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

to carry you into the taxi?’
    ‘I can’t say that happened but I’ve had my moments at university.’ A few hazing ceremonies spring to mind. Mine involved skinny-dipping in the fountains outside one of the faculty buildings at Brown, but I think I’ll keep that to myself also.
    ‘I bet you were never almost caught shagging someone in the cricket pavilion,’ says Emma. I’m not sure whether she’s trying to provoke me into my own confession or trying to shock me.
    ‘We didn’t play cricket at my school,’ I say with mock solemnity. ‘However, we do have a summerhouse at home.’ I recall having sex in it with Todd, my ex, during my grandmother’s birthday party. I’d forgotten about that.
    ‘Alexander would kill me if he found out. He’d definitely kill the boy.’ Emma has ignored me and her eyes throw down a challenge. She clearly wants to share something.
    ‘He might be pissed off about the expulsion and the drinking but he’s no need to know about this boy,’ I say carefully.
    ‘Yes, but it was Henry Favell, and Alexander can’t stand him.’
    I daren’t reveal that Rupert has already told me this, and I feel sorry for her with so many other people interfering in her life, even if they think it’s for a good reason. Thank goodness she’s stopped sleeping withhim. Thank goodness she doesn’t know he tried to get me into bed during the hunt ball.
    ‘I … um … This was some time ago, though, I’m guessing? Why would Alexander be mad at you now?’
    She says the next words to Harvey, as if that makes it OK. ‘Henry told me that Rupert and Alex had threatened to nail his balls to the wall if he carried on seeing me. I was
so
mad at Alex I almost left school there and then to get revenge on him! Henry did leave for a while, but’ – she gives a little smile, nurturing the secret she just shared – ‘we’ve started seeing each other again. He took me to the Ivy when I was last in London and he rented a room.’
    I feel physically sick at this news. Why, why,
why
do I have to be the one to hear Emma’s confession? Why
now
?
    ‘You won’t tell him, will you?’ Suddenly there’s panic in her voice. ‘You’re the only person who knows about us apart from a couple of girls at school. Alex really would kill Henry. He’s never liked him and I know he doesn’t trust him.’
    ‘I’m sure he wouldn’t
actually
kill him,’ I say, although I’m not confident there wouldn’t be some kind of physical pain involved. Henry’s fate doesn’t bother me; but Emma’s does. Should I tell her that Henry hit on me at the ball? Oh help, was she actually dating him back then? Because if so, she has no idea what a slimeball he truly is.
    ‘Don’t say a word!’
    ‘I won’t tell him.’
    ‘Promise me!’ She grabs my arm.
    ‘I promise, but maybe you should be … um … careful. Maybe Alex has a point.’
    ‘Don’t you start too. I thought I could trust you. I love Henry, and it’s none of Alex’s business.’
    Emma also has a point; no matter what Alexander thinks of Henry, she has a right to see him. However, after my one encounter with him, I side with Alexander. He’s a charming, manipulative bastard who’d do anything to get what he wants and now that Emma is, I assume, a very wealthy young woman, he might well be even more interested.
    ‘It’s none of my business either, but Alexander would never do anything to hurt you, I’m sure.’
    ‘I know and I do love him to bits most of the time but he thinks he knows what’s best for me. Just like Daddy did.’ Her eyes glisten dangerously. ‘Don’t tell me to stop seeing him. Not now. I need him.’
    This statement is heartrending and from the wobble in her voice, I think she really means what she says, which is even more tragic. Deciding that now is definitely not the moment to shatter her already fragile heart, I give her a hug. ‘Come on, let’s go back inside. Most people will have gone by now, with any luck.’

Chapter