‘Well, I agree with that. As long as you’ve got enough to get by, that’s all that matters. I hate the idea of money and love having anything to do with each other. I know some people who won’t even consider going out with somebody whose family live in a rented house. That’s just snobbery of the worst kind. And when it comes to marrying for money, that’s just the pits. You should marry for love or not at all. Like Jamie and Bella.’ She looked at her watch again. ‘Oh God, look at the time. I really have to go, Johnny.’ She side-stepped him and reached the door.

‘And the Piddle Valley? I should come?’

‘Sort it out with Jamie,’ she said over her shoulder as she made her escape, not realising he was so obtuse that he had read into her discouragement its very opposite. And any desire she might have had to revisit the conversation was overwhelmed by the remarkable discovery that the Allens were not in the least surprised by her news. ‘I thought there was something going on,’ Susie said. ‘I could tell from the way they looked at each other.’

Mr Allen chuckled. ‘I could tell by the fact that he preferred to cram into the boxroom with Johnny Thorpe rather than bunk up with us here. Well, Martha must be bloody relieved that she’s got Bella settled with such a good catch.’

‘And lovely for Cat too, to find herself tied so closely to Bella. How marvellous for you all, to have such a wonderful new extended family,’ Susie added.

She was right, Cat thought. To entertain any other view just because of Johnny Thorpe would be mean-spirited. And she had no time for the mean-spirited.

16

Anticipation is often the enemy of pleasure; our sights are set so high that disappointment is inevitable. So it was for Cat when she went to dinner with the Tilneys. There was nothing specific she could put her finger on. Although all three seemed to fall silent when Calman showed her into the drawing room, the General greeted her warmly and was impeccably polite. Both Ellie and Henry were more formal in their welcome than she’d expected, and the easy lightness that had grown between them on their walk seemed to have evaporated.

Thinking about it afterwards, Cat couldn’t help feeling somehow let down. She’d gone determined to enjoy herself and left feeling disgruntled. She’d expected the closeness between her and Ellie to develop further but it had stalled. She’d hoped that the intimacy of a family party would allow her relationship with Henry to blossom further, but he had never been more silent and withdrawn in her company. In spite of General Tilney’s constant kindness and compliments, in spite of the delicious dinner Calman served up to them, in spite of the fascination of seeing how the Tilneys lived, leaving their house had felt like a release.

She couldn’t make sense of it at all. It couldn’t be General Tilney’s fault. He had been charming and entertaining, completely avoiding stories of his military successes. She could see where Henry got his looks and his easy manners. Obviously it wasn’t the General who had put a damper on the evening. The best she could hope for was that Ellie and Henry’s lack of animation was just one of those things. And maybe she had just been overawed by the splendour of her surroundings and the complications of a menu that had included ceviche of salmon and duck so rare she half-expected it to quack.

It was still early when she left Ainslie Place, so she texted Bella to see where she was and whether she’d heard from James.


In bar @ traverse, heard nothing, come @ once!


Came the reply. So Cat hustled across the West End to the theatre café bar, where she found Bella slumped in a corner with a glass of red wine in front of her. ‘Not a bloody word from him,’ she greeted Cat. ‘He was due into Dorchester nearly three hours ago.’

‘He’ll be picking his moment,’ Cat said. ‘Don’t fret. Ask me how my evening with the Tilneys went.’

Bella sighed. ‘Don’t tell me. Henry was even more gorgeous and cool than ever.’

‘No, actually.’ Cat gave Bella a quick run-down on the disappointments of the evening, and settled back in her seat ready for commiseration.

Unfortunately she was to be disappointed for the second time that evening. ‘I knew it,’ Bella said. ‘Totes up themselves, the Tilneys. They think they’re something special. Honestly, I don’t know how you let them treat you like that. I always thought that Ellie was a supercilious snob.’

‘I never said that, Bella,’ Cat protested.

‘Don’t defend her, Cat. Not when she’s treated you like a stranger in her own home. And Henry, who acted like he totally fancied you – he hardly says a word to you all through the meal?’

‘Maybe he wasn’t feeling great.’

‘Stop kidding yourself, Cat. He’s moody, you never know how he’s going to be. He’s so not like our brothers. He’s just been playing with you, stringing you along. One minute he acts like the sun shines out of your arse, the next minute he’s acting like you don’t exist. I can’t be doing with messing people around like that. You should make a decision and stick to it. I hate people being disloyal. Henry should take a leaf out of Johnny’s book, he’s totally loyal to the people he loves.’

