Read Online An Eligible Bachelor by Veronica Henry - Free Book Online Page B

and Henty from their circle. Somehow the word ‘ball’ turned the most sensible female into a gibbering wreck. Nearly everyone from St Joseph’s was going. For the past few weeks, there’d been debates over the best crash diet as they all battled in vain to drop a dress size. The local gym saw its subscription rate flourish; the lanes were littered with joggers. The day spa at Barton Court was fully booked for inch-losing seaweed wraps and St Tropez tans.
    Honor knew that she was, as usual, going to have to make do. She thought back with irony to all the dresses that used to hang in her wardrobe: some barely worn, one or two never worn, all carefully wrapped in dry-cleaning bags and hung in length order. She’d sold them all to a ‘dress exchange’ in Bath. It was scandalous really, what she had received in return – the full amount wouldn’thave covered the price of one of the outfits. But to a jobless, homeless girl about to give birth, it was the deposit she needed to rent the tiny cottage she’d found in Eversleigh.
    She looked down to see that Henty’s little face was wrinkled in anxiety.
    ‘I still haven’t found a dress,’ she confessed. ‘Charles was supposed to take me to Liberty to choose something but he hasn’t had time.’
    Honor frowned. From what she knew of Charles, she was quite sure he had plenty of time. He just wasn’t interested in his wife, which was verging on the criminal, as Henty was quite the squidgiest, funniest, most adorable little creature that walked the earth and Charles was a smug, self-satisfied pig. She didn’t say that to Henty, though.
    ‘Let’s have a look through what you’ve got.’
    ‘Nothing! Absolutely nothing!’ squeaked Henty.
    ‘You’d be amazed. You just need an objective eye and a bit of imagination.’
    Henty didn’t look convinced, but she needed no excuse for a bit of girly fun and the opportunity for someone to share a glass of white wine with. Ted and Walter were also delighted to have an impromptu play together, and piled into the back seat of Henty’s Discovery. Honor leaped into the front, and Henty put on Thea’s Pink CD. All the way back to the Beresfords’ farm they sang ‘Get This Party Started’.
    There was one long plain black velvet dress in Henty’s wardrobe that fitted.
    ‘But it’s so boring,’ she wailed. ‘I want to look sexy, not as if I’ve just buried my husband.’
    Honor managed to stop herself from saying that really would be something to celebrate.
    ‘Pass me the scissors,’ she commanded, then proceeded to hack at the skirt until the hemline hung asymmetrically from mid thigh to ankle. Then she marched across the corridor to the bedroom that Thea and her younger sister, twelve-year-old Lily, shared. It was a treasure trove of pink girliness. The girls lay on their beds texting and glaring at Honor balefully as she rummaged around.
    Eventually she pulled out a hot-pink feather boa from under Lily’s bed.
    ‘Hey!’ chorused the girls in protest.
    ‘Can you honestly, honestly tell me that you wear this?’ demanded Honor, and neither of the girls had the nerve to say they did.
    Quarter of an hour later, the boa was stitched round the hem.
    ‘Are you sure I don’t look like Lisa Riley?’ asked Henty anxiously.
    ‘You look gorgeous,’ assured Honor. ‘Go into Cheltenham tomorrow. Get yourself some killer strappy shoes and some long black evening gloves. And book yourself an up-do at the hairdresser’s.’
    Henty threw her arms round her.
    ‘You’re a life-saver,’ she cried. ‘We need a massive glass of wine. And why don’t you stay for supper?’
    When Charles walked in at seven o’clock, he found Henty, Honor, Thea and Lily practising dance moves in the kitchen, Ted and Walter taking the piss out of them behind their backs, and his oldest son Robin slugging the wine out of the second bottle that had beenopened. And the potatoes stuck to the bottom of the saucepan.
    ‘The potatoes are burnt,’ he