Free Spellbound by Jane Green Page B

he finally recovers the power of speech. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’
    ‘You get used to it after a while,’ Emily says. ‘So now say hello to my best friend, Alice.’
    ‘God, I’m sorry.’ Harry grins as he extends a hand. ‘That was incredibly rude. It just took my breath away for a minute. I’m Harry. Hello, Alice.’
    ‘Hello, Harry.’ Alice likes him immediately. He has kind eyes, she thinks. Good teeth. A strong handshake. Yes. He’s good enough for Emily. ‘Would you like a coffee or something before we go?’
    ‘Do you want to see the house?’ Emily nudges Harry, who is again gazing around. ‘Alice will give you the guided tour if you want. The dogs will be okay outside for a few minutes.’
    ‘We only charge five quid for the tour, or six if you include the coffee.’
    Harry laughs. ‘I’ll do a deal with you. If you give the house tour I’ll do the driving.’
    ‘You mean I should waive the five-pound fee?’
    Harry looks indignant. ‘My chauffeur fees are usually twice that.’
    ‘Okay. Done!’ Alice smiles, walking up the stairs and beckoning for them both to follow.
    ‘See?’ Emily scoots up behind Alice and whispers in her ear. ‘I told you you’d like him.’
    Alice is not what he expected. Emily has spoken of her glamorous best friend, and shown him pictures of the two of them together. He has seen a pictorial history of Emily and Alice throughout their lives – the two of them as beaming little girls holding on to each end of a skipping rope, Emily and Alice sitting on a beach, clutching their knees and grinning, their eyes hidden behind huge sunglasses.
    And then more recently Emily with the same wild hair, the same wide smile, but Alice looking completely different. ‘This is the same girl?’ he’d asked in amazement, looking at pictures taken at Emily’s birthday dinner last year, staring at the glossy beautiful woman, immaculately made up, her smile for the camera doing a bad job of hiding the sadness in her eyes.
    He had known he would like the woman in the earlier pictures, had been able to imagine exactly what she was like. ‘You’ll love Alice,’ Emily had said excitedly, but then, when he’d seen what she’d become, he’d had an abrupt change of mind.
    He knew high-maintenance women like Alice. They were the ones who bought designer dogs from breeders, then farmed them out to dog-trainers, refusing to have them in the house until someone else had trained them. They treated them as accessories, buying them the very latest in designer dog gear, but didn’t spend any time getting to know them, or understanding the unique relationship between a dog and its master. Or mistress.
    If Alice had a dog, he had already decided, it would be a Bichon Frise. Or a Maltese poodle. Not a dog like Humphrey, whom he already adored. Nor a dog like his own collie cross, Dharma, also from a shelter.
    He thought he knew what to expect, and was beginning to dread this weekend. Joe sounded like a first-class wanker, and Alice looked like a snotty cow, even though Emily had sworn blind she wasn’t, had said he mustn’t judge a book by its cover.
    On the whole Harry tried not to get involved with his students. Most of the time he managed to be friendly while maintaining his reserve, but there had been the odd slip, and there was something about Emily he just found incredibly appealing.
    He’d never admit it, but he was immediately more inclined to like those students of his who had rescued, rather than paid for, their dogs, and Emily seemed like such fun, had laughed uproariously as Humphrey created chaos in the class, and he was delighted when they ended up having coffee together.
    She made him laugh, and he found he couldn’t wait for the next lesson, to see her again. He had finally kissed her last week, catching her unawares as she was making coffee in her tiny galley kitchen, a mug of Nescafé Gold Blend in each of her hands as he reached down, seizing the moment,