‘I don’t think he means to mess me around,’ Cat said. But before they could take the conversation any further, Bella’s phone beeped with a text.

‘It’s Jamie,’ she squealed. She closed her eyes and held her phone at arm’s length. ‘I can’t look, tell me what he says, Cat.’

Cat squinted at the screen. ‘“Mum and Dad thrilled to bits,”’ she read. ‘“Totally supportive. Will call tomorrow.” See, I told you there was nothing to worry about.’

Bella screeched, turning heads all over the bar. ‘Cooooool! It’s all going to be perfect!’ She hugged Cat so hard it hurt her ribs. ‘Now we have to go out and celebrate. There’s a party at the Roxburghe, some guy who works for Johnny’s company. We’re invited.’ Bella began gathering scarves and bag together. ‘But I warn you, I’m going to be shocking company because my heart’s in Dorset. And as for dancing, you’ll have to find somebody else to hit the floor with because I am saving all my dances for my husband-to-be.’ She gave a long, shuddering sigh. ‘How amazing does that sound? Husband-to-be ... Anyway, you know how it is. When you’re in love like I am, you glow and all the guys see the glow and they want it to rub off on them. But I am not sharing my glow with anybody except Jamie.’


* * *

The party was in a pair of large upstairs rooms. One held a cash bar, a somewhat depleted buffet table and an array of tables and chairs where people sat and chatted or chilled. In the other, a DJ hunched behind his equipment, the dance music thudding and the coloured lights flashing. The dance floor was half-empty, but those who were dancing were throwing themselves into it wholeheartedly.

Bella grabbed a table and Cat bought them a couple of Red Bulls; it was late and they were both in need of a kick of caffeine. No sooner had she sat down than a trio of young men came swaggering in. Cat blinked hard, for the first of the three looked like a pumped-up version of Henry Tilney. Everything about him was bigger, somehow – he was taller, his jaw stronger, his shoulders wider, his chest deeper, his legs longer. And certainly, his voice was louder. ‘Get them in, Charlie,’ he said to the third of their group.

‘Oh my God,’ Bella said. ‘Tell me that’s not Henry in an Iron Man suit.’

‘It must be his brother Freddie. Ellie said he was due home from Afghanistan on leave.’ He was, she thought, more coarsely attractive than his brother, and certainly more noisy. But he had the same unreadable dark eyes and pale skin, though there were two spots of high colour on his cheekbones. He had the trademark wavy blond hair swept back from that familiar widow’s peak. Already, he was mocking his friend Charlie for even thinking about dancing.

‘What? When there’s drink to be drunk?’ he said. ‘We’ll find ourselves some gorgeous girls soon enough, Charlie. All the nice girls love a soldier.’ And he looked round the room, sizing them all up with a flirtatious grin and a wink.

Almost unnoticed, Henry had slipped into the room behind Freddie and his pals. Cat began to understand why Henry might have been off his food, knowing his loud, handsome, brave brother was in town. It would throw anyone off their stride.

Seeing Cat and Bella, Henry waved and came straight over. ‘This is a nice surprise,’ he said. ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you again tonight, Cat. And Bella, you look particularly radiant.’

‘She’s just got engaged to my brother, that’s why.’

‘Really? Congratulations. But where is he? If I was engaged to you, Bella, I wouldn’t want to let you out of my sight.’

‘Oh, Henry, you are such a schmoozer,’ Bella said coyly, all her earlier criticisms of Henry apparently forgotten and forgiven. ‘He’s gone back to Dorset to give his parents the good news.’

Just then, Freddie planted himself in the fourth chair at their table. There was something dangerous in his expression, as if he was only moments away from losing the veneer of civilisation. Cat thought a lot of girls would find that darkness exciting, but it didn’t set her pulse racing. She far preferred the more domesticated brother. ‘Henry, you dog,’ Freddie said. ‘Are you going to keep all the gorgeous girls to yourself? Who are these visions of loveliness?’

With some apparent reluctance, Henry made the introductions. When he heard Bella was so recently engaged, Freddie opened his eyes wide in a look of mock innocence. ‘Then you need a chaperone, Bella. Someone to protect you from all those predatory bastards gagging to steal you away from your fiancé. And to take you out of yourself. Come on, come and dance with me. I’ll take good care of her for your brother,’ he added, with a wink to Cat.