have to say he was a complete dish; looked a bit like that actor Rufus Sewell.’
Cassandra’s mind began to work overtime. Rebecca having an affair? Who with? What can she be playing at – is it just sex or is she thinking of an upgrade? Cassandra had spent her entire working career manipulating people and turning situations to her own advantage. It had made her look for the angle in every situation. There’s no such thing as an innocent lunch, she smiled to herself.
‘Time for a little digestif,’ said Astrid, leaving the room and coming back holding a beautiful porcelain dish on which stood a trembling pile of cocaine. Across the table, Johnny’s girlfriend’s eyes widened in disbelief.
‘Meissen,’ said Molly.
‘Sorry?’ said the pretty blonde.
‘I noticed your surprised expression, darling. The dish, it’s Meissen. Don’t you have it in America?’
Cassandra left the table to freshen up in the bathroom. Greywood was a sumptuous palace, a labyrinth of complete luxury and she always enjoyed walking through the corridors admiring a Miro here, a Brancusi there. She was about to go back into the dining room when she saw a little boy waving at the top of the main flight of stairs.
‘Hello, Josh,’ she waved back at Astrid and Blake’s 5-year-old son. He was a cute little thing with a crop of floppy blond hair and stripy blue pyjamas, like a cover star from Vogue Bambini.
‘Cassandra, come and see my new car,’ he called, beckoning through the bannisters.
She wavered, a little embarrassed. Weren’t kids supposed to be able to detect adults who didn’t like children? Cassandra sighed, she supposed Josh was used to her being around by now and he decided the matter by running to the bottom of the stairs and tugging at her hand. She patted him awkwardly on the head.
‘Not tonight, Josh. I have to go back in there and talk to your Mummy and Daddy. And they’ll be very cross if they know you’re not in bed yet.’
‘First come and see my car. It’s a BMW.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘O K, but just for two minutes, OK?’
She carefully removed his sticky hand from the fabric of her Balenciaga pencil skirt and allowed herself to be pulled upstairs. They were met at the top of the stairs by Helen, Josh’s nanny.
‘I’m so sorry, Cassandra,’ she said with an anxious expression. ‘The television was on in my room. He was asleep twenty minutes ago and I didn’t hear him.’
‘Well, perhaps you shouldn’t be watching the television when you should be watching Joshua?’ said Cassandra tartly.
‘Car! Car! Car!’ shouted Josh, bouncing up and down.
Helen guided Josh towards his room.