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“No, no, that’s fine,” Jem said hurriedly, tossing her long dark hair over her shoulder. She pulled a card out of her jacket pocket. “My email is there,” she said. And she turned to leave.

She seemed suspiciously eager to get out of the room, something that settled Ellie’s nerves a little. Jem didn’t want this any more than she did. But that didn’t mean there wasn’t a job to do. “Hold on there.”

“What?” Jem turned back.

“Tomorrow.”

“What about it?”

Ellie sighed. “We need to decide on a venue ASAP. You know the Walthambridge Hotel?”

Jem sighed, louder and more dramatically. “Obviously.”

Ellie forced herself to smile. “Excellent. We have a meeting there at ten. I’ll meet you in the front lobby.”

Jem stared at her for a minute and then nodded. “Fine.”

After she left Ellie was startled by just how empty the room seemed without her in it. Like Jem had filled the whole space. She could still smell the flowery scent of her perfume. For a long minute she just stood there, heart beating faster, breath coming harder, before she reminded herself to breathe long and deep.

She needed to get the hell out of here.

WHEN SHE PUSHED through the office door, arms full of idea books and brochures, she found Carys, her feet up on Mo’s desk, reading a magazine. There was no sign of her glamorous assistant.

“Woah, wasn’t expecting you back so soon,” Carys said, lowering her magazine.

“Don’t you have an office of your own to go to?” Ellie asked as usual, dumping her armful of stuff onto her desk. “And where’s Mo?”

“Mo’s gone to pick up lunch and yes, I do have my own office, but it’s not as nice as yours.”

“It’s next door and identical to mine,” said Ellie.

“But it doesn’t have you or Mo in it,” grinned Carys. Then her smile faded. “What is it? You look like you’ve seen some kind of ghost or something.”

“Tough morning is all,” said Ellie, not at all sure she wanted to talk about it.

“Go on, tell your Auntie Carys all about it. You look a bit shaky there.” Carys swung her feet back onto the floor. “Let me get you a cuppa.”

She went off into the little kitchen space and Ellie took a breath. She did want to talk to someone about this, she decided. It was just a little too strange, a little too awkward, she needed someone else’s input.

“Here you go,” Carys said when she came back, putting a cupof tea down on Ellie’s desk. “So, out with it,bach, tell me all your worries.”

Ellie scratched her nose and then picked up her tea. “You remember the other night when we went out?”

“Who’s been talking out of school?” Carys said. “I didn’t drink that much, I remember every second, thank you very much.”

Ellie let herself grin. “Not what I meant, but thanks for clarifying. No, while we were at the bar, or while I was at the bar, a woman, um, came up to me.”

“You mean that lovely, lithe thing that looked like she belonged on the cover of Vogue, yeah, I remember.”

Ellie wasn’t at all sure about that description, but she nodded anyway. “Well, um, as it turns out, she’s Darlington’s daughter.”

“See, money always looks like money. You could tell she was posh from a mile off,” Carys said, then she stopped. “Wait, she’s his daughter?”

“Not only,” Ellie said. “She’s also now my liaison for the whole project. As in we’re supposed to be working together.”

Carys’s round face lit up. “You know what this is, don’t you?”

“A pain in my arse and a disaster waiting to happen?”