Chapter 18: Baby, Sit Down

The ballroom at the Pierre had gold chairs, four hundred guests and a band playing something polite.

I came in through the service corridor in a borrowed black dress, with Teddy on one side and Rhys on the other.

Nobody stopped us.

Rhys wore his dark suit, and Teddy had put concealer on his lip.

"Table one," Teddy murmured.

My mother sat there in black silk, with her back to the door and her glass untouched.

At the head table Spencer's father stood with a microphone.

Beside him sat Spencer.

He looked tanned and rested, with the practiced smile.

I had once spent four months planning to marry that smile.

"This evening," Spencer's father said, "we announce the finest partnership in marine insurance."

The clients applauded.

Hugh rose from his chair on the far side of the table.

He buttoned his jacket.

He did not look toward the back of the room, where I stood.

"Thank you," he said warmly. "My father always said the right families make the right firms."

"Now," Teddy said under his breath.

He walked down the centre aisle between the tables.

He was shaking so hard I could see it from the back.

I stayed where I was.

Rhys's hand rested lightly on my spine.

"I've got you," he said. "Let him do it."

Teddy stopped at the foot of the stage.

Four hundred people turned to look at him.

He took the microphone off the stand beside the steps, because the band's singer had left it there.

"Hi," he said.

His voice shook.

"I'm Teddy Cadwalader. Hugh's brother. I'd like to say something before anybody toasts anything."

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