“And maybe even more,” he growled.
The last month together had been wonderful. We’d spent every Saturday night and Sunday afternoon together since. We talked about everything. His work, his ambitions and his time at boarding school. Even his regrets about his marriage—he said he should have never agreed to it. And I shared with him my crazy exploits from New York, and how I felt like a different person to the waitress I’d been there. Things had grown between us. And thinking about staying in London to be with him seemed less and less scary and more and more how things should be.
“Shall I get some wine?” he asked.
I laughed. “If you want it to cost more than about five bucks then I would say yes.”
He shuddered. “Can you even buy wine for five pounds a bottle?”
I patted him on the chest. “You see what the rest of the world has to deal with while you’re in your ivory tower.”
“I’ll get champagne. To celebrate.”
I groaned. “Don’t jinx anything.”
“There’s nothing to jinx. If you’d just open the bloody envelopes now, you’d see.”
“I told you, I want to save them until we both have time.”
He grinned. “We’re going to celebrate all night.” He glanced at his watch. “But now I have to head to chambers. Sebastian will be there already.”
“You should go.”
He released his arms from around my waist.
“I’ll see you in just a few hours.”
“Yes, I’ll be back by seven. Half past at the latest,” he said as he opened the bedroom door.
I blew him a kiss. “I can’t wait.” I’d thought he’d forget after our night out at Hakkasan. I’d suspected that work would engulf him, and I’d get pushed to the sidelines and his promise to take Saturday nights off would be broken. But just like Alexander Knightley promised, he did what he said and he didn’t say things he didn’t mean. It was why I liked him so much.
The front door clicked closed and I grabbed my cell phone. I wanted to get to the grocery store early. I had no idea how easy it would be to buy venison.
I’d been making mental adjustments in the last month. I’d been picturing myself studying in the UK. Darcy had said I could stay on in her townhouse for the entire time. Although Alexander had hinted that he was going to buy a place and wanted me to stay with him. I had images of us spending our free time together, even me managing to persuade him to have a vacation. Or holiday as he would say. I imagined us happy together. Because that’s what we were now. But I hadn’t allowed myself to actually plan anything. I’d not accepted Darcy’s offer and I’d not looked into whether or not I could take part-time work on a student visa. I didn’t want to let myself get too invested in case I didn’t get accepted. When we opened the envelopes together tonight, then I could start planning.
Tonight was the start of something. It was the beginning of our future together.
Alexander
Violet was going to kill me.
There was almost as much paper piled up in this office as there had been when she’d first started.
“I just don’t understand why the trial hasn’t been pushed back until the New Year. It makes no sense to start it two days before Christmas and then have a break in the middle,” Sebastian grumbled.
“They’re trying to make the courts more efficient.” There was no point in questioning the logic of the legal system. The trial was set for Monday and that was that.
“I’d be a lot more efficient if I wasn’t here on a Saturday night,” Sebastian complained. He was going to have to adjust; this was how it worked.
“Wait, what’s the time?” I asked, glancing out the window, trying to see how dark it was.
“Almost eleven.”
How the hell had that happened? Shit, eleven? Last time I’d checked the clock it had been a quarter past four. Outside was dark, but it never got really light at this time of the year especially as it had been raining all day. It was difficult to tell what time it was. I stood up and started to pull on my jacket. “I need to go.”
It was Saturday.
This was my evening with Violet.
She and I were supposed to have dinner.
We were meant to be opening her acceptance letters this evening.
Shit.
The enormity of what I’d done was suddenly revealed, as though a veil had been lifted on my memory. I grabbed my mobile and rushed out of chambers. Sebastian was muttering something, but I didn’t have time to hear it.
I strode out toward the exit of Lincoln’s Inn to get a cab and pulled out my phone as I went. I swiped the screen and saw the three missed calls. Fuck. I was an idiot.
The preparation for the Bar Humbug trial was almost complete, but we’d come across a number of issues today that had taken longer than expected to solve. Thank God Sebastian had been there, or I would have had to work through the night. I just hadn’t expected them to have taken this long. I didn’t know how I could have just let the time go like that. I’d been so immersed in my work I hadn’t remembered Violet. I groaned and pressed dial.
It rang twice, and then I was abruptly cut off. Not like it would have been if the phone had been turned to silent and my call had gone ignored. No, Violet had seen the call and cancelled it.
Christ.
I didn’t know what to do. I needed her to understand that I’d just lost track of time and it wasn’t a reflection on her. Except, what else could it be?
A dull ache in my stomach grew as I flagged the taxi down and began the short journey back to Mayfair.
I stared at the screen on my phone, willing Violet to call back. I had three unopened messages.
The first message, sent a little after five, asked what time I’d be back.
Damn. I should have picked up this message sooner and replied. I’d just been in the thick of it. But it was no excuse. I’d promised her and I’d broken that promise.
The second message—asking when I’d be back—had come in just after seven. And the final one was from twenty minutes ago. She said she was going to bed.
I grimaced. Ordinarily, Violet and I texted off and on during the day, more on a Saturday when she wasn’t at work. But today had been overwhelming, and Sebastian and I were more than a little punch drunk from the hours we’d been working.
I typed out a message.
I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize the time. I’m on my way home now. Work has been brutal.
She was probably asleep. But an uncomfortable feeling lodged in my gut.
The cab pulled up outside the Hill Street house. I paid and jumped out. The lights were off, so I fumbled in my pockets for the key she’d given me earlier in the week. She couldn’t be asleep already, could she?
I entered the dark house and closed and locked the door behind me. Going into the living room, to check that Violet wasn’t sleeping on the sofa, I glanced around the room, trying to find an explanation for my unsettled feeling. I set down my case and peeled off my coat and jacket, striding into the dining room to put them on the back of the chair.