‘Of course you’re modern too,’ said Philip quickly. ‘But you’re different, Lorraine. You’re a grown-up. Lola is . . .’
‘Young,’ echoed Lorraine.
‘Exactly. And she’s the person we want to be selling to.’
‘Maybe I am.’ Lola finally looked away from her reflection. ‘And maybe I can be a customer one day. But right now I couldn’t even afford the clasp of the necklace, let alone the whole thing.’ She sighed as she slipped the ring from her finger and placed it on one of the glass displays while Lorraine undid the necklace and bracelet. ‘Thank you for letting me try them on. It was amazing. But I’d better be going.’
‘You can’t rush away,’ said Philip. ‘We haven’t discussed your bread roll yet.’
‘I’m due back at work.’ Lola looked at her watch and gave a little shriek. ‘In exactly two minutes. I’ve got to go.’ She hurried to the door and opened it.
‘Wait!’ called Philip. ‘Where do you work? Will I see you again?’
But Lola didn’t answer. She was already running up the road.
She clattered into the office and looked around anxiously for Irene, the staff officer generally known as Dot because of her complete lack of interest in any excuses for lateness and insistence that all staff were at their desks on the dot.
‘She was asking for you a minute ago.’ Pat Burke looked up from the passport she was working on. ‘I told her you were dealing with someone from the general public.’
‘Did she believe you?’ Lola was still anxious.
‘Of course,’ said Pat.
Lola smiled. Pat was one of the clerical assistants who worked on temporary contracts with the Passport Office to cover the busy summer period. She’d started working there after the death of her husband a few years previously, and although she was still on a temporary contract, she worked eight months of the year and was far more experienced than Irene or Lola. Being older than most of the staff, Pat wasn’t intimidated by Irene, and as she knew more about the running of the office than the more senior woman did, Irene relied on her whenever there were problems. Pat, who privately thought that Lola was one of the hardest-working people there, was also very supportive of her because she never tried to take advantage of her temporary status as some of the other girls sometimes did.
‘Where were you?’ she asked. ‘You’re never late.’
Lola sat down at her desk and picked up one of the passport application forms so that she’d appear busy when Irene returned. But she smiled at Pat as she related her lunchtime experience.
‘Warren’s!’ Pat was impressed. ‘I’ve always wanted a piece of jewellery from there. I love those Adele rings.’
‘The Snowdrop was utterly gorgeous,’ said Lola. ‘The minute I put it on I felt like I could do anything. It was amazing.’
Pat stretched her hands out in front of her. Her significantly more modest engagement ring twinkled in the light.
‘My husband always said that he’d get me one for our silver wedding anniversary,’ she said. ‘It would have been next year.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Lola. ‘I shouldn’t have . . .’
‘Oh, don’t be.’ Pat shook her head. ‘He’d never have been able to afford it either. Those rings are seriously expensive.’
‘I know. There were no prices.’
‘So are you going to see him again?’ asked Pat. ‘Or was this just a business thing?’
‘It was the weirdest experience of my life,’ said Lola. ‘And the only way I’d ever see him again is by standing outside Warren’s looking hopeful. Which, quite honestly, would be a kind of creepy thing to do.’ And then, as she saw Irene walking into the office, she bent her head over the application form and said no more about it.
Chapter 2
Iridescence: an optical phenomenon in which the hue of the stone changes according to the angle from which it is viewed
Philip Warren couldn’t get Lola Fitzpatrick out of his head. He knew many pretty and attractive girls, but Lola was different. She hadn’t been overawed by him like so many young women of his acquaintance were. Which was understandable – they all knew he was a Warren and it mattered to them. It had been refreshing to meet someone who didn’t, and then to take her breath away by bringing her into the shop and insisting on her trying on the diamonds. He was annoyed at himself for not getting her number before she’d rushed away. Still, Dublin was a small city and she clearly worked nearby. He was pretty sure he’d see her again, especially now that he’d be on the lookout for her. With a bit of luck she’d stop outside the shop window and he’d get the opportunity to buy her a bread roll. And more.
The door to the office opened and his father walked in. Philip knew at once that he was in a good mood.
‘Things go well with Arjan?’ he asked.
Richard nodded. He opened his attaché case and took out a brifka, an envelope containing a selection of loose diamonds, which he spilled out onto the desk in front of them.
‘They’re good.’ Philip nodded as he picked one or two up and studied them. ‘Really good.’
‘I think they’ll work well in the set for Mrs McBride,’ said Richard.
Emily McBride was the wife of a leading industrialist, and her husband wanted something bespoke for her fiftieth birthday later in the year. David Hayes, Warren’s designer, had already come up with some designs that Noel McBride approved of, so it had been a question of sourcing the appropriate stones, which Richard now hoped he’d done.
‘It’s going to be one of the most expensive pieces we’ve ever made,’ he said.
‘I was thinking about that,’ said Philip, ‘and wondering about our future lines.’
‘Oh?’ Richard scooped the diamonds back into the brifka.
