Marrying Money: Lady Diana's Story (10 page)

“Bill
the Builder is going to take me on a Viking water ride along the River Liffey, followed by luncheon at some plebeian place on O’Connell Street. I’m in a hurry myself.”

“I’m
sure little Adam would enjoy a Viking boat ride.
”
I hinted, fighting back tears. Sally waivered for a moment. She was going to say yes, she’d take the kid…At least I hoped she would.

“But
I get sick on boats. I once threw up all the way to France,” Adam piped up.

Sally stopped wavering.
“You’re on your own, Diana. Maybe Lord Joshua likes kids. You can show him what good mother material you would be for the heirs.” The feral smile she gave me failed to cover the nastiness that lurked in her words.

I couldn’t hide the
tiny twinge of jealousy I felt knowing Bill had invited her out. Even though I knew it would be the best match.

I almost stuck
the mascara wand in my eye when the fleeting thought hit me that my best friend might come out of this with a husband. And I might be toddling off home a spinster lady with a broken down household and maxed out credit cards.

CHAPTER TWELVE

I briefly thought of leaving Adam with the television and room service as babysitters
. But it was like the kid read my mind and clung to me like a limpet. I couldn’t be angry with him. Imagine how the poor thing must feel, a child who’d suddenly discovered his devoted parents  had no compunction about dumping him alone in a strange city and a strange hotel without even bothering to check if his godmother would be able to watch him. I silently muttered a brief curse at my dear friends Dave and Greg.

I
plastered a big smile on my face as Josh waved to me from the hotel restaurant bar.

He looked only momentarily disconcerted when he noticed
we‘d be a party of three for lunch instead of a cosy twosome. Breeding will show, after all. In fact, he made Adam feel very welcome; chatting to him while I studied the menu and tried to figure out what sort of meal a growing five year old boy would eat without fuss.

“Nice
kid, your Adam,” Josh said, smiling.

“Do
you like my Mummy?” The boy asked, gazing up at Josh with adoring eyes.
Little faker.

“Well
, sure…”

“I
am not your Mummy,” I snapped. “How many times do I have to tell you?” Adam’s lip quivered and Josh gave me a startled glare.  I didn’t have time to correct the impression I’d given because I saw Bill and Sally frantically waving to me from the restaurant door,

“You left your phone in the hotel room and I thought I’d better let you know
the nursing home called about Auntie Kay,” Sally said. “They said she’s ready to leave now and wondered when you could pick her up. In fact, “Sally grinned. “ It sounded as if they were practically begging.”

A big hole seemed to open up in the pit of my stomach.
Oh, no - with everything I had to deal with right now
. I had the most awful visions of adding Auntie Kay to the mess my life already was in. Auntie Kay in Dublin?
My God, imagine all the high places she could climb to on O’Connell street alone.

“Don’t
worry, I suggested they keep her for another week. I made the most of her relationship to your title and everything, so they agreed.”

“Sally
, you’re a sweetheart.” I said, hugging her gratefully. “Can you imagine Auntie Kay here in Dublin? As if I don’t have enough to cope with. It would be much better if she’s in the nursing home.”

I didn’t mean it to sound quite so callous, but Bill gave me a hard look.

“It’s hard for an old person to be away from home,” he said.

“We’re
not talking any old person here, we’re talking Diana’s Auntie Kay.  Diana, remember the odd look the doctor in the emergency department gave you when he asked how she came to be locked in the attics?”

Sally was obviously having a good time, painting me as the evil niece
in front of Bill. I’d deal with her later, I vowed. Meanwhile, I had to do something about the increasingly shrill wail of Mummeeee! coming from the little changeling sitting at our table with the man I should be thinking of marrying.

And wasn't it strange
, with Bill the Builder standing right there, I found it very hard to think of Josh the Lord as husband material?

“Just
a moment, Adam,” I called sweetly.

“
Mummeeeeeeeee!” Came the returning shriek.

“I
am not your Mummy! I told you not to call me that in public!” I shrieked back. I wished the floor would open up when I saw the shocked looks on the faces of both Bill and Joshua. But by now I was beyond caring. “See you later,” I muttered to Sally. “Have a grand time. Be careful not to fall into the river now, won’t you,” I added under my breath.

“Well
, you have a delightful lunch, dear,” Sally replied.

Josh was distinctly cool when I returned to our table to discover Adam still sobbing under his breath because there was onion on his hamburger.

“You couldn’t just take the onion off?” I asked reasonably.

“No
,”   he stuttered between sobs. “I can’t eat a hamburger that has onions on it.”

I grabbed the offending burger, lifted the top of the bun and whipped off the onion. I dumped it back on his plate.
“There now, there’s a burger without any onion at all. Eat it.”

“No
. I can’t.”

“Eat
the damned burger,” I snarled, frustration getting the better of me. Of course, there had to be a sudden lull in conversation when I said that. And then Adam replied, “Please don’t make me eat it. I’m 'llergic to onions, even just touching my food, they make me all red!”

I wished the floor would open up and swallow me
... again.

Fortunately, that brought me back to my senses. None of this was the kid's fault, and it was mean and petty of me to take it out on him. He was distressed that his parents seemed to have dumped him, and he was afraid they were fighting and would split
up. The little Lady Diana been traumatized by similar feelings when she was his age.

