Page 56 of Wife After Wife
Harry felt an arm slip around his waist. “Harry, darling! What a delicious surprise.” Merry stood on tiptoes to reach his cheek. “Mwah!Where’s wifey? Exploring? She’s a bit of a gardener, if I remember correctly.”
“Katie couldn’t make it.”
As Harry went to introduce the women to each other, he caught the look on Terri’s face. No doubt she’d already slotted Merry into the pigeonhole labeledHas never done a proper day’s work in her life; lures rich men onto the two rocks proudly displayed in that too-tight blouse.
“Terri, meet Merry. Merry, Terri. Oh, fun with rhyme. Terri, Merry’s Ana’s sister, married to an old school friend of mine. Merry—”
“You’re Ana’s boss,” interrupted Merry. “Oh no, wait. She’s onHooray!now.”
“Harry snatched her,” said Terri. “He’s always had an eye for... talent.”
Merry’s eyes narrowed. She looked at Harry. “Darling, have you seen the McCarey Scottish Garden? I thought it would be fun to sponsor something this year. Come see!” She hooked her arm through his and threw a chilly glance at Terri. “Would you excuse us?”
The unforgiving rays of the evening sun fell on Merry’s bleached hair and heavily made-up face. Seeing her in the harsh light of day, instead of the gentle, through-the-curtain sunlight of the South Ken flat, Harry realized how much she’d changed since they began seeing each other—from soft and playful to something far more brittle.
“I’ve already seen it,” he said, firmly removing his arm from hers. “Amazing what you can do with heather. You’ll be pleased to hear Ana’s doing an exceptional job onHooray!Did she tell you she won an industry award? Designer of the Year, no less.”
He remembered how she’d glowed at the ceremony, the touch of her skin as he’d hugged her afterward, the lightning bolt of desire that had hit him.
“Your sister is almost obscenely talented. Right, Terri?”
“Says the man who fookin’ stole her from me,” said Terri. “But yes, Ana’s style is to die for.”
CHAPTER 20
Ana
When Percy told Ana that BWG had won the Rose account, her first reaction was surprise. Swiftly followed, of course, by joy.
But then back to surprise. She’d always had the impression that Harry didn’t rate Percy, and she kind of understood that. Her fiancé bought into Harry’s whole rock star–businessman persona, going starry-eyed whenever he was around the great man. While she had no doubt this appealed to Harry’s obvious vanity, it probably didn’t encourage his respect. Ana found it embarrassing and doubled her efforts to avoid Harry when Percy was in the building.
Perhaps the others on the agency team had swung it. She had to admit their strategies were good. Percy’s boss, Connor Black, had a creative background and was renowned for his edgy TV commercials. Ana guessed it was Connor’s ideas that had won BWG the account, rather than Percy’s efforts to communicate those.
She put aside the negative thoughts. Why had she even allowed them to intrude, as she sat here at her parents’ kitchen table, daydreaming about her big day? She focused instead on the seating plan in front of her.
They were in Kent for the weekend, to go through the wedding arrangements. Her father and Percy had walked down to the King Henry VIII for a Sunday lunchtime pint. She wondered how they weregetting on and hoped they’d found some common conversational ground. She’d suggested topics: “Cricket. Dad’s memories of World War Two. Avoid politics. Cricket again.” Her father could be rather brusque and didn’t approve of advertising as a profession. Percy seemed a little terrified of him.
Meanwhile, as a leg of lamb roasted in the Aga, Ana and her mother had so far finalized the wording of the invite and made a start on the seating plan.
Ana was glad her parents had agreed to leave out their titles. Percy had wanted “Sir Thomas and Lady Lyebon request the pleasure...” but Ana preferred the less formal “Thomas and Elizabeth Lyebon...”
Now she and her mother were poring over an A3 sheet of paper with circles drawn on it, moving around slips of paper with the guests’ names on.
“It’s so clever, what you’re doing with the themes.”
“Thanks, Mum. I basically can’t stop designing things.”
From the flowers to the place settings to the invitations, Ana was styling it all herself. Apart from the dress, of course. That had been bought in Paris last month. Ana had suggested the trip to Merry as an olive branch, feeling a sisterly rift wouldn’t be a good idea with a family wedding on the horizon. Happily they’d managed to paper over the cracks in their relationship.
Ana had now accepted that perhaps Merry and Harry’s affair wasn’t such a terrible thing. No doubt both needed an escape from difficult situations at home, and what was a bit of harmless sex, if no one got hurt? Because surely that was all it was, even if Merry’s fantasies said otherwise.
As a further gesture of peace, she’d asked Merry to be her matron of honor, but she’d turned it down saying, “One never wants to be matronly, and there’s not a lot of honor in there, frankly.”
The reception would be at Hever Castle, close to the village where her parents lived. It was costing a fortune, but Ana’s increased salary meant she could contribute. They could have chosen a less splendidvenue, but Ana was emotionally attached to the castle where she, Merry, and their friends had played princesses and queens in the grounds, in the days before CCTV had made sneaking in impossible. Anywhere else just wouldn’t have felt right.
Megan was her wedding planner. They’d spent many evenings discussing flowers and color schemes and menus, and sometimes Charles was there, reminding Megan that he fully intended for them to run away to a tropical island because he couldn’t face all this nonsense.
It was fun having Charles around. Ana would miss his company when she and Percy moved into their own place. After Charles had explained the amicable agreement he’d come to with his wife, Ana had accepted that he and Megan were good together. The former wild child was now at her happiest tucked up on the sofa with Charles, watching TV.
