‘Really?’ His quizzical look emphasised the crinkles in the corner of his bright blue eyes. ‘And now?’
‘Oh, you can’t make decisions like that at 3 a.m.,’ she said. ‘Everything looks different in daylight.’
‘It does, of course. So what are your plans for the place?’
Along the ring road, then the highway out of town, they talked of stripping walls, knocking through, exposing floorboards, replastering and architraves, until they arrived in an outlying village in the foothills of the Peaks, where there was an attractive half-timbered pub.
‘I don’t mean to sound rude,’ said Lawrence, once they had ordered, ‘but you can’t possibly run your career out of Bledburn, can you? It’s a London/LA/New York kind of thing, surely.’
‘I’m taking a year off,’ she said. ‘For personal reasons.’
‘Ah,’ he said delicately. ‘Personal reasons. Must be awful to have your business broadcast in all the media. Of course, as a Harville, I’m no stranger to scandal, but this seems much too invasive somehow.’
‘If you want the inside track on why Deano I and split up …’ said Jenna.
‘God, no. Of course not. What do you take me for?’
‘No, I wasn’t going to bite your head off. I don’t think you’re trying to pry at all. I was actually going to say that in some ways it might be a relief to talk about it, a bit. But I don’t want to bore you.’
‘Well, I’m told I’m a good listener,’ said Harville, leaning forward.
Jenna had thought she wanted to unburden – just a little, not a big emotional splurge, but suddenly the look in Harville’s eyes silenced her.
I can’t trust you, she thought.
‘Oh, no,’ she said with an embarrassed laugh. ‘I’m sorry. It’s all very boring and I mustn’t. I’ve promised myself I’ll look to the future. Let’s drink to it, shall we?’
They clinked glasses of sparkling water.
‘The future,’ said Harville. ‘Is it wrong of me to mention that I’ve always been a huge fan of Deano Diamond? His first album knocked my socks off.’
‘It’s a great album,’ acknowledged Jenna.
‘And it would never have been made without you. You’re something of a national treasure, to my mind.’
‘Oh God, what a thing to be accused of.’ Jenna laughed, slightly appalled. ‘I’m no more than a talent-spotter, honestly.’
‘Of course, the old man disapproved. I had to listen with earphones on, or there was a risk the CD would find its way into the rubbish. He didn’t like some of the songs he wrote that touched upon, well, Bledburn affairs.’
‘Deano was a firebrand in those days. He’s much less political now. Contributes a lot to the Colombian economy, though.’ She couldn’t help the bitchy remark, which caused Lawrence to raise his eyebrows high.
‘Ah,’ he said. ‘Yes, he does seem to have mellowed. Musically speaking, I mean. That last album …’
Jenna shook her head. ‘I advised him against all that grand operatic stuff. So self-indulgent. But he’s not half the force he used to be.’
‘Creativity can’t always be commercial,’ said Lawrence, an insight she had not expected from him.
‘No, you’re quite right,’ she said, examining him more closely. He was so well kept, so impeccable, so perfectly suave. That fantasy she had had seemed out of place, now. He was too perfect for passion. ‘But it wasn’t that. I know all artists need to explore and experiment. But he’s getting stale. And bombastic.’
‘I suppose you won’t be working with him now?’
‘I’m not ruling it out. I’ll see how I feel in a year. Of course, it will depend on him, too.’
‘Can a business like yours survive a sabbatical? I mean, it all rather depends on your being in touch with what’s hot and what’s not, doesn’t it?’
He was perceptive, she’d give him that. And he sounded genuinely interested in her. Jenna began to warm to him again.
‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘You know, I’m perfectly prepared to go back to the office in a year from now and be told that all my clients have defected and someone younger and fiercer and more fashionable has taken my seat on Talent Team. It would happen sooner or later anyway – that’s the way of this world. I’ve got a great guy covering my role, but he doesn’t have my name …’ She turned up her palms. ‘Oh well. A part of me thinks that it would be good for me to move on from all that. There’s more to life, I think. I just need to get used to the real world and I might find out what it is.’