The Party Girl's Invitation

by Karen Elaine Campbell

  “Mmm. Who do you suppose that is, with them then? The one in the elf or the pixie costume? I don’t recognise her at all.”

  “No idea. Yes, that’s definitely Jeremy alright. It’s just like him to turn up dressed as the dame. I bet he’s on a very strict warning to behave himself tonight, especially considering his behaviour last year. Where are they sitting then? With Crystal and Hetty, I’ll bet?”

  “Over there, on the one big round table at the front. The waiter is showing them to their seats now. We will have to wait until after the meal, when the music starts, to catch up with everyone else. We’ve got the Major, The Colonel and the Headmaster with us, so at least we’re on a good table this year. I only hope that the Major doesn’t start sounding off, Jonathan can be so prickly when people get a bit loud with drink.”

  “It’ll be fine, Peter, you’re off duty today, remember? Just leave them all to sort their own selves out. Relax, we’re here to have a good time tonight.”Mary patted his knee reassuringly.

  Saskia was gratified to be placed on the head table. Until she realised that some old bag and her family had made it there ahead of them and they were already sitting in the best seats. She scowled at Carrie and Phil, it was all their fault, for spending so long in the ante-room, guzzling all of the free champagne. It was only cheap imitation anyway, nothing like the stuff she was used to drinking on a regular basis. Not that they could tell the difference anyway, going by the goofy expressions on both of their faces. The waiter showed them to their places politely enough, it had to be said.

  She picked up the small white place card, carefully hand scribed in thick black ink, and tossed it aside with disdain. he bloody stupid bitch couldn’t even get her name right. She was listed as Sheila and Phil’s place marker said Peter. Poor Carrie had been a last minute addition and her card was made out to Guest One, how rude was that, after all of the money she’d paid. At least there was one ticket they hadn’t messed up, she looked around for the fourth marker, but couldn’t see it here on this table. Good. She didn’t want that slimeball too close to her.

  She cast a swift eye over the other names on the table as the others attempted to take their places. No, that wasn’t good enough. That would never do at all.

  She raised an imperious hand. “No, sorry this table arrangement isn’t good enough. It will have to be changed,” she insisted, loudly and with conviction.

  “Phil, you’re not sitting there. You will have to change places with me.”

  Phil’s card was positioned right next to Crystal. He wasn’t giving up that seat without a fight.

  “My name is on this seat here. This suits me fine,” he attempted to contradict.

  “I don’t care what the place name says, I want that seat,” Saskia instructed.

  She stared at the waiter. “Move it now,” she demanded.

  The other diners were beginning to stare.

  Hetty stopped her conversation with Mark and looked askance at the newcomers. Who were these people? Were they Lolly’s mystery guests? Where was the child anyhow? She should be here to escort her visitors. Such bad manners, the young.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”She accosted the young lady who was about to take the seat next to her. “I’m Hetty, pleased to meet you. And who might you be?” she asked.

  Carrie took the outstretched hand of the elderly lady seated to her left. Her own good manners outweighed her employers shocking lack of tact.

  “Good evening. Nice to meet you too. I’m Carrie,” she supplied as she grasped the elderly lady’ warm palm, the skin soft and papery, but the grip surprisingly strong, for one who looked so frail.

  “Well?”Saskia demanded of both the waiter and Phil. Not wishing to be outdone.

  The waiter abruptly switched the cards with a sheepish shrug. He wasn’t paid enough to deal with family disputes. He backed off rapidly, he’d leave them to sort their own problems out.

  Phil switched seats, with bad grace. There would be plenty of time later, to spend with Crystal. He supposed he could wait just a couple more hours.

  Mark ceased his conversation abruptly. Who was that with Jeremy, and why was she being so rude? There was something wrong here .He stared at his brother, hard, and frowned.

  Phil wondered why the other guy, in the dress like his, was staring at him. It did leave him feeling slightly less conspicuous though, at least he wasn’t the only one here with a dodgy costume. The grumpy guy had the exact same costume on, except his was lurid lime green, it must’ve come from the same hire place. He looked a bit severe, though, and the looks he was giving him were not altogether welcoming. He gave him the thumbs up, and smiled. It was nice to see a bit of solidarity, between men, even if the guy was a bit rude.

