Page 67 of The Importance of Being Emma
There was no meeting to go to, but my flimsy excuse to get rid of Gusty prompted thoughts of another meeting — the one that I’d expected to have on Saturday morning and that now looked less and less likely to happen. On impulse, I decided to give it one last shot and dialled Emma’s mobile. No answer, so I tried her direct line at Highbury Foods.
‘Emma Woodhouse’s phone, can-ay-yelp-yoo-oo.’
‘Hello, Harriet, it’s Mark Knightley.’
She gave a nervous giggle. ‘Hiya, Mark.’
‘Listen, I need to fix up my next mentoring meeting with Emma. I know it’s short notice but I wondered if she was free for lunch today?’ A full and frank discussion, over a slap-up meal — somewhere classy, where she would think twice about storming off — and who knew what might happen?
‘Seems OK, nothing in the diary — oh, hang on, she’s looking cross and she’s sort of waving at me.’
Trust Harriet to let that one out of the bag; I heard furtive whispers and steeled myself for rejection.
Harriet went on, as if reading from a script, ‘Sorry, I forgot, Emma already has a lunch appointment today.’
‘Oh? I thought you said there was nothing in her diary?’
This put her immediately on the defensive and ensured I got all the details. ‘Well, you see, she’s expecting it to happen but Flynn hasn’t actually rung yet to confirm it. And she only fixed it up yesterday, but I couldn’t put it in her diary then because the office is closed on Sundays, innit?’
Churchill — I might have known; my hand tightened round the receiver. ‘Any other lunch times free this week?’
There was a scuffling sound and I guessed Harriet had put her hand over the mouthpiece; not very effectively as it turned out, because I could still hear her clearly. ‘He says, have you got any other lunch times free this week?’
Although I didn’t catch Emma’s reply, I had no doubt that Harriet’s next words to me repeated it parrot-fashion. ‘Only Thursday, but she thinks that’s when you usually have your Board meeting, so it looks as though this week’s no good, which issucha shame.’
‘Actually,’ I said silkily, ‘I may be able to get away on Thursday for an hour or so. I’ll check the agenda for my Board meeting and let you know.’
In Cherry’s absence, it took a little while to track down the agenda. As soon as I found it, I rang Harriet back.
‘It’s Mark again—’
She interrupted me with, ‘That’s so-o-o spooky, I was going to ask Emma if I should ring you. Guess what? Flynn’s just phoned her and cancelled lunch, he’s got to go into London. Some emergency grooming, Emma said.’
So he’d stood her up, the toe rag! ‘Needs his chest waxing, does he?’
My sarcasm completely passed her by. ‘Ooh, I don’t know about that, she only mentioned a haircut.’
‘All the way to London — for a haircut? . . . Bloody pansy,’ I added, under my breath.
‘Yeah, Emma tried to persuade him to go to Antonio’s in Kingston, so they could still have lunch together. But he said he’d already made an appointment at this posh salon in the West End. Anyway, what time do you want to meet her today?’
‘Unfortunately, since we last spoke I’ve been invited out to lunch myself.’ A downright lie, but I needed to get down to some work. And I certainly wasn’t going to play second fiddle to the toe rag. ‘So it’ll have to be Thursday after all, I’ll pick her up at Highbury Foods at one.’
‘I’ll tell her.’ She giggled. ‘I’m dying to see this Flynn geezer, he sounds amazing, but Emma says I’m not allowed to fancy him because she saw him first. Life’s a bitch, innit?’
I could only agree and hang up, before I said something I really regretted.
* * *
~~EMMA~~
As I came into Harriet’s room, I couldn’t help overhearing the last part of her phone conversation.
‘Why on earth did you tell him about Flynn going to London for a haircut?’ I said sharply, knowing that Mark would waste no time in throwing that back in my face.
She flushed. ‘I thought maybe you could see him today after all.’
I let out an exasperated sigh. ‘Please tell me you haven’t arranged anything.’
