It was only for three days. She could endure any amount of rudeness and pretension for three days, right? And at the end of it, she’d be home where she belonged for two whole weeks.
Dory looked down at her plate, wishing she could ask for seconds. But that would just give Felicia more ammunition against her. And for the next three days, she needed to be, if not the perfect girlfriend, at least a believable one.
Just three days. Then she would be eating every leftover mince pie in Liverpool.
***
Lucas studied Dory as the others finished up their main courses. So far, she seemed to be holding up under his mother’s passive-aggressive condescension. Good for her. Of course, she’d probably be dealing with it better if her boyfriend helped out…
He let his gaze drift over to his brother, sitting next to Dory. For all the attention he was paying her, he could be at an entirely separate dinner. The only time he’d looked up at her was when their mother had asked what Dory did for a living. And then, Lucas had seen Dory check with Tyler before answering. Had he told her to lie? Probably.
Not for the first time, Lucas wished he wasn’t in on this secret. All three of them knew that it was a potential media disaster. The press were still trying to find out who the woman in the photos was. Suddenly Lucas was glad he’d driven them north. Someone would have got a photo on the train and it would have been all over the Internet in seconds.
Even without that, what were the chances of their parents not figuring it out? Lucas didn’t like to weigh them up. They weren’t stupid people. All it would take would be one slip from Dory, or Tyler, hell even himself, and the rest of the Christmas holiday would be spent in crisis meetings with the PR team. Nobody’s idea of a dream weekend.
But still, Lucas couldn’t help but wonder just how long Tyler intended to keep up this charade. If he and Dory were serious – and the fact he’d actually brought her home for Christmas, even if it was only because Felicia had nagged, suggested that they were – then eventually the truth would have to come out. Even if they had plans for her to leave her job, maybe even move into the PR department like Patrick had suggested, someone would put it together eventually. Hopefully far enough down the line for no one to really care. After all, breaking the story that the CEO of the Alexander Corporation was actively sleeping with his assistant, potentially on company time, was one thing. Discovering, a couple of years down the line, that they’d actually got together while she was working as his assistant, then she’d moved on so they could pursue a relationship, was something entirely different.
Lucas shook his head. He was thinking like a businessman again. Like the Alexander family heir. Like all those things he’d given up. What did he care what the papers said? Or the board, for that matter? They weren’t part of his life anymore.
But Dory might be. Tyler had been talking marriage in the car. Hypothetical marriage, of course, and disturbingly involving his ex-wife in the conversation, but still. He’d never heard his brother even mention himself and marriage in the same sentence before. Was he planning on making Dory a more permanent fixture in all their lives?
Across the table, she ducked her head over her empty plate, as Felicia started recounting the guest list for their traditional Christmas Eve party. Designed, no doubt, to intimidate Dory and make her nervous. Every year, they invited ‘everyone who is anyone, darling,’ in upstate New York, and every year, to Lucas’s ongoing amazement, they all came. Didn’t they have anything better to do with their holidays? Or did they just fear what might happen if they skipped it? Lucas had never been sure, but he suspected the wrath of Felicia might have a lot to do with it.
‘I do hope Tyler warned you about our little get together in time for you to arrange an appropriate dress, Dory,’ Felicia said.
Dory looked up, a flash of a smile on her painted red lips. She was almost a Christmas decoration herself, Lucas thought.
‘I’m certain I have something suitable in my bag,’ Dory said.
‘Are you sure?’ Felicia’s concern was completely feigned, Lucas knew. ‘I know how hard it can be when you’re not used to this sort of society.’ Another lie. Felicia Alexander had never known anything but this sort of society.
Lucas looked over at his brother. Was Tyler really just going to sit there while their mother spoke to his girlfriend this way? He frowned. Tyler didn’t even seem to be paying attention to the conversation. Instead, he stared down at his lap… Lucas narrowed his eyes. Was Tyler on his phone at the dinner table? Checking his email, no doubt, or the share price.
Not paying attention to the beautiful woman he’d brought into the lions’ den.
‘I’m sure Dory knows her wardrobe best, Mother,’ Lucas said. Then he spotted Freya, the maid, in the doorway. ‘Fantastic. Dessert.’
Dory looked up too, obviously eager, but Felicia got there first.
‘Thank you, Freya, but I won’t be having dessert tonight.’ She gave Dory a flat smile. ‘And I’m sure Dory feels the same. After all, we have dresses to fit into!’
Anger bubbled up in Lucas’s gut as he watched Dory’s smile stiffen. For a moment, he thought that she might tell Felicia where to stick her dresses, but she obviously swallowed it down. ‘Good idea, Felicia,’ was all she said.
Freya took the unwanted plates back to the kitchen. Lucas wondered if they’d still be in the fridge later. He could smuggle one up to Dory’s room for her… except he couldn’t. Because she’d be in bed with his brother. His idiot, distracted, undeserving brother.
He really should try harder to remember that.
Tearing his eyes away from Dory, who was staring at the oblivious Tyler’s chocolate pistachio gateau, Lucas focused on his own dessert. In and out. That was the plan. He wasn’t going to get involved. Not with his family’s issues, not with the business, and not, most definitely not, with Dory and Tyler’s relationship. In and out. In three days he’d be back on his farm, checking in at the restaurant, working on his own dreams, and he could forget about the obligations and expectations of the Alexander name for another year.
Just three more days until he got his real life back.
***
Relief washed over Dory as the maid cleared the last of the dessert plates and Felicia stood, ready to leave the room. Dory followed suit, and it wasn’t until she’d tucked her chair back under the table that a truly horrible thought occurred to her. What if this was that thing she’d read about it books – the ladies retiring to another room to do cross-stitch or something while the guys drank brandy? She did not want to be left alone with Felicia. She’d have sent Dory for an extreme makeover before Tyler had even had his first sip.
‘Well, I need to go check through some final party prep with Freya,’ Felicia said. Dory hoped her answering sigh of relief wasn’t too obvious. ‘So I’ll see you all in the morning.’
‘And I need to…’ Dory tried to think of something that wasn’t ‘get the hell out of here, quickly.’ ‘Get some sleep,’ she finished. ‘So I’m going to head up to bed.’
She gave Tyler a meaningful look, one that she hoped he interpreted as ‘give me ten minutes to get changed, then come up to bed so they think we’re crazy about each other,’ but she suspected he’d probably take as ‘stay and enjoy some brandy with your father and brother!’ He’d never been all that good at the secret signals thing. It had caused problems a couple of times at important charity events, usually when Tyler hadn’t read the briefing documents she’d put together for him beforehand.
Still, at least that meant she could get some quiet alone time, without anyone suggesting that she was so fat and uncultured that she’d be a positive embarrassment at the traditional Alexander Family Christmas Eve party.
Upstairs, the Green Room felt positively serene compared to sitting around the dining table. Letting the door fall closed behind her, Dory leant back against