‘Darling, you look perfectly charming today...’
‘What about all the other days?’ Susie asked wryly.
Louise Sadler gave her a fond pat on the arm. ‘You could add to your wardrobe of jeans with some more feminine clothes...you look an absolute dream in dresses...’
‘A bad dream.’
Up ahead, the mansion that was Kate and Richard Princeton’s house rose splendidly into view.
‘The house looks nice. I like the lanterns lining the sides of the drive...’
‘It’s all a bit much, if you ask me, but you know my sister...she’s never been able to resist the lure of trying to impress everyone... Still, I suppose Clarissa is the first in the Thornton line to get married. Hopefully you’ll be next...’
‘Or Alex.’ She poked her sister in the ribs and Alex instantly chipped in that there was no time even to think about marriage—not when she was building a demanding career that ate up most of her leisure time.
Alex was just the sort of woman Sergio was drawn to. She, Susie, was the exception that proved the rule. Wasn’t that why she had never mentioned her high-achieving family? Because she didn’t want any comparisons? Because she wanted to keep living in a little bubble where she was appreciated in her own right? If he never met her family then he would never take a step back and wonder what the heck he was doing with her.
It was a mortifying thought, tapping into her own silly insecurities, and she fought against it, knowing that it wasn’t fair.
In the bigger scheme of things, silly insecurities were the least of her problems.
‘I myself am not a believer in marriage,’ she declared, to the astonishment of both her mother and her sister, and also her father, who craned back and looked at her with raised bushy eyebrows.
‘Since when?’ he demanded.
‘Since...er...living in London...’ she said airily. ‘I guess I finally see that it’s perfect for an independent woman to live her life without a guy in the background, nagging about when the dinner’s going to be put on the table while he watches the footie...’
‘You really do need to get rid of those young men you seem to like hanging around with...’ Louise Sadler gave a little moue of distaste.
‘And just for the record...’ this as her father’s driver was pulling into the courtyard, making a graceful turn before pulling to a stop and rushing round to open doors ‘...I think in this day and age it’s absolutely acceptable for a woman to bring a child up on her own! You could say I’m a changed person—forging ahead...pretty much a feminist... It took me a while to get there, but better late than never!’
She leapt out of the car and immediately immersed herself in the nearest group of guests hovering by the front door. But she was nervously perspiring, relieved that neither of her parents had had the chance to follow up on that remark.
* * *
No drinking. Just one measly glass of champagne. She wondered how on earth she would make it stretch until one in the morning.
She knew a huge amount of the invited guests. There were relatives from all corners of the globe. But she’d barely had a chance to chat to the bride and groom—just a few snatched words of congratulation.
The marquee, which dominated much of the enormous back garden, was a thing of splendour, with lots of white swirling drapes and chandeliers. The flower arrangements on the tables were so huge that they would struggle to get through her front door, and they would take up more space in her sitting room than...
Than a hundred assorted roses.
She and Sergio had transported most of them back to his place the morning after he had brought them for her, had laughed and then fallen into bed—and had kept falling into bed because they couldn’t not.
She felt a lump in her throat, and was on the verge of pinning a bright smile on her face to cover the moment of sadness when a voice behind her drawled, ‘Don’t burst into tears. It’ll look like sour grapes...’
Susie swung round, shocked to her very core, scarcely believing her eyes.
She’d been standing at the very edge of the garden, half concealed by dense shrubbery, nursing her single glass of champagne. He had crept up on her, unobserved, and for a few breathless seconds she was lost for words.