‘Oh God, don’t remind me.’
‘Hey, that was one of the best days of my life. Meeting you.’
‘I didn’t mean that. I meant that man. The blind date.’
‘He was all part of the plan. Without him, I would never have met you. Though getting to know you took some effort.’
‘You were persistent, I’ll give you that.’
‘And aren’t you glad I was?’
Rachel smiled. ‘Very.’ It was true. It frightened her a little to think how differently things could have turned out if Simon hadn’t been so tenacious.
‘So,’ he added gently, ‘the question is – do you love me, too?’
She looked into his eyes. Just a few months ago it had seemed she would never find anyone to take the place of Leo. She knew that she never would, but she realised now that it was still possible to fall in love with someone new. ‘I must do. I haven’t been as happy as this in a long time. Yes, I do love you.’ They kissed, then she added, ‘I think Oliver does, too.’
‘So the half-term holiday sounds like a plan?’
‘It does. Oliver will be thrilled. And I think you’d better stay tonight.’
Simon kissed her for a long time. ‘I think so, too. Make everyone’s day.’
Julia and Piers were having a late dinner at Le Caprice with Darius Egan and his Russian girlfriend. Piers was talking about new clients, two Saudi brothers and their cousin, who were looking for property in London.
‘These guys have serious truckloads of money,’ said Piers. ‘One of them drives a Pagani Zonda. His brother has a Bugatti Veyron. Not to mention a fucking stable full of Ferraris and Lamborghinis.’
‘I’d sooner have a Hennessey Venom,’ observed Darius.
‘Bugatti’s faster.’
‘Who would want to drive a fast car in London?’ asked Julia. ‘The traffic doesn’t go above fifteen miles an hour.’
Piers and Darius ignored her and carried on talking. Julia realised that she had been relegated to the status of second-class citizen, just like Darius’s girlfriend. The Russian girl, whose name Julia couldn’t remember, was sitting toying with her cocktail as though nothing was expected of her. And in truth, as far as conversation went, nothing was. Julia thought for a moment of trying to talk to her, but the effort seemed too much. Besides, she didn’t think there was anything about the girl she cared to know. She tried to tune back into her husband’s conversation with Darius.
‘What I really want is to get some investment from them,’ Piers was saying. ‘A serious injection of that kind of money would mean a chain of clubs. I think it’s there, but I need to keep them royally entertained while they’re here.’
‘If it’s women you’re talking about, that’s no problem. And if they’re into gambling, why don’t you bring them to Blunt’s? I don’t just mean the tables. I could set up a big game in one of the private rooms. High stakes, high rollers. Give them a real taste of excitement. The towel-heads love that kind of thing.’
Piers pondered this. ‘That’s not a bad idea. Of course, there are fringe benefits for you, too.’
‘Of course,’ grinned Darius. ‘That’s why I suggested it. If you think they’d be interested, I’ll see if I can come up with a few names.’
On the way home in the taxi, Piers appeared to be asleep. Julia stared out at the dark streets, thinking nothing. Suddenly Piers opened his eyes, laid his hand on Julia’s, and said in his drawling voice, ‘If Darius sets this game up, it might be amusing to rope Anthony Cross into it. He seems to get a kick out of losing money.’
‘Come off it. He’s a novice. Darius is talking about serious players.’
‘You’re rather missing the point. I don’t want my boys to come out of this on the debit side. That’s not going to be much of a fun night out for them. OK, we need some decent players to make it exciting, but a few gullible losers around the place wouldn’t come amiss.’
Julia said nothing for a few moments. A small, vindictive part of her wouldn’t mind seeing Anthony getting into something he couldn’t handle. She felt he’d behaved extremely badly towards her since they’d renewed their acquaintance last autumn. OK, maybe she had let him down cruelly in the past, but good manners dictated that he should grow up and get over it. As for his relationship with Gabrielle – it seemed to her that sometimes he flaunted it just to annoy her. But deep down, and mixed up with all this, was the knowledge that in Anthony she had lost something precious. He really had loved her once. Only in the last year or so of her marriage to Piers had she come to realise what a rare and valuable thing that was. A part of her wanted it back, but she knew it was impossible. Anthony hated her. For that he deserved to be punished.