‘Really?’ said Lily her eyes wide. ‘You mean an actual Vidal gown?’
Her grandmother nodded. ‘I . . . I hoped you would be pleased.’
‘Of course, I’m pleased, Grandmama,’ cried Lily, wondering how she could ever have been so at odds with her grandmother over clothes. ‘It’s so thoughtful and generous of you to think of me.’ She hugged her briefly and then said carefully, ‘Actually, Grandmama, I wanted to thank you for doing so much for me. I . . . I know I haven’t made it easy and I . . .’ Lily met her grandmother’s piercing blue gaze. ‘I’m sorry for being so difficult.’ She glanced down at her new dress. ‘I know I’ve been a disappointment about fashion and – and other things, but I . . .’
‘You’re not a disappointment, Lily,’ said her grandmother softly. She touched Lily’s hair gently. ‘We did not see each other for more than ten years and when we finally met again at Nicky’s birthday party last July, I think . . . I think perhaps we got off on the wrong foot.’ She sighed. ‘So many things have happened in these past few months, I feel as though I’ve barely had time to absorb it all.’
Lily looked at her in surprise. ‘But that’s how I’ve been feeling!’
‘I have often wondered,’ said the Comtesse slowly, ‘whether you were happy about your father’s remarriage?’
Lily hesitated. ‘I am happy. I mean, I love Simone and Angel It’s just . . .’ She paused, wondering whether she should tell her grandmother the truth. ‘It’s just that I’d always dreamed of having Angel as my sister and then it turned out that – that –’
‘That she really was your sister,’ finished the Comtesse gently. ‘It must have been a shock to discover that your father had another daughter.’
‘To be honest, I didn’t actually realise what it meant until the wedding.’ Lily met her grandmother’s gaze. ‘And it probably would’ve been fine if Dad hadn’t – if he . . .’ She stopped.
The Comtesse took her hand. ‘If Philip hadn’t what?’ she asked softly.
Lily shook her head. ‘If I tell you, we’ll only fight about it and I don’t want to fight with you anymore, Grandmama.’
‘I’m glad to hear it, child, but you are assuming that I will agree with whatever it is that Philip has done.’ She looked into Lily’s eyes. ‘Won’t you trust me, my dear? I only wish to help you.’
‘I don’t think you can help me because you probably expect me to follow him into the family business, too.’
‘So Philip has asked that of you, has he? I urged him not to.’
Hope flamed in Lily’s heart. ‘You did?’
‘I love my son, but he is not always wise. Of course, Philip was only fifteen when Jean-Claude died, so his entrée into the business was unexpectedly early. Which was another reason why I thought he should allow you to grow up before placing such a burden of responsibility on your shoulders.’
Lily felt the sudden flare of hope fade. ‘So you do expect me to give up acting?’ she asked forlornly.
‘No more than I expect Angel to give up fashion design,’ replied the Comtesse.
‘Oh,’ breathed Lily, suddenly feeling as though her grandmother had given her a wonderful gift. ‘You understand.’
‘I do. But your father still feels guilty over the lost years with Angel. And, while I understand his desire to shelter her from further pain, I do not see why you should pay for his mistakes.’
Lily looked sombre. ‘But someone still has to succeed him and Dad was right when he said it wasn’t fair to ask Angel because, even though she’s older, she’s missed out on too much.’ She bit her lip. ‘I’m the one who was raised a de Tourney – I’m the one who’s had all the privileges.’
‘And with great privilege comes great responsibility,’ nodded the Comtesse
‘I know that now, but it’s hard to give up your dreams – even for people you love.’
‘Is that what you have decided to do?’
Lily nodded. ‘I can’t ask Angel to give up her new life when it’s only just begun. So it will have to be me.’
Her grandmother smiled and touched her hand. ‘I’m proud of you, child.’
Lily’s answering smile was a little wobbly. ‘It’ll be hard to give up acting, but at least I’ll have had the Academy –’
Her grandmother interrupted. ‘Of course, Voltaire could also have said, “With great talent comes great responsibility”.’
‘Excuse me?’
‘I do not think you should give up your dreams just yet, Lily.’ The Comtesse glanced at the clock on the mantel. ‘But let us go and get ready. We have the Debutante Club in an hour.’
