Emma’s Secret (23 page)

‘You obviously know more than I do.’

‘I do know one thing, Tessa darling. It’s going to be you and me running this show one day. You’ll be head of the stores and I’ll be at the helm of the media companies. We’ll rule the Harte empire together.’ He smiled broadly, full of confidence.

Rising, Toby went to join Tessa on the sofa. He put his arms around her, pulled her to him, kissed her lightly on the cheek. ‘Everything’s going to be ours, Tess. Trust me.’

‘I do. But my mother’s not going to retire as soon as you think, I just told you that. I’ll be an old lady when I inherit.’

‘Tessa, life is full of surprises. Nobody knows what’s in store. Anything can happen, and when we least expect it. Your mother might retire in a few years, for reasons we don’t know now, reasons she herself doesn’t know now. You see, people suddenly run out of steam, or want to retire after all, want to enjoy life. They might want to have a bit of fun. God knows, our parents have worked like dogs all of their lives, so there are many reasons why they could change their minds. As Ma always says, the only thing that’s permanent is change. And she’s right. I feel that way about Dad. He could decide he’s fed up and pass the mantle to me overnight.
We don’t know anything.
So stay cool, my sweet, and for God’s sake stop being mean to Linnet. When she marries Julian her life will change, and so will yours.’

‘If
she marries him.’

‘Oh she will, take my word for it. The grandfathers O’Neill and Kallinski are going to push it for all it’s worth, now that those two lovebirds are back together. They want the three clans to be forever bound. So please, give Linnet some slack, and stop complaining about her endlessly. It makes you look bad.’

‘She irritates me.’

‘I know she does, but it gets other people angry with you, and then they favour her, and you can’t afford that. You don’t need any enemies in the family. You must learn to be like our sainted great-grandmother; you must learn to dissemble the way Emma did.’

‘I’ll try,’ she answered, knowing he was right.

‘Good girl.’ Toby tightened his grip on her, hugging her warmly.

Tessa flinched.

Toby pulled away, giving her a puzzled look. ‘What’s wrong?’

She shook her head. ‘It’s just my shoulder, Toby, I hurt it last week.’ She forced a smile. ‘In the gym,’ she then added swiftly, when she saw that fierce, protective look enter his eyes. Leaning into him she kissed his cheek. ‘It’s just a bit sore.’

‘Are you sure he hasn’t hurt you?’ Toby demanded, the look he gave her full of concern.

‘No, no, he wouldn’t do that.’

‘I wish you hadn’t married him,’ Toby muttered when they drew apart, smoothing his hand over her pale-gold hair. He cared about her very much, loathed the idea that anyone could hurt her in any way. ‘I can’t imagine why you had to make it legal’

Tessa sighed. ‘I wonder sometimes why I did…’

They were silent, sitting together on the sofa, their arms wrapped around each other, for a moment lost in their thoughts. Best friends and allies now, they had once been childhood sweethearts, and some of those feelings remained, however much they both denied them. But there had never been a sexual relationship between them. When Mark had suggested otherwise, Tessa had spoken the truth in denying it.

‘How’s Adrianna?’ Tessa asked, breaking the silence.

‘Fine. She’s still in Hollywood making that movie.’

‘Why did you marry her?’

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ he replied with a rueful laugh.

At the sound of the low buzzing of the phone, Tessa jumped up, hurried over to her desk, lifted the receiver. ‘Hello?’

‘It’s me, Tessa,’ Linnet said. ‘I wonder if you can spare me a few minutes, please?’

It was on the tip of her tongue to immediately say no, always ready to deny any request from her sister. But looking across at Toby she decided to take his advice. ‘That’s fine, Linnet. When do you want to come to my office?’

‘Well, more or less now, if that’s all right?’

‘I’m here with Toby. He came in to ask my help about choosing birthday gifts for our fathers, and I suppose he’ll be leaving soon.’

‘Thanks,’ Linnet said and hung up.

‘How did I do?’ Tessa asked, staring at her cousin, then sitting down at her desk.

‘You did good, kid!’ he said, adopting an American accent. ‘Real good.’

