‘I might hang around for a little while.’
‘Until the morning,’ he smiled.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Rob Holland … Don’t worry, I’ll get all the gossip from him.’
‘Stop it!’ she slapped him on the arm, before moving on. Her good mood was dampened, however, when she turned to see Roger, Rebecca and Julia standing in a line, sending off their guests like royal dignitaries. She had tried to avoid them all evening. In fact, she had tried to avoid them since Gstaad. When they were being nice to her, it made her paranoid and when Roger gave her one of his long disapproving looks, all she could see was a conspiracy to get rid of her, to push her off the road. She had tried hard to shake off the feeling; after all, what proof did she have? As Rob had explained to her countless times, the Mercedes that had rammed her had been stolen, so the most logical explanation was that it had been drunken joyriders. But in spite of the logic of Rob’s argument, she still refused to trust any of her family, particularly Roger and Rebecca.
‘It’s been fabulous, Emma,’ said Rebecca, embracing her in a cloud of perfume.
‘Thank you,’ said Emma.
‘We’ll get one of those courtesy cars,’ said Roger, looking pleased with himself. ‘Would you like us to drop you off?’
‘I’m just saying my goodbyes. There are a lot of cars outside so I’ll get one in a few minutes.’
Virginia pulled Emma off into the boot room.
‘I haven’t seen Cassandra in ages,’ said Virginia. ‘Julia seems to think she went home with Astrid Brinton but she’s on the dancefloor. Cassandra is normally the last person I’d worry about but she has been awfully edgy tonight.’
‘She’s staying at my house tonight. She’s had a little too much to drink. I’m sure she’ll pop by to Julia’s tomorrow,’ said Emma, not entirely sure why she was making up an excuse for her cousin, but feeling the urge to protect her all the same.
Virginia smiled. For once it was a smile that reached her eyes.
‘Well, I’m off home now too.’ She touched her daughter gently on the arm.
‘I’m glad we’ve got things sorted. I’m proud of you.’
‘I love you, Mum,’ replied Emma softly reaching over and giving her a warm embrace.
Emma walked through to the cosy library where Rob was sitting on a velvet sofa holding a glass of brandy and laughing with Jed and Gary from Kowalski. They all looked up when they saw her.
‘Well, I’m off,’ she smiled awkwardly pulling her shawl tightly around her shoulders. ‘I hope you guys enjoyed yourselves.’
‘Cheers, Em. Top party,’ said Gary with a boozy grin, raising his glass to her.
Emma smiled, thinking of how, only weeks ago, she had been terrified of this group of hell-raising, drugged-up reprobates, but beneath their hardcore public face they were just pussycats and, in fact, really nice people. Then Emma caught Jed nudging Gary and pointing a thumb towards Rob.
‘Ah, yes, I think we’d better be going along to the snooker room now,’ said Gary, standing up.
‘Yes, that’s right,’ smiled Jed, as they both gave Emma a big bear hug and left the room, shutting the door behind them.
‘Where was it you said you were going?’ asked Rob softly.
‘Back to the Stables. Well, that’s unless there were any better offers on the table?’ she added boldly. ‘I hope so, because Cassandra’s crashing at my place.’
‘I think I might be able to think of something.’ He smiled, standing up. He kissed her neck, pushed her shawl down her arms and skimmed his mouth across the skin of her shoulders. As she groaned in pleasure he took her hand and led her to the door. Emma had been careful to keep public displays of affection with Rob to a minimum. He was high-profile and handsome; she wanted the Milford party to be talked about the next day for all the right reasons, not for who was seeing whom. As she ascended Winterfold’s grand staircase, Rob placed his hand protectively in the small of her back. She turned around and saw Ruan standing at the door of the ballroom. He smiled and gave her a small thumbs-up sign; Emma laughed, knowing he was right.
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Rob slept in Emma’s old room, the master bedroom with the big bay window which overlooked the whole of the estate. Stepping inside, they did not turn on the light and the view from the window was of just a carpet of shadows broken by pools of moonlight. For the past few weeks she had been convinced that she should sell Winterfold, but for the first time ever it suddenly felt like home. She felt Rob behind her; he unzipped her dress which slithered to the floor with a ripple and his hard body pressed against her naked back.
‘Happy Birthday, Emma,’ he said, placing a soft kiss on the back of her neck.
Facing away from him she grinned, then turned and took hold of his belt.
‘I think it’s time I opened my present, don’t you?’