To Marry a Prince (17 page)

‘He’s a careful man.’

She harrumphed. ‘He went on as if it were a state secret.’

He laughed aloud. ‘Bits of it probably are state secrets.’

‘Oh, God, I keep forgetting.’

He looked as if he wanted to kiss her. ‘Carry on forgetting. I like it.’

So Bella went to meet her brother next day wearing a big fat smile that she could not get rid of, no matter what she did.

Waiting for her in their favourite Covent Garden wine bar, Neill, not normally the most observant of men, saw it at once. ‘You look cheerful.’

‘I am.’ She hugged him.

He raised an eyebrow. ‘Do I need to congratulate you?’

At once she was wary. ‘What? Why? What have you heard?’

‘Francis proposed, has he?’

‘
What
?’

‘Ma thinks that you’ve left the island so Francis would miss you, see the error of his ways and propose.’

Bella snorted. ‘Ma is delusional,’ she said, settling herself on a tall stool and inspecting the cocktail list. ‘Francis is history. Except for whiny texts when he can’t find something, of course. And even those are tailing off.’

She could feel her brother studying her. ‘And that’s OK?’

She shrugged. ‘I get pissed off when I have to give him a step-by-step guide to find something for the fifth time. Apart from that, no problems.’

Neill looked relieved. ‘I’m glad. I mean, I know he does good work and everything. But he really is a pompous prick.’

Bella agreed cordially.

‘But Ma was so sure you had a thing for him.’

‘I did for a while,’ Bella admitted. ‘I grew out of it.

Have you tried any of these nineteen twenties cocktails?’

He shook his head.

She considered. ‘What do I feel like? A Side Car ? A White Lady? Or what about a Perfect Lady? That sounds like me. And it’s got peach in it.’

He hooted. ‘A Perfect Lady?
You?
’

Bella was oddly put out. ‘Oh, come on, Neill. I’m not that bad.’

‘You’re not bad at all,’ he said affectionately. ‘You’re great. You’re just not a lady.’

‘Ouch.’

‘Good thing, too. Ladies are a pain in the butt,’ said Neill with unusual bitterness. ‘Always poking and prying, and showing off to each other, and telling you what to do.’

This was serious. Bella put down the cocktail card.

‘What’s wrong, Neill?’

He shifted his shoulders irritably. ‘Don’t you start. Ma has been at me ever since I told her Val and I weren’t coming for Christmas.’

‘Er – yes. She said something about that.’

‘I just bet she did.’

‘She seemed to think you’d been talking to Finn. She said it was all his fault?’

He laughed but it didn’t sound amused. ‘Tell me about it. Val and I want to stay in our own home for Christmas, so it has to be somebody’s fault. What can I say? From Ma’s perspective, Finn’s the usual suspect.’

Bella said cautiously, ‘Doesn’t sound like him.’

‘Too right. When did our father ever notice Christmas?’

There was that new note of bitterness again. Neill rubbed his face and Bella realised how tired he looked, not just tired after a heavy day’s conferencing, but bone tired, as if he’d been carrying something for too long and had just suddenly ground to a halt.

Feeling even more worried, she said, ‘Has something happened?’

He gave her a stricken look and his eyes filled suddenly. Horrified, Bella realised that she had hit paydirt. And that was exactly the moment that the barman came up to take their order.

‘Perfect Lady,’ she said at random. ‘And a Brandy Alexander for my brother.’ Because that was what he had liked years ago, before he was married. ‘We’ll sit over there in that alcove. Can you bring them over?’

‘Sure thing,’ said the barman easily.

Bella grabbed up their coats and Neill’s briefcase and herded her brother towards the secluded table. The wine bar was in an old cellar and its brickwork walls were supported by numberless arches, providing alcoves that gave an illusion of privacy. She dived for one of the smallest. It was clearly designed for lovers, with a little candle flickering in a glass holder and a fresh posy on the polished table, but that couldn’t be helped.

Neill sank down on to the old settle and blew his nose hard.

‘Sorry about that,’ he said, plainly embarrassed. ‘Been a long day.’

‘Stuff has obviously been going on while I’ve been away. Come on, give.’

He leaned back and closed his eyes. ‘OK. I s’pose I’ve got to tell someone.’

Bella felt a cold clutch in her stomach. ‘There’s something wrong between you and Val?’ They had always seemed so in love, so good for each other, the successful businesswoman and Bella’s gentle, laid-back brother.

He opened his eyes. ‘You’re not to tell anyone else, right? Particularly not Ma. Promise?’

‘I promise.’

That was when the dam broke. ‘It’s like I can’t do anything right. She’s angry all the time. When she gets home, if I talk to her, I’m insensitive because after a fourteen-hour day she is too exhausted to make conversation, just to amuse me. And if I don’t talk to her, I’m taking her for granted. Or ignoring her. Or being petty and spiteful … I tell you, Bella, I’m lost.’

She was appalled. ‘What started it? Something must have.’

He looked wretched. ‘Val lost a baby,’ he said baldly.

‘Oh, Neill, no. I’m so sorry.’

‘I didn’t realise it would be so bad. I mean, we’d only just found out she was pregnant. It wasn’t planned or anything. In fact, Val wasn’t very keen at first. She said it was the wrong time in her career. But then we both got used to the idea and, well, it’s exciting, isn’t it? So we had about a week of talking through plans and thinking about baby names and, then she had this bad cramp and – well, it happened.’

Bella took his hand. Neill looked surprised. They were not a demonstrative family. But he seemed to appreciate it and did not draw away.

