One Husband Required!. Sharon Kendrick

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       CHAPTER TWO

      THERE was a click as the connection was made. ‘Hello?’

      Ursula paused before saying, ‘Is that you, Amber?’

      ‘Of course it’s me! Surely you know the sound of my voice by now! I am your sister!’

      ‘You just sounded... I don’t know...odd.’

      Amber gave a heavy sigh which reverberated down the line. ‘Just fed up. Finn’s overworking. Again. How are things with you?’

      ‘Er, fine.’ Ursula hesitated. ‘Ross has invited me to a party on Saturday.’

      ‘Gosh. What does his wife say about that?’

      Ursula silently counted to ten. She loved her sister very much, but sometimes, honestly... ‘I have no idea,’ she replied frostily. ‘But I should imagine that he checked with her before he asked me. I do wish you wouldn’t make assumptions, Amber. I’m hardly worthy competition, and anyway—I like Jane.’

      ‘Yeah, sure.’

      It was time, Ursula decided firmly, to put an end to Amber’s totally false speculations about what kind of party Ross had invited her to. ‘I do like her,’ she reaffirmed, though more out of duty than conviction. ‘What little I know of her. And anyway—it’s Katy’s birthday party.’

      ‘Oh.’

      ‘Why do you say “oh” in that tone of voice?’

      ‘Oh, nothing. I suppose I imagined that he was whisking you off to some glamorous advertising-related function.’

      ‘Well, he’s not. And I never go to those, anyway.’

      ‘So you’ve been invited to a child’s tea party?’

      ‘It’s an early evening supper, actually.’

      ‘Wow!’

      ‘Don’t be mean, Amber.’

      ‘I’m not. I’m being objective. And protective.’

      ‘Protective?’

      ‘Of course. And it’s slightly worrying that this... party...is your social affair of the month!’

      ‘It isn’t!’

      ‘Well, what else have you done this month?’

      Ursula even found herself cringing as she answered her sister’s question. ‘I went out for a meal with my French Appreciation class last week—’

      ‘And were there any men there?’

      ‘Lots!’ said Ursula brightly, as she recalled the portly doorman from the nearby Granchester Hotel who sat next to her in class. He was planning to visit Marseilles for a holiday to trace some of his forebears and had grown hot and sweaty around the collar before asking Ursula if she wanted to accompany him on the trip! She had politely declined.

      Then there was that rather nice young sculptor whose pint she always paid for if the class went to the pub afterwards, because he never had any money. True, he was only twenty—but terribly friendly. And very interesting.

      ‘Eligible men?’ put in Amber sharply.

      ‘That’s so subjective I can’t possibly answer it!’ responded Ursula smoothly.

      ‘Well, if everything is so marvellous, then why are you ringing me, Ursula?’

      ‘Because I don’t know what to wear!’ wailed Ursula.

      There was a short silence.

      ‘Oh, I’m not suggesting borrowing something of yours!’ said Ursula hastily, sensing her sister’s embarrassment. ‘I wouldn’t like to try and squeeze myself into one of your size eight Lycra miniskirts!’

      ‘I’m a size ten now,’ said Amber, the gloom in her voice suggesting a disaster of national proportions.

      ‘Oh, that’s terrible, sweetie!’ teased Ursula, though she had to bite back her first comment, which was that she would be in seventh heaven if she were anywhere near that size! She had gained extra weight as a teenager, and never really lost it. ‘But it doesn’t help me to decide what to wear!’

      She could have asked Amber how she imagined it must feel when your main criterion for buying any outfit was whether or not it made your bottom look fat and wobbly. But of course she couldn’t do that. If Ursula’s bottom was bigger than she would have liked, then it was nobody’s fault but her own. If you ate too much, you got fat. Cause and effect. Simple. And, while she might occasionally justify her plumpness by calling to mind the grim reality of her growing-up years, nothing altered that simple fact.

      ‘Wear jeans,’ advised Amber succinctly. “They’re always useful around children.’

      ‘Jeans! If I wore jeans, they’d be digging out their safari clothes—I look like a hippo in jeans!’

      ‘Well, I’m not going through a whole list of suggestions just so that you can shoot them down in flames! What do you want to wear?’

      Ursula’s voice was unusually hesitant, and shy. ‘Do you think the cream trousers and top you helped me choose would be okay? I haven’t worn them yet.’

      ‘Perfect!’ said Amber immediately. ‘The colour emphasises how dark your hair is, and brings out the roses in your cheeks. Oh, and clip your hair back at the sides with those mother-of-pearl slides I bought you for your twenty-first.’

      ‘Okay.’

      ‘Oh. and Ursula?’

      ‘Uh-huh?’

      ‘Be good!’

      Amber’s words echoed around Ursula’s ears on Saturday evening, as she stood opposite Ross’s house, trying to summon up enough courage to go up to the front door and knock. Be good, indeed! She didn’t think she’d have a problem sticking to that advice! She doubted whether there would be any men there whom Amber would consider ‘eligible’, and even if there were they wouldn’t spend a moment looking at her.

      She swallowed nervously as she gazed up at the house. How she wished she’d had a drink before she had set out!

      She hadn’t even bothered СКАЧАТЬ