Read Little Lady Agency and The Prince for Free Online Page A

six national elections.
    ‘First of all,’ he oozed, with a generous spread of his hands, ‘may I say how wonderful it is, as the head of the family, to have not only my own wife and children, but my sons-in-law around me too.’
    ‘And me, darling,’ added Granny.
    ‘And my mother-in-law,’ snapped Daddy. ‘And of course Mrs Lloyd. And the dogs. Anyone else?’
    ‘No, I think mentioning the dogs would be twee,’ said Granny. ‘Do go on.’
    ‘Thank you, Dilys,’ he said sarcastically.
    Blimey, I thought, Granny was in a feisty mood tonight. Baiting my father was one of her little treats in life, but this evening she had a special twinkle in her eye.
    I loved Granny but in her own way she was as much of a loose cannon as anyone else in the family. More so, perhaps, because she had her own money and an address book that my father would have given both his new crowns for.
    ‘You all know how very happy your mother has made me over the years, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when Jonathan decided to make an honest woman out of our own little lady of the night.’
    I gritted my teeth. Even though Jonathan and I had met at work – like loads of people do every day – Daddy, of course, persisted in misunderstanding the innocent nature of my agency, and of the way my relationship with Jonathan had begun.
    He swung round towards me, nearly, but not quite, sloshing his wine in the huge goblet. ‘Jolly well done, Melissa. Thought I’d never see the day, but here we are. My three daughters, married off to successful men, all with beautiful homes in foreign cities. What more could a proud father ask for?’
    Allegra, who’d frankly boggled at the ‘family man’ bit, now choked outright on her water biscuit.
    ‘Something the matter, Allegra?’ he enquired solicitously.
    She shook her head, as William slapped her a little too enthusiastically on the back.
    I looked at Jonathan and smiled. I’d never heard my father be so sweet about us! Even if he was putting it on for the benefit of the assembled husbands, it warmed my heart to hear he was proud of us. God knows we’d heard enough to the contrary over the years, sometimes actually in the newspapers. Daddy hadn’t exactly stood by Allegra during her CND phase.
    ‘So, please,’ said Daddy, refilling his glass from his own private decanter. ‘A toast, to Melissa and Jonathan! A perfect example of why it’s better to marry the cow instead of buying the milk!’
    I glared at him. There was absolutely no need for that.
    ‘Melissa and Jonathan!’ echoed my grandmother. ‘May the milk never run dry!’
    ‘Melissa and Jonathan!’ mumbled everyone else.
    I was relieved to see Jonathan seemed more amused than annoyed. He looked so sexy in the half-light, the shadows only making his cheekbones seem sharper and his jaw more square and manly. I hoped Mummy had put us in the four-poster room. Not only was it romantic, but it had the only central-heating pipe that actually worked.
    ‘Now, on to other matters,’ said Daddy. ‘You may be aware—’
    ‘We’re not at one of your insufferable Olympics meetings now, darling,’ said my mother distantly. ‘I don’t believe you circulated an agenda for this dinner, did you?’
    ‘It doesn’t matter, Mummy,’ I put in, still toasty at the edges from the unexpected display of paternal love. ‘While we’re all here, and so on?’ I turned back to Daddy and smiled.
    He beamed back, with sparkly teeth. ‘Thank you, Melissa. Now – your mother’s little knitting thing. Believe it or not, in a few weeks’ time your mother is going to have a second exhibition in that godawful gallery in Whitechapel,’ he went on. ‘What is it this time, Belinda? Nightmares in wool?’
    ‘Nursery grotesques,’ said Allegra crossly. ‘And there’s a waiting list.’
    While my mother was giving up smoking last year, she started to knit hideously malformed woolly toys – six-legged cats, dogs with two heads, hybrid donkey-pigs,