Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell [29]
`Fenn, you're looking wonderful as usual,' Tabitha exclaimed, greeting them on the doorstep. Drawing him inside, she confided, `Do you know, I had the most amazing dream about you last night. Quite, quite naughty.' As she spoke, she winked at Miranda and jerked her head in the direction of the kitchen. `Darling, it's Cook's day off. There's a Charentais melon in the fridge, and a mountain of Parma ham. Why don't you help yourself while Fenn and I head on upstairs?'
`Later,' Fenn said firmly, meaning in half an hour when
Tabitha's head was shrouded in foil and she couldn't pounce on him. `I need Miranda to help me get started.'
`Yap yap,' Miranda murmured as the three of them trailed up the staircase, Tabitha clutching an unopened bottle of champagne in one hand and the hem of her sea-green nйgligй in the other.
For someone with five walk-in wardrobes stuffed with clothes, Tabitha appeared to spend an awful lot of her time wafting about in see-through nighties.
The master bedroom had been redecorated since Miranda's last visit, the ankle-deep turquoise shag pile having been replaced by ankle-deep ivory shag pile. The wallpaper, ivory and gold, matched the damask hangings artfully draped around the four-poster bed.
`This is nice.' Glancing inadvertently upwards, Miranda saw that the mirror was still there on the ceiling.
`I know.' Tabitha smiled meaningfully across at Fenn. `I've got great taste. Oh, sorry, darling,' she went on as Miranda pulled out a chair and something metallic half buried in the carpet went clunk. `Just pop them in that drawer, will you? Good girl.'
As she dropped the slim but efficient-looking gold handcuffs into the drawer, Miranda didn't dare look at Fenn. If she did, she knew she would burst out laughing. Biting her lip and gazing out of the window instead, she watched a bronzed figure in black shorts dive into the swimming pool below.
Although he was some distance away, she couldn't help thinking he looked familiar.
`Miranda, put some towels down around the chair,' Fenn instructed. `We don't want bleach on the carpet.'
A second splash heralded the arrival in the pool of another figure, paler and fleshier than the first, and wearing multicoloured trunks. By the look of things, Tabitha had found herself a couple of toyboys.
`Miranda. Towels.'
`For heaven's sake, Fenn, give the girl a break,' Tabitha chided good-naturedly. `She's just admiring my young friends.'
`Sorry, Fenn.' Miranda tore herself away. She was sure she'd seen the one in the black shorts somewhere before.
`Relax. Don't let him bully you.' Tabitha settled herself comfortably on to the chair.
Fenn, laying out the contents of his case, raised an eyebrow in disbelief.
`You're kidding. Miranda bullies me.'
`Oh, I love a man who knows his place,' Tabitha said with a smirk. The kind of smirk that signified, especially when he's handcuffed to a four-poster.
`Foil, please, Miranda.' Fenn was beginning to sound slightly desperate.
`Come on, let's open this first.' Patting his arm in a soothing manner, Tabitha handed him the bottle, managing to brush her wrist against his thigh en route. `You do the honours. Popping the cork is a man's job.' She winked again, saucily, at Miranda. `Poor Fenn, all on edge this morning. He looks as if he could do with a drink.'
Retouching Tabitha's bombshell-blonde highlights took three-quarters of an hour. By the time the last few greying roots had been painstakingly painted and wrapped in foil, the furious growls emanating from Miranda's empty stomach had reached bear-like proportions.
`Go on, run downstairs and get some food inside you.' Waving her empty glass at Fenn, Tabitha indicated that she was in need of a refill.
Miranda glanced at Fenn, who nodded. For the next twenty minutes he was safe; even Try-it-on Tabitha wouldn't risk dislodging the dozens of little foil packets and wrecking her hair.
Besides, if Miranda didn't eat soon they were going to need earplugs.
The kitchen door, leading out on to the sun terrace, was open. As Miranda crouched in front