Is he angry?
I lick my lips nervously. ‘Luke, I really can’t say anything.’
‘I understand.’ He takes a deep slug of his drink and for a while neither of us speaks.
As we sit there, the party thrumming around us, I keep darting cautious looks at him. He hasn’t exploded. He hasn’t stormed out saying that the whole evening’s spoiled for him now. Is he not as bitter as I thought?
I keep thinking of Elinor, hidden away in her tiny, musty hole. If I’d just persuaded her to stay … could I somehow have worked things out between them?
‘But Becky, you realize this isn’t just some tiny little favour.’ Luke breaks into my thoughts. ‘This is immense. I mean, all this.’ He gestures around the room and lowers his voice. ‘This … person. They were behind that too, weren’t they?’
Slowly I nod. If he knows, there’s no point pretending.
Luke exhales sharply, cradling his drink. ‘You know I’m going to have to say thank you, Becky. Somehow. Even if they don’t want to be thanked.’
‘I … I think that would be nice, Luke.’ I swallow. ‘Really nice.’
I can feel a pressing of tears behind my eyes. Just like that, things have been mended. We’ll meet up and yes, it’ll be stilted and awkward, but they’ll talk. And Luke will see his mother with Minnie. And he’ll realize there’s a different side to her.
‘No time like the present.’ Luke gets to his feet with sudden energy. ‘You know, I didn’t say anything – but all along I half-suspected Tarquin. How do he and Sir Bernard know each other? Go shooting together, do they?’
It takes a moment for me to catch up with what he’s saying. He thinks all this was Tarquin?
‘And of course he’s been desperately trying to repay me for that help I gave him earlier this year,’ Luke is saying. ‘But really, such extraordinary generosity was uncalled for.’ He looks around the room as though with fresh disbelief. ‘I don’t know how I can ever thank him properly. And Suze, too. I assume they were in it together?’
Noooo! Wrong! You’ve got it all wrong!
I want to say something; dislodge him off this track. But what can I do? I can’t betray Elinor’s confidence, not after everything she said.
‘Wait a minute!’ I scramble to my feet, depositing Minnie on the sofa. ‘Luke, you mustn’t say anything!’
‘Don’t worry, Becky.’ He smiles. ‘I’m not going to give the game away. If they want to stay incognito, so be it. But if somebody goes to all the trouble of doing something as exceptional and special as this …’ His face is shining. ‘They deserve a public thank-you. Don’t you agree?’
My heart is tying itself into knots. He should know what his mother did for him. He should know, he should know.
‘Come on, Minnie, Daddy needs to make a little speech.’ Before I can react, Luke is striding into the East Hall. ‘Suze?’ He beckons to her cheerfully as he passes. ‘Could you come in here a moment? And Tarquin?’
‘What’s going on?’ Suze says as she follows us in. ‘What’s Luke doing?’
‘He thinks it was all you,’ I mutter under my breath. ‘You and Tarkie. He thinks you fixed Sir Bernard and paid for all this. Now he wants to say thank you.’
‘You’re joking!’ Suze stops dead, her eyes dark and troubled. ‘But … we didn’t!’
‘I know! But how can I tell him that?’
For a moment we just stare at each other anxiously.
‘Does Luke suspect Elinor had anything to do with it?’ says Suze at last.
‘Nothing. He hasn’t mentioned her once.’
He’s mentioned everyone else in the world. All his family. All his friends. He toasted them all in his speech. But not her.
Luke has already bounded up on stage between songs and the lead singer of the band has handed the microphone to him.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, just a moment, if I may?’ Luke’s voice booms around the room. ‘There’ve been many thankyous tonight. But I just want to draw attention to one very, very special couple. They have opened this beautiful house to us, provided us with stunning hospitality … and much, much more besides, which I won’t go into here …’ He pauses meaningfully and I can see Tarquin darting a puzzled look at Suze. ‘But please know, Suze and Tarquin, I will never forget what you did. To the Cleath-Stuarts.’ Luke raises his glass, and all the guests on the dance-floor echo him, then break into applause.
Suze is trying to smile charmingly as people turn to her, applauding.
‘I feel terrible,’ she murmurs desperately through her smiles. ‘What about Elinor?’
‘It was her choice,’ I murmur back. ‘There’s nothing we can do.’
I think of EIinor speeding home through the night, shoulders rigid. With no one toasting her, no one smiling at her, no one even giving her a passing thought. And suddenly I make a silent vow to myself.
Luke’ll know one day. He’ll know one day.
‘Give us “New York, New York”!’ someone yells at Luke, and the room breaks into laughter.
‘No chance.’ Luke flashes a smile and hands the microphone back to the lead singer, who immediately counts the band into a new song.
‘Suze, darling.’ Tarquin has made it over to us, looking perplexed. ‘What on earth was Luke—’
‘Just thanking us for being good friends,’ she says brightly. ‘You know.’