  The guy looked a bit confused, but thankfully he’d stopped glaring at him, for the moment at least. The thick white paint which had come with the costume was starting to melt in the heat of the tent, and Phil picked up his napkin to wipe at his face.

  Crystal and Brad were already on their way to the table, when Aunt Vera intercepted them. Lolly had locked herself in the downstairs loo and was refusing to come out, the caterers were running nearly half an hour late and they were short of wine, for the hot punch. It was proving to be a roaring success. What should she do?

  Crystal turned to Brad. “Sorry, domestic issues. Can you find your own way to the table, while I go and quickly sort this out?” she asked sweetly.

  “No problems, don’t be too long though, I’ll get lonely,” he replied, as she disappeared off, with her aunt.

  Right, Crystal decided, Lolly first. “Where is she, Aunt Vera, and who upset her?” she asked, without preamble.

  “No idea. She wanted us to meet her new boyfriend. But now she’s locked herself in the downstairs loo and he’s outside the door, trying to persuade her to come out.”

  Crystal smirked. Yes, that sounded like Lolly, alright.

  “Lead on then, and let’s see what we can do.”

  As they walked past the door to the catering tent, she called out to the head chef, “Chris, we have several spare cases of port, that will double up as wine for the punch, just water it down a bit, tell the boys to use that. I’ll delay the meal for you by fifteen minutes, can you cope with that?”

  Chris looked up from his task of decorating the salmon for the table and gave her the thumbs up. “Thanks darlin’, port, you say? OK, sure. Fifteen minutes? I’ll do me best.”

  Crystal turned to her aunt. “Please can I trouble you to do me a favour? Can you go and tell the leader of the hunt to delay speeches by fifteen minutes please? He’s over there, dressed as a teddy bear, standing beside the nun and the guy with the box on his head. What do you suppose he’s supposed to be?”

  “That’s Jonathan, the headmaster. He’s some boring thing about children watching too much TV.I think he’s making a political statement of some kind. I didn’t talk to him for too long, he’s enough to make paint want to dry quickly, just to get rid of him, don’t you think?”

  Crystal smiled.

  “Yes, I can see the teddy bear. No problem. I’ll go and speak to him for you. Please get my daughter out of the loo. We’ve guests staying over tonight, she can’t stay in there forever,” her aunt worried, as she made her way over to speak to the person Crystal had indicated.

  Happy that one disaster had been diverted, Crystal started off along the path to the main house alone. Not for the first time, tonight, she wished that she’d thought to bring a coat with her, it was perishingly cold. She sauntered in through the back door of the farmhouse and headed for the downstairs loo.

  The sight that greeted her, could not have been more bizarre. There was a pirate having a stand up slanging match with a mermaid, at one end of the corridor, he was waving a cutlass about dangerously and she was picking sequins from her bosom and throwing them in his face. And to their right, a vampire stood, resting his head against the closed bathroom door attempting to cajole someone into op
ening the door.

  She glanced from one to the other and back again, resting with the vampire.

  Reginald, She surmised.

  She was about to walk over and introduce herself, when something about the timbre of the voice caused her to stop. She knew that voice. She’d recognise it anywhere. Simultaneously, she recognised the irate yelling of her twin and Verity’s whining tones. Oh no, not now.

  Dinner at the table was a subdued affair. By the time Olivia had been coerced into extricating herself from the bathroom and Verity had stopped throwing things at Jeremy long enough for some sort of order to be maintained, there had barely been time to scramble into their seats, before the leader of the Hunt began his customary speeches. Crystal had slunk into her seat with seconds to spare and received a very nasty surprise.

  “Hello, Crystal. We missed you,” Saskia had crowed, as she whipped off her ears and someone on the table behind flashed a shot of a very surprised Crystal being wrapped in her employer’s hearty embrace.

