him about Lady Pansy’s package. ‘The dress makes me feel ill to look at. And the dance instructions are like preparation for an Outward Bound course,’ she said in horror, ‘with crossword puzzles and charades thrown in. I may run away to sea.’
‘Nah. Not you. You’re not a runner.’
‘I could be. How the hell do you make an arch without raising your arms above your head?’
‘Ah, the Reels,’ he said, enlightened. ‘Look, forget all that. I’ll make sure you only dance with me or guys who know what they’re doing.’
‘Hmm,’ said Bella, unconvinced.
‘Trust me. Just close your eyes and I’ll drive. I came reeling out of the womb.’
‘Oh, God.’
‘Don’t worry, Dream Girl. I’ll get you through it.’
‘You’ll need to,’ she said grumpily. But she felt better for talking to him.
The week before Christmas was mad, with lots of parties at which she saw people she hadn’t heard from for ages. Some of them knew she was seeing the Prince of Wales but very few of them cared. Very few of them, Bella thought with a little chill, expected it to last.
By lunch-time on Christmas Eve the shops were empty and the London streets nearly deserted. There was a fine fall of rain but it was too warm to turn to snow. Both girls stowed their overnight cases and presents in the back seat of the rented car, leaving the boot free for Georgia’s international luggage, and went off to Heathrow to meet her flight. She was coming via Madrid.
Georgia strolled out through Passport Control looking, as she always did, a miracle of understated elegance. She was wearing slim jeans, cowboy boots, a fringed alpaca jacket and a pearl-white poloneck sweater. Her nut-brown hair was shoulder-length, drawn back at the neck with a thin band. Her hair shone. Her eyes sparkled. She looked like a million dollars and totally in control of her world.
‘Who travels for twenty-four hours in a white poloneck?’ said Lottie in awe.
‘She changed in the ladies, after she landed,’ said Bella, who had travelled with her grandmother and knew her strategy.
They surged forward and embraced her.
‘You look wonderful,’ Georgia told them both impartially.
Bella took charge of her case and led the way to the car park.
‘Did you have a good flight?’
‘Her grandmother was wheeling the smallest possible carry-on case.
‘I had a good book. The flight passed.’ She shrugged. ‘Now tell me about you two. Bella has a young man and a new job, I know. Lottie, what about you? Still enjoying London?’
Most of the traffic had gone by the time they got on to the M3. So they had a straight run, in a light grey drizzle, with Lottie talking about her job, very amusingly, and Georgia asking all the right questions, just as she always did, in her soft Southern drawl.
They delivered Lottie to the Hendreds, had a cup of tea and a mince pie there, and drove on to Janet and Kevin’s.
‘Now,’ said Georgia, as Bella pulled out of the Hendreds’ drive, ‘tell me about him. I can’t get any sense out of either of your parents. How long have you known him?’
‘Not long at all.’ Bella gave her a rapid outline of events to date.
‘Hmm. No, you’re right. That’s fast.’ It was interesting. When she was thinking aloud, Georgia’s Southern drawl became more pronounced. It was, decided Bella, very attractive – calm and somehow poised.
‘I wish I were poised,’ she said involuntarily.
Her grandmother looked at her quickly. ‘That’s an interesting word. Does he make you feel inadequate? Socially, maybe?’
‘He doesn’t but, well—’ She described the New Year’s briefing package.
Georgia’s sculpted lips tightened perceptibly. ‘How discourteous. Who did you say this person is?’
‘Lady Pansy. She’s Queen Jane’s right-hand woman, as far as I can see. Been with her for ever.’
Georgia drummed her fingers thoughtfully. ‘That suggests she has no life of her own,’ she drawled. ‘You need to watch these loyal retainers. They can become very gothic in their devotion.’
Bella laughed heartily. ‘Not Lady Pansy! If she weren’t so elegant you’d say she was a horse.’
‘Horses are very gothic,’ said Georgia obstinately. ‘You watch her. And watch your back around her.’
Of course she didn’t say any of that in front of Janet and Kevin. Georgia’s idea of good behaviour demanded a high degree of forbearance, as well as refraining from giving advice in public or arguing either. So when Janet started to complain about Finn baiting the newspapers with his antipathy to the monarch, Georgia just smiled faintly and drifted away to somewhere more congenial.