Page 101 of The Importance of Being Emma
Most of them had some experience of Saffron, so they fully understood the situation. ‘Surprised George stuck it out this long,’ one of them muttered as they left the room.
John stayed behind. To my relief, he didn’t raise the subject of Emma; instead, he asked me if I wanted a hand with the arrangements for tomorrow.
‘Tomorrow?’ I said, preoccupied with opening an urgent email about the Parkinson contract.
He chuckled. ‘That little informal surprise party Saffron’s expecting, remember?’
‘Oh, that.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘Between us, Mrs Burn and I seem to have it all under control. Everyone should have got their invitation this morning. As it’s such short notice and the numbers are small, I didn’t bother with RSVP. And I’ve said drinks and canapés, so that people feel they can drop in even if they’re already booked to go somewhere else for the evening.’
‘Poor Father, a party’ll be the last thing he feels like.’
‘Do you think he had any choice in the matter?’
Another chuckle. ‘No, but we did.’
‘Sorry, I couldn’t be bothered to fight this particular battle,’ I said, with a hollow laugh. ‘I’d like my last few days in England to be relatively happy and healthy ones.’
‘Point taken. Have you heard what time they’re getting here?’
‘Mid-afternoon, Saffron’s stopping on the way for some emergency repair work. You know, hair, facelift, and so on. Oh, there is something you could do for me.’
‘What’s that?’
‘On your way into work, can you collect Tao from the kennels and take him to Donwell? Mrs Burn will be there from half past eight.’
He grimaced. ‘I get all the good jobs, don’t I?’
Just after he’d left, Cherry called out, ‘I’ve got someone on the phone for you. Wouldn’t give me her name, just said something about Mrs Burn.’
Shit, all I needed was for Mrs Burn to fall ill or something. ‘Better put her through, whoever she is.’
But as soon as I heard the voice, I knew I’d made a mistake.
‘Marrrk?’
‘’Morning, Gusty,’ I said coolly. ‘What’s this about Mrs Burn?’
‘Sheila’s come to do some extra cleaning for me and she says you’re organising a little soirée to celebrate the return of your father and stepmother.’
Good God, it hadn’t taken her long to extract that information out of poor Mrs Burn, it was barely twenty past nine.
I made an effort to remain civil. ‘I can’t see how that concerns you. It just means she’ll be working longer hours tomorrow, when she usually comes to Donwell anyway.’
‘Actually, Marrrk, there are one or two things thatdoconcern me,’ she purred. ‘Firstly, Philip and I don’t seem to havereceived our invitation and Sheila assures me that they were all posted first class on Saturday. And secondly, I hate to be blunt, but it sounds like a rather low-key affair.’
She paused and I took the opportunity to deal with her first point. ‘You and Philip haven’t received your invitation because I haven’t sent you one.’
‘Oh, a little oversight, we can soon remedy that,’ she said airily. ‘But I have some very exciting ideas for livening up the party and there’s no time to lose. As soon as you give me the nod, I’ll get started. My sister once hired a very classy—’
I cut in before she could enlighten me further. ‘There’s only one woman I’d consult about this party.’
After a moment she snapped, ‘Not Kate Weston, surely.’
‘No.’
‘Who then?’
‘Mrs Knightley.’