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY
-O
NE

T
oby’s manners were excellent, and he rose when Linnet came into the office, moved swiftly across the floor. They met halfway, in the middle of the room, and he gave her a light kiss on the cheek, and asked, ‘How’s the retrospective coming along?’

‘Very well, thanks, Toby.’ Linnet smiled at him, then swung around and walked over to Tessa’s desk, where she sat down and looked across at her sister, and said in a friendly voice, ‘The reason I wanted to see you, Tessa, is actually to do with the retrospective. I was wondering if you’d lend us some of your couture clothes?’

‘But I don’t have much couture!’ Tessa exclaimed, almost too sharply, she realized, and catching herself she adopted a much milder tone. ‘Hardly any at all, Linnet, and anyway I don’t think the things I have are in good enough condition to be put on display. I’ve worn them to death.’

‘I was thinking of those two evening coats you own. We’re still a bit thin on the vintage stuff, and you have that gorgeous coral silk coat with a shoulder cape attached designed by Norman Hartnell. You once told me it was from the 1960s, and there’s the Balmain coat Mummy gave you, which belonged to Emma. I think that’s from the mid 1950s. Could we borrow those two things, do you think? They would fill a gap if we had them in the show.’

Tessa’s first instinct was to refuse. She had grown accustomed to saying no to Linnet over the years. Also, she had genuinely been against the retrospective right from the beginning. She had believed it to be a waste of time, effort and money. But she did not dare display a negative attitude this afternoon. Toby was sitting on the sofa, watching her like a hawk. Anyway, he was right in what he had said earlier. She must be more diplomatic, not so obviously competitive and seemingly against Linnet. She was definitely going to have to watch herself, keep a rein on her temper, and be much more patient in the future. The problem was that she found it hard to pretend, thought doing so was two-faced, even though Toby called it dissimulation and admired anyone who could carry it off.

Pushing a pleasant smile on her face, Tessa said, ‘Of course you can borrow them, but I don’t know how pristine they are.’

‘Oh, thanks very much, Tess!’ Linnet said enthusiastically, obviously pleased, and continued, ‘I really appreciate it, and don’t worry about the condition of the coats. Evan’s wonderfully talented when it comes to restoration, and she’s very clever at hand cleaning, repairing, steaming and pressing, that kind of thing. She does meticulous work; your coats will come back to you looking like new. You’ll be impressed with her work, everyone is.’

‘Really,’ Tessa murmured and, observing the sudden smile in Linnet’s eyes, hearing the warmth in her voice, she understood immediately that her sister admired and liked Evan. They were obviously good friends by the sound of it. I bet she’s given Evan Hughes her stamp of approval, as far as Gideon’s concerned.

Linnet, in her usual businesslike manner, rushed on, ‘Look, I’m very sorry there was a misunderstanding between us recently. About the use of the auditorium. I hadn’t realized you had planned a management meeting that morning, and I’d arranged for the space planning company to measure the areas where the platforms are to be built. Since they’d left Leeds, I couldn’t stop them from coming to the store. It was already too late.’

‘I understand, and it’s no problem,’ Tessa answered evenly, almost dismissively, endeavouring to appear nonchalant, although at the time she had been furious, had complained to their mother that Linnet had countermanded her orders and commandeered the auditorium. Paula had been so scathing with her about the use of that particular word she had vowed to herself never to use it again.

Watching them from his position on the sofa, Toby was fascinated. It struck him most forcibly that whatever Tessa lacked in the technique of dissembling, her sister more than made up for it. No one will ever know what
she’s
thinking when it comes to business, he decided. She was being charming and friendly at this moment, and she had even apologized to Tessa.
Very clever.
No fool, our Linnet, he thought. She had never been his favourite, but he couldn’t help admiring her adroit handling of Tessa, albeit grudgingly. He suddenly understood the reason why he had long been wary of her. She was not only crafty but extremely shrewd, not to mention a splendid actress. She ought to get an Oscar for this performance, he thought, his eyes fixed on her.

Although he had never recognized it until this precise moment, Toby now admitted that he was actually a bit afraid of Linnet. And for one very good reason. She was everything their great-grandmother had been at her age: ambitious, driven, hardworking and calculating. A tough cookie. He must warn Tessa to be careful, to watch her back.

