The Lie of Love (15 page)

‘What do you say to Amanda?’ Darcy
prompted, trying to look stern but unable to keep the smile from her face.

‘Thank you!’ he cried, ripping
into the box lid to get at the toy inside.

‘Thanks,’ Darcy said, giving
Amanda a brief hug.  ‘You have time for a slice of lemon drizzle and a drink?’

‘Always.’
Amanda followed Darcy into the kitchen and sat at the table while Darcy reached
up to a high cupboard for plates.

‘Did you manage ok without me at
the bag pack?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ Amanda replied. ‘The
Brownies did a spectacular job and there were more than enough of them. All I
had to do was stand around and look important.’

‘I’m sure that came naturally.’
Darcy put two plates out and pulled back the foil on a tray of thickly iced
cake, a sweetly sharp tang filling the air as she did so.  ‘Sorry I
couldn’t be there, I feel awful –’

‘Don’t be silly,’ Amanda
interrupted. ‘Of course you couldn’t be there and everyone was simply lovely
about it. It was a good day too – I banked the money this morning.’ She
rummaged in her bag and pulled out a slip of paper. ‘That’s our balance so
far.’

Darcy smiled as she gazed at it.
‘Wow. I never imagined in our wildest dreams we’d even get a tenth of the way
there but this….’

‘I know. It seems to be
snowballing, doesn’t it?’ She grinned. ‘Pretty soon we won’t even have to be at
anything; we could just leave a bucket outside your house and watch everyone
toss money in.’

Darcy laughed and sat across from
her. ‘I wouldn’t go that far.’

‘I’ll almost be sorry when it’s
all over.’

Darcy smiled. ‘I won’t be. But
you have been a rock and I couldn’t have done it without you.’

‘I can’t take all the credit.
Julia has done a lot of work too.’

‘Yes…’ Darcy shot up from her
chair
again,
the mention of Harry’s mum sending her
into a new spasm of agitation. She had thought herself doing well in her
attempt to forget him, yet at every turn there was something new to remind
her.  Not that Julia could help it, of course, and not that Julia deserved
to be thought of that way either. If there was ever a victim in this mess,
Julia Simmons was pretty high on the list of candidates.  Darcy had
pictured her, trying to figure out who Harry’s secret girlfriend was, visions
of future weddings and grandchildren dancing through her proud head, when the
reality was something seedy and unforgivable.  

She pulled out two mugs from the
cupboard with shaking hands.

‘Julia is driving herself mad
trying to find out what Harry is up to.’ Amanda cut into the cake and placed a
slice on each plate.

‘Up to?’
Darcy said, fighting to keep her voice level.

‘Disappearing all day, coming
home smelling of perfume with a huge grin on his face. She’s certain there’s a
girl involved.’

‘Sounds like it,’ Darcy said,
forcing a laugh from her constricted throat. ‘It could be Rachel from the Sugar
Cube.’

‘They did seem very keen on each
other but Rachel says he’s stopped coming in for coffee so it can’t be her… and
he’s been swapping his lifeguard shifts at the last minute. All very mysterious
if you ask me…’ Amanda popped a corner of cake in her mouth and gave a
satisfied grunt.
‘Gorgeous, as usual, Darcy.’

Darcy painted a smile onto her
numb face as she brought the teapot to the table. ‘Thanks. I’ve had plenty of
time for baking the last couple of days and it keeps Jake happy to ply him with
cake.’

‘And how is our sweet little
Sophie bearing up in this time of crisis?’

‘Good,’ Darcy said, grateful for
the chance to steer the conversation back into safer waters. ‘In fact, I think
she’s quite enjoying the fact that Jake being injured sort of levels them,
physically, if you know what I mean. And it’s brought home to Jake exactly what
Sophie goes through every day of her life. In many ways, I think it’s been a
good thing – made them understand each other better.’

‘That’s good,’ Amanda replied.
‘Really,’ she added, ‘you must stop baking if you know I’m coming. This
marvellous cake is playing havoc with my attempts to lose weight for Sardinia.’

‘I forgot that was coming up. How
will I manage without you for a whole two weeks?’

‘I’m sure it will be just fine.
I’ll leave the glory of my aura behind for you to bask in.’

Darcy
laughed,
the first genuine laugh in many days.

‘Now, enough of that nonsense,’
Amanda cut in with a smile. ‘I need to talk to you about the fashion show. You
will be coming, won’t you?’

‘Hopefully, in another week
things will be settled around here again so I think it should be alright,’
Darcy replied carefully.

‘Only Julia wants to know if
you’ll be making an appearance on stage to give a thank you speech at the end.’

