Attitudes to Bonny’s joining the syndicate were mixed. Would she really grace the minibus rather than Valent’s twenty-million Gulfstream jet on the long journey from Willowwood to Wetherby, which would allow loads of time for her and Corinna to insult each other?
Ione was excited by Bonny’s Green credentials. Alban, who had met her in London when he lunched with Valent, thought she was ‘awfully pretty but hard to understand’.
Having bankrupted herself paying Shagger’s syndicate bill, Tilda was scared Shagger would fall for Bonny. Perhaps she’d come and talk to the children at Greycoats.
Joey, who loved Valent, hated Bonny and had had to endure her caprice and criticism whenever she visited the house. He was depressed that Chris and Chrissie had backed out of the syndicate, which would afford him less opportunity to see Chrissie on her own, particularly as Bonny and Valent might soon be moving into Badger’s Court.
He had been dispiritedly clearing rubble from the garden in February when Valent and Bonny had paid a flying visit. They had been enchanted to see sweeps of purple crocuses merging with pools of sky-blue scillas, clumps of primroses like day-old chicks merging with the gold aconites and crimson polyanthus and, loveliest of all, the palest pink Prunus autumnalis blossom dancing against a dark yew hedge.
‘I never believed such a lovely garden lurked beneath the debris,’ cried Bonny, but looked less amused when Joey, not without malice, said, ‘Etta done that. Etta planted all those fings as a fank-you present to Valent for taking in Mrs Wilkinson.’
The lads at Throstledown were wildly excited about Bonny and fought to go to Wetherby instead of Tommy, who was having a week off to help her sister who’d just had a baby. At the last moment, egged on by Painswick who was aware of Rafiq’s depression, Marius decided to run Furious. As the lorry was going all that way taking Oh My Goodness, Mrs Wilkinson and History Painting, it might as well take Furious too. Rogue could ride him in a novice chase. Furious was far too contemptuous of hurdles. At the very last moment, he agreed Amber could ride Mrs Wilkinson.
Amber, who’d never lost sleep over a man, was rattled. She was supposed to be having dinner with Rogue after Wetherby, but he hadn’t called her. With his track record, could he resist making a pass at Bonny? Not that Amber cared, but she still spent any fee she might get in advance on having her roots done and her legs and pubes waxed.
*
Romy and Martin were furious with Etta for losing her Ludlow betting slip – the money would have boosted a dwindling Sampson Bancroft Fund – but they were frightfully excited about Bonny joining the syndicate and wanted an invitation pronto. They’d just landed a battle-against-obesity charity, and felt slender Bonny would be the ideal target role model.
Etta sighed. If only she was still living at Bluebell Hill, she could have given a little party to welcome Bonny.
Instead she bit the bullet and sent her a very pretty card of snowdrops, saying how thrilled everyone was that she was joining the syndicate and how they all looked forward to meeting her when Mrs Wilkinson ran again. She also sent Valent a birthday card from Wilkie and Chisolm.
Willowwood made acquaintance with Bonny sooner than expected when she appeared on television winning a BAFTA.
Etta was touched and surprised when, on the same evening, Corinna asked her round for a drink. She brightened up her pale blue jersey with the pink and lilac scarf Corinna had given her.
When she arrived, Corinna was already three parts cut and watching the awards with Seth, Alan and Priceless who was stretched out on the sofa chewing a nearby table but jumped down flashing his white teeth and snaking his long black nose all round Etta’s hips.
Seth handed Etta a glass of champagne.
‘Bonny’s been nominated for Best Actress in a film called The Blossoming,’ he explained, ‘about a woman who overcomes the trauma of rape and child abuse.’
‘Valent sent us a tape,’ said Corinna, ‘but Bonny mumbles so badly you can’t hear a bloody word she says.’
Bonny’s acceptance speech was long and tearful, thanking her ‘significant other, Valent Edwards’, who was blushing and squirming with pride and embarrassment in the stalls.
‘Beetrooted to the spot,’ said Seth scornfully. ‘Talk about Bonny and Clod.’
‘Valent looks sweet,’ protested Etta.
Bonny was wearing a short strapless pale grey silk sheath dress which seemed to merge into her luminously pearly