‘I’ll have coffee brought up,’ she said. ‘Unless you’d prefer tea?’
‘Coffee’s good,’ said Jenna.
‘Or beer,’ said Jason hopefully.
Georgina laughed politely but her mouth settled straight back into its magenta line and she called to the receptionist to bring coffee up.
Georgina’s office was more like the drawing room of a stately home, on a slightly smaller and more comfortable scale. Beautiful works of art lined the walls and the furniture all looked antique.
‘Jenna – do you mind if I call you Jenna?’
‘Please do.’
‘I believe you’re an alumnus of ours.’
‘That’s right. I came here, oh, it must be thirteen years ago. Maybe fourteen. And I was taught by Tiggy Henderson.’
‘Ah, dear Tiggy. She has retired, but she keeps in touch. Exhibits her roses all over the country.’
‘Yes, I remember she was proud of her roses.’
‘And I’m sure she’d be proud of you. You brought a lot of business our way, when you were working in London, I’m told.’
‘Oh, yes, you did wonderful work with a lot of my clients.’
‘Thank you. And now you have made another booking with us.’
Georgina looked pointedly at Jason, who was slumping in his chair like a teenager who’d been told he couldn’t borrow his parents’ car.
‘Yes,’ said Jenna, trying not to feel embarrassed by Jason’s extremely negative body language. ‘This is Jason. He’s a very talented artist who is shortly to have his first gallery exhibition. But he’s not at all familiar with the art world, or the world away from the small town he comes from.’
‘I can say all this for myself, you know,’ he said, coming to hostile life.
‘Please do,’ said Georgina, smiling again.
‘I’m from the same place she is,’ he said, jerking a thumb at Jenna. ‘Same estate, even. This accent is the same as what she once had. But she’s better than all that now apparently.’
‘Don’t you think you are?’ said Jenna.
‘There are good people living there,’ he said fiercely. ‘Don’t tar everyone with the same brush.’
‘You aren’t here for elocution,’ Georgina cut in, welcoming the receptionist with the coffee tray with a smile and a wave at the table. ‘Nobody has any plans to change your accent.’
This winded Jason.
‘Oh,’ he said, looking at Jenna with uncertainty. ‘Don’t they?’
‘No,’ Jenna confirmed. ‘Look, you are you, and I want you to stay that way. All this is about, as I’ve said, is confidence. Knowing your way around the world outside Bledburn. Making friends. Making sure people are interested in you for the right reasons.’
‘Precisely,’ said Georgina, pouring from the cafetière.
‘So no rain in Spain stuff?’ he said, looking between the two women.
‘No rain in Spain stuff,’ said Georgina, smiling up at him. ‘I promise.’
‘So what, then?’
‘We’re going to role-play some social situations, and you’ll learn some very basic body language techniques for looking and sounding confident. Oddly enough, the more confident people think you are, the more at their ease they are with you. And the more people warm to you, the better disposed they’ll be towards your work. Does that make sense?’