‘At first, Val was great. Very practical, you know? The doctor said there was nothing wrong with her, it was just one of those things, no reason why we couldn’t have other children. And she said that was good to know and she was glad she hadn’t told anyone. She went back to work at once.’ He looked at Bella wretchedly. ‘That was the only time I did
anything
. I did say, “Stay at home, take a few days to recover.” But Val was so
sure
she could handle it. And so I didn’t argue.’

‘It would take a strong man to argue with Val,’ said Bella, who was fond of her sister-in-law but careful around her.

‘I should have been strong,’ said Neill, even more wretched.

‘So what are you going to do? Counselling?’

He shook his head. ‘I suggested that. Val won’t hear of it. She says it’s our business, nobody else’s. She says it’s just because she’s overworked at the moment and we’ll come through this.’

It didn’t sound like it to Bella. ‘But?’ she prompted.

‘Sundays are hell,’ Neill burst out. ‘I can cope most of the week. I have lesson plans and marking and Val leaves early and more often than not it’s nearly midnight when she gets home. So we’re not together that much. But Sundays are a battlefield.’ He gave a short unamused laugh. ‘That’s what I was talking to Finn about, to be honest.’

‘You were asking for advice about marriage from
Finn?
’

‘Good God, no. I was after advice on weekend adventure activities. Something where I’d have to do
lots of training. Something to keep me out of the house all Sunday, basically.’

Bella was silenced.

‘Oh, well, I suppose we’ll sort it out somehow. People do, don’t they?’

Their parents hadn’t, thought Bella. She did not say so but she could see from Neill’s expression that he was thinking the same thing.

They had a subdued meal, and when the time came to part Bella felt so tender of him that she saw him to the mainline station. At the barrier she hugged him hard, as if he were going off on some long and terrible voyage and stood watching him stomp off down the platform until he boarded the train.

Bella felt very cold, going back to Lottie’s flat. Cold and lonely. The Underground was harshly lit and everyone else in the carriage seemed to be part of a couple, holding hands or cuddled up together against the world. The flat was dark and empty. She remembered: Lottie was working again tonight. Just like Richard, she thought. He was at a gala concert in Leeds, followed by some sort of reception. He would not be answering his phone.

But suddenly Bella desperately needed to speak to him. So she didn’t text but left a voice mail.

‘Saw my brother. Things aren’t good. When you get a moment, I’d like to, well, hear a friendly voice, really.’ She tried to pull herself together. ‘Hope the music was good.’

It wasn’t worth lighting the freshly laid log fire. So she put on the small electric fire to boost the central heating
and huddled over it in the dark, too sad to read or even to go to bed.

She did not know how long she sat there in the half-dark before the phone rang. She checked the number and felt better at once.

‘Hello, Richard.’

‘Hello, lovely. Tell me everything.’

She did. Well, some of it. Some of it was Neill’s private business, of course, and Val’s.

‘But when I looked at him, I could see all those years of awfulness when Finn and my mother were married. I could see it all starting up again with Neill and Val. And I knew he did too. He looked so forlorn, Richard. I wanted to make it better. And I couldn’t.’

There was a short pause. Then, ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘In the flat,’ said Bella, surprised.

‘Where’s Lottie?’

‘Doing a product launch in Birmingham.’

‘So she won’t be back tonight?’

Bella looked at her watch. ‘Shouldn’t think so. Not now.’

‘Blast!’ He sounded worried.

She hastened to reassure him. ‘Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want to talk to Lottie. If she were here, I’d be curled up in my room. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Except you.’

There was an odd silence. For a moment she thought she’d lost the signal.

‘Richard? Are you still there?’

He said decisively, ‘Right. Don’t go to bed. I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

‘
What?
’

‘I don’t want you to be on your own,’ he said simply. ‘Not feeling like this.’

‘Oh,
Richard
.’

‘I’ll call you as soon as I have an ETA.’ And he rang off.

Bella felt so much better after that, she actually roused herself enough to make a cup of tea. She turned on the table lamps in the sitting room and then went into the kitchen and did the washing up from breakfast.

And then Richard called back.

‘Two hours.’

She nearly dropped the toast rack she was decrumbing. ‘That’s impossible.’

He sounded angry, though not with her. ‘No, it isn’t. I might be a horrible boyfriend in the support department and too far away when you need me, but at least I have access to helicopters. See you later.’

He cut the call before she could argue.

‘Wow,’ said Bella, sitting down slowly on the sofa. She felt as if someone had sandbagged her when she wasn’t looking. She felt muzzy-headed and she couldn’t seem to breathe properly. ‘Did he say he was my boyfriend?’

She decided to light the fire after all.

When he arrived she flew to the front door and walked into his arms. They stayed there for ages, just hugging in the dark little hallway.

‘Thank you,’ she said at last in a muffled voice.

‘Thank
you
,’ he said, kissing her hair.

‘What? Why?’ she asked, honestly puzzled. ‘I mean, I throw a wobbly and you
thank
me? What for?’

‘For calling me.’

She pushed herself away from him a little and stared up at his face. He seemed very serious.

She said uncertainly, ‘I don’t think I understand.’

‘OK. What about this? For wanting me with you.’

Bella had that breathless, sandbagged feeling again.

Keeping his arm round her, he walked her back into the sitting room. The fire was blazing cheerfully. It felt like home.

She said so.

The arm round her tightened like a vice.

But all Richard said was, ‘Right.’

‘The Good Boyfriend Guide’ –
Girl About Town

The night was wonderful. Next morning was not.

For one thing, they both overslept. They had talked until later than late, until there was no more traffic outside in the street and the other flats were silent. And then they didn’t talk at all. By the time they fell asleep neither of them was thinking about anything as mundane as alarm calls.

Bella awoke to find Richard hopping and swearing at the end of the bed. It reminded her of the crazy moments at the gallery.