Read Online Secret Schemes and Daring Dreams by Rosie Rushton - Free Book Online

out for her apart from me. Perhaps you could, like, chat to her . . . see if she’ll open up. And don’t let on I said anything. Promise?’
    â€˜Don’t worry.’ Theo nodded, speaking more softly, as George reappeared. ‘You can rely on me.’
    â€˜Thanks.’
    â€˜So,’ he said, turning to George, ‘I’ll see you later – I’m just going to nip into town.’
    â€˜You can’t,’ George cried. ‘Not till you’ve sorted that bloody computer – it’s eaten all the menu plans for Sunday.’
    Theo raised his eyebrows and sighed. ‘Computers don’t eat stuff,’ he replied, flexing his shoulders and brushing a hand across his perspiring forehead. ‘Honestly George, for someone doing an MBA you are a total dinosaur when it comes to technology.’
    Emma smiled to herself. It was true; George was old-fashioned, but in a nice way. He could be pompous (he’d once laid into Emma for getting caught on camera at Jasper Greenhill’s eighteenth with her knickers showing – as if she’d known that
Sussex Scene
would print it with the caption
Tee’s Teasing Teenager
)and he certainly had bizarre interests (fly-fishing in icy cold water and drag hunting in the pouring rain for starters), but he didn’t follow the herd – he was his own man and he always said what he thought. She liked that in a guy.
    â€˜Well anyway, if we’re going to host this party . . .’
    â€˜Party?’ Theo raised an eyebrow and listened with increasing amusement as George told him about Freddie and confirmed that Mrs Knightley thought it was a wonderful idea and she’d been nagging Max to bring in the young set for ages.
    â€˜Which is fine, except that she’s not here and if the whole thing goes pear-shaped and we’re blacklisted by the cognoscenti . . .’
    â€˜Don’t you mean glitterati?’ Emma interjected.
    â€˜Whatever,’ George snapped. ‘Still, Freddie might not want to come, of course.’
    â€˜It sounds great,’ Theo said. ‘Not that I’ll get invited. I don’t even know the guy, although I know someone who does . . .’
    â€˜â€™Course you’ll come,’ Emma cut in swiftly, before he had the chance to get all maudlin about Verity. ‘I’ll make sure of that.’
    â€˜Cool.’ Theo grinned. ‘Now if you don’t mind, I’ll find these lost menus.’
    â€˜And after you’ve sorted all that, I don’t suppose you fancy a bit of flower arranging?’ George teased as Theo headed for the office.
    â€˜Too right I don’t,’ Theo replied, holding up his hands and backing off. ‘I’m out of here before you get any more dumb ideas!’
    â€˜Did you say flower arranging?’ Harriet, flushed and smiling from ear to ear, came running into the hall. ‘I’ll do it – I love that kind of stuff.’
    â€˜You do? Sorry – you must be Harriet – I’m George.’
    Harriet smiled nervously at George, and twiddled a strand of her curly chestnut hair round her finger.
    â€˜Thank you so much for giving me this job,’ she enthused. ‘I’m so excited I could burst. So where do I go?’
    â€˜I’ll show you round the place and then take you to the flower room,’ George said. ‘Em, you know where to get the clean bedding, yeah? In the linen cupboard on the landing, right?’
    This, thought Emma as she stomped upstairs, is so not the way it should be. Harriet ought to be stripping beds and I should be doing the upfront stuff, interacting with guests, gliding round the sitting room with a silver tray of canapés . . .
    â€˜Ah, at last! I’ve been ringing Reception for ten minutes – it simply isn’t good enough!’ A broad-shouldered, bald-headed man was standing on the landing, hands on hips. ‘I ordered afternoon tea half an hour ago