The Party Girl's Invitation (10 page)

She went back to doodling a second chicken on her pad and considered using the Essex company and getting the thing couriered over, but she didn’t have a huge multi-national budget on this job, she was working to tight financial constraints, so reluctantly she shelved the idea temporarily and moved on down the list. Her contacts book, when it arrived would help with the smaller items, but cutting the grass in the field was a new one, she’d not had to arrange that before. She wondered who might know a man with a tractor, who was available at short notice in the last week of February. She wasn’t actually sure that it was possible to cut the grass that early in the season. She suddenly wondered if Lolly had thought to hire patio heaters to heat the tent, she’d have to ask her about that too. She scribbled it onto the bottom of the list, she was supposed to be marking things off the list, not adding them on.

There was a knock on the door, and Verity peeped in.“Hi, I’m going into town to do the banking, do you need anything?” she asked.

Crystal motioned her in. “Hi. I don’t suppose that you know a man with a tractor who can cut the grass in a small field at short notice, do you?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m from Bermondsey in South London. We don’t have too many fields in my neck of the woods. I’ve only lived here a few months, I came down with Jazz, when he took over here. No one else would put up with his moods,” she chuckled.

Then, she continued, “You’re safe now, he’s gone. What did you do to piss him off so much?”

Crystal shrugged, “Nothing that I’m aware of.”

Verity gave her a straight look.“Well, something has upset him. He’s been glowering ever since he spoke to Brad on the phone earlier, and since Brad seems to have temporarily fixed his computer problem, I don’t think it was computer related.”She gave Crystal a hard stare.

Crystal squirmed. “I’ve invited Brad to be my date for the Hunt Ball next week, but I fail to see how that would put him in a bad mood. It’s nothing to do with him. You’re going with my brother aren’t you?”

Verity simpered. “Mmm, I managed to talk him into it. He was very reluctant.”

“You might wish that you hadn’t,” was Crystal’s tart response.

When Verity raised her eyebrows, Crystal elucidated, “Our family can be a bit ‘full on’ if you meet them en-masse,” was all she said. She didn’t really owe Verity anything, but she really might be better prepared if she was wise to the usual goings-on at the annual bash. They’d have a whale of a time with the chocolate fountain. It was a good job that it was being held outdoors. Speaking of which, she hadn’t actually ordered the thing yet, she really must get on, there was still heaps to do, and she couldn’t trust Lolly to remember her own name, so there was no help there. She might have found a contact number for the marquee company though, so she picked up the phone.

Lolly was in a right flap when she did get hold of her. It seemed that her new boyfriend had cancelled their date on Monday and had been in meetings for the remainder of the week. Now, he’d called up out of the blue to remind her that they were off to the Opera on Saturday night and he said he’d pick her up on his way up to ‘town’ later. He was planning on putting her up in his penthouse. She was a bit breathless as she imparted the last few details, what did Crystal think?

Crystal thought the man sounded like a complete arse, but she couldn’t very well tell her cousin that. What a nerve, he hadn’t returned her calls and then expected her to drop her plans at a moment’s notice to travel to London with him, she wouldn’t put up with that kind of behaviour herself. What to say though, she didn’t know what stage their relationship was at. Lolly seemed incredibly naïve, a sudden thought occurred, she did understand where this one was going, didn’t she?

“You do realise that he’s invited you to stay over with him for one reason only, don’t you Lolly?” she asked instead.

There was a loud gulp from the other end of the phone.

That said it all. She suddenly felt very old. How did she advise an older and much less worldly-wise cousin, and did she really want to. Surely this was her mother’s job.“What does Aunt Vera think?” she asked.

Lolly coughed. “She thinks I’m staying at the Hilton, with you.”

“What?”Crystal shrieked.

“Mummy’s not met Reginald yet, how could I tell her that I’m thinking of disappearing off to London with him on a dirty weekend?”

So she had at least worked that one out then. Family. Now she knew why she’d disappeared off to America in the first place.

“How well do you know Reginald, Lolly? I mean, do you know his family, how old is he, that kind of thing.”

“I met him at the vicar’s garden party last year, in the summer. He took my number, but he only got back in touch a few weeks ago, he’s been working around here on some secondment with his firm. He does some management kind of thing, very respectable. Quite boring too, I don’t ask too many questions, too busy eyeing up his muscles and such.”She giggled, self-consciously.

Uh-oh. This sounded bad, a recipe for disaster, in fact. “So, he’s a sexy beast then?” she asked, to gain a bit of thinking space.

“I’ll say. Don’t know how I landed him to be honest. Mustn’t blow this one though, might not get another chance.”