‘
A speech
?’
Darcy spluttered. ‘I don’t know…’

‘Of course you must. The whole
thing is about Sophie, after all.
‘If you don’t want to, how
about
Ged
?
  He’d have small children
running and screaming from his churlish expression but it’s better than no
thank you speech at all.’

‘I can’t see him agreeing to
that,’ Darcy said, aware that
Ged
wasn’t likely to agree to anything she asked him right now. ‘I suppose I’ll
have to do it.’

‘Good. Julia will be pleased.
So, what about an outfit?’

‘An outfit?
What… for me?’

‘Of course for
you, ninny.
It’s a fashion show – you can’t just turn up in your jeans.’

‘Can’t I?’

Amanda sighed. ‘I don’t suppose
you own a single evening gown, do you?’

‘There isn’t much call for
evening gowns in my everyday life.’

‘I have plenty. If you don’t want
to buy one you can rummage through my wardrobe, see if there’s anything small
enough to fit.’

‘Well… spending money on one does
sort of defeat the object as we’re supposed to be raising money not spending
it.’

‘One has to speculate to
accumulate, darling, but point taken.’

Darcy dug a fork into her cake.
‘Do I have to wear an evening gown?’ she asked like a child who had just been
told to wash behind their ears again.

‘Absolutely.
Trust your aunty Amanda; she knows best.’

Ged’s
exact response had been:
I’m not sitting all night with a bunch of crusty
students and mad old ladies with more money than sense
. Which Darcy had
taken to mean he wouldn’t go to go to the fashion show if his life depended on
it.
  At first she had been disappointed, and a little
angry, but then she realised that it saved having to find a babysitter as it
was not an event suitable for children.

As she walked into the vast room,
side-by-side with Amanda, feeling more conspicuous than she had ever done in
her life dressed in a black, floor length, diamante trimmed gown with a
neckline so low she was afraid the stretch marks on her stomach would show,
Julia glided across from a small knot of young people looking even more
conspicuous in her gold number than Darcy felt in hers.  

‘The place looks fantastic,
doesn’t it?’ Julia smiled as she kissed them both on the cheek. ‘The students
have done an incredible job.’

Darcy ran her gaze over the
space.  A few contacts had led to a few more contacts and rather than the student
union bar, their original venue, they now stood in one of the
swisher
nightclubs of the area, which had been loaned to
them in return for the club keeping the bar revenues. A makeshift catwalk had
been stretched along the length of the
dancefloor
with
chairs
either side, and
a podium for the
compere
placed alongside it on a small platform. 
Balloons festooned the lighting rigs on the high ceiling and a silver curtain
shielded the area where the models were to change outfits with alarming
regularity and speed.  This was a world that was alien to Darcy in every
sense and she wanted nothing more than to be snuggled up in her jeans and
fluffy slippers on her sofa with a book. Tonight, however, she knew she had to
be the sparkling hostess, even if it was all pretend. 

‘It’s wonderful,’ she said.

‘You should see some of the
creations,’ Julia continued. ‘The models look stunning in them. I’ve seen Harry
eye up quite a few of the prettier girls…’

Darcy’s stomach clenched. Harry
was here? She had considered the possibility but in light of their last
conversation she had thought he might have the sense to stay away. She wondered
vaguely how much of the colour had drained from her face.  What could she
possibly say to him if they met? How could they pretend that they were nothing
to each other after all that had happened?

‘He’s seeing someone, though, I’m
certain of it. He won’t tell me, of course. Boys are like that, secretive…
you’ll see one day,’ Julia added cheerfully.

‘Is there anything you need us to
do?’ Amanda cut in.

‘I have the cash box to set up
somewhere safe,’ Darcy added, forcibly removing all thoughts of Harry and
reminding herself, as well as the others, why she was here. ‘For if we sell any
of the garments tonight and for last minute ticket sales.’

‘Oh, we have the ticket situation
sorted,’ Julia said. ‘The girl who normally takes the admission money for the
club said she would cover the door tonight so there’s no need for you to stand
out in the entrance all evening missing the show. As for the clothes sales, I
can get Harry to take care of that. He’s not doing anything else other than
getting under everyone’s feet so he might as well make himself useful.’

Darcy nodded mutely, unable to
trust herself to speak at that moment.  Not for the first time she wished
fervently that Harry could have been someone else’s son – anyone’s rather than
Julia’s.

‘Fantastic,’ Amanda purred,
linking Darcy’s arm. ‘So all we have to do is play hostess and mingle. That’s
my kind of fundraising.’

