Page 80 of The Mad Marchams

“I am right here, Joss,” Sam snapped. “And if you don’t think I’m smart enough to confide in, why the hell have you been pretending to love me all this time?”

Joss held up both hands. “Hey, that’s not what this is about. Can we shelve that until I’ve talked to Mabel?”

Sam looked at him for a long moment. “Okay.”

Mabel raised her eyebrows, because it was obvious that things were far from okay between Sam and Joss.

“Great.” Joss looked at Mabel. “Is there anywhere we can speak privately?”

Colin turned to Mabel. “Why don’t you take Joss into the library, Mabel? Sam and I will stay here to enjoy our tea.”

“If I must.” Mabel exited the kitchen, eager to get this thing with Joss ended. Her cheeks were fiery with suppressed anger and frustration. Joss had pulled plenty of bullshit in the past but tracking her down here and crashing a private party literally took the birthday cake. She and Colin needed to get back to Freddy’s party, and the sooner she got rid of the idiot, star-crossed lovers she’d inadvertently lured to Marcham Hall, the better. She marched down the kitchen corridor, through the green baize door, and into the entrance hall with its magnificent domed ceiling. She turned to speak to Joss and realized he’d stopped walking. He was standing in the middle of the hall staring upward.

“This place is something else,” he remarked as he started moving again. “Did you say it belongs to that Colin guy?”

“No, it belongs to his father, who is currently in the rose garden celebrating his son’s birthday. But Colin is his heir.”

“No wonder he’s turned your head,” Joss said. “This is like every girl’s dream, right?”

“Living in a crumbling old mansion with a handsome prince?” Mabel smiled. “Yes. I suppose it is.”

She closed the door of the library behind them and waited for Joss to take a quick tour of the vast library and stop saying “wow.”

“Is this why you don’t want to come back?” Joss asked. “Because of this British guy?”

“Not just that,” Mabel said. “I’m truly burned out. I need peace and quiet to decide what I want to do next.”

Joss suddenly sat down and put his head in his hands. “I don’t know what to do when you’re not there, Mabes. It’s like my anchor has gone, or something. I end up trying to control everything and shit keeps going wrong.”

Mabel took the chair beside him and gave his knee a brief pat. “Maybe you need to let everyone do the jobs that you know deep down they are perfectly capable of doing and stop interfering.”

“But—”

“No buts. Every single person on that team is brilliant, and from what I’ve heard, my replacement is doing my work perfectly.”

“But she’s not you, babe.”

“And that’s okay,” Mabel said gently. “I don’t want to be on bad terms with you, Joss. We’ve been friends for years, but you have to let me go. I’ll suffocate if I keep working the way we’ve been doing.”

“But it’s hard all by myself.”

“Yes, it is, but you’re all brilliant and you’ll make it work,” Mabel reminded him. “And you’ve got Sam to support you through it.”

He finally looked up. “I kind of thought you saying you wanted to leave was a trick to get me back again.”

“It absolutely wasn’t.” Mabel met his gaze. “Sam is so much better for you than I could ever be.”

“You’re right.” Joss nodded. “She’s awesome.”

“If she’s awesome, treat her that way,” Mabel said. “If she’s not worrying about me hanging around, I’m sure things will go much more smoothly,”

“Okay.” Joss took a deep breath. “I still don’t understand how you can walk away from us, but I guess I’ll survive.”

“Good for you.” Mabel stood up. “Now you’d better go and make it up with Sam. Telling her she’s an airhead probably wasn’t the brightest thing to do.”

Joss groaned. “Why are women so complicated?”

“Why are men so dumb?” Mabel joked as she opened the door and went back into the hall. “Now, do you want to stay and join the party, or do you have other plans?”