Right Number, Wrong Girl

Sophie shook her head. “That’s insane. I can’t imagine her doing any of these things.”

“She can be a real bitch sometimes, and she’s pretty cold to strangers, but that’s only because she’s wildly snobbish.”

“Wow. You are really selling her to me.”

I laughed, dipping my head. “I love my mother dearly, but I’m not blind to her flaws, Sophie. She has many, but she also has many good qualities. A lot of the things she does that piss me off come from a good place.”

“Like what?”

“Trying to marry me off to a suitable woman.”

“I can see how that would annoy you.”

I inclined my head. “She and my dad weren’t a love match in the beginning. They were kind of… forced together… by my grandfathers. They did eventually fall in love, but I think she kind of feels that she needs to do that for me now because it’ll work out the same.”

“The aristocracy is weird.”

“You don’t need to tell me that.” I smiled at her as we approached the lake and the beautiful brick house that sat with a dock that stretched out. “Here we are.”

“Wow.” Sophie stopped and looked around. Wonder replaced the frustration in her gaze, and she took a step forward. “It’s incredibly beautiful here.”

I ran my fingers through my hair. “Come on. There’s seating inside.”

I led her over to the house and opened the door. There was no need to lock it because there was nothing remotely of value in here, and there were cameras on the lake to stop people fishing it illegally.

It happened more than you’d think.

“Right. Now tell me what’s bothering you,” I said, sitting down opposite her.

She crossed her ankles and looked up at me. “I spoke to Nora last night and we talked some about this situation. She told me that Nancy wanted to be the one to organise the party, and she thinks these miscommunications might not be… well, miscommunications.”

I stared at her. Sophie had no reason to lie about that, and there did seem to be a few very important things that hadn’t been shared. The fact Sophie was coming instead of Camilla for a start, the cake, and no information about a decorating company…

“You think she’s deliberately not passing on information?”

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know, but this morning, she was adamant that I didn’t tell your mum who I really am. She even went so far as to suggest that Camilla not bother coming at all.”

“Well, she does have a point there.”

“I’m not saying she doesn’t, but it’s not because I’ll have done all the work. Or attempted to,” she added half-heartedly. “It’s because she doesn’t want your mum to know I’m not who I’m supposed to be.”

“Mum barely let you speak in that meeting,” I said to her. “She might be a little pissed that nobody passed on the message, but she’d be over it in an hour.”

“I don’t know what to do. There’s no way I’m ever going to get to speak to your mum without Nancy being around, and everyone thinks I’m Camilla. She’s not going to be able to get here until two days before the party anyway, so it might just be easier keep pretending I’m her, tell her not to come, and try to keep Nancy out of the planning as much as possible.”

“That might be difficult.”

“I have no choice. I might have yelled a little,” Sophie said, wrapping her arms around herself. “And told her that I’ll be throwing her under the bus if the truth comes out.”

I dropped my chin and laughed silently.

“Stop laughing at me!”

“I just love the fact you shouted at Nancy. Do you know how many times I’ve wanted to do that?”

Sophie pouted.

Speaking of wanting to do things…