Working for William wasn’t about the hourly wage for me. Or even my share of the tips which, at a swanky do like this, ought to be pretty substantial. For me it was a chance to taste his amazing food. Plus, bonus! I was inside Hugo Percival Brown’s house. Not many people could say that who didn’t also see their names on the Fortune 500.
“Where’s Pamela?” William asked, looking around.
“She said she was going to check on the other set of diners upstairs.”
Violet said, “Where on earth did you dig her up from?”
“I knew her in Boston. We were high school friends.”
Violet shook her head. “Well, you’ve got very peculiar taste in friends. And she’s a useless waitress.”
They were both looking at me like this was somehow my fault. I threw up my hands. “I never wanted her to come. I don’t even like her.”
“Well, I wish you’d said something before it was too late,” Vi said. I wished she could have seen how hard I’d tried to stop William from offering Pam this waitressing job.
I was never going to win this argument, so I didn’t bother having it. I was much more interested in trying some beef Wellington.
Chapter 5
We tucked in and gossiped and laughed in the kitchen. It was probably twenty minutes before any of us noticed that Pamela was still AWOL.
I suggested unenthusiastically that maybe I should go and look for her. Violet said, “Don’t bother. I expect she left by the back door before anyone asked her to do the dishes.”
I had other ideas. I strongly suspected that Pamela had used me to get inside this house. If I hadn’t known her, maybe I wouldn’t have suspected her of being so brazen, but I knew that where that woman had her eyes on a prize, she had no shame. But what was the prize? A peek at the Percival Brown private art collection?
I didn’t think so.
Was she hoping to cozy up to one of these guys? Did she really think they were going to fall for a waitress at one of their drunken dinners?
As she had pointed out, we were the same age. At twenty-eight, she was already divorced from a rich husband. What, or whom, was she after now? And why the UK? Pamela was always focused on what Pamela wanted, but I was trying to figure out what that might be. Even more wealth? A title?
Not that I was particularly interested, but I thought when I got home, I might go online and check up on her. What had she been up to in the years since I’d last seen her? I wondered why she was really in Oxford because I seriously doubted it was the love of art history.
Another twenty minutes passed, and then William was so worried about his perfect desserts beginning to flop that he told me to check on the dinner club. See if Alex had simply forgotten to call us.
I made my way through the prep room and opened the door into the dining room. The guys were looking a lot the worse for wear. Most of them hadn’t even eaten much of that fantastic dinner. But all the bottles of wine had now been drunk.
A couple of the diners were missing. Alex and Jeremy. Vikram was also missing. Maybe they’d gone to the bathroom. After all that wine, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
“Lucy!” It was Miles looking blearily up at me. “We’ve missed you. Come and tell me all about the acting troupe. I miss them. Never wanted to give it up, you know.”
“I only helped out with that one play, Miles. I don’t know what they’re doing.”
I thought about it. “Anyway, wouldn’t Sofia Bazzano know?” They’d been clearly an item during the time I’d known Miles. Sofia was a gorgeous girl. The last time I’d seen them, they’d been looking pretty cozy.
He waved his hand in front of his face as though a mosquito had got too close. “Lovely girl. Amazing. But, well, it was never meant to be forever.”
That was fair enough. He was still pretty young and looked like a guy who had a lot of wild oats left to sow. Still, I hoped he hadn’t broken her heart. She’d gone through a lot for him.
“Ah, good,” Alexander said, walking in and surveying the table before he sat down. His blue eyes were opened extra wide, as though he thought that might make him look sober. It made him look like he’d received some very surprising news.
When I got back to the kitchen, I told William they weren’t nearly ready for dessert. He didn’t look pleased. “I’ve got this timed to the minute. What about my dessert? It could collapse sitting there waiting for their young lordships to finish the main course.”
I held up my hands helplessly. What could I do about it?
Pamela came in at that moment. “What are they doing upstairs?” William asked.
“Everything’s fine. Very peaceful. To be honest, they seem more interested in the wine than the food.”
Just exactly what William didn’t want to hear. Of course, he knew as well as I did that at least two of the men upstairs weren’t going to be very interested in his beef Wellington. Not unless it was very, very, very rare.
When the bell rang, I jumped. It actually was just like something I’d seen in very old manor houses in Britain. Only it had been modernized. But still, there was a light that went on that said dining room. I shook my head. Really?
I headed back to the dining room, Pamela at my heels. Why was she following me?
I walked faster and then she walked faster, so we were practically jogging trying to be the first one in the room. I had no idea what that was even about. Or why I cared.
I managed to get in first, with Pamela so close behind me, her high-heeled shoe caught the
