‘Definitely, yes,’ Anna said. She felt as though she would need one if she was going to get through tonight, but she was determined to take it steady. She needed to keep her wits about her.
Daniel took two champagne flutes off a passing waiter and handed one to her. She took a sip, relishing the tartness and the bubbles in her mouth. She had a feeling this was going to be a very long night.
* * *
Half an hour later, Daniel had introduced her to so many people her head was swimming.
‘Daniel, darling, how nice to see you.’ A woman dressed in a tight sheath dress, demonstrating she didn’t have a spare ounce of flesh, enveloped Daniel in a hug, her elbows almost poking Anna in the face. She had no choice but to move a step further away. When the woman eventually released him, she said, ‘So good of you to fill in as MC. Lucinda’s beyond grateful — she can’t stop talking about what a saviour you are.’
As Daniel extracted himself from her grasp he said, ‘Nice to see you, Verity. This is Anna, my partner. Anna, this is Verity, Lucinda’s best friend.’
Verity looked Anna up and down with a barely concealed smirk. ‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘Didn’t anyone tell you the dress code?’
Anna felt her cheeks flush at the question and wished the floor would swallow her up.
‘I . . .’ She tried to answer, but Verity turned away to screech at a woman dressed in a full-length white silk gown festooned with roses around the neckline.
‘Felicity, how lovely to see you.’ Verity air-kissed the woman around both cheeks. Briefly she turned to Daniel. ‘Lovely to see you, Daniel, but we must mingle.’ She linked her arm through Felicity’s and moved away.
‘Rude,’ Anna muttered.
‘Pay no attention,’ Daniel replied. ‘Those two are a right pair.’
But it was the same for the rest of the cocktail hour as Anna tried to ignore the numerous barbed comments about dress code, even though her face flushed whenever it was mentioned.
‘Just ignore them,’ Daniel murmured. ‘They get off on feeling superior.’
‘Funny how it’s me they’re targeting. Your lack of dress code barely gets a mention.’
‘They’re just jealous,’ he replied. She was grateful for his reassurance, but that didn’t make her feel any less like she didn’t belong.
Lucinda grabbed him as they were sitting down to dinner, so he could formally make the introductions for the evening. Anna was left with an empty space beside her at the dinner table. She looked around for someone else to talk to, but the woman on her other side was deep in conversation with the man next to her. The table was so large it made conversation difficult with anyone other than the person sitting next to you. Everywhere people were deep in conversation with their neighbours and no one made any effort to talk to her, despite the fact that she was sitting on her own. They certainly were a cliquey bunch.
Introductions over, Daniel came back to the table. As he sat down, he took her hand.
‘I’m sorry, it looks as though I’m going to have to keep abandoning you.’
‘It can’t be helped.’ Anna noticed the guilty look on his face.
‘I wish I’d just given a hefty donation to the charity and was curled up next to you on the sofa with a takeaway and a good film.’
‘Oh, me too. Shame we can’t just slip away, but I think people might notice if you weren’t here.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘I know and I’m sorry to put you through this.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘Once the dinner and auction is over, will there be dancing?’
‘Yes, till the early hours if I know this lot, but we don’t have to stay that long.’
‘Might be nice to have a dance together though.’ She was looking on the bright side. ‘We’ve never done that before, have we?’
‘No, we haven’t,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘There’s a lot of things we haven’t done together. Like go on holiday for one.’
‘There hasn’t been time.’
‘No, we’ve both been so busy, but once the school holidays are over, I’ve got the school more organised and you’ve done your next exhibition, maybe we could get away together, just the two of us, even if it’s only for a long weekend.’
‘Yes, I’d like that,’ Anna said, thinking how wonderful their relationship was when it was just the two of them. It was only when the rest of the world stepped in that the problems started.
