Page 23

I wasn’t sure if Kit’s expression was pure amusement, or also glee at my mistake. But either way, the only thing for it was to apologise to James without any visible embarrassment. I was clearly already in trouble with him, anyway.

To be fair to me, Reid, there was virtually no similarity at all between the powerful, skiing-and-horses build of Philip Sedgewick– a man who seemed to ooze confidence– and the delicate handsomeness of the son.

I guess they were both handsome, in their way, with Philip still young enough to be a looker.

But the dad was all broad cheekbones and merriment.

None of James’s delicate poet-from-a-bygone-age thing.

Now that I’d seen Philip Sedgewick for myself, I was also surprised at Dad still being friends with him. He seemed like the kind of ultra-connected ex-public-school guy he’d been avoiding at the cricket.

I watched Philip for a few moments and then told James, ‘You have to be a changeling.’

‘I’ve often hoped so.’ James gave me a smile, which was a positive note. He didn’t seem angry, now I came to think of it. ‘There’s worse, you know.’ He nodded towards the very pretty young woman I’d seen him with before. ‘That’s my super-in-every-way sister.’

I couldn’t help staring. ‘Wow.’ I shook my head, looking her over again. ‘She looks great, but you’re prettier than she is, you know.’

‘Thanks,’ James said. ‘I think.’ There was a pause in which Kit moved to murmur something to Esther, something I badly wanted to hear. But James was saying, ‘I’m… sorry I didn’t come to say hello on Sunday.’

‘Sorry?’ I blinked at him, and then realised what he meant. ‘Oh, at the cricket? That’s OK. You were with friends.’

‘Honestly, it wasn’t that,’ he said. ‘I would have come and got you. It’s just… I had a bit of a falling-out with Tess Withnell a short while ago and I didn’t want to make things awkward.’

‘Ohhhh,’ I said. ‘Is that because she’s a shit-stirrer?’

And there’s a big irony in that, Reid, because obviously I was only saying it because I was, myself, shit-stirring. But in my defence, I was doing it for a good reason.

James’s mouth tightened, and then he sighed. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘So I’m guessing she told you her usual crap about me and Holly?’

I gave him a grimace. ‘Yeah. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned that I’d met you, but I was just trying to think of something to say that wasn’t “Wow, you’re so athletic.”’

James gave a short laugh and said, ‘It’s honestly not your fault.

But for what it’s worth, she knows very well that what she’s saying isn’t true.

The conversation she loves to share was about someone else tagging Holly in something, not me.

Holly was totally justified being angry.

It was a girl at Holly’s college trying to make out that Holly was friends with a right-wing commentator just because they’d been standing near each other at a dinner the college had hosted.

It was a really gross attempt to make her look bad.

She was furious and angry, and I was there for her, because that’s what you do when you’re someone’s boyfriend.

’ He looked away from me, his expression flat.

‘I also asked Kit, as our pet lawyer in the making, to threaten the girl who shared it with legal action, and she took it down. But it caused Holly a lot of hurt at the time.’

‘I’m sorry,’ I said, both because it was the sensible thing to say and because it was the right thing to say.

It was hard to tell whether James was telling the truth or spinning me a tale and acting it perfectly.

But I both needed to make him trust me and felt how hard it must be to lose your partner.

‘For what it’s also worth,’ I added, ‘I’ve met people like Tess before.

The kind who are dying to tell you gossip about everyone you mention.

I’ve learned not to listen to it, so you don’t need to worry. ’

I put a hand briefly on his shoulder, and he gave me a half-smile.

‘Good,’ he said. And then, lifting his head, he added, ‘Do you want to meet the family? Mum’s here somewhere, too.’

‘Of course.’

I gave James a smile but felt a returning jolt of anxiety. Pulling off the Aria Lauder act in front of James’s well-connected family was, in many ways, likely to be a harder job than managing it with the students. And the friendship between Dad and Philip Sedgewick made it feel more risky.

But I was also keenly interested to meet the parents of these absurdly privileged kids.

It had struck me already that covering up a crime was a difficult enterprise and that a wealthy, well-connected parent might have stepped in to help.

I think most of us would do more than we’d like to admit to protect the people we love.

I followed James towards the silver-haired man, and Philip lit up with delight the moment he heard my name.

‘Oh, you’re Seaton’s god-daughter! What an absolute pleasure to meet you.’

