‘Maybe you left it downstairs?’ Rupert gets out of bed, pulling on his jeans and yesterday’s shirt. ‘I’ll come down with you.’
They head downstairs, Emily making it clear she feels out of place dressed in last night’s clothes. The others are already in the kitchen when they make their appearance, Sadie and Amanda knocking up pancakes while Miles and Will sit at the kitchen island, not helping.
‘Morning, you two lovebirds,’ Sadie says, a smile on her face. ‘Pancakes? Coffee?’
‘Lovely, thank you.’ Emily slides onto a stool as Rupert helps himself to two cups of coffee, pushing one in front of his fiancée. Emily wraps her fingers around the cup and takes a sip, before grimacing and adding sugar.
‘Emily, do you want to borrow something to wear?’ Amanda says, looking her up and down. ‘I keep a few bits here for nights like last night – I think we’re about the same size? Caro used to borrow my stuff all the time.’
Rupert feels his stomach flip at the use of Caro’s name, watching Emily for signs that she is upset, although it’s a little unreasonable for her to expect his friends to never mention Caro by name ever again, but Emily nods and smiles, jumping down off the stool and following Amanda to the second spare room. Rupert feels himself relax a little, taking a sip of coffee.
‘Hangover?’ Will asks, a huge stack of pancakes in front of him. ‘I feel as rough as a badger’s arse.’
‘I’m not too bad,’ Rupert says, reaching over and pinching a piece of pancake doused in syrup.
‘It’ll be young Emily, keeping you up all night, getting the booze out of your system,’ Miles scoffs, and Rupert avoids Sadie’s eye as his neck prickles uncomfortably. ‘What are your plans for today?’
‘I should imagine you’ll be visiting Emily’s parents, won’t you?’ Sadie asks, wiping her hands on the apron she wears before whipping it over her head and smoothing her short bob back into place. ‘She’ll want to break the news to them, won’t she? And of course, you’ll want to let your parents know.’
Rupert says nothing for a moment. ‘I think we’ll just take the day to keep it to ourselves, for now. Get used to the idea, you know?’ He doesn’t want to admit to Sadie that he hasn’t met Emily’s parents yet – that she barely talks about them, if he’s honest. ‘Has anyone seen Emily’s phone, by the way? She couldn’t find it in the bedroom this morning.’
‘Here. Is this it?’ Sadie hands him an iPhone, and when he presses the side button his own face appears on the lock screen, smashed against Emily’s in a selfie they took on a day trip to Stonehenge a couple of weeks after they started dating.
‘Thanks.’ Emily reaches over his shoulder and takes it, kissing his cheek and making him jump. ‘Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you. Amanda lent me a dress.’ Rupert turns and she gives a little twirl. ‘I’ll launder it and give it back,’ she says to Amanda, who flaps a hand in her direction. ‘I better just call Mags and let her know I’m still alive.’ She flits out of the room, leaving Rupert to his breakfast.
Later, Emily is quiet on the drive home, and Rupert wonders if she still feels a bit rough, or whether she might be regretting saying yes.
‘Are you OK?’ He takes one hand off the steering wheel to rub her knee, as she gazes silently out of the window.
‘Did you see anyone last night after I asked you to check if someone was outside our room?’ she asks.
‘No,’ he says, ‘there wasn’t anyone outside, and no one on the stairs either. I’m sorry, I should have told you that first thing this morning.’
‘You didn’t see anyone at all?’
‘No. I just told you that. Emily, is there a problem?’ Rupert feels a little irritated. If there is something wrong he’d rather Emily just came out with it, not beat around the bush. Caro used to do the same thing and it drove him mad. The traffic slows and crawls to a stop, typical M25 gridlock, even on a Sunday morning.
‘Not even Sadie?’ Emily’s mouth is turned down and she fiddles with the phone in her hands.
‘Sadie?’
‘Yes, Sadie.’ Emily turns to look at him, her eyes searching his face and Rupert feels a flicker of alarm, even though he knows he hasn’t done anything wrong. ‘She was our host after all; it stands to reason that she might still be up after we’d all gone to bed.’
‘Nope.’ He lies smoothly, edging the car forward as the traffic starts to move. ‘I didn’t see anyone at all. I told you there was no one there.’
Chapter Nine
I haven’t been able to stop looking at the ring on my left hand since Rupert slid it onto my finger at Sadie’s party. Of course, I am happy – who wouldn’t be? – but a little part of me, every time I look at it, sees Rupert and Sadie standing close together in the kitchen, holding hands, as I strain my ears and try but fail to hear what they are saying, before hearing Rupert’s voice in my mind saying, ‘No, I didn’t see anyone.’ The whole idea of it makes me feel odd, even though I know they have over twenty years of shared history, while Rupert and I have only been together for a few months. I don’t feel able to challenge Rupert on it. He lied,
