Lucas rolled his eyes. ‘He hasn’t been hiding her anywhere,’ he said. ‘Leave the poor girl be.’
‘Well, really, Lucas,’ Felicia said. ‘We were only trying to get to know her. Find out all the usual things a parent wants to know. Where they met, who her family are, that sort of thing.’
Dory’s face turned even paler. Under her dark hair she looked positively deathly.
‘Maybe it can wait until dinner?’ Tyler suggested, smooth as ever. ‘It’s been a long drive.’
‘Of course, of course!’ Suddenly Felicia turned accommodating and understanding. ‘You must be exhausted all of you. And the way Lucas takes those corners! Terrifies me.’
‘Actually, he was a very considerate driver,’ Dory said, giving him a small smile. Lucas felt something inside him start to warm against the chill of Midfield House. Might he actually have an ally here, for once?
Felicia, however, looked disbelieving. ‘Really? How unusual.’
‘He knows I get travel sick,’ Dory added, but Felicia only looked more amazed at the explanation. As if she couldn’t imagine her eldest son ever doing such a kindness to a stranger. Or maybe just that it wouldn’t occur to her to do the same, Lucas thought.
‘Why don’t I show you two up to your room,’ Felicia said, ushering them towards the staircase. Dory looked around, lip caught between her teeth, and Lucas picked up her bag to hand it to her.
‘Oh, leave those,’ Patrick said, waving a hand. ‘I’ll get Duncan to take them up.’
Dory clutched her small case close. ‘It’s fine, really. It doesn’t weigh much.’
Tyler, Lucas couldn’t help but notice, left his bag exactly where it was.
‘Right.’ Felicia looked as though she was searching for her usual aplomb while dealing with this strange woman Tyler had brought home. ‘Well, I’ve put the two of you in the green room, off at the end of the East Wing. You’ve got your own en-suite, of course. And I thought you might like a bit of privacy.’
Lucas stared at the ceiling and tried very hard not to imagine what his mother thought they were going to do with that privacy.
‘That’s… great. Thank you.’ Dory sounded like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of that either.
Tyler, however, frowned. ‘The Green Room? Who’s in the Blue Room then?’
‘The Franklins, tomorrow night, for the party. I promised it to them last year, so they can stay for breakfast, Christmas morning. Now, come on, or you’ll never get settled before dinner.’
As the three of them disappeared up the stairs, Dory lugging her case behind her, Lucas told himself that the strange lurch in his stomach was merely a result of being left alone with his father again, not the news that his ex-parents-in-law would be joining them tomorrow.
He didn’t bother asking where he was sleeping. Ever since his divorce, he’d been banished to the tiny bedroom above the kitchen, the one Felicia would never use for party guests. Lucas didn’t mind. He got more privacy there than even Dory and Tyler would get in the Green Room. And, most importantly, easy access to the leftovers after everyone else had gone to bed.
‘Well, then,’ Patrick said. ‘I don’t suppose they’ll be very long up there. Why don’t we go and get the pre-dinner cocktails started.’
More than anything in the world, Lucas wanted a cold beer, rather than some complicated drink with ingredients he couldn’t pronounce. But his father had already disappeared through the doorway into the library, so he followed anyway. He had plenty of time to get settled into his room, after all. His three-day sentence had only just begun.
***
‘I do hope you’ll find it suitable,’ Felicia said, as she flung open the double doors to the Green Room. ‘I did worry it might be too small…’
‘Oh no,’ Dory assured her, staring around the suite. It was bigger than her flat. Possibly bigger than the entire downstairs of her parents’ house, actually. ‘There’s plenty of room for us here.’
‘Well, I’ll leave the two of you to get settled. Tyler knows where everything is, after all. Come on down for a drink when you’ve changed, Dory. Tyler, Duncan will bring your bag up shortly.’
‘Changed?’ Dory asked, as the doors swung shut behind Tyler’s mother. ‘I have to get changed for dinner?’
Tyler flopped on to the huge double bed that took over the centre of the room. ‘It’s a thing. They like to dress for dinner.’
Dory looked down at her perfectly chosen, festively evergreen dress. ‘I am dressed. In a dress, and everything.’
‘You are.’ Tyler gave her an apologetic smile. ‘But could you just…’
‘Change.’ Dory sighed. ‘You owe me cocktails at the airport on my way home for this, you know.’
‘I know.’
‘And we haven’t discussed sleeping arrangements yet.’
‘Don’t suppose there’s any way I can convince you that this bed is big enough for two?’
Dory didn’t even bother answering that one as she rummaged through her case, looking for something smart enough for dinner with the Alexanders that wasn’t the one posh frock she’d brought for the Christmas Eve party.
In the mirror, she could see Tyler still lying on the bed, eyes closed. ‘You better not muss up my covers.’
‘You know, the sofa in here is probably very comfortable,’ Tyler said. ‘And you’re shorter. You’d fit on it better.’
Navy dress in hand, Dory turned to face her boss. ‘Exactly who is doing whom a favour here?’
‘Yeah, yeah. I’m on the floor tonight. I know.’ With a groan, Tyler sat up.
Dory held up the dress. ‘Will this do?’
Tyler squinted at it. ‘Did you bring jewellery?’
‘Some.’
‘Then yeah, probably.’ He paused. ‘I really do appreciate you doing this, you know.’
‘I know.’ Dory dropped to sit on the bed beside him. ‘Are we going to tell them about the whole assistant thing? Or just wait and see if Lucas drops us in it?’
‘He won’t.’ Tyler sounded completely confident in that fact. And, surprisingly, so was Dory. She’d only known him for a handful of hours, but she already trusted Tyler’s brother. Weird.
‘So we don’t tell them?’
Tyler hesitated. ‘Only if it comes up. Okay?’
‘Like if they ask me what I do for a living?’
‘Like if they ask you if you’re my assistant.’
Ah. That seemed rather less likely, but since it got Dory out of a difficult conversation, she wasn’t complaining. They were already lying to his entire family about their relationship, anyway. What was one more little fib?
There was a knock at the door and Tyler yelled, ‘Come in!’
A stern-looking man – Duncan, Dory presumed – opened the door just enough to place Tyler’s case inside the room and nod at them both, then he disappeared again.
‘Guess we’d better get changed,’ Dory said, as Tyler crossed the room to fetch his case. ‘Do you want the bathroom or the bedroom?’
‘You get changed