‘I’m not for sale,’ said Jenna with a laugh.
‘No, but you’re my major selling point. An evening with Jenna Diamond.’
‘Myatt.’
‘Jenna Myatt Diamond. In her gracious new home.’
Jason huffed. ‘With a pissy little art show on the side?’
‘I’m sorry, Mr Watson,’ said Tabitha, sounding quite earnest. ‘You are what will bring them back. But Jenna is what will bring them in. I’m afraid we all need to use what resources we have in a crowded marketplace. And Jenna is an absolutely prime resource.’
‘Everyone’s for sale,’ snarked Jason.
‘Yes, Mr Watson,’ said Tabitha primly. ‘Indirectly, perhaps, but there it is.’
‘Call me Jason, for God’s sake. The only people who ever called me Mr Watson were sarcastic teachers at school.’
Tabitha smiled at him, warmly this time.
‘You’re an extraordinary artist,’ she told him.
‘Thanks.’
‘I’m very excited at the prospect of exhibiting you. I think this will be an event, perhaps an historic event. I want to make sure it’s everything it can possibly be. For your sake, Jason, and for Jenna’s. And, yes, for mine.’
‘I really think,’ Jenna said after a pause, ‘we’d be better off renting somewhere here in London. Somewhere offbeat and a bit different, sure. But not my home.’
Tabitha sighed. ‘Well, I can’t force you to agree, of course. Whatever you’ll do, there’ll be media interest. But you’ll create a real sensation if you’d only go along with me. I thought we could always rely on you for that, Jenna. You always played the press so well, so intuitively.’
‘On a professional level, I do think you’re right. It’s the very thing I’d suggest, if I were you,’ said Jenna unhappily. ‘But . . . when it’s my life . . . it’s different . . .’
‘Ah,’ said Tabitha. ‘There’s the rub.’
‘What timescale are we looking at?’ Jason spoke up, and it was so unexpected that everyone just stared for a moment.
‘Oh. Well. I don’t know. That could be up to you, of course. Another advantage – you exhibit when you’re ready.’
‘I’m ready now,’ said Jason. ‘But the house isn’t. But I think it’s a good idea. If I’m going to put myself out there, I want to do it in Bledburn first. I want the big shots to see where I’m from, to drive through the estate on the way to the show. I’m up for it. Jen?’
Jenna was so taken aback by this that she found herself nodding like a dog in the back of a car window.
‘You really think so?’ she said.
‘Yeah. Why not?’
‘Well . . . What about our privacy?’
‘We aren’t inviting anyone to move in, are we?’
She pondered.
‘No. Well. Looks like I’m outvoted. Harville Hall it is.’
Tabitha called for champagne and the art show, and Jason’s launch into the art world, was enthusiasticallytoasted, especially by Jason, who seemed to have accepted that he would need to develop a taste for expensive fizz from now on.
‘So, August thirty-first,’ said Jenna, once they were out taking some air on the roof garden of Tabitha’s building. ‘That doesn’t give us long. We need to at least strip all the walls downstairs. Then there’s . . .’
‘Jen. We don’t need to do anything. We don’t want to live in an art gallery. The exhibition is about the art. It’s not about the fucking plastering.’