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‘Vi said I had to call you right now. Where have you been? Not cool to go offline with no warning, little sis, not cool at all.’
It was what, four o’clock in the afternoon? It felt later, as if several days, not just a few hours, had passed since she had woken up in her own bed, in her own flat for the last time. It would still be morning in New York. She pictured her sister, feet on the desk, a coffee by her hand, an incorrigible mixture of efficiency, impatience and effortless style.
‘Things have been a bit crazy.’ Daisy knew she sounded breathless, welcomed it. Hopefully her sister would put it down to girlish excitement not a mixture of frustration and embarrassment. ‘Rose, I have some news. I’m engaged!’
There was a long silence at the end of the phone. Then: ‘But you’re not even dating anyone. It’s not Edwin, is it? I thought you said he was dull.’
‘No, of course it’s not Edwin!’ Daisy could feel her cheeks heating. ‘We split up months ago, and he’s not dull exactly,’ she added loyally. ‘Just a little precise. It’s Seb, Sebastian Beresford, you know, Rose, he wrote that book on Charles II’s illegitimate children you loved so much.’
‘The hot professor? England’s answer to Indiana Jones?’ The shriek was so loud that Daisy was convinced Seb could hear it through the phone. ‘How on earth did you meet him, Daisy? What kind of parties are you going to nowadays? Dinner parties? Academic soirées?’ Rose laughed.
There it was, unspoken but insinuated. How could silly little Daisy with barely a qualification to her name have anything in common with a lauded academic?
‘Through work,’ she said a little stiffly. ‘He owns Hawksley Castle.’
‘Of course,’ her sister breathed. ‘Didn’t he just inherit a title? What is he, a baron?’
‘An earl.’ It sounded ludicrous just saying the words. She could feel Seb’s sardonic gaze on her and turned around so her back was entirely towards him, wishing she had gone outside to have this awkward conversation.
‘An earl?’ Rose went off into another peal of laughter. Daisy held the phone away from her ear, waiting for her sister to calm down. ‘Seriously? This isn’t you and Vi winding me up?’
Was it that implausible? Daisy didn’t want to hear the answer.
‘It’s true.’
‘Well, I suppose I had better meet him if you’re going to marry him. I’ll be over for the Benefit Concert in about four weeks. There’s only so much I can do this side of the Atlantic. With the tour on top of everything else I am completely snowed under. I can’t cope with one more thing at the moment.’ Rose was in charge of all their parents’ PR as well as organising the annual Benefit Concert their father did for charity. His decision to take the band back on tour had added even more to her sister’s already heavy workload.
So she was going to love the last-minute changes to her plan. ‘Actually you’re going to meet him sooner than that. We’re getting married in three weeks and you have to be my bridesmaid, Rose. You will be there, won’t you?’
‘What? When? But why, Daisy? What’s the rush?’
‘No rush,’ she replied, hating that she was lying to her family. ‘We don’t want to wait, that’s all.’
There was a deep sigh at the other end of the telephone. ‘Daise, you know what you’re like. You always go all in at first. You thought you’d found The One at sixteen for goodness’ sake, and again when you were at St Martin’s. Then there was Edwin—you told me you were soulmates. Then you wake up one day and realise that they’re actually frogs, not your prince. Nice frogs—but still frogs. What makes this one different? Apart from the amazing looks, the keen brain and the title, of course.’
Daisy wanted to slide down onto the floor and stay there. Her family had always teased her about her impetuous romantic nature. But to have it recited back to her like that. It made her sound so young. So stupid.
But Rose was wrong. This wasn’t like the others. She was under no illusions that Seb was her soulmate. She wasn’t in love.
‘This is different and when you meet him you’ll understand.’ She hoped she sounded convincing—it was the truth after all.
‘Okay.’ Rose sighed. ‘If you say it’s different this time then I believe you.’
What Rose actually meant was that she would phone Vi and get her opinion and then the two of them could close ranks and sit in judgement on Daisy. Just as they always did.
‘You will be there though, won’t you, Rosy Posy?’ Daisy wheedled using the old pet name her sister affected to despise. ‘I can’t get married without you.’ Her breath hitched and she heard the break in her voice. Her sisters might be bossy and annoying and have spent most of their childhood telling her to leave them alone but they were hers. And she needed them.
