The Second Time I Saw You: The Oxford Blue Series #2 by Pippa Croft Page A

gone, Emma flops down on the seat next to me and finishes her vodka.
    ‘Want another?’
    ‘I’m fine, thanks.’
    She looks around the office and sighs. ‘Alex is almost as bad as Daddy is … was.’
    ‘Oh come on, you know that’s not true. He supports what you want to do at uni.’
    ‘He’s told you I want to go to Saint Martins? There’s a theatrical costume design course there I want to get on. I’ve applied but Daddy wanted me to have a gap year and try for Oxford. I got As in my Latin and Greek GCSEs but I hate them both. I love my Art and Drama classes, even though Daddy said they were a waste of time.’
    It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her that the general had, possibly, relented on her plans to go to Saint Martins. It’s not my news to share but I’ll ask Alexander to tell her. Maybe it will give her some comfort.
    ‘I wish I could be a groom.’
    ‘I thought you wanted to be a costume designer.’
    ‘Oh, I
do
but what I really meant was that I’d love to be like Talia.’
    ‘Instead of what?’
    ‘Instead of being on show all the time, like today. If Dad had been a normal person, we could have had a few people round the house or a wake at a pub and it wouldn’t be in the papers and no one would expect me, or Alex, to be polite to everyone and act allstiff-upper-lipped when what we really want to do is shout and scream and tell them all to leave us alone so we can howl the place down.’
    I try to picture Alexander doing just that and can’t.
    ‘They’ll be gone soon. You can shout and scream then.’
    She pushes her empty glass away from her. ‘I don’t want to do it now. I just want us to be together, Alex and me.’ She looks at me. ‘You can stay too. He really likes you, you know.’
    I cover my awkwardness by drinking my vodka.
    Emma jumps up before I’ve finished it. ‘Shall we go into the stables?’
    ‘If you like.’ I don’t know whether her restlessness is normal for her or she worries that if she keeps still for too long, she might think about what’s happened.
    Benny stays in the yard while we walk between the stalls. It’s warm and the air is full of the sharp tang of horse, hay and dung. Emma stops outside Harvey’s stall and strokes his muzzle.
    ‘Hello, Harvey.’
    I rub his nose. He was the horse I was supposed to ride on my hack but Valentina took him out, leaving me with the flighty Calliope.
    ‘Where’s Calliope?’ I ask.
    ‘On loan to the Huntmaster’s daughter,’ says Emma. ‘She’s going to be an Olympic eventing star and can handle her. Alex suggested it to Talia. I heard what happened to you.’
    ‘It’s OK. I was fine.’
    ‘Alex said you could have been killed. He told Dad that Calliope was dangerous.’ Emma pauses. ‘Alex has already given away the stallion that threw Dad. It wasn’t the horse’s fault but Alex didn’t want him here any more.’
    ‘I can understand that.’
    Emma turns to me, her lip trembling. ‘I still can’t believe he’s gone.’
    ‘No, I guess you can’t.’
    ‘At least Dad won’t have to worry about me any more, though, will he?’
    It seems an odd thing to say. ‘All parents worry. They’re hard-wired to. Trust me, mine do and I’m out of their hair altogether.’
    ‘Yes, but I’m sure you haven’t done anything to worry them like I have.’
    I laugh. ‘You think? I split up with a guy they thought was perfect for me last summer and I ignored their pleas for me to stay and study in the States.’ I could add that I followed that up by getting involved with her brother, a troubled, difficult, arrogant guy who has cost me more sleepless nights in a few months than I’ve had in the rest of my whole life. Many of them were intensely pleasurable, however.
    ‘Bet you never got threatened with expulsion from school.’ Emma’s voice cuts into my happier memories.
    ‘Well, no …’
    ‘Or threatened to leave? Or smoked weed on thebattlements? Or got so pissed outside a club that your friends had