‘There was a girl in here today,’ said Philip. ‘She was young and gorgeous and she tried on the Snowdrop. It looked absolutely amazing on her.’
‘The Snowdrop looks amazing on everyone,’ said his father.
‘True,’ agreed Philip. ‘But Lola made it come alive.’
Richard looked at him speculatively.
‘So . . .?’
‘So I was thinking we should be targeting young, beautiful women with our stuff,’ said Philip. ‘At the moment we’re selling to matronly old dears who can afford sky-high prices. Or at least whose husbands can afford them. But we should be thinking of the future and women like Lola now. We should be getting them into our stores.’
‘Does this girl have a rich father? Or a rich husband?’
‘No,’ said Philip. ‘But she talked about owning an Adele piece some day. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we had a range that was affordable enough for women to treat themselves sooner?’
‘No, it wouldn’t,’ said Richard. ‘We’re exclusive. If everyone could afford a Warren’s piece, then we wouldn’t be exclusive any more. Besides, women don’t buy jewellery for themselves. They get it from their husbands.’
‘That’s a very old-fashioned outlook.’
‘It’s true, though.’
‘At the moment. But—’
‘Are you thinking with your heart or your head?’ Richard interrupted him. ‘Or has this Lola person interested an entirely different part of your anatomy?’
Philip snorted but said nothing as he went to the upstairs office. All the same, he was still thinking about Lola Fitzpatrick when they shut up shop a few hours later. She was unforgettable.
Richard mentioned the conversation to Adele that evening, adding that their son’s eagerness to extend their range seemed to be based on wanting the young woman who’d come into the store to be able to wear Warren jewellery.
‘Who was she?’ demanded Adele. ‘Do we know her?’
Richard shook his head. ‘I talked to Lorraine afterwards,’ he said. ‘Apparently she’s noticed her looking in the window before.’
‘Casing the joint?’ Adele’s eyes widened.
‘I didn’t mean it like that.’ Richard laughed. ‘Lorraine said she seemed to be
an ordinary young girl. It was Philip who encouraged her to try on the jewellery.’
‘He can be so idiotic at times,’ said Adele.
‘He’ll inherit the business one day.’
‘And when he does, he’ll need a sensible wife beside him,’ Adele said. ‘Not some flibbertigibbet who could lead him down the wrong path like my own father. I suppose she was pretty.’
‘Gorgeous, Lorraine said.’
Adele groaned. ‘He’s a sucker for a pretty face,’ she said. ‘And he has a habit of falling for totally unsuitable girls.’
‘He usually extricates himself in the end,’ remarked Richard. ‘You don’t have to worry that every man will do what your dad did, Adele. I haven’t bankrupted the business and run off with my secretary, have I? I don’t even have a secretary!’
‘No.’ She smiled at him. ‘I chose well with you, Richard. You’re a good man and I love you. But we have to look out for Philip. Peter, too. We’re an established family with a successful business. We don’t want money-grabbers riding on our coat-tails.’
Richard knew he could do nothing to sway Adele from her belief that young girls were always trying to seduce wealthy men in the way her father had been seduced years before. Tobias Pendleton had been the chairman of a medium-sized manufacturing company when he ran off with his secretary, a pretty woman nearly twenty years his junior. He’d siphoned money from the company accounts before his departure, and as a result the business was declared bankrupt shortly afterwards. Adele and her mother had been left virtually penniless. Lucia Pendleton had died the following year and Adele always insisted it was from a broken heart. Although she remained angry with her father, whom she never saw again, most of her ire was directed at Sophie, his secretary, who, she insisted, had thrown herself at him regardless of the fact that he was a married man.
Richard knew that she’d never lost her bitterness over it. So he simply remarked that he was sure Philip would forget about the girl in the shop quickly enough.
‘Let’s hope so,’ said Adele. ‘Because he’s the future of Warren’s and we can’t afford for him to make a spectacular mistake.’
She wouldn’t have been happy to know that Philip couldn’t stop thinking about Lola, even though he hadn’t seen her again since the day she’d come into the shop. He’d been totally smitten by her arresting beauty and her charming self-consciousness about trying on the Snowdrop range. He’d seen her light up when she was wearing it, the sparkle in her blue eyes matching the sparkle of the gems, and he’d decided there and then that he was going to sleep with her. And even though it was annoying that she’d run off on him, it was refreshing too. No girl had ever left him without leaving him her number before. He had to find her and he had to have her.
He was confident that he would, eventually.
After all, he was a Warren, and the Warrens always got what they wanted.
No matter what.
To continue reading WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT, click here to download the eBook!
www.headline.co.uk
www.sheilaoflanagan.com
Have you read all of Sheila’s irresistible novels?
THE MISSING WIFE
Have you ever wanted to disappear?
When Imogen Naughton vanishes, everyone who knows her is shocked. She has a perfect marriage. Her handsome husband treats her like a princess. So why has she left?
What goes on behind closed doors is often a surprise, and Imogen surprises herself by taking the leap she knows she must. But as she begins her journey to find the woman she once was, her past is right behind her . . .
