‘Mind you, you’re obviously making a very good profit,’ Suzi went on carelessly as, at a discreet nod from Polly, the serving staff removed the canapés and started to collect their empty glasses.
‘I saw that dress in a Knightsbridge store when I was in London the other day. She isn’t a designer I particularly favour. I’m very much a Gucci woman—and besides, it would be a little old for me. It’s the long sleeves that give it away as being an older woman’s dress, isn’t it? And I suppose when I start approaching forty…’
Approaching forty! Polly gave a small indrawn breath of indignation but it was, rather to her surprise, Phil Bernstein who pointed out crisply to Suzi, ‘Actually I think you’ll find that Polly is closer to thirty-five than forty, Suzi.’
But what was really worrying Polly, however, was how Briony had managed to pay for such an expensive dress.
Five minutes later when dinner was announced she quietly voiced her concern to her daughter.
‘Oh, don’t worry about that. I haven’t blown all my grant money on it,’ Briony told Polly breezily. ‘Uncle Marcus paid for it.’
‘Marcus?’ Polly repeated faintly. ‘You asked Marcus to buy me a dress?’
‘Well, I chose it,’ Briony assured her. ‘I just told him that unless we got together and did something about it you’d end up wearing that frock horror thing you always wear and he agreed that it was high time you had something new!’
There wasn’t time for Polly to say anything else, and, after a quick professional look around the table to make sure that everyone was seated and comfortable, she indicated to the staff that they could begin serving the meal.
‘Say, this soup is just wonderful,’ Phil Bernstein enthused.
‘Thank you.’ Polly smiled. ‘It’s my own special recipe and I—’
‘At Gifford’s Cay we have three top chefs and the menus are out of this world.’ Suzi interrupted them rudely. ‘We regularly have top film stars staying, don’t we Phil?’
‘Yes, we do. We had Meg Ryan as a guest during the summer,’ he told Polly with a warm smile. ‘You have something of the look of her…’
‘Oh, no,’ Polly demurred. But she couldn’t help but be flattered.
‘Wow, have you made a conquest, Ma,’ Briony chortled a little later on in the evening. ‘He’s a millionaire, you know, and the hotel is just one of his business interests. Suzi won’t confirm it but Chris is convinced that Phil has come over here looking to buy into something to extend his empire.’
‘Mmm…well, just so long as it isn’t Fraser House he tries to buy into,’ Polly rejoined humorously.
‘Do you know, Ma, I sometimes wonder which of us you love the most—the hotel or me,’ Briony mock complained.
‘Oh, there’s no contest,’ Polly reassured her dryly. ‘It’s the hotel every time!’
They were both still laughing when Phil overheard them and asked, ‘What’s so funny?’
‘Nothing, really; it’s just a mother and daughter joke,’ Polly informed him.
‘Uh-huh. You know, I still can’t take it on board that you are Briony’s mom,’ he told her. ‘You look like a girl yourself, especially with that very sexy hairdo.’
‘What?’ Self-consciously Polly lifted her hand, realising too late that she had never managed to smooth down her tousled hair.
‘No, I like it. Leave it,’ Phil pleaded softly. ‘It’s…It makes you look like you’ve just got up out of bed—a lover’s bed…’
‘Oh!’ Polly gasped, feeling even more self-conscious.
‘Polly, I think we’re ready for the next course.’
The harsh sound of Marcus’s voice brought Polly abruptly back to reality.
‘But there isn’t another course,’ she told him, frowning. ‘There’s just the coffee, which I thought we’d have in the drawing room.’
‘Oh?’ Marcus queried caustically. ‘You do surprise me. From the sound of it Bernstein was more than ready to make a meal of you!’
Polly gasped in outrage. ‘Just because he was being polite to me?’
‘Polite—by telling you that you looked like you’d just crawled out of some man’s bed? If that’s polite…’
‘That wasn’t what he said at all,’ Polly began—and then stopped. What was the point? She knew Marcus in this kind of sharp, critical mood, when nothing she could say or do was right; and besides, although Marcus had turned his head away from the others so that his comments to her would not be overheard, out of the corner of her eye Polly could see that both Suzi and Phil’s heads were turned in their direction.