Sea of Lost Love by Santa Montefiore Read Free Book Online Page A

Celestria.”
    â€œYou look lovely, too,” Celestria replied truthfully, although lovely was without doubt too soft a word for her. At forty-eight, Pamela Bancroft Montague was still strikingly beautiful. Her blond hair was pulled back into a shiny chignon, accentuating her now fuller face and cool aqua eyes, carefully framed by jet-black lashes. Diamonds swung from her earlobes and around her neck where the skin was still firm, and a large diamond brooch was pinned to her bosom. She was wise enough to know that, at her age, being thin only a made a woman appear older. Her lips were the color of blackberry juice, against which her teeth sparkled a dazzling white. Her shoulders were wrapped in the mink stole, which complemented the deep green silk of her dress; rich colors were kinder to her skin, making it seem to glow by contrast. She wore black gloves that reached her elbows and held a small black pouch with a diamanté clasp in the shape of a flower. Inside she kept her Elizabeth Arden lipstick, a gold powder compact, and a small flask of perfume. Pamela knew how to make the best of herself, a talent she had passed on to her daughter. Taking Celestria’s hand, her smile was full of pride. After all, her daughter was an extension of herself, a living reminder to everyone of the magnificence of her youth.
    They entered the drawing room at the same time. Their presence, resplendent in diamonds and silk, caused a sudden hush to come over the room. The family all turned at once, their conversations trailing off as their lips parted in silent admiration. Only Bouncy continued to chatter as he tried to persuade Purdy to play with him by pulling his tail. Finally, Monty strode over. “What glamorous girls!” he exclaimed jovially. “Do they really belong to me?” He took Celestria’s hands and kissed them with a bow before slipping his arm around his wife’s waist and planting a kiss on her cheek. He looked handsome in white tie, his sandy hair brushed back off his forehead, his skin brown from being at sea all afternoon. His face glowed with pride as he led them into the room. The two women floated into the crowd like a pair of swans.
    Julia wore a gown of pale turquoise. She looked poised and graceful, her bubbling laughter rising above the chatter of her excited family. Had it not been for the frenetic dragging on her cigarette, Celestria would not have known how nervous she was. She recalled the conversation she had overheard in the library and wondered whether Archie wasn’t perhaps a little uneasy at the extravagance of his party. There he stood with Harry and his two elder sons, laughing about their recent rat-catching expeditions, stroking his mustache. He clearly adored his boys. He took time to listen to them, prompting them patiently with questions and chuckling in amusement at their stories. He patted Wilfrid’s head and ruffled Sam’s hair, and the boys gazed up at him admiringly. Celestria wondered whether he knew about her father’s gift, or whether Julia had kept it to herself, as she’d said she would. She turned her attention to her smallest cousin. Little Bouncy was sitting on Monty’s knee, pretending to ride a horse as his uncle bounced him up and down over imaginary fences. “Again!” the child demanded after each “race,” and Monty obliged without the slightest indication that he might be tired or bored.
    Celestria assumed she was the last member of the family to arrive until the room fell silent once again. Put out, she craned her neck to see who stood in the doorway. There, sucking the air out of the room with inflated nostrils, stood Elizabeth Montague. “It’s the bad fairy,” Celestria hissed to her mother when she saw the solid black figure of her grandmother planted firmly between the double doors.
    Pamela whispered back, “On the food chain, I’d say your grandmother is a hyena, wouldn’t