Linnet was looking across at him, and saying, ‘Would you like to come too, Toby?’

‘Er, er, sorry Linnet, I was preoccupied. Come with you where?’

‘Down to the storage room where we keep the clothes. We’ve started to put some of them on the mannequins, you know, the fibreglass dummies. I thought Tessa might like to see our progress, also look at the really beautiful clothes we’ve assembled so far. And you could come too, Toby.’

‘I’d love to, but I’m afraid I can’t. I’ve got to get back to the office. Thanks, though.’

But in the end Toby did join them, changing his mind all of a sudden, wanting to have another look at Evan Hughes, his brother’s current paramour. She must have something special to hold Gideon’s interest all these weeks, he decided.

Toby had been coming to the Knightsbridge store since he was a child, but he had never been into the famous storage room before today. As he walked behind Linnet and Tessa he saw that it was gargantuan, and he was stunned by its size.

It was a vast, airy space, almost the length of a football field, and it was filled to overflowing with clothes. Some hung on racks aligned side by side, from rods affixed to parts of the ceiling, and some were laid flat on white sheets on top of long trestle tables running the length of one wall.

He could see at a quick glance that all of the clothes which had been assembled were beautiful and obviously costly; the other thing he noticed immediately was the perfect order that reigned within the storage room. No sign of mess or chaos here. It struck him that somebody on this team had good organizational abilities, more than likely India Standish. She had been annoyingly neat and tidy as a child, he suddenly recalled.

‘Why are these dresses laid out on tables?’ he asked Linnet, as they walked down to the far end of the storage area.

‘Because they’re beaded. Gowns with beading are never hung on hangers. You see, the weight of the beads pulls the dress out of shape. Also, it’s easier to check for loose beads and damage when the dresses are laid flat. We have a specialist in this kind of beaded embroidery who checks and also does repairs.’

‘I thought Evan did that,’ Tessa said, a blonde brow lifting quizzically.

‘Some of it, but Miriam Flande is the expert who helps out when we need her,’ Linnet responded with a small smile.

Glancing around, Tessa suddenly said, ‘There’re so many clothes here I can’t imagine why you want my poor bits and pieces.’

Toby grabbed her arm on hearing these words, and squeezed it. Quickly, she glanced at him, saw his warning expression, and added, ‘But of course you’re welcome to them, as I said, and naturally I’m flattered.’

Linnet looked at her sister oddly but made no comment.

‘Oh hello, India,’ Toby exclaimed as his cousin appeared quite suddenly from behind a rack, wearing the white cotton coat favoured by couturiers to protect the new clothing, part of an outfit in her hands. For once he was glad to see her; Tessa could be aggravating at times.

‘Hello, Toby,’ India answered, then turning to Tessa she went on, ‘I’m so glad you came to visit us. This is all quite something, isn’t it?’

Tessa simply nodded, fully aware of Toby’s presence right behind her. She did not want to say anything out of place, but inside she was seething with jealousy, envious of what they had accomplished. They were going to pull it off, damn it; contrary to what she had believed, the retrospective was probably going to be a big hit. And this maddened her. Competitive by nature, and extremely so with Linnet, any number of comments flew to the tip of her tongue. But she did not utter any of them. They were all hostile, snide, or critical, and were better left unsaid, she understood that. And so she made an effort to keep her irritation in check, her face neutral.

India hung up the jacket she was holding, then turning to Tessa, she said, ‘Come and look at Emma’s clothes. Evan’s been working on them for the last few weeks and they look brand new–as if they’d been bought yesterday, not fifty years ago.’

‘That’s great,’ Tessa muttered, and fell into step with India, the two of them walking behind Linnet, who was leading the way.

Toby followed behind the three women. He couldn’t help thinking how much Tessa and India resembled each other, at least as far as their delicate features and colouring were concerned. That they were related to each other was transparent. The Fairley strain runs through them both, he thought; from Jim to his daughter Tessa, and from Aunt Edwina to her granddaughter India Standish. He sighed under his breath. What a strange, muddled-up mixture his family was.

