‘At the casino.’ Johnny saw her blank expression. ‘You don’t know? I thought that’s why you came back in time. There’s a big charity fundraiser being held at the casino in town. Julian’s a sponsor, natch. He’s making Kit go.’

‘Well of course he is.’ She rolled her eyes. Where Kit went, she had to follow. Back five minutes and she was straight back into it. ‘You know, talking of Julian, you should have heard the things my brother was telling me about his family’s business . . . Things really aren’t as rosy as Mats might like to believe.’

‘No?’

‘They’re being eyed up for a hostile takeover, apparently. Julian’s under pressure to start making a success of his side of things because absolutely nothing else is going right for them.’

‘Mats won’t be happy. She’s bought into the whole Prince Charming thing.’

‘Well, he is still that, I guess, just possibly with a smaller dowry,’ she sighed. ‘So what time is kick-off?’

‘Eight.’

‘Eight?’ It was gone six now!

‘And the dress code is black tie,’ Johnny added casually.

‘But you don’t even have a collared shirt!’

‘I can wear Beau’s DJ, apparently. We’re about the same size.’

‘But I didn’t pack for black tie in the mountains!’

‘Chill, Cinderella.’ Johnny walked over to the wardrobe and opened it with a flourish. Clover stared at Matty’s jewel-like clothes. ‘For you shall go to the ball!’

Yellow silk. Red suede heels. Clover stared at the combination draped over her bed. It worked – but what had ever made Matty think these clothes would be needed on this trip? Clover supposed she should be grateful that such exigencies existed in her friend’s world.

Matty – already at the hotel with Julian – was meeting them at the casino.

Clover opened her door and called across the hall. ‘Johnny, can you zip me in please?’

‘Just a sec,’ he called back through his door. ‘It’s a fight to the death between my cuff and a cufflink over here!’

She ducked back into her room and put in her earrings and stepped into the heels, slipping the heel strap on with her finger as she heard him come in.

‘Thanks Johnny.’ She straightened up and held her hair up, out of the way. She waited. ‘. . . Well go on. You’ve seen a woman’s bare back before. Zip me up.’

There was a pause, then she felt him run the zip up slowly, pulling the dress in to her body. ‘Thanks.’ She wiggled a little, getting the dress to settle. She turned.

Kit looked back at her as she let her hair fall. ‘Oh.’

In her heels, she was only a couple of inches shorter than him. ‘I just came to check you were okay.’

‘. . . Me?’

‘After the other day, I mean. When you left the next morning, I thought . . .’ His words ran out and he shrugged.