“If he respects you, he’ll wait.”She trotted out the old well-used line, and wondered why she bothered. It wasn’t up to her who her cousin slept with, but in the modern world you had to kiss a lot of frogs before you found your prince. This one sounded distinctly froggy to her.

“Don’t really know what’s on his mind at the moment. He was courteous and attentive the last time I saw him, full blown romantic dinner, the whole thing, then he got a phone call halfway through dinner, rushed off and didn’t come back. I haven’t seen him since. He cancelled Monday night and now he’s all up for a trip to the opera. Don’t know what to think myself. Just says he’s busy when I ask him.”

Or married. How many times had she heard the same excuses herself. There was a pattern emerging here, or so she thought.“ You don’t sound like a girl in love and ready for commitment, Lolly. There are too many questions. My flat is empty at the moment. Why don’t you use that while you’re up in town,” she offered.“Save the intimate stuff till you know him a bit better, or at least until he’s explained himself properly. You don’t sound too sure to me. I wouldn’t go dashing off and doing anything rash if I were you.”

Who was she trying to kid? She’d always been impulsive, but Lolly was a much more cautious soul and it was time to be responsible. It was good advice, she wished she’d thought things through a bit more sensibly before she’d run off to America with Phil.

The rest of her pep talk was drowned out by Lolly’s excited squealing, “Oooh, can I? You’re a real brick, Crystal. That would be really fab. I mean, I can still go and look at his penthouse, if I want to, but I won’t have to spend the night, if I’m not ready, not just yet.”She sighed, “I know it is the modern way, but I’m not really that kind of a girl.”

Crystal decided to end this conversation before she was party to more information than she really wanted to know. Lolly’s sex life was her own, and this was not the time or the place to discuss such things. She settled for, “I’m sure things will fall into place, when you’re ready. Now, what time is he coming to collect you?”

“I’m meeting him at the station at three o’clock. It will save time.”

“Where are you now?”

“At home, packing.”

“OK, I’ve got my brother’s Land Rover today, so I’ll come and get you and drop you off at the station. That way I can hand you the keys to the flat and you can give me an update on some of the party arrangements before you disappear for the weekend.”

“That’s great. That way mummy will see that I’m with you, and I won’t get the third degree.”She giggled.

“I’m not sure I want to be responsible for this, you know. If this all goes wrong, don’t go landing the blame on me. I’ve got enough problems of my own,” she cautioned sternly.

“I’m over twenty-one, you know,” Lolly, argued crossly. “I can take care of myself.”

Sure, lamb to the slaughter, Crystal thought. “Just don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she replied.

“Yes mum. See you in an hour then,” Lolly replied, facetiously.“And Crystal, thanks,” she breathed.

Crystal hung up the phone, and stared at her pad. She felt like she’d been rail-roaded. She really was losing her touch. She’d not started on her new business yet, she hadn’t fixed any more of the party arrangements and she’d become an agony aunt for her older cousin. She had only been back a week, who said nothing ever happened in the sticks?

Chapter 7

Fields And Flowers

Crystal was sitting at her desk bright and early on Monday morning, feeling incredibly pleased with herself. She had the majority of the preparations for the ball all sewn up now. She’d been coerced into taking her gran’s place at the vicar’s jumble sale on Saturday afternoon, manning the bric-a-brac stall. In amongst the books, battered old saucepans and a sad collection of long forgotten teddy bears, she’d stopped for a chat with Chessie, who had offered to ‘mind’ the stall for her while she went off to find herself a much needed cup of tea.

Over a battered packet of chocolate digestives, and a chipped mug of ‘builders’ tea, Crystal had outlined the problem of the ‘man with a tractor’, and Chessie had made it her mission to help. She had explained the situation to her husband and he’d offered to introduce Crystal to the leader of the local scout group. And so, by Monday morning, although the field at the farm was not quite up to championship ‘bowling green’ standards, it had been cut short and neatly raked and the grass trimmings bundled up and taken away for recycling, courtesy of a bunch of eager scouts. Crystal had only had to offer to donate a pair of concert tickets to their next fund raising event and Akela had been happy to organise mums, dads, boys and girls to help out. What a result.

He’d also given her the contact details for a company that could provide a marquee at short notice. The situation looked a lot more positive now, than it had done this time last week. Her contacts book had still not arrived in the post, but Lolly had promised to fix the menu problems herself, and due to the band’s best efforts they had sold thirty more tickets online. This left enough money in the kitty to pre-order the booze from the nearest cut price cash and carry outlet and arrange delivery for the morning of the party. If she could just fix the chocolate fountain now and remember to get some tac signs arranged for parking, the ball was just about wrapped up.

