‘He’s not what I was expecting,’ she finished lamely at last.
‘Oh?’ Millie prompted, drawing out the syllables with exaggerated effect. ‘Attractive?’
‘Not really…Well, sort of, I suppose…I don’t know!’ said Perdita, flustered when Millie started laughing.
‘He sounds gorgeous!’
‘He’s not gorgeous,’ snapped Perdita. ‘He’s just a sensible executive with greying hair who thinks I’m a bit silly.’ She told Millie about her faux pas and Millie seemed to think that was funny too.
‘It sounds as if you might have met your match at last, Perdita. Is he available?’
‘He doesn’t wear a wedding ring,’ said Perdita, and then was furious with herself for admitting that she had noticed.
‘Hmm…doesn’t mean anything,’ said Millie. ‘Find out more tomorrow and report back to me!’
CHAPTER TWO
‘THIS morning you’ll all be divided into pairs and given a series of tasks to achieve.’ Perdita slipped into the dining room as the chief facilitator was making his announcement at breakfast the next morning. Her morning routine always seemed to take twice as long in an unfamiliar bathroom and she was running late.
Grabbing a cup of coffee, she stood at the back and found herself scanning the room for Edward Merrick as she pretended to listen to the instructions for the day.
‘You’ve all been allocated a task to complete at first on your own, but over the course of the day you should meet up with other pairs and eventually you’ll form four large groups. It’s important that you check the list in reception for the location of your first task before you go outside.’
Outside? Perdita grimaced. When she had pulled back her curtains that morning, she hadn’t even been able to see the surrounding hills for the heavy grey cloud. Outside, the tree tops were swaying wildly in the wind, and rain streaked the big windows of the dining room.