Dinner was formal, but the people eating it were not. Orlando, Kitty, Alex and Sam were fast getting screaming drunk at the far end of the table, playing a chaser drinking game with shots from the ice bar, and David was making Cat and Isabella laugh by wiggling an After Eight off his forehead and into his mouth without using his hands. A thin smear of chocolate down his face traced its progress like a snail’s track.
‘Do you have a party trick?’ Rob laughed, turning to Laura, sitting next to him, as it fell off David’s cheek and he had to begin all over again.
Laura hesitated.
‘You do!’ Rob cried.
‘No, I—’
‘The fatal pause,’ he argued. ‘It’s proven that when we’re about to lie, we inhale deeply to buy more time and get the story straight.’ He picked up his wine glass and drained it. ‘Come on, out with it. I’ll tell you mine.’
‘Promise?’
‘My word is my bond,’ he said solemnly, thumping his chest with a fist.
‘Mmm,’ Laura hummed, unconvinced. They had all been drinking for hours. In fact Sam and, to a lesser degree, Orlando had scarcely stopped since they’d got here, and there was hedonism in the air. The bass from the Arctic Monkeys was making the crystal glasses vibrate, and everybody was talking faster and louder, arms were gesticulating wildly, hair was being tossed like hay.
She felt emboldened. ‘Well, when I was at university, I could drink from a glass without using my hands.’
Rob shifted position, intrigued. ‘Show me, then.’
‘Show you? No! You said to tell you.’
‘Show me,’ he insisted firmly, and she wondered how she’d ever won that first argument in her studio.
Laura shook her head.
‘Don’t force me to play the “sing for your supper” card,’ he said slyly. ‘It wouldn’t be gracious.’
‘Oh God . . .’ Laura’s shoulders dropped. The pink velvet bedroom and private spa weren’t coming for free after all. ‘Well, I’d need a beer glass or high-baller.’
‘Gemma!’ Rob called.
Gemma, who was clearing the dishes in the kitchen, looked up.
‘Oui, Monsieur Blake?’
‘Could you bring over a beer glass, please?’
It was in front of Laura in under a minute.
‘What shall we fill it with?’ he asked. ‘Beer, cider, mulled wi—’
‘Beer.’
She watched as he filled the glass carefully. Then she positioned the glass on the inside of her right elbow, bringing her forearm in but keeping her hand arched back, so that the glass became wedged between her lower and upper arm. Slowly, she raised her arm. The glass wobbled precariously a few times and then tipped just enough for her to drink from it.
‘Ha-ha, bravo!’ Rob cheered as she drained it. ‘Very impressive.’
Laura burst out laughing, relieved to have pulled it off. It had been years since she’d done it last. ‘God, I’ve gone straight back to being a student!’ she moaned.
‘Not looking like that, you haven’t,’ Rob remarked.
The comment appeared to take him by surprise as much as her. ‘. . . Right, well, your turn,’ she said quietly, trying to cover their mutual embarrassment.
Rob stared at her intently and she wondered whether he was just trying to get used to her being blonde.
‘Go on!’ she said bossily, feeling herself begin to blush.
‘I just did,’ he grinned.
‘What? What did you do?’
‘Watch.’ He stared at her again.
Laura scowled. ‘You aren’t doing anything.’
‘Aren’t I? Watch my ears,’ he instructed, thoroughly amused by her indignation.
Laura looked at his ears and realized they were pulling backwards and forwards, without a muscle in his face moving.
‘Oh my God!’ she tittered. ‘That’s hilarious! How do you do that?’
He shrugged.
‘More to the point, how did you ever discover you could do it? How do you accidentally twitch an ear?’ she teased.
‘Prep school,’ he sighed, draining his glass. ‘A wonderful institution. Equips you with so many vital life skills.’
‘Hmm. Well, I can do better than that.’
‘Oh really? I find it hard to believe anything can beat my ears.’
Laura stood up, chuckling. ‘Watch this.’ Kicking her shoes off, she laced her fingers together so her hands were clasped behind her back. Then she curled herself forwards, shimmying her shoulders left and right, so that – slowly – her arms began to inch past her hips, over her bottom and down her thighs so that she was crouched into a small ball. Carefully, checking her balance, she lifted one foot, and then with a triumphant smile stepped back over her hands and brought them up to her tummy. ‘Ta-da!’
