Free Happy Birthday, Mr Darcy by Victoria Connelly Page B

back.
    ‘Mrs Hudson – really – ’
    ‘I do so like a man in costume,’ she said.
    ‘Please – stop this!’
    ‘Oh, you are such a naughty boy,’ she said, slapping him playfully on the bottom when she finally came up from air. ‘I’ve told you a thousand times to call me Carmel.’
    Dan ran a hand through his hair. ‘Look,’ he said, his voice low but serious, ‘I’m married. I’ve got a daughter. I was happy to consider you and your daughter for riding lessons but I think we’d better cancel that now, don’t you?’
    ‘You don’t want to make an enemy of me, Dan,’ she said, inching forward again, her hands now flat on his chest.
    ‘Mrs Hudson, I think you’d better leave.’
    ‘Oh, don’t be so melodramatic!’ she said and then she smiled her cat-like, taunting smile. ‘I won’t tell if you won’t.’
    ‘Dan?’ Robyn’s voice called from outside the stable.
    Dan pushed Carmel Hudson out of the way. ‘Robyn?’
    ‘Oh, there you are!’ Robyn said. Unlike Dan, she wasn’t yet wearing her wedding outfit but a loosely-fitting blouse and a long skirt, but her hair had been swept back and Dan saw white ribbon threaded through it.
    ‘Robyn, I-’ but he didn’t have time to explain because Carmel Hudson calmly walked out of the stable in her brilliant blue dress as if she was walking into a Hollywood premiere.
    ‘Oh, is this your little wife, then?’ she said, narrowing her eyes as she took in Robyn. ‘I see what you mean now, Dan darling.’
    Robyn’s mouth dropped open.
    ‘Mrs Hudson, I think you’d better leave.’
    She sighed dramatically. ‘Well, if you insist. You know I’ll do anything you want me to.’
    Dan and Robyn watched in horrified silence as Carmel Hudson left the stable yard.
    ‘ What is going on?’ Robyn cried as soon as she was out of sight.
    ‘Nothing!’ Dan said. ‘It was nothing!’
    ‘Then why have you got red lipstick all over your mouth?’ Robyn asked, her eyes wide and full of hurt. ‘And what did she mean when she said “I see what you mean now, Dan darling .”’
    Dan wiped a hand across his mouth. ‘She meant to stir up trouble – that’s all. She’s been bugging me for days about wanting riding lessons.’
    ‘Was that her on the phone last night?’ Robyn asked.
    Dan nodded.
    ‘I think she might have rung the cottage too. Someone rang twice today and hung up when I answered.’
    ‘Oh, Robyn. I’m so sorry.’
    ‘So, what was going on in the stable before I arrived?’
    ‘Nothing. She was doing her best to-’ Dan paused.
    ‘To what?’
    ‘To compromise me,’ Dan said.
    Robyn’s eyes were filled with tears now. ‘What happened? Did you kiss her?’
    ‘Of course I didn’t!’ he said, running a hand through his hair. ‘But it was rather hard to avoid her. She just sort of lunged at me.’
    ‘Oh, Dan!’ Robyn cried.
    ‘Listen,’ he said, his hands reaching out to hold her shoulders, but it was then that Robyn’s phone vibrated somewhere in her voluminous skirt.
    ‘Hello?’ she said a moment later. ‘No, I’m not far away. It’s okay. All right.’ She hung up and looked at Dan. ‘It's Katherine. I’ve got to get back.’
    ‘Robyn!’ Dan shouted after her as she quickly walked away. ‘We haven’t sorted out what we’re going to do about Katherine and Warwick!’
     

Chapter 13
    Dan watched helplessly as Robyn walked away from him. What was he going to do? He was meant to be safely ushering Warwick up the aisle but now his own marriage seemed to be in jeopardy. Team that with a bride who seemed to be having second thoughts and a groom who hadn’t even got dressed yet and the whole day seemed to be falling apart.
    There was only one thing for it, he thought, as he wiped his hand across his mouth once more just to make sure there was no trace left of Carmel Hudson’s lipstick. He had to talk to Pammy.
     
    Dame Pamela was sitting in a chair in her bedroom whilst half a can of hairspray was being applied to a very