Amanda led Darcy over to a group
of people. She had no more idea who they were than Darcy did but, being the
more gregarious of them, she soon found out that they included some of the
designers and their university tutors.  Amanda led a lively chat about the
night and what sort of thing they were likely to see, whilst Darcy did her best
to nod and smile and look interested, all the while her gaze flitting from
corner to corner of the dimly lit room searching for a sign of the person she
dreaded seeing, and yet wanted to see more than anything else.  The room
started to fill with paying guests and the hubbub grew louder as new
conversations around the room competed with theirs; mixed scents and warmer air
following the newcomers in.  Darcy wished she could run and hide, but she
kept her nerve and reminded herself time and again why she was there.  She
had instigated this, all of it, and she couldn’t let Sophie down now no matter
how hard she found it.

From the corner of her eye she
saw Julia talking to someone by the silver curtains. She realised, with a jolt,
that it was Harry. He was dressed in a sharp black suit and tie, nothing like
the beach bum image he usually liked to portray, and the contrast made him
painfully handsome.  Darcy fought the ache of desire gnawing at her, the
familiar longing to twist that thick hair in her fingers, to have those lips
caress every inch of her, to feel that lean chest naked against hers. She
watched as Julia handed him the cash box. For a second, he looked up and across
the room, meeting her gaze.  Darcy felt the heat rush to her face, but he
seemed cool, unperturbed by the sight of her. He gave a small
smile,
and a carefree raise of the hand in a greeting that
was obviously designed to allay suspicion in his mother, who now followed his
gaze to see where it had settled.

‘I think we should sit down,’
Darcy said in a small voice to Amanda.

Amanda continued to elaborate on
some anecdote of her own youth to a pretty young student, oblivious to Darcy’s
distress.

‘Amanda,’ Darcy said again. ‘Can we
sit down?’

‘Sorry… oh, Darcy, don’t you feel
well?’

‘Just a little
faint.
It’s a bit hot in here and I’m so nervous about the speech it’s
making me queasy.’

‘Darling, why didn’t you say?’
Amanda made their excuses and led Darcy to a seat near the
compere’s
stand.

‘Can’t we sit further from the
stage?’

‘Afraid not.’
Amanda sat and patted the chair next to her for Darcy to do the same. ‘VIP
area here and we, of course, are the
VIPest
of the
VIPs.’

Darcy tried to smile and sat down
feeling anything but happy. This was far too close to Harry and temptation for
her liking and she tried to ignore the fact that now he was only a few feet
away, setting up a table with their cash box on it. She could almost feel his
eyes, burning into her back.  Why had she been stupid enough to think that
she could avoid him until he went back to university? It was only a matter of
time before she ran into him again while she was so closely involved with his
mother. She was tempted to think that he had invited himself along tonight just
to see her but she chided herself for it – that was an arrogant and stupid
thing to believe.  Julia had hit the nail on the head; he was there to see
what young and lovely model he could chat up.

‘It’s filling up nicely, isn’t
it?’ Amanda said, breaking into her thoughts. ‘Just think of all that lovely
ticket money. I do think we’ll have Sophie away before the end of the year if
we keep up this momentum. Have you contacted the surgeon yet to discuss dates?’

Darcy turned to her. ‘I haven’t
really thought that far ahead…. I mean, I thought it would take us much longer
than this to raise the money and there didn’t seem any point…. Do you think I
should?’

‘You’ve spoken to him at some
point, haven’t you?’

‘Yes, a brief phone call to talk
about her condition and then I emailed him a video of her mobilising so he
could assess her. He’d rather do it in person, but he said that he was used to
people from other countries having to do it that way until they could afford to
see him in person.’

‘That’s good. Perhaps we ought to
think about setting a target, a realistic end date for all this.’

‘Don’t you think we should just
raise the money first and then worry about fixing a date to go?’

‘That way leads to complacency,’
Amanda smiled. ‘If I push you towards a target you’re going to be under
pressure to meet it.’

‘And that’s good because…?’

‘Because
there’s no urgency in the other way.
You could amble along for months
and months, sitting around in supermarkets with your tin rather than being
dynamic and organising more nights like this. Take advantage, in the nicest
possible way, of Julia’s good nature, and Harry too while he’s available.
Before long he’ll be back at university and we’ve lost another valuable pair of
hands.’

Darcy stared into space, lost in
her thoughts. Perhaps Amanda had a point. This whole enterprise, aside from the
emotional complications of her ailing marriage and secret trysts with Harry,
had been far more stressful than she had ever imagined it could be.  To
see it come to a satisfactory conclusion sooner than she had scheduled would be
good for everyone. And perhaps there was no harm in setting a date – she was
sure Mr Steinbeck would be able to set it back in the event that they didn’t
manage to get the money together in time.