‘Right!’ Rob laughed, clapping at her enthusiastically. ‘It was a good effort. And I applaud your spirit, really I do. But it’s obviously time to bring out the big guns.’
He unlaced his shoes and stood up in his dress socks, shrugged off his jacket and threw it over the back of his chair, then took off his cummerbund too.
‘I’m not playing strip poker with you, Rob!’
He doubled over with laughter. ‘That’s later.’ Clasping his fingers together, he stretched his arms up; Laura was able to see the riff of his abs through his shirt but tried not to look. Then he rolled his head and pressed each ear down to each shoulder a couple of times as if he was warming up for a race.
‘Tch, in your own time,’ she muttered, inwardly dying to see what he was going to do.
He shot her a glittering look as he reached his right hand down to his left foot and brought it up so that his leg and arm looped diagonally across the front of his body like a loose strap.
He paused and looked up at the ceiling for a second.
‘What’s wrong? Chickening out?’
‘Just trying to remember the excess on my insurance.’
He inhaled slowly twice, and then, with a sudden burst of explosive power, jumped in the air, keeping his hand and foot connected but bringing the right leg through them.
Laura screamed with delight, jumping up and clapping wildly. ‘The human skipping rope! I tried to do that for years! I almost knocked a tooth out trying once.’
‘You need to be a prime athlete to do that.’
‘Oh! Like you, you mean?’ she giggled.
‘Exactly,’ he nodded, sitting down again, his thighs splayed wide on the chair as he relaxed, a freshly refilled glass – thanks to Sasha – in his hand.
‘As if! You’re just a namby-pamby broker boy.’
‘I’m not a broker,’ he said. ‘I’m a fund manager.’
‘Whatever. You’re still City soft.’
He glared at her in outrage. ‘Touch that!’
Laura looked down at a flexed thigh.
‘No, thanks,’ she said with a convincing look of distaste, but Rob grabbed her hand and planted it on his leg. It was indeed not soft. ‘And?’
He sat back, regarding her. ‘You don’t rise to the bait, do you?’
‘Huh?’
‘I just taunted you about not being a prime athlete. When actually you and I both know full well that you were.’
She froze. ‘And how do you know that?’
‘Mark told me.’
‘Mark’s got a big mouth, then.’
‘As well as a way with the ladies.’ He watched her closely.
Laura shrugged. ‘Has he?’
Rob leaned in closer. ‘Why would you tell him and not me?’
‘It was relevant to the moment. He’d tried to teach me how to do a snowplough. There have to be limits.’
Rob grinned. ‘Tell me about your skiing. I want to know. I demand to know,’ he added dramatically.
Laura looked at him for a moment. Why not? She’d already told Mark. ‘There’s not much to tell. I skied for my university—’
‘Which university?’
‘Bristol. I did well and was invited to try out for the British Juniors.’ She shrugged. ‘But I never got round to it.’
‘Never got round to it? How does that happen?’ he asked, incredulous.
‘I graduated, got a job and ran out of time. Work took over my life and I just couldn’t get the hours in on the slopes.’
‘You gave up a place in the British ski team to work? You must really love making jewellery,’ he said, sitting back and drumming his fingers on his glass.
‘Actually, I wasn’t a jeweller back then.’
His eyes flashed up at her. ‘No?’
‘I worked in corporate finance at Goldmans.’
Rob stared at her. ‘Corp. . . So then how have you ended up making charm bracelets for a living?’
‘They are very beautiful, very expensive charm bracelets,’ she murmured. ‘And I’m very proud of them.’
‘Indeed. But . . .’
‘I just wanted a life change, that was all.’
He shook his head. ‘And I thought my wife was enigmatic. You’ve got more secrets than Whitehall,’ he said, tapping the table between them.
Kitty suddenly launched herself into their orbit, landing on Rob’s lap with a thud. ‘Is this a private conversation or can anyone join in?’ she beamed, red-cheeked from necking vodka with Orlando at the luge.
