The Wedding Challenge. Jessica Hart

never met him,’ said Bea. ‘I gathered from Emily that his wife was working in the States and that he’d gone to join her.’

      Chase’s hand fell. ‘It’s a bit more complicated than that,’ he said slowly.

      Bea paused in mid-slice, and something in his expression made her lay the knife down. ‘What?’

      ‘Georgie’s left Nick.’

      ‘Oh, I see,’ she said uncomfortably. ‘And Chloe?’

      ‘She doesn’t know. She’s too young to understand.’

      Chase pulled a beer out of the fridge and wrenched off the top before belatedly remembering to offer Bea one. She shook her head and he sat down at the table, turning the bottle between his hands. It went against the grain to pass on Nick and Georgie’s private business, but she and Emily really needed to know the situation so that they didn’t upset Chloe unnecessarily.

      ‘Nick’s gone to try and persuade Georgie to come home,’ he said.

      To his relief, Bea didn’t offer sympathy or sit down next to him and encourage him to tell her the whole story. Instead she swept the carrots off the board into a saucepan and picked up an onion.

      ‘Why has…Georgie?…gone to America? Is she really working?’

      ‘Oh, yes, she’s working all right. That’s part of the problem. Georgie’s an actress. She’s making a movie somewhere in Texas, and she’s got a starring role.’

      Bea froze and put down her knife very carefully. ‘We’re not talking about Georgie Grainger by any chance, are we?’

      ‘You’ve heard of her?’ Chase took a pull of his beer. ‘Georgie would be pleased.’

      Bea opened her mouth and then closed it again. Georgie Grainger was not yet in Nicole Kidman’s league, but comparisons were already being made. She had had a small part in a film that had turned into the unexpected success of the previous year, breaking all box office records, and for a while the media couldn’t get enough of her.

      Bea remembered seeing her being interviewed on a television chat show, and how envious she had been of her creamy skin and swinging chestnut hair and spectacular green eyes.

      ‘She’s gorgeous, isn’t she?’ she had said to Phil, but he had only grunted and said that he preferred blondes.

      That should have been a warning.