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Chapter three
TORY
“Hey,girl,howare you doing?” Hattie’s voice sounded concerned over the phone, and I smiled to hear it.
I sat down on the velvet stool by my dressing table and picked up a beaded necklace, twisting the beads around my fingers. As always, as soon as I sat down, one of my cats yawned and stretched then sauntered over and jumped up onto the dressing table, rubbing his head against my hand. I obligingly dropped the beads and began to stroke him. His ginger tabby fur was soft under my fingers. Moments later, a second one jumped up and butted in, and I began the tricky task of alternating between the two, stroking the ginger tom first before switching to the white fluffy tom. He needed a good brush, I thought, as my fingers encountered a couple of snags in his fur.
“Tory?”
“I’m... okay. Have you heard from Jasper?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about his reaction to my refusal the previous week. I cared a lot about him. We’d been friends for years before we’d dated, and I had hated seeing that look of hurt and humiliation on his face. If I could have avoided letting him down in public, I would have. He knew me well enough to know I hated public displays, and I thought he did too. I still couldn’t understand what had possessed him to propose then and there. It was most unlike him.
“He’s, well, he’s Jasper. Just calm and polite. He’s staying out of public at the moment. The gutter press has the story and keeps pestering him for his side.”
I winced. Although not mainstream royalty, there was enough of a link that the press loved to dig up dirt and spread rumours. I could only imagine what the headlines had been when the story leaked. “Has he said anything?”
“He’s made a comment that he’s disappointed, but that it’s not the end of the world.”
“He said that to the press?” I asked, sitting up straighter.
“Oh no, he ignored them completely. He said that to me when I spoke to him yesterday.”
I slumped forward, resting my chin on my hand. The fluffy cat took this as an affront and miaowed loudly until I started stroking him again. “Prima donna,” I told him.
“What, Jasper? That’s not exactly fair—”
“I was talking to the cat. You rang him before me? Cheers, babe.”
“Don’t be stupid, Tory. He rang Teddy about a possible squash match, and I spoke to him before he rang off.”
“Broken-hearted then?” I said sarcastically, hating myself for feeling annoyed that he wasn’t more upset.
“Tory, that’s not fair. It’s Jasper. He could be wasting away, grieving, and dying inside, and no one would ever know.”
“Urgh, yes, I know, and now I feel worse. Great. Thanks, Hattie.” I stared at myself in the mirror. My dark eyes stared back at me with purplish circles underneath. I hadn’t slept much since the ball. I’d hurt Jasper, and upset and embarrassed my parents, and I wasn’t even sure what I was going to do next. Freedom suddenly didn’t feel that freeing.
“Any time,” she answered cheerfully. “Seriously though, babe, I think he’s upset, which is understandable, and yes, embarrassed. You did pretty much dump him in front of most of London society.”
“Well, to be fair, he shouldn’t have proposed to me in front of them then,” I argued, feeling petty.
“He assumed you’d say yes. We all did.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, you know what they say about assuming things... Any good news, or are you just calling to criticise me?”
“Actually, you grumpy bitch, I was calling to say Teddy and I are heading out to the villa next week if you still fancy coming. I’m assuming Jasper won’t be coming with you now, but you’re still invited. We can lie by the pool and get pissed on cocktails, wasting the summer away in a decent alcoholic haze. Maybe we can make a quick trip to Paris for a show and a bit of shopping?”
I opened my mouth to refuse straightaway, but as I glanced away from my face in the mirror, I caught sight of a reflection from the other side of the room. One of my wardrobe doors stood open, and in the bottom, in a bit of a tangled mess, lay a blonde wig I’d bought for Halloween the previous year. I’d planned on dyeing it and going as Harley Quinn, but Jasper hadn’t thought it was appropriate and flatly refused to go as the Joker. I’d ended up going as Morticia Addams. A small smile spread across my face as an extremely bad idea began to form in my mind. “That does sound good, but won’t Teddy get quite lonely without you if I hog you all summer? It would have been different if it was Jasper and me, but I doubt he’s in the mood to go on holiday with me.”
“Hmm... I’d say it was unlikely he’d come.”
“I didn’t break up with him, you know. I just said I didn’t want to get engaged so early,” I argued, even though the feeling of relief I’d felt when I’d walked away still lingered, fluttering in my chest when I realised I had no one to answer to anymore.
“Tomayto, tomahto.”
“When are you flying out?” I asked, standing and walking over to the wardrobe. The synthetic blonde strands fell over my arms as I reached down and picked up the wig.
“Tuesday. We’re flying into Charles De Gaulle and then taking a connecting flight to Toulon-Hyères. Do you want me to book you a ticket?”
“Fine, I’ll come, but I can’t leave until Thursday, so if you don’t mind picking me up from the airport, I’ll just fly out by myself and meet you.” I laid the wig carefully on my bed and then began to pull clothes out from the back of the wardrobe, tossing them onto the bed.