These thoughts fled when he came face to face with Evan Hughes, and he found himself thinking at once that she was a true beauty. Suddenly she was standing in front of him, dressed in the white couturier’s coat like India, and having appeared from behind a rack just as India had done a moment before. In fact, he almost ran slap bang into her, pulled back just in time, quickly apologizing.

‘My fault, suddenly appearing like that,’ she said, and thrust out her hand. ‘I’m Evan. We met briefly in Harry’s Bar the other night.’

He shook her hand, nodding, and then found himself smiling at her. ‘Nice to see you again, Evan. Linnet’s just been singing your praises.’

‘That’s kind of her, but she’s the one who’s responsible for all this–she and India, that is. I haven’t done all that much, I’ve only been here a few months.’

‘I know the retrospective has been underway for a year, the planning of it, but Linnet obviously values your contribution,’ Toby told her.

She nodded, then explained, ‘Today we’ve been putting some of Mrs. Harte’s clothes on the fibreglass mannequins. I think that’s where Linnet’s leading Tessa. Shall we join them?’

‘That’s a good idea,’ he answered, and together the two of them headed down the centre of the room between the many racks of clothes. Whatever anyone else said, Toby still held to his opinion that Evan Hughes resembled his aunt only at first glance. Up close, as he was now, he could see they were quite different. But, nonetheless, she
was
a knockout, and extremely well put together. Just as Paula O’Neill was; yes, that was part of the illusion: the stylishness. They had that in common, he realized.

Linnet, India and Tessa were waiting for them at the bottom of the storage area. It was here that the team of three had created a makeshift office on the spot, with desks, lamps and telephones. A lot of charts, sketches of the auditorium, lists and photographs of clothing were pinned on several cork bulletin boards, and in general there was an air of high efficiency here.

Tessa realized at once that they were going to give a show. Linnet and India had always been good at that; both rather theatrical in nature, they revelled in presenting projects as if they were on a stage entertaining an audience. She sighed. Well, she supposed they were this afternoon. But it was an audience of two, herself and Toby.

She stole a look at him. He was watching the three young women attentively–or rather, he was watching Evan Hughes. He was obviously fascinated by her, although she knew this was mostly because of Gideon’s involvement with her. Her cousin had a reputation for being flighty, and it was deserved, and so not unnaturally the family were intrigued by his sudden and unexpected steadfastness with the American. They all wondered how long it would last. Wouldn’t he soon get tired of her as he usually had in the past? She herself didn’t particularly care; she had her own problems to contend with.

Linnet, India and Evan were now moving the racks around, swiftly and with great expertise, and as they finally parted them they revealed a series of fibreglass mannequins. There were five of them altogether, and each displayed some of the loveliest clothes she had ever seen. Tessa knew at once that these were her great-grandmother’s clothes, and she was stunned by their stylishness, taste and elegance. But then Emma Harte was legendary for her chic appearance, and she asked herself why she was surprised. She ought to have known the clothes would be
haute couture and
gorgeous.

Stepping forward, Linnet explained, ‘Tessa, Toby, these are just a few of Emma’s outfits. We’re going to be displaying fifty altogether, maybe even a few more, and her collection is actually the main feature of the retrospective…
she
was the real inspiration behind it.’ Linnet looked at India, and said, ‘Tell them about the ball gown, India.’

India walked over to the mannequin, explaining, ‘We’re showing this gown with the back facing out, because very obviously the back is the most spectacular part of the gown.’

‘It’s beautiful,’ Tessa said, moving forward to inspect it closer.

‘It is,’ India agreed, and continued: ‘It’s made of cotton tulle, masses of it in the skirt, as you can see, and it’s a peculiar green, a sort of greyishgreen I would say. It’s by Christian Dior. It’s from his 1947 collection, created just after the Second World War, which became known as the New Look.’ India turned to Evan and beckoned her to come forward.

Evan explained, ‘You can see that the narrow, pale green silk belt defines the waist, then comes around to the back and essentially grows into the huge bow. This is, in a way, a kind of bustle with the ends falling to the hem. And it’s the trail of pale creamy, slightly pink cabbage roses that give the gown its great style. It was in almost perfect condition,’ Evan now remarked, looking directly at Tessa. ‘As were most of Mrs. Harte’s clothes. Very little needed real cleaning or repairs. She took care of her things.’