Grabbing a couple of glasses of sparkling wine from the nearest waiter, Leanne handed Stevie a drink which she gratefully accepted. Seeing Nick leaning up against the wall as she went into the grand hall had made her feel a little out of sorts. Of course, she’d expected him to be here, but she’d assumed he would be somewhere in the throng of the ballroom and not lurking about at the entrance, and she’d expected to have some time at least in which to collect herself, before coming face to face with the man she was falling head over heels in love with.
There was no sign of him now, so he hadn’t come into the ballroom. Not that she’d been watching out for him, because she hadn’t, but it would be nice to know his whereabouts, so she could avoid looking at him.
Stevie searched the room. No, she didn’t think he was there, but it was hard to tell with so many people around. She suspected the whole village had indeed turned out, and what a wonderful sight they made, dressed in their finery. All the men wore bow ties and a tux (Nick had looked rather brooding and attractive in his), and the women sported gowns in an assortment of wonderful colours and styles.
She spotted Leanne’s mum and dad, and Iris looked gorgeous in a dress of amber silk with beading all over the bodice. Geoff looked quite dapper too even though he kept pulling at his tie and making faces. Stevie laughed as Iris nudged him in the side with her elbow every so often, and for a while Geoff would stop playing with his bow tie but it wasn’t long before he was tugging at it again.
‘Ooh, look,’ Stevie cried, as she noticed a live band in one corner of the room taking their instruments out.
She was enchanted by The Manor, what she had seen of it so far. She hadn’t realised at the time, but when she’d taken the girls to Nick’s stables (Just stop thinking about him, will you? she scolded herself.) The Manor was actually only a little further along the same lane. Tonight, as she’d driven through the huge gates (there was even a gatekeeper’s cottage next to the entrance, although it didn’t look as though it was lived in) and up the wide, sweeping gravel drive with a massive fountain dominating the centre, her eyes had been out on stalks.
She’d not been expecting anything as grand and had said as much as she was parking the car.
‘Oh, it’s grand, all right,’ Betty had replied. ‘But you should have seen it in its heyday – servants everywhere, no one allowed through the front door unless they had a title to their name. Except for on ball nights, when the hoi polloi were granted access to the house through the front door. I still recall the snooty look on old Lady Tonbridge’s face as she saw the great unwashed traipsing across her pristine floor. I’m sure she would have stopped it, but Edgar’s father was a stickler for tradition and he kept the ball going. I call her “old Lady Tonbridge” but she wasn’t old then. She was nobbut a girl when she wed Percival.’
Stevie had looked at Betty out of the corner of her eye, because for a minute there she had sounded quite odd, but Stevie couldn’t put a finger on what it was, and then she’d forgotten all about it when she’d parked the car and they had made their way in through the Grecian columns of the porch and into the impressive hall.
Two staircases, one either side, dominated the space and sounds of laughter and music swirled out from the double doors which led to the enormous ballroom in which Stevie now stood. Julia Ferris was mingling, playing the hostess with a younger woman by her side who had her arm looped through that of a bloke, who kept squeezing her bottom.
‘Who is that with Lady Tonbridge?’ Stevie asked.
‘Miranda and her fiancé. Everyone thought she had her sights set on Nick, but apparently not. I don’t see William though, but I expect he’s around here somewhere, because I can’t see Julia letting her son get away with not attending the family ball.’
‘I wonder where Tia is,’ Stevie said, thoughts of William leading her to think of her new friend.
‘I can’t see her.’ Leanne was craning her neck, but the crush of people on the dance floor made it difficult to see.
A male voice interrupted them. ‘Would you do me the honour?’ and Stevie turned to see a man holding his hand out to Leanne.
‘Go ahead,’ she said, when Leanne looked askance at her. ‘I’m a big girl, I don’t need babysitting.’
‘If you’re sure…?’
Stevie laughed. ‘Just go, will you. I’m off to the terrace.’ She watched Leanne half dance, half walk, her hips swaying in time to the music and she smiled. That girl certainly knew how to have a good time.
Stevie, however, wasn’t in quite the same mood, and she’d meant it when she’d said she was going to explore the terrace. A bit of fresh air might perk her up and anyway, it was too lovely an evening to be cooped up inside, so she made her way around the dance floor, weaving between the tuxedoed men and the women in their glorious ball gowns. They reminded her of a flock of pretty birds, and she nodded at everyone, mouthing an occasional “hi there,” or “love the dress” as she went.
Oh, this is gorgeous, she thought as she stepped out of one of the wide-open French doors which led to a large terrace dotted with tables and chairs, and strung with coloured fairy lights, and what looked to be hand-made bunting. With the setting sun dropping down over the Brecon Beacons, casting the mountain range into purpled shadows, and the fields below the terrace lit with an orangey glow, the view was breath-taking.
And if she tried hard enough, she could just make out the top of Nick’s house.
She stared at it for some considerable time, lost in the memory of the kiss they had shared. Why had he done such a thing if he didn’t like her? she wondered. And it had felt so good too, so right, as if she belonged in his arms. For a second she’d really thought they had a connection. Then he had let her go and apologised and she’d never felt so rejected in all her life.
Oh, for goodness’ sake, stop it, she told herself. He doesn’t want you, he’s made that abundantly clear, so just move on. Put that one insignificant little kiss behind you and let it go.