  Jazz, on the other side of the table, seated beside a watery Olivia had narrowed his gaze.

  “Saskia.” Crystal shrieked, before she had a chance to regulate her volume.

  All eyes swivelled in their direction.

  Where one goes, the other follows, Crystal registered, as she realised that the guy who looked like Jeremy and was dressed as an ugly sister, was actually not her brother. She knew that he was sitting right next to Verity and wearing a pirate suit, cutlass and all.

  Amid various cat calls and loud shushing gestures, an uneasy calm was restored.

  Crystal pointedly turned her back on Phil, Saskia and Carrie and attempted to hold a conversation of her own with Brad.

  Unfortunately, he seemed to be wrapped up in a tearful Verity and Jeremy was pointedly talking to Olivia, ignoring his girlfriend with studied ease. Crystal felt the abject desolation of weeks of trauma and outright despair, roll over her in sickening waves. She had to get out of here, she couldn’t cope with this right now. She stared at her plate in vexation. She was slowly going right out of her mind. A single tear rolled down her face and landed, plop, on her plate.

  Without a word, Jazz pushed back his seat and eased his way around the table.

  To the utter fascination of several members of the assembled crowd, the un-named vampire placed two hands on Crystal’s shoulders. She simply took one glance at his face and then without a word, she stood up and followed him from the room, like a well-trained puppy.

  Within seconds, there followed a mass scramble, where most of the front table leapt to their feet, all at the same time and began trying to exit the room. One of the ugly sisters and the cat tried to leave first, and they would have succeeded, but for the mermaid, who in trying to restrain one of the pirates, managed to get one of her oversized flippers caught in the retreating cat’s long furry tail. The pink ugly sister tripped over the now conjoined cat and mermaid’s tails, giving the vicar’s wife, who was seated behind him, rather a striking view of his bare backside. The ice queen began howling and ran off to resume her place in the downstairs loo. There was a considerable amount of yelling and screaming, until the fairy godmother picked up the ice bucket and bashed it so hard with her magic wand that the glass shattered and rained down over the elf who was trying to pacify a now hysterical cat.

  The resulting hullaballoo caused even the toastmaster to stop in his tracks, mid speech.

  Mark and Ruth were so busy, playing a game of you touch mine and I’ll touch yours under the table, that they barely noticed the commotion. This party had put some spice back in their marriage, for sure.

  Crystal and Jazz quite simply disappeared without a trace. It was a mere matter of steps down the ice covered path to the big black barn, which housed the generator and the tractor that her uncle used on the farm. The large, rusty old padlock gave all impressions of securing the shed, but all they’d needed to do was slip the bolt at the top of the door and shimmy inside, long before anyone else made it out of the tent in their wake. In the pitch black of the barn, surrounded by the smell of diesel, the noise of the generator and the ancient assortment of farmyard equipment, Crystal led Jazz surely and decisively to the large dry hayloft, where she’d played so many times in her youth. As she ascended the tiny rope ladder stairs, she held his hand firmly, there was no way she was letting him back out now, she knew exactly what she was doing tonight. This was something she’d wanted for a very long time.

  Their feet made barely a sound on the hay covered planks of the rough loft floor, and Crystal drew him over to the corner, where the last dredges of the winter hay was stored. He didn’t say a word, as she slipped out of the frayed stockings and almost non-existent chemise. She stood there, naked, and trembling except for a scrap of pure white lace which covered her most intimate soul. Her flesh quivered in the moonlight.

  Jazz didn’t move. If she wanted him tonight, she had to take the first step. He had some idea what was going on there, back in the tent, but she had to take responsibility for her actions right now. He wasn’t a substitute for her some playboy lover, she wouldn’t be able to cast him off when the going got rough.

  He could smell her perfume, mixed with the other more earthy scents of the barn. He cupped her face in the palm of his hand and tipped her chin up so that her eyes met his own.

  “This is it, Crystal. No more games,” he insisted. “If we do this now, then you’re mine,” he ran the tip of his finger softly, down her tear stained face. “I’m not a monk and I’m not a pushover, there’s no going back. You will belong to me.”

