Page 31 of A Colourful Country Escape
Why bother to involve yourself in the mundane task of choosing your own wife, Lexie thought with a huff. What was wrong with these people? Or maybe even perfection wasn’t good enough for Monk Benedict.
Cory pointed at the same brunette who’d caught Lexie’s eye. ‘She’s not bad, bro.’
‘Then she’s all yours,’ said Ben. ‘Lexie, are you ready for our meeting? We can go through the stats in my office.’
‘Alexis, what do you think?’ Mrs Carrington-Noble croaked her interruption, seemingly keen to stop her prized son and his meagre employee making their escape. She waved her arm across the photos lined up on the table.
Lexie was certain the woman had no interest in what she thought. And Lexie wanted no part in this outrageousX Factor-style process for finding Ben a wife, even if this did look like that fun episode with the judges’ houses. The idea of selecting a life partner based on their blow-dry and bank balance was all a bit sickening.
Lexie shrugged. ‘Don’t ask me – I’m a fish out of water.’ More accurately she felt like a crappy sardine in a sea of rich mermaids.
Mrs Moon gave Lexie a discreet shoulder squeeze. Lexie gave a tiny smile. She guessed the housekeeper would have years of experience in swishing around the outskirts of these circles.
‘Let’s just go through some stats here, Lexie. I’m far too busy to bounce around. I have some papers in my briefcase,’ said Ben, with his usual air of impatience.
Cory whistled through his teeth. ‘You know how to excite the ladies.’
‘Cornelius!’ his mother snapped.
Lexie tried not to giggle. Was that his real name?
Cory grabbed a beanie from his back pocket and pulled it sheepishly over his head until it reached his eyebrows.
‘A Bulgari Serpenti!’ Mrs Moon yelped, as though trying to create a distraction. She was pointing to the snakelike chain around the brunette lady’s neck. ‘Rose gold, demi-pavé diamonds. Well, that’s worth at least fifty thousand pounds.’
Cory and Lexie gawped at Mrs Moon. Where was she getting this left-field knowledge of bling?
Mrs Carrington-Noble narrowed her eyes at the photo. ‘Quite right. How would you know such a thing?’
Mrs Moon looked flustered and rearranged her bonnet. ‘No reason. Lucky guess!’
‘And your point?’ asked Ben, looking unimpressed, as he pushed his mother’s paperwork aside to make space for his own.
‘Well, look at the woman’s description,’ Mrs Moon continued. ‘It says, “Job title: lady of leisure. Hobbies: collecting eligible men.” And jewellery she hasn’t paid for, I shouldn’t wonder. She sounds like a professional gold-digger.’
‘After my money!’ Mrs Carrington-Noble squawked. ‘I’ll have no such thing. Good work, Mrs Moon.’
‘But, Mrs M, how on earth …?’ Cory began.
From the housekeeper’s tight lips, it was clear the conversation was over.
Mrs Carrington-Noble swept Ben’s stats to one side and laid out her next top trump. ‘How about this one? Thoroughbred and local.’
They all looked at the fresh-faced, sporty-looking beauty in the photo. All except Ben, who’d stalked over to Lexie’s brightly decorated desk with his papers. He seemed distracted by Tom, who was out on the lawn trying to shoo off the peacocks.
Cory began fiddling with the hem of his T-shirt. The room went unusually silent, other than the tut-tutting of the grandmother clock in the corner.
‘Well?’ asked Mrs Carrington-Noble.
‘Erm, not her, Mum.’ Cory lowered his voice. ‘I may have surfed that wave already.’
Mrs Carrington-Noble harrumphed. Mrs Moon straightened her apron and pretended not to hear.
Unsure which was the rock and which was the hard place, Lexie took the chance to creep away and join Ben by the window.
‘All I wanted to do was talk stats,’ he muttered towards the window, his voice deflating. ‘Even social media audience figures and website traffic news are preferable to this.’
‘I was just trying to mind my own business,’ Lexie replied, their joint breath making a patch of steam on the window. Lexie resisted the urge to draw a sad smiley in it.