Then she snorted. It was all right to tell her brain that, but what about her heart? That particular part of her didn’t seem to be getting the message, because all it did was flutter whenever she thought about him.
‘So, stop thinking about him,’ she said aloud, then clapped her hands to her mouth. Lordy, she was beginning to turn into Aunt Peggy. She already had the cat – all she needed was a couple more and to start wearing some of Betty’s cast offs.
Feeling rather out of sorts, Stevie decided to go for a stroll. She had no idea which parts of the house were out of bounds, but she’d wander as far as she could. She’d like to go for a walk in the gardens, but from where she was standing the steps leading down from the terrace were quite steep and the paths were uneven – these shoes were definitely not made for walking (and maybe not even for dancing, because her feet were killing her already), so instead, she returned to the ballroom and skirted around the edge again until she reached one of the doors on the opposite wall.
The first one she tried led into a sort of drawing room, with chairs set around tables, which were laid out with decks of cards or chess sets, or backgammon. Not that she played any of them, although she used to enjoy a game of Snap when she was little. There was even a big table with the most enormous jigsaw puzzle in the world spread out on it. The puzzle was half completed, and a handwritten sign saying, “give it a go, just don’t lose any of the pieces” was next to it. Stevie let out a giggle – how awful if someone were to hide a piece.
The room was already half-full of people (elderly men, mostly) wanting a quieter spot away from the music, laughter, and dancing of the ballroom, but it wasn’t quite quiet enough for Stevie. Seeing a door to the left of the fireplace, she headed towards it and found herself in a library.
‘Ooh, I really could lose myself in here for a week!’ she said to herself. Looking at the ceiling-high shelves crammed with books, ‘and just look at those cute little ladders.’ She squinted at them – they were on casters, and she had a vision of scooting from corner to corner on one of them. What fun!
All four walls had bookshelves on them, and there was another fireplace and another door opposite the one she had just come through. Was there any room in this huge house which wasn’t connected to another one? Stevie wondered.
Thankfully, this room was empty and Stevie closed the door leading to the games room and sank carefully down into one of the wing-backed chairs near the fireplace, arranging her skirt at her feet. She wasn’t really in the mood for reading (and it wouldn’t look too good either, having been invited to the party of the year and hiding away with her nose in a book), so she took a minute or two to reflect on her turbulent feelings.
There was no doubt she had fallen for Nick, but the question was, what was she going to do about it? The feelings had crept up on her so slowly she hadn’t realised until they’d ambushed her. The kiss had been the catalyst.
Oh, how she wished they hadn’t done it. That one brief embrace had turned her world upside down and she didn’t know how to right it again.
The sound of voices came from beyond the door near her chair and she wondered what room lay behind it? She’d already seen the ballroom, the games room, the library, and she had a suspicion there were loads more nooks and crannies to explore in this old house.
The voices grew a little louder and for a while she ignored them, until she heard Betty’s unmistakeable tones.
‘Grr, I could bang your heads together, I could! You’re nobbut a pair of eejits.’
Stevie wondered who the “pair of eejits” were.
Ah, Betty was talking to Tia, Stevie guessed when she heard her friend’s voice. It was muffled, so she couldn’t hear exactly what Tia was saying, but whatever it was set Betty off a treat.
‘Don’t be so selfish!’ the old lady cried. ‘Can’t you see he loves you, no matter what?’
Will was there too, Stevie realised when he said, ‘If you move, I’m going to move, too.’ His deeper voice carried better than Tia’s.
‘See?’ Betty said loudly. ‘You can’t get rid of love so easily.’
Tia said something else and Stevie almost growled with frustration when she couldn’t make out the words.
‘No, you’re not,’ Betty cried. ‘You’re wallowing in self-pity and woe-is-me. You gotta grab love with both hands and not let it go. Take it from someone who knows.’
More low voices, then Betty said, ‘I might be an old maid, but how do you think I got to be in this position, eh? Because I slunk away and didn’t fight for the man I loved and he didn’t fight for me, that’s how. If you carry on, my girl, you’ll end up just like me.’
Suddenly Will’s voice became much clearer, as if he was standing right by the door and was about to walk through it. Stevie cringed back in her seat and tried to look as though she hadn’t really been listening. There was a book on the side table next to her chair and she picked it up hastily, opening it at random.
‘I’m not going to let you go, Tia,’ William said. ‘I love you too much for that. Please don’t make me come with you.’
Then Tia said something and Will replied, ‘I don’t care. I love you and I want to marry you, and if I’ve got to follow you to the ends of the earth, then I will.’
More muffled words and Stevie held her breath again, willing Tia to see sense. She wished Nick loved her the way Will obviously loved Tia and her eyes filled with tears. Poor Will, she could hear the anguish in his voice and it tore at her heart.
Finally, just when she thought Betty’s haranguing hadn’t worked, there was a loud, ‘Yes!’ from William, followed by a shriek from Betty.
When the door was flung open, William shot through it, only to dart straight back through it again. Stevie craned her neck around the back of the chair and a huge grin spread across her face as she saw him bend down to kiss Tia soundly, then dash back out once more yelling, ‘I’ve got to tell Dad!’
Stevie drank in Tia’s ecstatic face, and she blinked away more tears. The girl looked happy and beautiful and radiant, Stevie was very happy for her.
She just wished she could be as happy. As Nick’s handsome face popped into her mind, she let the treacherous tears fall.