Chapter 3

Soon enough, they were pulling into a magnificent drive way next to one of the biggest houses Cutter had ever seen. There was a fountain next to where they parked that trickled a thin stream of water, and the garden looked so vigorously manicured that there was not a leaf or a blade of grass out of place.

"You grew up here?" Cutter gapped at Jenny in disbelief when he had finally found his voice.

"Yes, it's all just come screaming back to me," Jenny replied in a cool voice, surveying the house with a mixture of disgust and fear.

Cutter breathed deeply; suddenly his legs felt like jelly. How on earth would someone who lived HERE ever find his company pleasant?

"Come on then," he said, his voice much braver than he felt, undoing his seat belt and making to open the door. But as he looked around at Jenny, she had not moved, and was biting her lip. "Jenny?" he added, sitting back again.

"Maybe we shouldn't - "

"Jenny, come on!" Cutter said in slight aspiration. "We're here now, we've got to go in!"

She sat back and sighed deeply, obviously more reluctant to go in than he was.

"Jenny Lewis, if you don't get your privately educated buttocks out of this car right now, I'm going to tell them the joke about the monkey and grapefruit," Cutter said in his most forced-serious voice he could.

"You wouldn't!" Jenny gasped, looking around at him in shock.

"Oh I would," Cutter replied in a mock-dangerous whisper.

"But it's obscene!"

"Well, you know what you've got to do don't you?"

She sighed again, but this time with a slight smile on her face.

"Come on then," she said eventually, opening her door.

"That's my girl," he teased, following suit.

They approached the humongous oak front door slowly, both of them seemingly wanting to delay actually entering the house. Or mansion in Cutter's opinion. As they stopped outside it, Jenny paused again, her hand hovering over the doorbell. Finally, she took a deep breath and pushed it. She stood back, flicking her hair in a way that Cutter had come to notice she usually did when she was nervous.

"Stop worrying," he whispered, putting his arm around her waist. She gulped slightly and nodded.

The door opened slowly, and a frightened-looking maid poked her head around it.

"I'm here to see my mother," Jenny said in a rather condescending voice that Cutter certainly wasn't used to hearing. She had clearly had a lot of experience in ordering maids around in her lifetime.

The maid nodded enthusiastically and whispered what sounded like "of course, of course" in a tiny mouse voice. She opened the door wider, and Jenny walked in first, Cutter following close by. The maid shut the door behind them.

"Hi, I'm Nick Cutter," he said politely, holding out his hand to the maid.

She looked at Jenny with confusion, before taking his hand with a shaky one of her own.

"I'm Beth," she said in the same quiet voice.

Cutter nodded with a smile, and looked around at Jenny, who was surveying him with a quizzical look as she handed her coat to the maid. Clearly, it was not good form for guests to address 'the help'.

"Bethany, you are required to announce company when they arrive," said the familiar posh voice from behind them.

Cutter and Jenny turned around to see a woman walking across a hall that was bigger than the entire downstairs of Cutter's house. She looked as though she was approaching fifty, although she was a very handsome woman. The image of Jenny, in fact. Her hair was a deep shade of auburn and pulled back into an elegant bun. Her eyes were exactly the same shade of brown as Jenny's, although they had none of her warmth in them. She walked with a very upright posture, and surveyed both Cutter and Jenny with a very stern look as she approached them. The maid mumbled her apologies and said something about checking on dinner before scampering off.

"You're looking well Jennifer," her mum said stiffly, looking her daughter up and down.

"So are you," Jenny replied rather coldly. It was more like strangers greeting each other than mother and daughter. "I would like you to meet Nicholas Cutter," Jenny added, gesturing at Cutter.

He held out his hand.

"Nick," he corrected with a smile. "It's lovely to meet you."

She looked at him coldly for a second, taking in his entire appearance with a less-than-pleased look on her face. Finally, she placed her hand in his briefly.

"And you," she said tonelessly. "I'm Felicity Lewis."

She withdrew her hand quickly as though he had a contagious disease she was afraid to catch, and looked around at Jenny.

"That dress is rather low cut Jennifer," she tutted, and after a slight pause, she added, "If you would care to follow me into the lounge?"

She turned her back on them and walked back down the hall; her black heels seemingly making more noise than was usual on the marble floor.

Jenny closed her eyes for a second as though praying for strength, before turning to Cutter.

"Sorry," she mouthed, giving him an apologetic look before following her mother.

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