CHAPTER 35
It was just after seven when the Bentley pulled up outside an elegant white building in Park Lane and a doorman in a green-and-gold uniform ushered Lily and the Comtesse into a grand marble foyer and pressed the button for the elevator.
‘It’s the second floor, Madam,’ he said as they entered the lift.
The elevator doors opened into an elegant vestibule with an enormous vase of purple orchids beside an open front door.
A butler announced them: ‘The Dowager Comtesse de Tourney and Miss Lily de Tourney.’
A short, slightly plump woman with unnaturally blonde hair immediately turned from her guests, and bustled forward. ‘Elena!’ she cried, holding out her arms in welcome.
‘Binky, how lovely to see you,’ replied the Comtesse, kissing her lightly on both cheeks. ‘This is my granddaughter, Lily. Lily, this is my dear friend, Edwina, Countess of Hunterton, and our kind hostess for the evening.’
‘Call me Binky, everybody does,’ said the Countess, shaking Lily’s hand. ‘It’s so lovely to have you here at last.’ Her eyes twinkled. ‘I haven’t told the children you were coming as I wanted it to be a lovely surprise. Edward will be so pleased! He’s been dying to meet you.’ She smiled as Lily blushed. ‘Let me take you straight through. He and his sister are with the other young people in the drawing room.’ She took Lily’s hand. ‘I know you and Edward are going to get along famously!’
Lily would have had more success stopping a battleship than preventing Lady Hunterton from ploughing through her guests into the next room and practically dragging Lily over to a group of beautifully dressed teenagers.
‘Here we are,’ said Binky, tapping a tall boy in a dinner suit and a girl in a jade-green evening dress on the shoulder and saying gaily, ‘look, my darlings, I promised you a lovely surprise and here she is. Say hello to my dear friend Elena de Tourney’s granddaughter, Lily!’
They both turned to face the unexpected guest. The boy smiled and shook Lily’s hand, but it was the girl who spoke. She threw back her long fall of copper hair and said smoothly, ‘Hello, Lily. How nice to meet you at last.’
There was a tiny pause before Lily smiled and said, ‘Hello, Charlotte.’
‘You can’t tell anyone!’ said Charlotte urgently.
She and Lily were in the upstairs bathroom, where Charlotte had dragged her as soon as her mother had left the drawing room.
‘Tell them what?’ said Lily. ‘That you’re the Earl of Hunterton’s daughter? The same Earl of Hunterton who sits on the Academy board and who might – just might – have had something to do with you getting you into the LDA?’
‘He didn’t!’ declared Charlotte. ‘Daddy didn’t do a thing. I didn’t even tell him I was applying and I used my mother’s maiden name on the application. I got in on my own merits, just like everybody else!’
‘You mean, like me?’ asked Lily, enjoying watching Charlotte squirm.
‘No! I mean – yes. I mean – I suppose so.’ She looked suspiciously at Lily. ‘The fact is, I don’t know how you got into the Academy. People said your father pulled strings and it made them angry. I didn’t want them treating me that way just because my family was – was –’
‘Rich? Titled? Had connections?’ suggested Lily.
‘I’ve never wanted my family connections to determine my success!’ said Charlotte defensively.
‘Well, here’s a surprise,’ snapped Lily. ‘Neither have I. What I don’t understand is how you got away with it.’
‘I didn’t get away with anything!’ retorted Charlotte hotly. ‘I just didn’t tell anyone I was an earl’s daughter.’
Lily looked at her sceptically. ‘So, you’re telling me that no one at the Academy knows who you are? I don’t believe it.’
Charlotte hesitated. ‘Max knows, but he’s the only one and he’s promised not to tell.’
‘Why would Max do that?’ demanded Lily. ‘You two don’t even like each other.’
‘No, we don’t but . . . let’s just say we both know things about each other that we’d prefer stayed private.’
‘So, a bit of mutual blackmail, huh?’ asked Lily, eyeing Charlotte thoughtfully.
‘No! Not exactly. Sort of,’ conceded Charlotte. ‘Basically, Max and I have agreed to stay out of each other’s personal lives.’
