Page 16 of The Importance of Being Emma
I felt I owed it to Henry to kick off the mentoring as soon as possible. It proved easier said than done; whenever I phoned to speak to Emma I was told, usually by a giggling Harriet, that she was in a meeting.
Three days after my first call, she rang me back. ‘Sorry I haven’t been in touch until now, I’m having a busy week.’
‘Glad to hear it, we’ll have lots to discuss at our first mentoring meeting.’
‘Can’t wait. Things should calm down in a fortnight or so, what about week commencing—’
‘If you’re so busy at work,’ I put in, sensing stalling tactics, ‘why don’t I come over to Hartfield this weekend? Your father’s very keen for us to get started.’
There was a pause. Then she said coolly, ‘If you must. Saturday afternoon, about four?’
‘Perfect. I’m meeting Steve Chapman — my mate from school, remember? — at six thirty, so our meeting will have to finish by six, but that should give us enough time. No need to bring anything from the office, it’ll just be an informal chat.’
At twenty to four on Saturday afternoon, I set off for Hartfield along the bridle path. Small white clouds scudded across an azure sky, the air was crisp and invigorating and the leaves were starting to turn. I was in no mood to appreciate the beauty of an English autumn, however. As I walked, I rehearsed how the meeting would go. I would be business-like, objective, professional. In short, I would pretend I was dealing with anyone except Emma Woodhouse.
I reached Hartfield at four o’clock prompt. An elderly and unfamiliar Vauxhall Nova was parked on the drive, but I was absorbed in my thoughts and didn’t pay much attention.
Emma came to the front door, in a green V-necked jumper that brought out the colour of her eyes. ‘Hi there, would you believe I’ve got some unexpected visitors.’ She grinned like aCheshire cat. ‘I’ll get rid of them as quickly as I can, then we can get on with the mentoring. I know you need to get away by six.’
To my surprise, I found Harriet in the drawing room. Apparently she was the model for Emma’s marketing campaign and had dropped by to find a suitable outfit. Kate was there too, just returned from honeymoon. Somehow I knew that neither visit was unexpected; everything had been planned with military precision.
‘Harriet and I’ll be upstairs looking at clothes,’ Emma said airily. ‘I’m sure you two have plenty of catching up to do, help yourselves to tea.’ As they went out of the room, I turned to Kate with a smile.
‘Do you mind if I make a quick phone call?’
‘Not at all.’
I sat down and called Steve to put our meeting back an hour. It was just a local pub crawl with some of our crowd; it didn’t really matter if I was delayed, as long as I knew where to find them later in the evening.
When I’d finished, Kate handed me a cup of tea. ‘It’s great to see you.’
‘And you. I don’t need to ask if you’ve had a good honeymoon, it’s obvious. Congratulations, by the way. I’m sure you and Tom will be very happy.’
‘We should be, we’ve had four whole years to get to know each other.’
Her words made me think. How well did I know Tamara? In theory we’d had the time, but maybe not the inclination.
I changed the subject. ‘What do you think about Emma’s latest fixation? By that I mean Harriet.’
‘It’s good for her to see someone her own age, she’s lost touch with most of her old friends from round here.’
This namby-pamby reply was only to be expected from Kate Weston; in her eyes, Emma was perfect. And since Emma wentthrough a pretence of consulting Kate before doing exactly as she liked, they were always in complete harmony.
‘Sorry, I have to disagree with you, as usual where Emma’s concerned. I don’t think it’s good for her, it’s a very unequal relationship. She’s treating Harriet like some sort of giant doll — for God’s sake, she’s even dressing her up as we speak!’ I glared at Kate, but she just smiled and carried on drinking her tea. I took a gulp of mine, then added, ‘The trouble with Emma is that she thinks she’s got nothing to learn.’
Kate laughed. ‘Actually, Emma’s learnt an awful lot over the last few years. About economics and business administration, for a start. And men.’
I nearly choked on my next mouthful of tea. ‘Men? She knows as much about men as I do about leg waxing. Know what? She needs a man who won’t let her wind him round her little finger, that might waken her ideas up a bit.’
‘She doesn’t seem to go for men like that. Have you ever met any of her boyfriends?’
‘No,’ I said shortly. ‘I get the occasional update from John and Izzy, I seem to remember she’s had two serious relationships to date and isn’t seeing anyone at the moment.’
‘That’s right, and both those boys were much keener than she was. She met Piers in her first year at LSE, he was heartbroken when she went to the States. Then for most of her time at Harvard she lived with Scott and he even followed her back here. But she wasn’t that interested. Just as well, I didn’t rate either of them as good enough. Neither did Tom, he thinks the world of her of course, she’s like a daughter to him.’ Another little smile.
I put my cup carefully down on its saucer. ‘Got plans in that direction, have you?’
She went pink. ‘You mean Emma and Flynn? Not plans exactly, Tom and I just think they’ll hit it off extremely well. Theywere due to meet at our wedding of course, then Stella wangled Flynn a TV chat show appearance and he had to drop everything and stay in Australia.’