  Crystal nodded slowly.

  Jazz felt reality slipping away. It would take little effort, to move to a place where coherent thought would be replaced by passion and power. Recrimination and questions could wait for the morning, this was their time, their place and there would be no holding back. Heat radiated through his belly.

  His vampire’s cape landed in a heap of crimson satin, against the pale covering of hay on the floor. Without any kindness or any moderation he pulled her down with him, onto to the cold hard timbers of the hayloft, his body yielding as he took Crystal’s weight on the rough planks of the decking. The time for words was done.

  Outside several voices could be heard calling Crystal’s name, but she rapidly straddled his body and smothered his mouth with her own, boldly thrusting her tongue deep into his mouth and inviting his possession so that no sound could possibly escape.

  He liked the feel of her naked skin, soft against his palm, as he investigated her body, tasting her mouth slowly and savouring each kiss. There was no rush, everyone else was busy, occupied elsewhere. This could take all night, they were creatures of darkness, they inhabited their own personal realm.

  Chapter13

  Post Party Blues

  Jazz had the vague feeling that something was wrong, only he couldn’t quite place it. He recalled the sound of someone daintily tiptoeing around the room, before he drifted back off to sleep again, utterly exhausted. He couldn’t remember a time when he’d felt quite so tired, mentally or physically.

  An hour later he woke with a start. Crystal, where was Crystal? They’d finally made it into his bed last night and he’d drifted off to sleep, with her in his arms.

  Only now he knew that she was gone.

  They had finally sneaked out of the barn long after the last of the revellers had gone. All but the caterers had packed up and left for the night. Some guy called Chris had been stacking the last of the catering equipment in some cardboard boxes and he’d glanced up as they’d tiptoed lightly past the catering tent. ‘Ah, so that’s where you got to, is it?’ he’d asked as they glanced in his direction.

  “Shhh,” Crystal had replied, and Jazz had responded with a wink.

  Chris had mimed zipping his lips and they’d both laughed as they sneaked off to Jazz’s car, giggling, hand in hand.

  The clock had registered five o’clock, by the time they’d fallen into his bed together, satiated and content.
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br />   Now he’d woken up and Crystal was gone. He padded over to the en-suite shower, but he knew she wasn’t here. She wasn’t in the kitchen either. He wondered why she’d run. He ran a hand through his hair and slipped into a spare pair of pyjama bottoms, he’d taken to wearing them recently since the episode with Maisie, in the hallway. He shuddered even now, to think about it. She had that gleam in her eye these days, the ‘I know a secret’ look, which technically speaking, he supposed that she did.

  Back in the village, Crystal let herself into an empty house. Gran was staying at the farm after the party, she wouldn’t be home for hours, yet.

  She needed to do some thinking. She had some decisions to make and she needed the peace and quiet of her own bed for that. She couldn’t think with Jazz around, the sight and the smell of him was enough to send her radar off the scale. Her every thought trailed off in one direction…

  Brad awoke with cramp in his leg. He slid to one side, and pushed Verity’s hair out of his face. It was bloody freezing in here. The windows had steamed up and the steam had frozen solid, whilst they had been asleep. It was just starting to get light. He had no idea where they’d parked up, but he thought he could hear a bull bellowing in the field outside.

  A farm tractor ran past the hedge on the other side of the track.

  The noise was enough to disturb Verity, she stirred in her sleep and pulled him closer, she was cold and she needed his body warmth.

  Brad thought briefly about finding the car keys and driving her home, but she was still only half dressed and he could see the tips of her nipples sticking out through the thin fabric of her mermaid suit. The tail was still unzipped.

  He pulled her closer and his hand slid up under the shiny flipper. They could always warm up together, and it would be so much more fun.

  Phil opened his eyes and focussed blearily on the bottle of champagne still sitting unopened in the enormous ice bucket strategically placed next to the bed. It felt like a herd of elephants were rampaging around inside of his skull. He closed his eyes quickly, and groaned. How much, exactly, had he drunk last night?