‘It’s not a gay thing is it, Charlotte? ’Cause I’d struggle to keep your secret if I thought you were some kind of closet homophobe.’
‘I’m no such thing!’ hissed Charlotte. ‘Don’t you dare say that! You don’t know anything –’
‘Okay, okay,’ said Lily, ‘keep your hair on. I believe you and I’m willing to keep your secret on one condition.’
‘Which is?’
‘That you help me figure out who’s behind all the dirty rotten tricks that have been blamed on me.’
‘You mean you really didn’t do those things?’ asked Charlotte.
‘Of course not!’ said Lily.
‘You didn’t take my Vidal jacket?’
‘No, I didn’t. I found it stuffed into my locker a week ago.’
‘What! Why didn’t you tell me?’
Lily looked at her in disbelief. ‘Are you kidding? And risk being lynched by you and the rest of the first years. Do you honestly think that if I’d fronted up with your jacket you’d have believed I hadn’t taken it?’
Charlotte shook her head. ‘No, I guess not. But where is it?’
‘I hid it because whoever took your jacket damaged it and I knew if you found me with it you’d go straight to the Drake.’
Charlotte’s face grew pink with anger. ‘I still might.’
‘Not if you want me to keep your secret, Charlotte.’
‘Is my mother’s jacket ruined?’ she demanded.
Lily frowned. ‘I’m not sure. I was planning on showing it to my friend Angel – you know, I told you she works at Vidal’s – and asking her if it could be repaired.’
Charlotte stared at her. ‘So you really didn’t take it?’ she said at last.
‘No! I told you. Someone just wants you to think I did.’
‘But who? And why?’ said Charlotte.
‘That is exactly the question,’ replied Lily.
The rest of the weekend passed pleasantly enough, although Lily found it difficult to relax. Even at Kew Gardens, where she and Edward and Charlotte spent a fascinating couple of hours in the Princess of Wales Conservatory, she kept thinking of Ronan and wondering whether he’d got his motorcycle going and made it back to London.
Edward turned out to be excellent company and by the end of the day Lily couldn’t help envying Charlotte her kind, handsome brother. He was funny and clever and when he mentioned he was gay she told him that she was sure most of Charlotte’s friends would be heartbroken.
‘Not the male ones,’ quipped Charlotte and Lily stared at her in surprise. She’d never known Charlotte to be as relaxed as she was around Edward.
‘He’s looked out for me since I was born,’ Charlotte explained as they made their way from the gardens. ‘We’ve always been best friends. It’s because of Edward that Mummy let me do the Academy summer school.’
‘And I thought Binky had me in her sights as Edward’s potential wife,’ said Lily, pretending to sigh.
Charlotte laughed. ‘You know, I used to think the Debutante Club was a front for some modern-day matchmaking operation, but Mummy’s promised me it truly is just a social club.’
‘And you believe her?’ asked Lily, grinning.
‘Almost,’ said Charlotte.
It was late when Henri dropped Lily and Charlotte back at the Academy. They’d decided not to mention the Debutante Club, although Charlotte insisted on telling Phoebe and Gemma that it wasn’t Lily who’d damaged their things.
If only Lily had been able to talk to Ronan, she might have slept well. Instead, she tossed and turned all night, and went down to breakfast tired and bleary-eyed but determined to grab Ronan the minute he arrived in the dining hall.
Only he didn’t appear. None of the Dragons came to breakfast on Monday morning and they were absent again at lunch.
As they queued for food, Lily asked Max if he knew where they were.
‘Gone down to Battersea to draw the power station,’ he replied. ‘Apparently, someone’s planning to wrap it in pink fabric.’
‘You mean, like Christo?’ asked Lily. ‘He did The Gates in Central Park when I was a kid.’
‘Oh yeah?’ said Max, but not as if he was really interested. He’d been distracted all morning and when she’d asked him about Darcy’s birthday party at breakfast he’d been unusually reticent. Lily wondered if he was worrying about money. He still hadn’t paid her back the three hundred pounds she’d lent him.
‘You okay?’ she asked as they waited to be served.
‘Fine. I’m fine.’ Max forced a smile. ‘I guess the Dane’s critique got to me more than I expected.’
