Country Affairs. Zara Stoneley

him?’

      ‘I thought that’s why you were chasing him.’

      ‘Oh that. Well, I ran out of petrol and he fell off and we couldn’t be arsed to kill each other.’ He slid off his horse, landing at her feet and gave her a smacker of a kiss, which mollified her a little bit. ‘He explained everything, darling.’

      ‘He did?’

      ‘He’s sorry, it was just a bit of a cock-up. I think I might have overreacted a bit when I chased him.’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘Thought he wanted to whisk you away, but he only came to apologise.’

      ‘A cock-up?’ Lottie stared. She wasn’t sure if it was good that Rory and Todd had decided they were buddies, or bad that she was the last one to get the explanation, as per normal. And the apology. She looked at Todd.

      ‘He’s spot on, Lots. I mean, I didn’t exactly have time to say goodbye or anything before they bundled me on the plane, did I? But it was all a misunderstanding, mate.’

      ‘The horses Robert?’ Elizabeth tapped her foot impatiently and looked disapprovingly at Todd, who wisely shut up.

      ‘Tippermere against the rest of the world. Once I’ve had a drink, that is.’ He nodded in Todd’s direction. ‘And you better have one too. Looks like we’ve some catching up to do.’

      ‘Whatever you say, mate. How do I get off this thing?’

      It was at this point that Lottie realised the wedding was at a turning point, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. Or about getting an explanation from Todd.

      Her father, Billy, Uncle Dom and several of the other guests had already been drawn by the sight of the horses and the competitive spirit was kicking in faster than the alcoholic kind.

      ‘It’s you,’ Rory nodded towards Billy, ‘me and Dom against him,’ Todd got a look, ‘Mick and’ he looked round, searching the expectant faces for a suitable outsider.

      ‘And me.’ Tabatha, who had spent most of the afternoon chasing after the elusive Todd and Merlin finally spotted her chance. ‘Don’t you dare say I can’t.’

      Rory chuckled. ‘If Todd’s happy with you, then it’s fine by me.’ Todd looked more than happy. In fact, the look on his face was one Lottie remembered well.

      ‘But you can’t.’

      Tab scowled and Lottie hastily qualified the statement. ‘None of you can. I mean, I mean…’

      ‘Now, now Charlotte. No harm in a bit of fun.’ Elizabeth had a twinkle in her eye and stiffness in her backbone that Lottie hadn’t seen in a while.

      ‘But, they’re going to…’ She wasn’t exactly sure what they were going to do, but if it involved horses and teams it wasn’t the type of thing you normally saw at a wedding reception. Lottie looked around wildly for inspiration. ‘Amanda won’t like it.’

      She glanced out of the corner of her eye at her Uncle Dominic. It was what Dom thought about it all that she was more bothered about. She had been determined to impress him today, and not with her horsemanship skills.

      They’d agreed that she would take the day-to-day management of the Tipping House Estate off his hands, so that he could spend more time with Amanda, and so that when the day came for the grandmother to step down (although it was a bit like waiting for the Queen to abdicate), she’d be ready to become the next Lady Stanthorpe.

      The list of ‘things that needed taking care of’ was a bit like an Ikea catalogue: very large, very varied and very difficult to prioritise, but with the help of Dom she’d drawn up a plan of attack. And raising money to repair the roof was item number one. Mainly because, as Dom pointed out, if the roof gave way then the list would get considerably longer. And she really didn’t want that.

      Her father’s wedding would showcase her organisational skills. Well, that had been the plan. And Rory was about to wreck it.

      ‘Nonsense, Amanda’s up for it.’ He gave her a hug.

      ‘And we have to get up early.’ She really had wanted to get up with a clear head so that she could go through the accounts her uncle had given her, and prove that not only was she an organisational whizz, but that she was the image of efficiency. And then he’d stop fussing and leave her to it.

      And Rory had promised to do whatever was needed to help her out. In fact she had been hoping that he’d help her with one of the horses before breakfast, which he’d enjoy. Then he’d hardly notice when they moved onto looking at accounts, which he hated. Rory was the type of man who shoved bills in drawers and then conveniently forgot about them. Unless they were related to horse feed, of course.

      With the wedding plans and all the little jobs she seemed to have taken on at Tipping House she had found it harder and harder to find time to ride with Rory. And she missed it.

      ‘Right,’ he smacked her bum, ‘that’s settled, let’s get the party started.’

      ‘But Rory, we do need to get up in the morn—’ It wasn’t that she didn’t want a bit of fun, it was just that when Rory had one of his ideas it never ended in an early night and sobriety.

      ‘This is going to be a wedding to remember, darling.’ He kissed the tip of her nose. ‘You’ve done a brilliant job.’ His lips moved down to her mouth. ‘Have I told you how gorgeous you look in that tight dress? I can’t wait to rip it off. Right, back in a bit.’

      Seeing Todd again had been a nasty shock to Lottie’s system. One of the trickier aspects was that she couldn’t remember for the life of her exactly what she’d told Rory about the brief hiatus in their relationship, when she’d set off on her world tour to discover herself. And instead discovered Todd. Which had been quite a nice distraction until the police had turned up, of course.

      ‘Get me another drink, Charlotte dear, and do stop looking like a wet weekend. It’s your father’s wedding day, well his party, at least. And there’s no point in moping over that man. I’m not surprised he abandoned you, you’re not exactly his type, are you?’ Lottie took the empty glass that Elizabeth was pressing into her hand without thinking. ‘He’s very pretty, but totally irresponsible, I’d say from the look of him.’ She stared totally unselfconsciously at Todd. ‘How many wives did the man have?’

      ‘I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him, Gran?’

      ‘I might do that. Somebody needs to stop him pawing young Tabatha. No idea of how to behave. No wonder the Spanish deported him.’

      Lottie decided not to point out the obvious, that it was actually Tab who was doing the pawing, and that she was plenty old enough to look after herself these days.

      ‘Chop, chop dear. And do make sure it’s a double gin, or shall I ask Roger to get it?’

      ‘You know very well his name’s Rory.’

      Rory was oblivious to the conversation. After tethering the horses to the pegs that held the marquee in place (which seemed a bit of a dodgy idea to Lottie), he was getting down to the serious business of planning the competition (on the previously pristine white tablecloth) and drinking. Which left Lottie with the job of getting another drink for her gran and wondering what the hell Todd was doing in Cheshire, well even in the UK, at all. Obviously they didn’t have long prison sentences for bigamy, well not long enough, or he’d just charmed his way out early.

      ***

      Billy Brinkley was used to competing at the Olympia Horse Show, which always took place indoors and was guaranteed to be big, noisy and involve fancy dress and night-time events. And so were his horses. At the sight of strobing disco lights (somebody’s vain attempt to keep the party on track) his favourite bay stallion pricked his ears and got ready to party.

      Perched bareback on top of his horse, still in his wedding finery (but minus the top hat), Billy couldn’t believe his luck. Despite being determined to make an honest woman