* * *
Anna’s phone rang as she made herself a cup of tea in the kitchen. It was Daniel. She paused for a moment, wondering whether or not to answer it, and then accepted the call.
‘Hi,’ she said.
‘Are you home yet? I waited until I thought you would be.’
‘Yes, all arrived safely.’ She tried to make her voice sound breezy, but the memory of those catty comments weighed heavily on her.
‘Yours or mine?’
‘Mine.’ She needed to be around her own family for a few days, with the familiarity of her own life, not a reminder of Daniel’s.
‘Oh. I thought you were going to stay at mine, make it easier for editing.’
‘I was. I might. I’ll probably go there during the daytime, but I wanted to spend some time here.’
‘Of course. I’m sorry. We’re leading a bit of a nomadic lifestyle here, aren’t we?’
‘Yes. Nowhere really feels like home at the moment,’ she said.
‘You’re talking about the weekend, aren’t you?’
‘Yes. I thought I could deal with it, but then I saw Lucinda’s Instagram post.’
‘Ahh,’ he said. ‘I was hoping you hadn’t seen that.’
‘Not exactly pleasant, is it?’
‘I’m furious about it. I spoke to Lucinda earlier and told her to take it down. It’s gone now.’
‘That’s something, I suppose.’
‘I also reiterated that you were here to stay, so she’d better get used to it and rein her friends in.’
‘Daniel?’
‘Yes?’
She paused, not quite knowing how to frame her words. ‘What if it’s not a question of Lucinda reining her friends in?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It’s just a feeling. She didn’t make any nasty comments on the post, or at the ball, but I get the feeling that she’s behind it all.’ When he didn’t say anything, she continued. ‘I mean, what if she’s loading the gun and getting her friends to fire the bullets?’
‘I don’t think she’d do that.’
‘Don’t you?’
‘No.’ He paused. Then, sounding irritated, he carried on. ‘Look, the main thing is that we don’t let them get to us. I’ve made it quite clear to Lucinda that I’m not happy and I’m definitely not going to be doing her any favours in the future. From now on, our only contact is going to be about Ben. She’ll get the message. And, in the meantime, we need to concentrate on us and our lives. I’m coming back up on Thursday and we can spend some time alone together.’
‘That will be nice,’ she said, although she wasn’t as confident as Daniel that this would blow over so easily.
* * *
‘It was white tie?’ Eva was aghast after Anna filled her in during their visit the next day.
‘I’m afraid so. I stuck out like a bloody sore thumb.’