‘Thanks,’ I said, taking his offered kiss on the cheek and feeling incredibly grateful that Dad had thought to lay proper groundwork. ‘I’m surprised he’s willing to admit to the connection.’

‘Not at all, not at all,’ Philip said, warmly. ‘He’s immensely proud of you. He’s told me all about your rowing achievements. What an impressive thing, to be rowing for Great Britain.’

I felt a strange little twist just then, realising that Dad had been boasting to Philip about achievements of Aria’s when he’d clearly never told him anything at all about my own.

‘Well, I’ll only be rowing GB if I can stay in the squad,’ I countered, wryly, trying to keep my head in the game. ‘Which means both being faster than three other bow-siders and not pissing Nat– our head coach– off so much he drops me.’

‘Always the hardest challenge,’ Philip said with a twinkle.

‘My daughter used to row for the university,’ he added.

‘Olivia,’ he called, to James’s curly-haired beauty of a sister.

She was currently talking to a group of what looked like PhD students.

‘Come and meet my friend’s god-daughter.

You two can bore each other about rowing. ’

‘I’m only ever fascinating about rowing,’ Olivia said, coming over with a grin. ‘But I do miss it like mad. Want to go out in a pair in the morning?’

My concerns about being found out evaporated quickly amid the warm and lively welcome of James’s family.

His mother, Marcie, who drifted over after a few minutes, was a quieter, softer version of the others.

A decade or so younger than Philip at what I guessed was mid-forties she also looked fascinatingly like James, her dark hair longer and her height a couple of inches shy of his but her eyes and cheekbones just the same.

There was a warmth in the way she watched her children that made me feel a little pang of longing.

I don’t think Mom has ever looked at me like that.

The Sedgewicks were, in summary, all easy to talk to and hard to dislike.

This despite the way they mentioned trips to the Caribbean and their house in the south of France as if these were normal things.

Like James, they wore their wealth lightly, and I immediately enjoyed the way they challenged and gently ribbed each other over everything.

All except gentler Marcie, who largely tutted and smiled at them and told them not to be such bullies.

‘I do try with them, you know,’ she muttered to me in resigned amusement after Olivia had been harsh to her brother about his hair. ‘But Philip’s genes won.’

‘Well, James got your looks,’ I told her. ‘Which is a win.’

‘Don’t let James hear you say so,’ she said, conspiratorially. ‘He’d much rather believe he looked like his soldier uncle. If he has to have the Buckley looks, you can see why he’d choose gruff, military captain Eddie over looking, well… beautiful, I suppose.’

‘Ahh, come on!’ I protested. ‘James is, like, the handsomest man on the planet!’

Marcie gave me a slightly thoughtful look, and I realised she probably thought I was interested in James. I decided on a quick subject change, and because I was there to work I decided to bring up Holly. It seemed safe enough, now that both James and Esther had mentioned her to me.

‘I’m sorry he’s had such a rough time,’ I said, quietly. ‘It must have hit all of you, what happened to Holly.’

I saw Marcie’s eyes go from thoughtful to glimmering.

‘It– it did,’ she said, looking away from me.

‘You know, I struggled a lot with feeling selfish after she died. I missed her for myself, as a friend. It was so nice having another young woman around who hadn’t grown up with all this.

’ She waved a hand at the lushly decorated room, somehow summing up the ridiculous extravagance of it all with that one gesture.

‘We were the two outsiders. The ones who didn’t ski or sit on a horse from five years old.

’ She shook her head. ‘Anyone who can make their mother-in-law feel like they have an ally is a special person.’

‘Well, it sounds like she was lucky to have you, too,’ I said. ‘Having a family welcome you in is pretty special.’

The trouble with that , obviously, was it was right back to sounding like I was trying to be James’s new girlfriend. Something I only realised after I’d said it.

It was a relief when Philip interrupted us straight afterwards.

‘You must let me escort you to your seat, Aria,’ he said, holding out a hand. ‘We’re in danger of stopping you from sitting with your friends.’

I glanced toward the tables and saw that they were beginning to fill up. Kit, Ryan and Esther were already sitting, and James was squeezing his way past the line of chairs on the far side. There were only two seats left near them, and Esther was looking round at me anxiously.

‘Oh, thanks,’ I said to Philip, taking his hand formally.