‘Are you aware of the double life Laura leads?’ he asked Kitty.
‘It’s not a double life. I live one life at a time, thank you very much.’
‘Yes, right. So currently you’re a jeweller in Suffolk who lives with her boyfriend and does up beach huts on the side.’
‘Pretty much.’
‘And she’s got a dog,’ Kitty added helpfully.
Rob nodded. ‘I don’t buy it. That seems a little too quiet in my opinion for a woman who was an extreme skier and took on the biggest boys in the City.’
‘Life change, like I said. Tried it, it didn’t work out. I much prefer my life as it is now, thanks.’ She looked down at her watch. ‘Talking of which, I’d better go check it’s all still running in my absence. I need to call Jack. I’ll be back in a bit.’
She walked over to the stairs, aware that the dress and drinking combined were making her wiggle, wondering if she was just imagining the weight of Rob’s stare on her. Or was it someone else’s entirely? She couldn’t forget the loaded look between her and Alex earlier either. Was he going to ‘accidentally’ burst in on her tonight too?
Skipping up the steps, she let herself into her bedroom.
Nine missed calls. She rang home, wandering over to the windows and staring out at the full, promising blackness. She opened the doors as the dial tone beeped in her ear and stepped out on to the balcony, welcoming the sobering blast of coldness on her skin.
It was a still night. Barely a ripple of wind rustled the trees and the snow lay where it had fallen. She leant on the railings, just making out the strains of music coming from the town over the bass beat from downstairs.
‘Laura?’
‘Hi, darling,’ she smiled, straightening up.
‘Where have you been? I’ve been trying you for hours!’ His tone was panicked and she picked up on his anger immediately.
‘I’m so sorry. I meant to call before dinner, but I managed to fit in an interview with someone, and then it’s been Orlando’s birthday party so it’s all been pretty full-on.’
‘Whose?’
She could well imagine what Jack would make of a name like Orlando.
‘You sound drunk,’ he added. It was more of an accusation than an observation.
‘Do I?’ she asked, enunciating with extra care and giving herself away completely.
‘You said this was a work trip!’
‘And it is. But it’s Saturday night, it’s someone’s birthday, and the interviews have to be a secret. The woman has no idea I’m speaking to all her friends about her. I have to make an effort to blend in, Jack.’ She heard the pleading whine in her own voice and winced. When had she ever whined?
‘Well, from the sounds of you, she’ll have no suspicions.’ Sarcasm wasn’t his strong point and was therefore all the more shocking when he did employ it.
Laura rolled her eyes impatiently. ‘Well, I don’t see why it has to bother you. I’ll bet there are a couple of beers on the table in front of you right now.’
He was silent. She knew he was right. She thought back to Alex and Isabella and how she’d imagined their arguments to be passionate and exciting. But this just felt soul-destroying.
‘Jack, what is it? What’s wrong?’ she sighed. ‘You’ve been off with me for days.’
‘Nothing.’ There was a long pause. ‘I . . . Look, I’m tired and you’re drunk. I’ll speak to you tomorrow when we’re both feeling better.’
‘Okay,’ she replied quietly.
‘Night,’ he said curtly.
She pressed ‘disconnect’, feeling frustrated, smaller and less blonde again.
The doors on the balcony below her slid open and she saw everyone pile on to the terrace, laughing and shrieking as they kicked off a midnight snowball fight. They were always playing, this group, always finding fun and the lighter side of life. She felt ten years younger when she was with them all. Laura watched unseen above them, her eyes on Alex’s back as he aimed a perfect hit at Orlando’s head. She watched the way Rob crept up behind Cat, snaking his arms around her slender waist as he planted a surprise kiss on her neck that didn’t have quite the desired effect and made her leap away. She watched as David grabbed a handful of snow and shoved it down the back of Sam’s dress, making her howl with rage.
Laura stayed where she was. She felt the pull to go down there and join them, but she knew that was exactly why she shouldn’t. Speaking to Jack had been the reminder she needed. She had given herself a day out from her own life, but that was all it could be. Nothing more. She wasn’t like any of them, no matter how much she might wish it to be true. She might be staying in a multi-million-pound chalet, but playfulness was a luxury she couldn’t afford.