The Business Arrangement. Natasha Oakley
for you.’
‘And how would he know?’ she asked indignantly. ‘He’s not been down here for weeks. I’ve put in loads of applications to television companies. It might be very difficult for me to put my own life on hold.’
Seb pushed open the door with his bottom, perilously carrying three mugs of tea while ducking under the low cottage beam. ‘But you will, won’t you?’ He smiled ingratiatingly across at Amy. ‘You’re the one with the flowers on it.’
‘Sexist!’ Amy retorted as she cleared the table of the Sunday newspapers and magazines.
Seb shrugged. ‘Mum’s taste in mugs, not mine, and if you will have sugar in your tea—take the consequences. How else do you expect me to remember which one’s yours?’ He handed a mug across to Hugh. ‘Of course she’ll do it.’
‘Of course she won’t! Not just like that.’ She shot a look of pure dislike back at her favourite brother. ‘I want to be a researcher, I don’t want to be a secretary and even if I did I’d never choose to work for Hugh.’
‘No, hideous prospect,’ Seb agreed, flinging himself down in a leather club chair. ‘Shouldn’t care to do it myself, but think of your debts, little sister. Hugh’s desperate. Name your price.’
Amy tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and turned her attention back to Hugh. ‘What kind of things does Sonya do?’
‘Do?’
She nodded. ‘Is she aggressive? Does she cry? If I agree I want to know the kind of things I’d have to protect you from.’
‘It’s nothing like that. She’s calmly confident. Totally convinced there’s a sexual attraction between us.’
‘Even without encouragement?’ she asked incredulously.
‘She imagines there is. She’s in no doubt I want her.’
‘She’s certainly persistent and becoming less subtle,’ Seb cut in as he passed across a packet of biscuits. ‘Tell her about Friday’s package.’
‘In the morning mail was a small parcel—’ Hugh began reluctantly, before stopping as the telephone rang from the depths of the hallway.
Seb grunted. ‘Just when it’s getting spicy. Hold the thought. I’ll be back in a moment.’
‘So?’ Amy queried as the door closed gently behind him.
‘She sent a packet of condoms, together with a hotel address, date and time.’
Amy, in the act of sipping, spluttered. ‘I don’t believe it.’
‘Neither did Barbara.’
‘That’s so…so…tacky.’
‘Isn’t it?’ Hugh agreed.
Seb opened the sitting-room door. ‘Hugh, it’s Callie. She wants a word.’ Mutely he held the door open until Hugh obeyed the summons. Seb sat back down in the chair he’d vacated and picked up his mug. ‘Did I miss much?’
‘Nothing you don’t know. I can’t believe she sent Hugh a packet of condoms at work.’
‘Variety condoms,’ Seb added irrepressibly.
‘Does that make a difference?’
‘It does to Hugh’s secretary. You haven’t met her, but she is an absolute “spinster of this parish” type, probably never seen a condom in her life, let alone a variety pack. I know it’s not funny, but I can’t get rid of the picture of Barbara Shelton opening the parcel. Can you imagine any temp keeping something like that quiet? That’s why I thought of you.’
Amy sighed as she felt the net tighten about her. It didn’t matter how much she resented Seb’s cavalier attitude to her time, he was right. She’d seen enough of the pain of marriage breakdown to last her a lifetime. Her mother had never really recovered from her father’s leaving. The betrayal had scored in deep and left a wound that had festered until the day she’d died. If chaperoning Hugh would prevent her godfather being hurt, there was no way she could refuse.
‘Poor Richard,’ she said, watching the apricot roses softly bobbing at the window. It was so sad how everyone’s lives went wrong. Richard had waited such a long time before deciding to marry, and then he’d gone and fallen for someone like Sonya. For someone whose business acumen was a byword in the City it was a strange anomaly he’d made such a poor choice in his personal life.
‘Feel sorry for Hugh too. I know you don’t like him much, but it’s actually getting quite serious.’
She turned back to look at her brother. ‘It’s not that I don’t like him.’
‘Approve of him, then. He likes his women, but this isn’t in the usual run of things. I know I’m trying to make light of it, but she’d be giving me the creeps. It doesn’t matter what he says to her, she keeps coming on to him.’
‘But—’
‘There isn’t any “buts”. He needs someone to shield him until his PA gets back. It doesn’t seem too much to ask. You know Mum would have forced you out the door if she was still alive.’
‘It’s not fair to use Mum,’ she protested without much conviction, knowing her mother would have been among the first to volunteer the services of her daughter. She sighed and replaced her empty mug on the small table. ‘I suppose I’m just finding it difficult to believe Hugh can’t manage it all himself. I’ve watched him jettison women with a total disregard for their feelings since he turned about eighteen. Probably before that, but I was too young to notice.’
‘Sonya’s got the hide of a rhino. She’s not even deterred by Callie and she’s scary.’
‘The woman on the phone?’
He nodded, pushing off his brogues with his toes and putting his socked feet up on the table. ‘Calantha Rainford-Smythe. Hugh’s latest. Money and connections oozing from every pore. Didn’t you meet her at Christmas?’
It was difficult to forget a woman like Calantha. She was a tall streak of elegant blonde perfection who’d managed to see off any competition that evening by dint of clinging like a limpet. A typical Hugh appendage. ‘I think so,’ she said blandly, walking over to the piano. ‘Jewellery designer, isn’t she?’
His brown eyes crinkled. ‘She likes to think so. In reality other people do the work and she puts her name to it.’
‘What does she say about all this Sonya business?’ she asked, drawing her finger along the dust on the piano lid.
‘You can ask her yourself unless she’s ringing to say she can’t make it. She’s supposed to be coming down.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Amy said, looking up.
‘She was supposed to be in Brussels, but on balance Callie decided she couldn’t miss Henley Royal Regatta. A great opportunity to see and be seen. Her business depends on it,’ he said, mimicking her flat vowel sounds. ‘All that champagne and old money about the place. Not to mention the risk that Hugh might meet someone else.’
Amy smiled. ‘You don’t like her, do you?’
‘Not my type. I don’t know what she thinks about Sonya, though. Hugh’s never said. You’ll have to ask him.’
‘About what?’ Hugh said, opening the sitting-room door.
‘Callie’s opinion of Sonya,’ Seb said, lifting his feet off the table to let him pass. ‘How did she know you were here?’
‘She’s just arrived at my mother’s,’ he said, sitting back down on the sofa. ‘I’ll finish my tea and head back. I need to pick up my blazer and tie and I think Jasper and Ben are meeting us there as well. I don’t know what time they planned on getting here.’
‘What