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‘Thanks, Chris,’ Ja but’

‘But it isn’t anything to do with me,’ Chris finished cheerfully for hiree with that, and you know that it’s Aunt Fee’s annual birthday lunch on Sunday You’re not going to find it easy to keep the the truth; after all, the fa or ignoring one another, not holding hands and’

Immediately Poppy tried to pull her hand away but Jao

If he wasn’t going to tell Chris the truth then she would just have to, Poppy decided, turning away froly to Chris with her other hand as she began, ‘Chris, please, there’s—’

‘Chris, that call has coh for you fro her head round the door to give hie

‘Thanks I’ only to say ruefully to Poppy and Jaht as well tell the to be able to keep it a secret now’

Poppy could hardly contain herself long enough for Chris to close the door behind him before she turned on James and demanded furiously, ‘Why didn’t you tell him the truth? Why—?’

‘What truth?’ James interrupted her ‘Is that really what you want me to do, Poppy?’ he asked curtly ‘Do you really want me to tell Chris what happened—exactly what happened, everything that happened?’ he emphasised cruelly

Humiliated, Poppy looked away from him

‘No, you know that’s not what Iin a choked whisper, ‘But you had no need to let him think, to let him believe that’

‘That what—that you and I are lovers? What would you have preferred ht stand’

‘You could have said it was a mistake,’ Poppy burst out ‘You could have told him that the hotel was confused by the fact that we share the same surname’

‘I could, yes,’ Jareed ‘And then what?’

‘What do you mean?’ Poppy asked him in confusion

‘If I had told him that, Chris would have been bound to ask what had happened, hoe had resolved the mistake In other words, Poppy, he would have expected iven separate rooms if not separate bills’

‘And whose fault was it that eren’t?’ Poppy demanded frantically ‘We can’t let people think that that we are lovers,’ she told him miserably

‘We can’t let people, or we can’t let Chris?’ James demanded ‘Face it, Poppy, he couldn’t care less In fact he’s probably relieved to have you off his back It’s ti in the real world, Poppy You and I—’

“There is no you and I,’ Poppy denied fiercely ’I hate knohat happened between us,’ she told him passionately ’I feel sick every time I think about it I know you’ve always hated and despised me, James; well, now you’ve made me hate and despise myself even more than you do’ She headed for his office door ’No more, James I just can’t take any more’

‘Poppy, are you sure you’re all right?’

Poppy gave her mother a lacklustre smile and fibbed, ‘Yes, I’m fine’

‘She’s probablyJames,’ Chris teased her He and Sally had arrived uests to arrive for her mother’s annual birthday lunch, and the four of the in her parents’ conservatory whilst her father poured the drinks

Poppy shot her mother an anxious look, but she appeared to have missed Chris’s comment

‘Don’t worry, he’ll be here,’ Chris told Poppy ‘He rangMa with him’

For the first time since she had fallen in love with him Poppy found that she actively didn’t want to be with Chris She could tell fro that he had told his wife about her supposed relationship with James

How uests her mother had invited also knew about it? Poppy wondered, her face burning Where was Ja to do if he didn’t arriveif she was left to face people’s questions and curiosity on her own? A dizzy panicky feeling gripped her as she looked anxiously through the drawing-roon of James’s arrival

‘Poppy, what is it? Who are you looking for?’ her mother asked her