Did I behave as badly as this kid?
Probably.

So I managed to start acting like a grown up,
ordered the kid a decent, onion-free burger, and myself a strong coffee and pushed away the wine I'd been gulping down. By the end of our luncheon, Joshua finally stopped looking at me like I was a two headed monster who ate little kids for lunch, and Adam was treating me like his best friend again.

“Isn’t
my Mummy beautiful?” he muttered to Josh who was carrying him back to our room.

“Well
, the kid's got one thing right, Diana. You are beautiful.” Josh whispered in my ear after he'd tucked a tired Adam up in the double bed for a nap.

“Why
, thank you, kind sir. I appreciate that,” I said with a smile. We stood there, smiling at each other, like two teenagers not knowing what came next.

“But
I'm not as beautiful as Sally, am I?”   I couldn’t believe I was doing this.

He had the good grace to say nothing, but his smile was dimmed by sadness.

“Are your folks on your back to find the right kind of wife?” I could see from the way his ears turned red under that sexy blond mop of hair that I was right. “You know, sometimes we have to give up a lot in order to be who our families want us to be. There's a saying, I forget who said it,
To whom much is given, much is expected.”

“Diana
, I….” he raised his hand to my arm, then let it fall back.

“Look
, I saw you and Sally in the conservatory last night, and I've seen how the two of you look at each other, and how you avoided looking at each other today. Even we upper crusts deserve a shot at happiness; if Sally is your chance, go for it.”

He looked at me for a, long time
. His green eyes seemed to look into my soul.

“You
are one special woman, Diana. I'll always remember this.”

“Yeah
, well, remember this too, Sally's my best friend and if you hurt her, Alexandria House is well-stocked with hunting implements.”

“Gotcha
.” He leaned forward and kissed me, chastely, on the lips. Then he was gone, no doubt in pursuit of Sally.

I rubbed the spot he'd kissed. No spark.

Well, that was a relief.

I
lay down on the bed beside Adam, and fell into a deep sleep. I woke when Sally came home, very late, and I had to suppress the jealous feelings that she'd spent a wild time with Bill, while Joshua wanted her too.

“Hey
, move your great arse over and let me get into bed. Eww, you've been drooling on the pillow!”

“
Go ’way,” I complained, turning over and getting a nose full of sweaty little boy smell. Gross!

“Don’t
be a snotty cow, or I won’t tell you why Mairead doesn't think the Beautiful Bill is a good match for you.”

I was awake now. And try as I might, I couldn't feign disinterest.

Sally couldn’t manage to hide her delight, either. I had a sudden understanding why, in some ancient cultures, they killed the messenger. I pulled the thin blanket up to my chin and glared at her.

“Well
, it looks like he's a bit of an outcast, because his wife left him.”

I grunted. I was pretty sure it would take more than a wandering wife to make a man an outcast, even in repressed Irish society.

“But his wife left him for another woman! Apparently she's living with a blonde woman who lifts weights and is very socially unacceptable. Now everyone is saying that he's a closet homosexual, gay as a bird and has somehow contaminated his wife. She used to be such a good Catholic girl, and a star pupil at the Loretta, and it's all his fault for being an aberration.”

I stared open mouthed at Sally. She might have been speaking in tongues for all the sense any of this made.

“You can't be serious,” I finally said.

“Sure
. Well, no, I'm not serious about it 'cos I know that gay-ness isn't infectious, otherwise half of Ludlum Secondary School would be gay. Remember Arnold Atkinson? He was gay enough to infect the lot of us, no problem.”

“I
didn't mean that, don't be a gobshite, as they say in the Emerald Isle. I meant do you think he's gay?”

“
Whoa, my dear, usually when a woman asks that question about a gorgeous example of the male species, it's either because he's turned her down, or she doesn't want to turn him down. And you, Diana, Lady Ashburnham, are supposed to be husband hunting. And whatever poor Bill may or may not be, I gather from your dear Cousin Mairead's virtual shunning of him that he's not suitable husband material, so you'd better just keep your hands to yourself and look elsewhere.”

Lord, I hate it when Sally sees right through me.

“And remember, this place is like a slightly larger Ashburnham End. Everybody knows everything everybody does, and if you want to nab a rich society husband, you'll spoil your chances if everybody knows you've been in bed with someone unsuitable.”

Curses
! I doubly hate it when she sees right through me and reads my mind.

“But
I have to tell you: Bill is from a good family, went to the right schools and is Lord Joshua's best friend. He's also an architect with his own construction company, a man who's good with his hands, as they say.

“So
, did you have a nice time with Josh?” The question was heavy with other questions she wouldn’t ask me. Before I could answer her, my godson piped up sleepily: “Josh said my Mummy's beautiful.”

I had no time to explain because someone was hammering
on the door.

Finding Richard Ransome at my
hotel door would be a major turn off at any time, but to find this wild-eyed, dishevelled parody of my cousin's husband was more than a little shocking.

“Richard
!” I said heartily, trying hard to think of how to get rid of him politely when he pushed past me into the room. That was when I saw the gun in his hand.