‘But you want to be a writer instead of selling other people’s books,’ he urged, and it seemed, briefly, as if Rory was a pushy parent, encouraging me to say the right thing in front of everyone else; that he too was ashamed I worked in a shop.
‘Both, if I’m lucky,’ I replied with a smile around the table. I felt like a performing seal.
‘When are you going back tomorrow, darling?’ Elizabeth asked him.
‘After lunch?’
‘Oh good. I thought we could all go for a ride in the morning. Do you ride, Florence?’
Mortimer leant towards me. ‘She means horses, my dear.’
‘I used to, yes,’ I said. ‘But not for years. My French grandmother had a very small, very obstinate pony called Winston that I used to ride into the village and back to get croissants in the morning.’
‘Wonderful! We’ll go out for a canter after breakfast in that case. Oh dear, Morty, look, there’s a vole,’ she added, pointing to the skirting board where a small dark object scuttled along the carpet.
‘A vole!’ shrieked Lady Belmarsh.
‘Oh, Mummy, stop fussing, it’s not going to bite you,’ said Octavia.
I wondered if I could trap it and eat it.
‘Morty, go and get Pablo, he’ll catch it,’ said Elizabeth, putting her napkin on the table. ‘And if everyone’s finished, shall we go through and sit soft?’
We went back to the drawing room for coffee served in thimble-sized cups. I drank three, mostly to warm up and quieten my hunger pangs, but also to dilute the red wine. There was a box of After Eights on the coffee tray so I had several of those too, scrunching the black paper sleeves in my fist to hide how many I ate.
‘Rory tells me you and he grew up together,’ I said to Octavia, who was sitting next to me on the sofa.
‘Yes! He was my first proper kiss when we were thirteen,’ she replied, before turning and pointing towards the windows. ‘It was here, actually, during a party one summer. He whisked me into the herb garden and had his wicked way.’
‘Ha! The herb garden, that’s funny,’ I murmured, glancing across the room to where Rory was in discussion with Lord Belmarsh. It wasn’t funny, obviously, but I didn’t want to let her know that. ‘And you’re going out with Noddy?’
Octavia’s head fell back against the sofa and she laughed. ‘Noddy! God no. I love him but not like that.’ She paused and glanced at Rory. ‘No,’ she said lightly. ‘No boyfriend at the moment. I’m all free.’
Then she lowered her voice, almost to a whisper, and leant in closer. ‘But don’t worry, Rory and I wouldn’t work.’
‘Really? How come?’ I squeaked, unable to think of a sharper reply.
‘I’m too challenging for him,’ she said, with a flick of her red nails. ‘He needs someone more docile. Someone who’s not going to outshine or threaten him. Someone who’d make a good political wife. Someone, perhaps, a bit like you.’ A smirk danced on her lips as I groped for a reply. Why did other people often seem to have such quick retorts at moments like these while my own mouth flapped like a guppy fish? I was too stunned to come up with anything clever.
‘I, er, I mean, er, I think it’s bit, er, early for that,’ I stuttered eventually. ‘I mean, we’ve only been on a few dates and I’m actually not that do—’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure,’ she carried on, glancing back at Rory. ‘I can tell he likes you. And he’s been told he needs to find a wife before being given a seat so you could easily end up married, living in this house.’ She settled back against the sofa and spread her arms out across it.
I tried to process what she’d just said. I felt like a tiny alarm bell had just gone off inside my skull. ‘Sorry, he’s been told he needs to find a wife?’
Her red mouth formed a perfect circle in surprise. ‘Oh, didn’t you know? You mustn’t worry too much. It’s all political shenanigans. But the party does tend to prefer candidates who can demonstrate family values so Rory’s been unofficially instructed to get married.’ She paused and smirked again. ‘Aren’t you the lucky one?’
‘Right,’ I murmured, gazing at the fireplace in front of us. ‘No, no, he hasn’t mentioned anything.’
‘Hector, darling, I think we should go home and let the dogs out,’ said Lady Belmarsh.
‘Quite right,’ replied Lord Belmarsh, standing up. ‘We