Hitched! Read Free Page A

it and find
out,’ I suggested acidly.
    George only grinned as he pressed the answer button. ‘Yes, my
lord?’ The comment at the other end made him laugh. ‘I understand I’m not
showing you enough respect,’ he explained, waggling his eyebrows at me. I tucked
in the corners of my mouth and refused to respond.
    Irritably, I began straightening the already immaculately
aligned files set out in order of priority. I had phone calls to make of my own,
but how could I concentrate when George was leaning back in the chair, tipping
back dangerously as he yakked on to Lord Whellerby?
    ‘ Who ?’ he said suddenly, letting
the chair crash forwards in his surprise. ‘You’re kidding! What’s she doing there?’ A pause as he listened, his eyebrows
climbing towards his hairline. ‘Yes... Yes, it is... Her what?’
    I shifted uneasily as the blue eyes focused on my face. ‘You’re
kidding!’ he said again, looking at me so strangely that I mouthed What? at him. ‘Yes...yes...I’ll tell her. See you in a
bit.’
    George snapped the phone back and stared at me.
    ‘What?’ I said out loud.
    ‘You’ve heard of Saffron Taylor?’ he said conversationally, and
a dreadful feeling of foreboding stole over me.
    ‘Omigod,’ I said in a sinking voice.
    ‘Adored daughter of charismatic tycoon Kevin Taylor? The
ultimate IT girl? Darling of the celebrity circuit?’
    ‘Omigod,’ I said again.
    ‘She’s crying in Roly’s private sitting room.’
    I stared at him, aghast. ‘Omigod!’ It was all I could say.
    ‘And she says she’s your
sister.’
    I dropped my head in my hands. ‘Please tell me this is a joke!
Saffron can’t be here. She gets disorientated if she leaves Knightsbridge!’
    ‘ Saffron Taylor is your
sister?’
    ‘OK.’ I lifted my head and set my palms flat on the desk.
Drawing a deep breath in through my nose, I exhaled slowly. ‘Random sister in
client’s house. No need to panic.’
    ‘She is your sister!’
    ‘Half-sister,’ I said, rummaging in my bag for Audrey’s keys.
‘What in God’s name is she doing at Whellerby Hall?’
    ‘Crying, I think.’
    A thought zoomed in out of nowhere and hit me so hard I almost
buckled at the knees. ‘Has something happened to my father?’
    God, what if something had happened to him? My mind spun
frantically. What would I do? What would I say? What would I feel ?
    ‘I think we’d have heard on the news if something had happened
to Kevin Taylor,’ said George in a practical voice and I clutched at the
thought.
    ‘Yes, yes, you’re right!’ I said gratefully.
    ‘Roly said something about a wedding, I think,’ he went on.
‘But he was whispering, so I might have got that wrong.’
    I clutched my hair. ‘Please don’t tell me Saffron has come all
the way up here because of some wedding crisis!’
    ‘I gather she wanted to talk to you.’
    ‘Then why didn’t she just ring? Oh!’ A horrible thought struck
me. Another one. I pulled out my phone and stared at its blank screen. ‘I
switched my phone off last night,’ I remembered in a hollow voice.
    ‘I always find it helps to keep my phone on if I want people to
get in touch with me,’ said George, but I was in too much of a fret to rise to
his smug tone.
    ‘I’ve just had so many phone calls from Saffron about the
wedding,’ I said as I switched on the phone. ‘It’s been going on for months
already. Which superstar rock band should be flown in to perform? Should she get
her dress designed in New York or Paris or London? Castle A will look better in
the photos, but castle B has a helipad, so which should she choose? It’s totally
out of control!’
    My phone began beeping as message after message came through.
Distractedly, I scrolled through the ream of texts. ‘Call me... Call me...
Crisis... Where r u?...I need u,’ I read. ‘Good grief, what’s been going
on?’
    ‘Perhaps you’d better see her and find out.’
    ‘I would if I could just find my car
key !’ I went back to