Bloodline

‘And finally, will you all be upstanding and raise your glasses to join me in a toast to my favourite god-daughter — happy eighteenth birthday, Tatiana.’

‘Happy birthday, Tatiana,’ chorused the assembled guests.

We all sang ‘Happy Birthday to You’ as a magnificent cake with two rows of flaming candles was brought out by Nicholas. To rapturous cheers from her school friends, Tatiana blew out the eighteen candles, cut the cake, and then made a short speech of thanks to her parents with every second word being ‘amazing’.

‘Yours was a great speech. Well done,’ said Emily, again squeezing my hand.

‘Thanks.’

‘I hate speaking in public,’ she said. ‘I get so nervous.’

‘I do it for a living,’ I replied. ‘You get used to it.’

‘Yes, I know. I’ve seen you on television, but don’t you get one of those autocue things to read?’

‘Never,’ I said. ‘You only get those in a studio and I work exclusively on racecourses.’

At that moment the DJ decided to turn up the volume of the music from loud to ear-splitting, making further conversation difficult, if not impossible. I looked at my watch. It was already almost eleven o’clock.

‘Do you want to dance?’ Emily shouted into my ear.

‘Not really,’ I replied fortissimo into hers. ‘I need to go fairly soon. I’ve got an early start.’

‘I could come with you,’ she shouted, looking straight into my eyes. ‘If you want.’

Did I want?

‘I’m sorry, but not tonight,’ I said into her ear. ‘I am staying at my dead sister’s cottage. I think I’d rather be there alone. But thank you.’

‘We could go to my place.’

Was she being a tad too desperate?

‘I need to be at Newmarket racecourse at seven o’clock in the morning for the Morning Line, and it’s just a mile from my sister’s cottage. That’s why I’m staying there.’

‘I’ll take that as a no, then.’

‘Look, I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that...’

‘You don’t need to explain,’ she said quickly. ‘It’s fine.’ But I could see from her expression that it wasn’t really.

‘I think I’d better go now.’ I leaned forward and gave her a brief kiss on the cheek. ‘It’s been lovely meeting you.’ It was a totally inadequate thing to say, and both of us knew it.

I stood up to go, but turned back to her.

‘Do you have a number?’ I asked. ‘Perhaps I could call you?’

She produced a pen from her handbag and wrote down a number on a scrap of paper, which she then handed to me.

‘Call me in the morning, after the programme,’ she said. ‘I’ll be watching.’

‘OK. I will.’

Was I being a fool? I’d already bemoaned to myself how lonely Clare’s cottage had seemed when I’d dressed there earlier, and here I was turning down the perfect opportunity not to have to spend the night there. But did I actually want to jump into bed with someone I’d only just met. Mind you, it wouldn’t have been the first time, not by a long way. But...

‘Go on, go,’ Emily shouted into my ear over the music. It was as if she knew what I was thinking. ‘Call me tomorrow.’

I went to find Angela and Nicholas to thank them for a lovely party. Angela was in the house, where it was, thankfully, much quieter.

‘Do you really have to go so soon?’ she asked.

‘I’m on the Morning Line,’ I said by way of explanation.

‘But what about Emily?’ she asked, looking over my shoulder.

‘She’s been very nice,’ I said.

‘But isn’t she going with you?’

‘No,’ I said.

‘Oh,’ she said, clearly disappointed.

‘Nice try, Sis,’ I said, giving her a kiss. ‘Enjoy the rest of the party. Where’s Nick?’

‘Trying to close the bar, I think. At least for a bit. Some of those girls are getting very drunk.’

I personally thought they’d been very drunk for ages. Long legs, short skirts and tipsy with it — some of the boys clearly thought that Christmas had come early this year, if only they themselves hadn’t drunk too much to make the most of the situation. I was quite glad that none of them were my concern.

‘Will you say goodbye to him for me?’ I said, collecting my coat. ‘And to Tatiana and the rest of the family. I don’t want to be a party-pooper by telling them I’m going so soon. I’ll call you tomorrow, but not too early.’

‘Early as you like,’ Angela said with a smile. ‘We’ve got fifty or so of Tat’s friends sleeping in the marquee tonight and we want them all out and gone by lunchtime.’

‘You must be mad,’ I said, opening the front door.

‘Totally. But thank God she’s only eighteen once.’

‘It’ll be her twenty-first next.’

‘Nope,’ she said. ‘This is the only one. She had the choice.’

‘Well, it’s a wonderful party, but I hope you have understanding neighbours.’

‘Both sides are here as guests. And Tatiana has been to all the houses in the street to tell them. The music will decrease in volume at one o’clock and stop completely by two.’

I gave Angela another kiss. ‘Tatiana’s a very lucky girl.’

‘Tell me about it.’ I could hear her laughing as she closed the door.

The music sounded significantly louder outside than in and, I thought, it wasn’t just those in this street Tatiana had needed to visit. The whole neighbourhood would be able to hear it.