She’d been able to check out the field for herself when she’d collected Lolly on Thursday for her ‘date’ and since they’d used the field plenty of times before and the regulars all knew the drill by heart, she couldn’t foresee any other problems there, now that the grass was cut.

She glanced down at her pad, with only four more days to go, there were more ticks than crosses on her list now. Perhaps she should just ring Lolly and make sure that everything was on track with her cousin.

“Lolly, hi, it’s Crystal,” she started. “How was London?”

“Fabulous, the Opera was stunning. Reginald was an absolute poppet. He drove me all the way to your flat himself. Wouldn’t hear a word from me about getting a cab or anything.”She hesitated, “Did you know there was a bunch of journalists camping out on the front doorstep?”she asked, tentatively.

Crystal felt faint.“Journalists?” she stuttered.“Um, no. What did they want?”

“Something to do with some TV starlet in America, I think. I told them they had the wrong address. ‘This flat belongs to my cousin, down in Wiltshire’, I said. Good job Reginald was with me, he took care of the whole thing. He’s very good at those kind of things. Very commanding, you know? He told them to shove off, and go and check their facts before they caused trouble, they seemed to know him, or one of them did. He posed for a few pictures and had a bit of a joke with them and then they left, more than happy with their lot. You really should use the place a bit more often Crystal, I would if I had a nice flat like that in London. Odd about the journalists though, you don’t know anything about it do you? Do you know who this person is? Sounded very exciting, I must say.”She thought for a moment, “They seemed very disappointed when they got little old me on film.” She guffawed loudly.“I guess I’m not front page news eh?”

Neither am I, Crystal thought. Only one person would have given out that address. Saskia. It was the one she’d used on her job application form. She’d been right to sneak off down here then, they would soon get fed up with watching an empty flat and go and find some real news to report. She’d be yesterday’s news in no time.

She quickly updated Lolly on the field and the marquee and ran through delivery details for the wine. By the time they’d finished she had surmised that Reginald wasn’t such a bad egg after all, following the hubbub at the flat he’d been keen to get away, it seemed. He’d managed a few chaste kisses and that was all according to Lolly. So no harm done, one cousin returned to the West Country all in one piece. Result.

From the sounds emanating from the office next door, Crystal guessed that Jazz was back. It sounded like a herd of elephants was trampling through the room. What on earth was he up to? She’d resisted opening the connecting door for the past week, but today curiosity was beginning to get the upper hand. She waited until she heard footsteps on the floor, and then the opening and closing of his office door, then she sneaked over and squat down to put her eye to the keyhole.

She couldn’t see a thing, the angle was all wrong.

She pushed her hair back over her shoulder, to keep it out of her way and then, balancing on the balls of her feet, she supported her body against the door frame with her left hand.

Without warning, two strong brown hands grasped her firmly around the waist and squeezed, finding her ticklish spot.

Crystal squealed and jumped a mile, bashing her forehead against the oak panelling before sliding down to sit in a crumpled heap on the floor, nursing her sore head.

“So, caught you, spying on the boss. What are you doing down there?” Brad teased, as he hauled her to her feet and wrapped her in a bear hug, kissing her soundly, lips warm and inviting, laughing, as they broke apart. Then he planted small ‘butterfly’ kisses on her lips, nose and eyes, before returning to her mouth for another long, smoochy kiss.

Crystal gasped, as she tasted the minty tang of his toothpaste, allowing him further course for kissing, he really was very addictive. Breaking free, she laughed up into his face, “Oh, good lord, you gave me a real fright, I thought that Jazz had caught me there,” she laughed, then spun round as a familiar deep male voice drawled from the doorway,

“Put her down Brad, you’re on my time at the moment, I’m paying the bill. Quit playing hookey and let’s get this job finished.”He stared at Crystal’s laughing, flushed face.

Crystal cringed, he made her feel like a naughty twelve year old when he looked at her like that. His air was remote, he wore the same expression that Mark used, when she’d done something really unforgivable.

He turned abruptly on his heel, “And Crystal, if you want to know what is going on, just open the door and ask. That’s what connecting doors are for, they make it easier to communicate with the person on the other side, peering through keyholes is just so juvenile,” he advised as he stalked out. “I’m going for coffee in the factory, you’ve got twenty minutes, Brad, max. Let’s get it done, shall we?”And with that, he was off, rubber soled trainers silent on the smooth wood flooring.

He looked good in jeans, Crystal registered as she admired his neat bum in the snug fitting denim, she’d not seen him casually dressed before.

