Amber pushed her lips out and pretended to sulk.
‘Oh, stop it,’ Kate replied with a dramatic sigh. ‘You are ruining your make-up and it has taken me the best part of an hour to make it look natural. Okay, okay, I’ll try the jewellery on. But only because it’s your birthday, Look, I’m doing it. And... Oh, Amber.’
Kate stepped behind Amber and rested her head on her shoulder as Amber smiled back at her. ‘Absolutely gorgeous. Told ya. Right, that’s sorted. You’re wearing the jewels that Heath gave me. Done. Or do you want them to sit in the box up here in the bedroom unused and unloved because you have rejected them?’
Kate replied by reaching for a tissue. ‘Oh. Now look what you have made me do. Pest.’
Then Kate peered at herself in the mirror. ‘Do you think that Heath would like me in these?’
‘Pest right back. And he would definitely like you in those earrings,’ Amber replied and wrapped her arm around Kate’s waist. ‘Does Heath still hold the prize for the best emergency school party date a girl could hope for?’
Kate rested her head on Amber’s shoulder before answering with a small shrug. ‘Absolutely. Which must make me the stupidest girl in London. Here I am, surrounded by loads of handsome boys, and the only one who comes close to being my personal hero is living in Boston and doesn’t remember that I even exist unless you are around. Mad just about describes it.’
‘Oh, Kate. Don’t worry. You’ll find someone special, I know you will.’
Kate grinned and ran a tissue across the corner of both eyes. ‘Damn right. Who knows? My soulmate could be on his way to this very party this evening. How about that?’
‘Absolutely. Now shoo. I have to finish getting ready and you need to show your loveliness to all and sundry. Go. Have fun at the party. And Kate...make sure that Sam the spy takes your picture. You can’t miss him—he’ll be the one with the camera around his neck.’
‘You’ve got five minutes, young lady—then the posse will be up here to drag you downstairs.’
‘I would expect nothing less,’ Amber replied and waved to Kate as she waltzed across the carpet on her tiny dainty heels and the bedroom door swung closed behind her.
Only when she heard Kate’s sandals on the marble floor of the entrance did Amber feel it was safe to flop back down on her bed.
So her best friend Kate was still in crush with her stepbrother Heath. Oh, Kate. Maybe it was a good thing that Heath had already spoken to her from his lecture tour in South America and was not turning up for this party after all. He might have brought his lovely girlfriend Olivia with him. Not good. Not good at all.
Her wrist was aching, her head was thumping and she could quite easily pull the quilt over her legs right then and there and sleep for days. But she couldn’t. She might have organised her birthday party at the last minute, but she was still the star of the show—and she had to make her appearance.
Time to turn up and give the greatest performance of her life.
All smiles and confidence and clear about what she was doing and why. Exploring. Taking a break. Enjoying herself. Fund-raising for charity. What fun!
That was the official line and she was sticking to it. She could count the number of people who knew the truth on one hand—and that was how she wanted it to stay. Until she was ready. And then she would have to add Sam Richards to the list.
Sam.
What was she going to do about Sam?
Was he Sam the spy as Kate called him? Could she trust him again?
He had kept his side of the bargain and worked hard at every ridiculous task that the three of them had thrown at him over the past few days without much in the way of complaint.
He could never know that she had spent two nights tossing and turning in her bed as his words roiled in the pit of her stomach. She did listen to Heath—she always had and probably always would. He was her sensible older stepbrother. But these past two days, every time he had told her to do something rather than ask or suggest, she kept thinking about what Sam had said. Maybe she was still under his thumb more than she liked? Maybe he had a point.
Of course going back to Kerala would be scary. She would be a fool not to be worried. But she had made a vow in hospital that her life would be different from now. She wanted to see Parvita married and share her happiness.
She wanted to go back and yet it was so risky. Doubt rolled over Amber in waves, hard and choppy, buffeting and threatening to weaken her resolve.
Turning her life around was harder than she had expected.
The jewel tray was still open on the dressing table and Amber slithered off her bed and lifted out the top tray. Hidden inside a tiny suede pouch at the very bottom was a small gold heart suspended from a thin gold chain.
Sam had given it to her at her eighteenth birthday party, just before they had escaped out of the kitchen door and taken a ride in his dad’s vintage open top sports car.
Amber smiled as she let the chain slip between her fingers. Sam had let her stand up tall on the passenger seat with her arms outstretched to the sky as they rode through the London streets—the wind in her hair and the sound of their laughter and the hoots from passing motorists reverberating through every bone in her body.
She had been so very, very happy, and she should be grateful to Sam for showing her what true happiness felt like. It was a joyous memory.
The sound of party music drifted up the stairs and Amber grinned. She had survived meningitis more or less intact, she had friends waiting for her downstairs and more on their way.
She looked at herself in the mirror and, without another moment of hesitation, she winked at her reflection and dropped the gold chain back into the pouch and closed the lid down on the box with the rest of her past.
She was a lucky girl.
Time to rock and roll and enjoy herself.
* * *
Taking a deep calming breath, Sam Richards strolled across the luxurious marble-floored hallway of the Victorian splendour that was Elwood House.
He paused to check his reflection in the Venetian hall mirror above a long narrow console table, and lifted up his chin a little to adjust his black bow tie.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
For a chauffeur’s son from the wrong part of London.
At least this time he had been welcomed at the front door!
Which had certainly not been the case ten years ago when he had stood in the hallway of another house and another birthday celebration.
Amber might have invited him to her eighteenth birthday party but her mother had taken one look at him standing on her front doorstep, snorted and closed the door in his face. Just to make sure that he got the message loud and clear.
Sam Richards was not good enough for her daughter. Oh, no. Nowhere near.
Of course he wasn’t going to put up with that—he had plans for Amber’s birthday and there was no way that her mother was going to thwart his little scheme.
So he’d climbed over the garden fence and sneaked in through the conservatory where the young people were having fun.
Suddenly there was the tinkle of laughter from the kitchen and Sam grinned as he strolled into the warm, light, open space of the huge kitchen sun room that Saskia’s aunt Margot had built. Every worktop was covered with plates and bowls and platters of foodstuffs—but his attention was focused on the two women who were walking towards him.
Here come the girls.
Saskia’s arm was around Kate’s shoulder, which was not difficult, considering that Kate could just about make five feet four inches if