MY MOTHER’S SECRET
Steffie has always been convinced that her parents have the perfect marriage.
In life and in love they are everything Steffie and her siblings aspire to be. That’s why they’ve planned a surprise ruby wedding anniversary party for them this weekend.
What Steffie doesn’t know is that her mother has a secret. A secret she’s kept for forty years. A secret that, if told, will turn Steffie’s world upside down.
IF YOU WERE ME
You’re engaged to a great man. You’re on a countdown to your wedding day. You stopped thinking about your first love a long time ago.
But what if one unexpected, forbidden kiss were to throw your life upside down?
Carlotta O’Keefe suddenly finds herself wondering if the girl she was would recognise the woman she has become.
She thought she was living a charmed life. But what if she’s got it all wrong?
What if her past is meant to be her future?
THINGS WE NEVER SAY
A husband is afraid to say that selling the house his wife loves is the only option . . .
A son can’t say how useful his ageing father’s fortune will be when he’s gone . . .
A woman hasn’t said that even though they live thousands of miles apart, this man is always on her mind . . .
But if those things were said, the results might be surprising. As Abbey – and a whole family she knew nothing of – are about to find out in Sheila O’Flanagan’s warm-hearted, thought-provoking and touching novel.
BETTER TOGETHER
Sheridan Gray has discovered a secret . . .
When journalist Sheridan loses her dream job, she’s distraught. She’s forced to relocate to the countryside. Her career is over . . . until she discovers that her landlady holds the key to a big story.
But the longer Sheridan stays in Nina’s home, and the closer she gets to a certain handsome man in the town, the tougher it is to expose their secrets. When it comes to love or success, will Sheridan go with her heart or her head?
ALL FOR YOU
Lainey Ryan has always dreamed of having a fairytale wedding.
But all of her relationships end the same way – just when she thinks she’s found The One, it’s all over. Will things be different with her latest boyfriend?
As her love life hits yet another rocky patch, Lainey’s estranged mother Deanna – a staunch feminist and highly critical – arrives in town. And with her visit comes the discovery of some long-hidden family secrets. Maybe Lainey’s happily-ever-after isn’t so impossible after all . . .
STAND BY ME
Dominique Brady’s life changed the day she met Brendan Delahaye.
He was a man with big dreams and she was the girl he wanted to take with him. Madly in love, they married, Brendan’s business hit the big time and they became the most powerful couple in Ireland.
Then one day Brendan disappears without a trace and Dominique’s world is shattered. Will Brendan ever return? And if he does, will Dominique stand by her man?
THE PERFECT MAN
Britt McDonagh doesn’t believe in love.
But her novel The Perfect Man becomes a huge bestseller. How can she write so convincingly about true love if she really thinks it’s a myth?
Britt’s sister Mia is a hopeless romantic. She can’t be with the love of her life, but she’s never stopped hoping.
Old loves can leave scars and the sisters need to forget the past to heal. Could a Caribbean cruise be just what they need to open their hearts?
SOMEONE SPECIAL
Imagine if the family you never really felt part of suddenly needed you . . .
Romy has never been someone special to her glamorous and disapproving mother Veronica, or her dismissive half siblings Darragh and Katherine, so why should she leave Australia to help them?
But families have a funny way of pulling on heartstrings, and soon Romy finds herself on a plane home, having accidentally just kissed her best friend Keith at the airport, wondering what on earth she’s let herself in for . . .
BAD BEHAVIOUR
Darcey and Nieve go way back.
Best friends since childhood, until Nieve committed the ultimate betrayal: stealing the heart of Aidan, the man Darcey was supposed to marry.
Ten years later Darcey has soothed her broken heart. But just when she thinks she’s got it together, an elegant we
dding invitation arrives . . .
Can Darcey wish Nieve and Aidan well on their big day? Or will she match their bad behaviour with a little of her own?
YOURS, FAITHFULLY
Iona Brannock has always been impatient.
Not one to hang around, she married her gorgeous husband just months after meeting him. Now all she needs is to fall pregnant . . .
Sally Harper has been blissfully married for almost twenty years. She has a beautiful daughter, a loving husband and a great job. But a surprise baby is about to change everything.
Two women – strangers living separate lives. But their two worlds are about to collide in the most shocking way . . .
HOW WILL I KNOW?
Not everyone meets their soulmate, let alone at age five, but Claire did.
She loved Bill from the moment she met him and until the day he was cruelly snatched from her.
Since the tragedy, Claire has devoted everything to their daughter. But teenager Georgia needs her mother’s help with the one thing she knows nothing about: dating. Claire is left with no choice but to get back out there – who knows what will happen if she opens her heart?
ANYONE BUT HIM
Two sisters, united in one task: to ensure their mother is with anyone but him . . .
Andie and Jin agree on nothing until the day their mother Cora returns from a cruise with a gorgeous young man by her side. Shock quickly turns to suspicion – what does Jack really want?
As the sisters focus on Cora’s love life they start to realise truths about their own relationships. Perhaps Cora isn’t the only one who is making a mistake . . .
The Hideaway Page 36