‘It was pretty lethal,’ said Lily, feeling her stomach churn as she remembered how the Dane had doubted whether Lily could ever have a career in the theatre.
‘She was much too hard on you,’ asserted Max.
‘No, she was right,’ said Lily. ‘I totally sucked as Puck and I got what I deserved.’
‘You were nervous,’ said Max. ‘We all were.’
‘That’s true,’ said Imran, turning in the queue to face them. ‘And you really can act, Lily. We’ve all seen you.’
‘Yeah,’ said Justin, handing her a tray. ‘No one performed well last Friday. It wasn’t just you.’
Lily stared at him and then at Imran. They sounded sincere, but she held her breath waiting for the spiteful punchline.
It didn’t come.
Instead, Rachel tapped Lily on the shoulder and said quietly, ‘Everyone reckons the Dane was way harsher on you than on the rest of us. It wasn’t fair.’
‘You didn’t deserve it,’ added Harry who was standing behind Rachel.
‘Well, I’m glad you guys are finally seeing the light,’ declared Max. ‘Because I can tell you she was damn good as Puck when we ran lines last week.’
‘Thanks, Max, and – and you guys,’ said Lily, smiling at them all. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘No sweat,’ said Justin, grinning, ‘but I should warn you, I’m still planning to beat you for a lead role.’
‘Me, too,’ said Rachel.
‘And I intend to win the Thorngold Trophy,’ said Imran.
‘It’s already got my name on it,’ said Max.
‘We’ll see,’ laughed Lily.
The shift in people’s attitudes towards her was a huge boost to Lily’s morale, but her upbeat mood didn’t last long. She was becoming increasingly desperate to know if Ronan was okay, but without a phone number, her only way of finding out was either to go to Pendragon and ask for him, or wait until she saw him at tomorrow’s breakfast. There’d be no chance of seeing him at dinner because her grandmother was taking her out.
Eventually she decided to wait because the thought of asking for Ronan at Pendragon made her feel weird. The decision did nothing to alleviate her worries, however, and her constant thoughts of Ronan led her grandmother to comment on her distraction during the interval that evening. ‘Are you not enjoying the play, Lily?’ she asked.
‘Oh, no, Grandmama,’ she replied. ‘It – it’s wonderful. Judi Denc
h is brilliant! I was just – just wondering whether . . .’ Whether I could phone Father Doyle at St Mary’s or Credo or Bolt at the Third Dimension and ask about the boy you’ve told me I must never see again. ‘. . . whether I can ever learn to be as good an actor as her.’
‘I think if you train hard and listen to what Arathula Dane has to say, then there is every chance you will achieve great things,’ said the Comtesse firmly.
Lily stared at her, thoughts of Ronan momentarily suspended. ‘Really?’ she whispered.
‘Really,’ said her grandmother.
When Ronan didn’t show up for breakfast on Tuesday, Lily began to panic. There were several Dragons at their usual table in the dining hall but she hesitated to ask them about Ronan or his motorbike in case it made trouble for him.
By lunchtime she’d decided to go over to Pendragon and see if Ronan was there. She was about to tell Max she’d forgotten her notebook and would meet him in Mime when Ronan strode into the dining hall at the head of a group of Dragons.
Lily felt such a tidal wave of relief wash over her that she had to stop herself from running across the dining hall and throwing herself into his arms. She was just trying to decide whether she should go straight over to his table and talk to him or wait until he was on his own when Max said bitterly, ‘I see Carver’s got his usual entourage.’ He stabbed a potato with his fork and added, ‘It’s amazing how thick some people can be.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Lily, taken aback at the resentment in Max’s voice.
‘People think he’s so great, but they don’t really know anything about him.’
‘They know he’s talented,’ said Lily spiritedly.
‘So? Lots of people are talented but that doesn’t make them worth knowing.’
‘I think Ronan’s worth knowing,’ said Lily with deadly calm.
Max sliced his potato viciously. ‘But you would say that, wouldn’t you, Lily?’ He looked at her sideways. ‘I mean, you’ve got the great Ronan Carver painting you every night over at Pendragon – sucking up to you, stroking your ego, making you think he’s someone.’
The Rapunzel Dilemma Page 25