(I haven’t finished the final part of “Rosalyn and the Origins” yet, so I thought I’d put this up as a stopgap.)

*

Autumn 2006

Octavia Lambton’s parents had been an actor and a society hostess, but they’d periodically declared themselves experts in other career paths, too.  Whenever somebody annoyed them, Robert and Josette Lambton would make much of their connections in that person’s field, be it catering, charity, politics, teaching, or anything else.  You name it, they knew somebody with power over it.  “They wouldn’t give you the time of day,” they’d say, “In fact, I rather think they’d call security.”

It had been overwhelming to think of their power.  No matter what you chose to do in life, they could ruin you with a single word in the right place.  It would have been impossible to stand against them.  All you could do was try to stay invisible and hope that they attacked someone else instead.

Octavia must have been around thirteen or fourteen when she first noticed the looks people sometimes gave her parents.  People rolling their eyes when they talked, and stifling giggles when they turned their backs.  It took a while to work out what that meant, and a lot longer to believe it, but as soon as she did, it felt as if the whole world had been turned upside-down.

She’d learned a lot more over the years.  When she was younger, she’d worked admin in a few prominent corporate firms, where she noticed that people tended to waffle a lot about “brand loyalty” and “customer-centric strategies” when they didn’t really know what was going on.  Later on, she’d branched out into her mother’s old line of work, except Octavia actually got people to pay for it.  Goldemar Event Planning, book us and watch your party stock rise.  You wouldn’t have thought that people would fall so easily for the ‘I’ve heard so much about how extravagant and tasteful you are’ approach, but they did, and in huge numbers.  Deep down, nobody knew what they were doing.  And they were all terrified of getting caught.

It was Goldemar Event Planning that had led her to Tamsin Doggett’s door.  Octavia knew, logically, that Tamsin was probably somewhere in her mid-twenties, but between the nervous smile, the weird little lisp, and the way she was flicking her hair around, she could have been mistaken for thirteen.

“I knew it had to be you,” she told Octavia, sitting opposite her in her cramped living room, “Isaac was just telling me how he worked for your brother last year, and then I saw an ad for your company in the paper.  It was like fate.”

Octavia grinned.  “I love it when these things come together.”  Tamsin, this is a bad idea.

Tamsin sat up straight, and seemed to narrow her body as she did it, bringing her knees and wrists closer together like a book closing.  “It’s going to be a vow renewal ceremony.  We’ve been through so much, and I want us to take a moment to celebrate what we mean to each other.”

“Sounds lovely.”  Tamsin, I’m not the person you want for this.  “What time of year were you thinking?”

“Definitely summer.  I know you’ve got to plan.  And who wants to renew their vows when the weather’s miserable?”  She gave a snuffly little laugh.

“Oh, there’s ways to plan around it… but if summer’s what you want, I’d go for July.  Just after term ends.”  Tamsin, I only started this business to fleece horrible rich people, and you’re not rich and barely horrible at all.  Reconsider this.  “That way, any parents you invite can just bring their kids along instead of having to dither for weeks about schedules.”

“That sounds amazing,” said Tamsin, stretching out that last word as far as it would go.  “I’m thinking of a fairy tale theme- children will love that.  So I want them to be there.”

Octavia clasped her hands together.  “Tamsin?  If it’s not a rude question… what made you want to hire an event planner in the first place?  You know what you want, and you’ve got plenty of ideas already…”

It took Tamsin a moment or two to answer.  “I want this party to be special.”  She shrugged.  “And I don’t know how any of these things work.”

Octavia smiled, and leaned forward.  “Let me let you in on a secret, Tamsin- deep down, nobody knows how anything works.  You probably have just as much of an idea as me.”

Tamsin laughed.  “Then can you give me a discount?  Mates’ rates?”

Ah well.  She’d been as honest as she could.  “I don’t see why not.”

(To be continued)