"Oh. Oliver's back in London? Is he going to come to the show too?" Mabel asked.
"I'm not sure, but India is now saying that Leonard can pick us up in the helicopter on his way from Southampton. We can all go to the opening together and then dinner at Clarke's."
"Alamak, another tasteless English dinner." Mabel groaned.
Cassandra checked her Facebook wall and let out a sudden gasp. "Oh. My. God." She clasped her hands over her mouth, staring at the photos that flashed through on her iPad. Oliver wasn't talking about Casimir's silly little exhibit after all. These were the photos he was talking about.
"What are you looking at now? Another piece of dirty gossip from one of your unreliable kang taos?"*5 her mother asked derisively.
"Jacqueline, you need to see this!" Cassandra said, handing her the iPad. Jacqueline peered at the screen and saw an image of Astrid standing on a turret next to an elephant.
"I don't get it. What's the big deal?" Jacqueline asked.
"Oh, you're on the last photo. Scroll up. There's a whole series of photos."
Jacqueline waved her hand over the screen, her eyes widening as she scrutinized the images. "Are these real?"
"Looks pretty real to me," Cassandra chuckled.
"Dear me … "
"What is it?" Mabel asked.
Jacqueline held up the iPad, and from across the table, Mabel could see the blaring headline:
EXCLUSIVE PICS OF TECH TITAN CHARLES WU'S LAVISH PROPOSAL TO GIRLFRIEND ASTRID LEONG-BUT SHE'S STILL MARRIED!
"Alamak! Let me see! Let me see!" Mabel demanded excitedly. A footman wordlessly appeared at Jacqueline's side. She handed the iPad to him and he dutifully walked it over to the other side of the table where Mabel was seated. Lucia, clearly not as engrossed in Siddhartha as she pretended to be, rushed over to peer at the pictures with her grandmother, reading aloud:
"The ink hasn't even dried on Hong Kong tech titan Charles Wu's divorce papers yet, but this apparently didn't stop him from orchestrating an over-the-top marriage proposal to his gorgeous girlfriend Astrid Leong. The million-dollar proposal involved renting out the fairy-tale Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, hiring more than a hundred musicians and dancers, and having Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan serenade them while an elephant helped to deliver the ginormous diamond ring. Looking at the pictures, Astrid has obviously said yes, but there's one small problem-as far as we know, this high-born beauty is STILL MARRIED to Charlie's arch rival, the Singapore tech wünderkind Michael Teo."
Mabel squinted at the picture. "Aiyah, hou sau ga!*6 When were these taken?"
"Last weekend, it looks like," Jacqueline said.
"Last weekend? But isn't Astrid in Singapore with the rest of the family?"
"Obviously she snuck out of town with Charlie. My God, can you imagine how furious Felicity and Harry are going to be when they see this?" Cassandra said, shaking her head.
"Not only that, but this is a disaster for her divorce case. Michael's going to have so much new ammunition now. Poor Astrid!" Jacqueline sighed.
Mabel huffed, "Poor Astrid my foot! She should be at her grandmother's bedside instead of splashed all over the news! How dare that Charlie Wu propose to her again! The cheek of him … still trying to invade our family! I thought Felicity got rid of him years ago!"
"Oh Mother, those two have been in love since day one. If Felicity had let it happen the first time around, the whole Michael Teo disaster would never have happened!" Cassandra said.
"Felicity was right to put a full stop to that nonsense. Those Wus were completely unacceptable! That ghastly vulgar mother of his-I'll never forget what she did to me!"
"What did Irene Wu do to you?" Jacqueline asked.
Cassandra rolled her eyes. "That's ancient history, Mum. Please don't bring it up again!"
"That! Woman! Tried! To! Steal! My! Seamstress! I found this girl, Minnie Pock, who did the most wonderful tailoring. She had a little shop next to Fitzpatrick's on Dunearn Road, soooo convenient, and she could replicate all the Nina Ricci, Scherrer, and Féraud dresses I loved so perfectly."
"My goodness, Mabel, those Louis Férauds were fakes? They looked like they came straight from his Paris boutique!" Jacqueline lied.
Mabel nodded indignantly. "Yes, I had everyone fooled. But then that Irene Wu came along and tried to hire the girl to work in their tacky 'mansion' full-time! So then I had to go and hire her full-time!"