‘Anyway, before I could decide what to do,’ I say, coming to her rescue, ‘this perfect gentleman got up from his seat, went over to where Millie was dancing, bowed and held out his hand to her. Well, Millie was delighted and, as they began to waltz, everybody started applauding and then other couples got up from their seats and started to dance too. It was a very, very special moment.And, of course, I fell immediately in love with Jack for having made it happen.’
‘What Grace didn’t know at the time was that I had seen her and Millie in the park the week before and had immediately fallen in love with her. She was so attentive to Millie, so utterly selfless. I had never seen that sort of devotion in anybody before and I was determined to get to know her.’
‘And what Jack didn’t know at the time,’ I say in turn, ‘was that I had noticed him the week before but never thought he would be interested in someone like me.’
It amuses me when everybody nods their head in agreement. Even though I am attractive, Jack’s film-star good looks mean that people think I’m lucky he wanted to marry me. But that isn’t what I meant.
‘Grace doesn’t have any other brothers and sisters so she thought the fact that Millie will one day be her sole responsibility would discourage me,’ Jack explains.
‘As it had others,’ I point out.
Jack shakes his head. ‘On the contrary, it was the knowledge that Grace would do anything for Millie that made me realise she was the woman I’d been looking for all my life. In my line of work, it’s easy to become demoralised with the human race.’
‘I saw from the paper yesterday that congratulations are in order again,’ Rufus says, raising his glass in Jack’s direction.
‘Yes, well done.’ Adam, who is a lawyer in the same firm as Jack, joins in. ‘Another conviction under your belt.’
‘It was a fairly cut-and-dried case,’ Jack says modestly. ‘Although proving that my client hadn’t inflicted the wounds herself, given that she had a penchant for self-harm, made it a little more difficult.’
‘But, generally speaking, aren’t cases of abuse usually easy to prove?’ Rufus asks, while Diane tells Esther, in case she doesn’t already know, that Jack champions the underdog – more specifically, battered wives. ‘I don’t want to detract from the wonderful work you do, but there is often physical evidence, or witnesses, are there not?’
‘Jack’s forte is getting the victims to trust him enough to tell him what has been going on,’ Diane, who I suspect of being a little in love with Jack, explains.‘Many women don’t have anybody to turn to and are scared they won’t be believed.’
‘He also makes sure that the perpetrators go down for a very long time,’ adds Adam.
‘I have nothing but contempt for men who are found to be violent towards their wives,’ Jack says firmly.‘They deserve everything they get.’
‘I’ll drink to that.’ Rufus raises his glass again.
‘He’s never lost a case yet, have you, Jack?’ says Diane.
‘No, and I don’t intend to.’
‘An unbroken track record – that’s quite something,’ muses Rufus, impressed.
Esther looks over at me. ‘Your sister – Millie – is quite a bit younger than you,’ she remarks, bringing the conversation back to where we left off.
‘Yes, there are seventeen years between us. Millie didn’t come along until my mother was forty-six. It didn’t occur to her she was pregnant at first so it was a bit of a shock to find she was going to be a mother again.’
‘Does Millie live with your parents?’
‘No, she boards at a wonderful school in North London. But she’ll be eighteen in April, so she’ll have to leave it this summer, which is a shame because she loves it there.’
‘So where will she go? To your parents’?’
‘No.’ I pause for a moment, because I know that what I am about to say will shock her. ‘They live in New Zealand.’
Esther does a double take.‘New Zealand?’
‘Yes. They retired there last year, just after our wedding.’
‘I see,’ she says. But I know she doesn’t.
‘Millie will be moving in with us,’ Jack explains. He smiles over at me. ‘I knew it would be a condition to Grace accepting to marry me and it was one that I was more than happy to comply with.’
‘That’s very generous of you,’ Esther says.
‘Not at all—I’m delighted that Millie will be living here. It will add another dimension to our lives, won’t it, darling?’
I lift my glass and take a sip of my wine so that I don’t have to answer.
‘You obviously get on well with her,’ Esther remarks.
‘Well, I hope she’s as fond of me as I am of her – although it did take her a while once Grace and I were actually married.’
‘Why was that?’
‘I think the reality of our marriage was a shock to her,’ I tell her.‘She had adored Jack from the beginning, but when we came back from our honeymoon and she realised that he was going to be with me the whole time, she became jealous. She’s fine now, though. Jack is once again her favourite person.’
‘Thankfully George Clooney has taken my place as Millie’s object of dislike,’ Jack laughs.
‘George Clooney?’ Esther queries.
‘Yes.’ I nod, glad that Jack has brought it up. ‘I had this thing about him…’
‘Don’t we all?’ murmurs Diane.
‘… and Millie was so jealous that when some friends gave me a George Clooney calendar for Christmas one year, she scrawled on it “I don’t like George Clooney”, except that she spelt it phonetically – J-O-R-J K-O-O-N-Y – she has a bit of trouble with the “L”,’ I explain.‘It was so sweet.’
Everyone laughs.
‘And now she never stops telling everyone that she likes me but she doesn’t like him. It’s become a bit of a mantra— “I like you, Jack, but I don’t like George Cooney”.’ Jack smiles. ‘I must admit that I’m quite flattered at being mentioned in the same breath,’ he adds modestly.
Esther looks at him. ‘You know, you do look a bit like him.’
‘Except that Jack is much better looking.’Adam grins. ‘You can’t believe how relieved we all were when he married Grace. At least it stopped the women in the office fantasising about him – and some of the men too,’ he adds laughingly.
Jack sighs good-naturedly.‘That’s enough, Adam.’
‘You don’t work, do you?’ Esther says, turning back to me. I detect in her voice the thinly veiled scorn that working women reserve for those who don’t, and feel compelled to defend myself.
‘I used to, but I gave up my job just before Jack and I got married.’
‘Really?’ Esther frowns.‘Why?’
‘She didn’t want to,’ Jack intervenes. ‘But she had a high-powered job and I didn’t want to come home exhausted and find that Grace was just as exhausted as I was. It was perhaps selfish of me to ask her to give up her job but I wanted to be able to come home and offload the stress of my day rather than be offloaded onto. She also travelled quite a lot and I didn’t want to come home to an empty house, as I already had done for many years.’
‘What was your job?’ Esther asks, fixing me with her pale-blue eyes.
‘I was a buyer for Harrods.’
The flicker in her eyes tells me she’s impressed.The fact that she doesn’t ask me to expand tells me that she’s not going to show it yet.
‘She used to travel all over the world first class,’ Diane says breathlessly.
‘Not all over the world,’ I correct. ‘Just to South America. I sourced their fruit, mainly from Chile and Argentina,’ I add, largely for Esther’s benefit.
Rufus looks at me admiringly.‘That must have been interesting.’
‘It was.’ I nod.‘I loved every minute of it.’
‘You must miss it, then.’ Another statement from Esther.
‘No, not really,’ I lie. ‘I have plenty here to keep me occupied.’
‘And soon you’ll have Millie to look after.’
‘Millie is very independent and anyway, she’ll be working most of the time at Meadow Gate.’
‘The garden centre?’
‘Yes. She loves plants and flowers so she’s very lucky to have been offered the perfect job.’
‘So what will you do all day long?’
‘Much the same as I do now – you know, cooking, cleaning, gardening – when the weather permits.’
‘You’ll have to come for Sunday lunch next time and see the garden,’ says Jack.‘Grace has green fingers.’
‘Goodness,’ says Esther lightly.‘So many talents. I’m so glad I was offered a post at St Polycarp’s. I was getting quite bored being at home all day.’
‘When do you start?’