By His Command (House of Submission 2)

‘I’ve had a lot of luck and made some good contacts,’ he said, all self-effacing charm. I knew he intended to seduce my parents into approving of him, and if anyone could do it Jasper could, but I was still rather cross at how he’d inveigled his way into my parent-and-child reunion. I had not wanted to make our relationship public in this way and I felt railroaded.

‘Who was your character again?’ Mum was still a few conversational points behind. ‘The young maverick feller who was always coming a cropper with that moody consultant, what was his name?’

‘Reilly.’

‘Reilly, that’s right. And you were … Dr Stanwyck,’ she proclaimed triumphantly. ‘I used to like your character. He always stood up for his principles, didn’t he?’

‘Yes. Right up until I got stabbed in the ward by my jealous stalker ex-girlfriend. In the heart, too. Tragic irony.’

‘I was sorry they wrote you out like that. I prefer it when they leave the door open for a character to come back.’

‘I asked them to kill me off. I thought it’d motivate me to fight harder for success in my new career. I didn’t want an easy fallback.’

‘Brave of you,’ said Dad. ‘Giving up a sure-fire earner like that.’

‘Brave or stupid,’ said Jasper and they chuckled together.

Damn him! He was winning them over so easily. He was the Usain Bolt of charming birds out of trees.

‘And how long have you known our Sarah?’ asked Dad. Ah, the tone had changed. Not such a pushover after all.

I brought the tea tray over and put it on the table, pulled up the only remaining chair – an uncomfortable wooden one, unhappily for my bottom – and got to work on pouring the tea into the mismatching antique-fair cups.

‘Jasper’s who I was working for over the summer,’ I said. ‘The cataloguing job.’

‘Oh, Mr Jay,’ said Mum. ‘Oh. I see. I thought you said he was working overseas and you had the house to yourself? Didn’t you?’

‘Had to come back,’ explained Jasper. ‘Lead actor broke his leg and we had to postpone filming. So I got to know Sarah.’

‘She never said.’ Mum frowned. ‘You never said anything about him coming back, love.’

‘Didn’t I? Sorry, I didn’t think to,’ I said, feeling hot-cheeked and under suspicion.

‘You make friends with a famous film director and it’s not news?’ Dad sipped at his tea.

‘I’d have taken out an advert in the paper,’ said Mum.

‘We’re not all as easily star struck as you,’ I said tetchily.

‘Sarah,’ rumbled Dad.

‘Sorry. Just … I didn’t really know who he was. It didn’t seem that big a deal to me.’

Dear Lord, I was digging myself in deeper and deeper. Now it was Jasper’s turn to

look affronted. He looked at me for an uncomfortably long time, then said, ‘But you know now. Don’t you?’

I put down my cup. My hand was too shaky and I was close to spilling its contents.

‘Of course I do,’ I said, not knowing where to look.

‘So you’re … friends?’ said Mum uncertainly.

It must have been bleeding obvious what the situation was.

‘We both love history,’ I said. ‘He has the most beautiful collection – you should see it.’

‘Yes,’ said Jasper, ‘you should. In fact, why don’t you come over? I’ll do brunch for us all and you can take a good look around.’