you would.’ And Lady Pansy’s violet crinoline bobbed away.
Bella uncurled her fingers. Lady Pansy was seriously starting to get on her tits. Oh, Lord, she’s the Queen’s best friend and I want to slap the woman, Bella thought ruefully.
The rest of the evening passed as Richard had predicted. At two minutes to midnight the band finished a lively reel and someone switched on the radio. People began to look round for the person they wanted to be with at the turn of the year. The Queen, Bella saw, went to the King’s side. George had acquired a stunning redhead, and Eleanor … but then Bella saw Richard powering his way towards her through the crowd and forgot Princess Eleanor and everyone else but her own lover.
He was standing in front of her. They smiled into each other’s eyes. There might have been no one else there.
The room fell silent. The countdown started. One, two, three …
Everyone joined in, even the King. The Queen, Bella saw, was watching her and Richard. She looked unhappy.
Seven, eight, nine …
George had produced squeakers and was passing them round his immediate neighbours with an evil grin.
Ten!
There was the first boom from Big Ben.
Bella flung her arms round Richard’s neck and kissed him fiercely. She didn’t stop kissing him until the final boom was dying away. She fell back, startled by her own intensity. The light in his eyes made him almost unrecognisable.
‘Oh, God, I love you,’ she said under her breath, more to herself than to him.
His hands tightened on her waist. ‘Never mind about that damned bop in the barn. I need to see you alone. OK?’
‘Yes,’ she said, shivering for the first time that evening. And not from cold.
George’s squeakers went off in an appalling chorus. Even people inured to the drone of the bagpipes clapped their hands over their ears.
‘Happy New Year,’ everyone was saying to everyone else. ‘Happy New Year.’
There was a lot of kissing. As Lady Pansy had warned, Richard came in for a good deal of it from female tenants of all ages. And, Bella saw, Chloe Lenane into the bargain.
‘Auld Lang Syne,’ cried the King, seizing a couple of hands and backing against the wall with his newly acquired partners. The Queen was not one of them.
There was even a protocol to ‘Auld Lang Syne,’ Bella found. She was used to a cheerful, drunken shambles with people hanging on to the person next to them and then diving into the middle, cheering. In Drummon House you sang the first verse (there are verses? she thought) standing upright with your hands by your sides. It was only the second verse – And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere, and gie’s a hand o’ thine – that you were actually licensed to take hands. She began to long for a good old-fashioned bop where you could do anything you wanted, with your own hands or anyone else’s.
The singing done, everyone kissed some more, though more sedately. They cheered the King. The King waved a gracious hand and bolted for home. The Queen did not go with him.
‘Uh–oh,’ said Richard. ‘Not good. Will you be OK? I need to dance with my mother. Then we’re going to be on our own and nobody is going to stop us.’
He was gone for one dance only. When it was over, Bella saw him take his mother’s hand. He seemed to be reassuring her. Then she saw a courtier hovering and turned away, dismissing her son.
Richard came back to Bella. ‘Ready to return to the twenty-first century now?’
She looked at him. ‘Is your mother OK?’
‘You’ve got sharp eyes.’ He was rueful. ‘We had a slight difference of opinion, that’s all.’
‘And it’s settled?’
‘She’s cool. Now, tell me, do you really want to go and dance in George’s barn?’
She shook her head.
‘Then come on, let’s go sort out the rest of our lives.’
15
‘Best and Worst Proposals’ – Girl About Town
Richard made Bella bundle up in warm clothes and took her out of a side door. Nobody noticed them go. The big off-roader was standing there, its lights on and the engine humming.
‘Thanks, Bill,’ Richard said, as a tall man in Highland dress got out of the driving seat.
‘You’re welcome, Sir. Miss. Have a nice look at the stars.’ And the man went off chuckling to himself.
‘The stars?’ echoed Bella, clutching the collar of her coat to her throat. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘Don’t argue. Bill has been warming this car up for you for a good ten