“Oops,” Brad laughed. “That’s both of us in trouble. He was in a good mood today too. Must have had a good weekend, Verity reckons he must have got laid.”

Crystal smacked Brad, hard, on the upper arm.“Don’t spread gossip, you don’t know anything about his private life.”

Brad pulled her closer, his eyes darkened slightly, he liked playing games with Crystal. Especially when it gave him an excuse to hold her close like this, she smelled of exotic perfume and spices, feminine laced with a hint of the unexpected.

“Don’t play rough Crystal,” he chided gently. “Or I might be inclined to reciprocate, and then where would we be, eh?”

Crystal had a fair idea. He reminded her of a playful puppy, perhaps a Labrador or a Red Setter, but he had a certain steely quality about him too. If she wasn’t off men for the moment, she may just have been tempted, but as it was, she needed to let him down gently. Her face clouded over, and she pushed him to arm’s length. “No more games today, Brad. You have work to do, and so do I. Let’s stick to work in the office eh?”

He let her go easily enough. “Yes, very unprofessional in the office. Right. It’s all your own fault, madam, anyhow. I thought you were my girlfriend, we have a date on Friday, don’t we? The lengths a guy has to go to around here to get to see you. I’ve left messages galore, and you haven’t returned one of my calls,” he complained.

Crystal had a sudden thought. “I did tell you that it’s fancy dress, didn’t I?” she asked.

“No, madam, you didn’t. But Verity did, when I was in with Jazz last week, sorting out the electrics, so I’ve got my costume all ready. All I need to know, is what time to pick you up.”

Crystal frowned. “I’ve got a busy day on Friday. There’s a company meeting here in the morning that I can’t get out of, and then I’ll be up at the farm for most of the day supervising Aunt Vera and Lolly, I don’t trust them to get the last minute preparations right, but I should be back at gran’s by 6 o’clock, latest. That should give me plenty of time to get showered and changed.”

The sound of high heels charging down the corridor at a terrific pace, precluded Verity dashing into the room in a panic, curls bouncing in the rush.

“Where’s Jazz,” she demanded without preamble, glancing straight at Brad, barely registering Crystal, still wrapped up in his arms.

Brad raised an eyebrow. Verity in a flap was quite a sight. Cheeks flushed pink, hair awry and breasts raging to escape from one of the skimpy blouses that she favoured, she had a wild appeal that his male hormones couldn’t fail to register.

“Trouble out back,” she panted. “A whole car load of photographers from the local rag, people waving banners and a bunch of people all digging in the swamp. I’ve no idea what is going on, it’s right over the other side of the estate, we don’t have cameras over there yet, there’s nothing of value there.”

Apart from the folly, Crystal thought, and that was an unlikely source of attraction. The timing was strange, what with the meeting coming up this Friday, but the board were hardly likely to send the press pack in, negative publicity would ruin the business.

Brad disengaged his arms from around Crystal’s midriff and moved to take both of Verity’s flailing hands in his own.

She could sure break a mood, Crystal thought, uncharitably. Quite forgetting that was exactly what she had been attempting to do herself, not two minutes earlier. There was something about Jeremy’s girlfriend that she couldn’t quite place, but she wasn’t sure yet if she liked her or not.

“Ok, slow down,” he instructed.“Jazz is over in the factory, I’ll go and get him for you, if you like. You’ll never manage to run over there in those heels, and if you go walking in there looking like that, you’ll stop production for sure.”

When Verity looked like she might argue, he continued, “Trust me, I’ll bring him back for you, promise. Now, see if you can find out what they are up to. Ring the local paper and ask them, for a start. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”And with that, he was gone, off down the corridor in Jazz’s wake.

Crystal was left with Verity. “I’ll ring the paper,” she offered, “you go and tidy your hair, and your make-up, you look a fright.”

Jazz pushed back in his plush leather ‘directors’ chair so that the padded back support flexed out generously, allowing him the leverage to prop up his bare feet on the large antique desk. His mud encrusted trainers were lined up neatly by the radiator, drying out, and his ruined socks lay in the bottom of the wastepaper basket, already beginning to give off a distinctly musty whiff. A piping hot mug of aromatic, dark coffee nestled loosely in the palm of his hand and he consulted his watch, it had been a very long day. They’d only just finished rounding up the last of the protesters and scooted them off the land.

It hadn’t helped that by the time he’d arrived on the scene, some bright spark had already pasted details of the rumpus onto their Facebook site and had managed to advertise the ruckus to all and sundry. It was just as well it was a frosty night and the sky as clear as a bell, which had caused the temperature to plummet to way below freezing, it was probably the only thing that had coerced them all into leaving, eventually, Jazz reflected.