‘Rose spent a little too long chatting with me for Rupert’s liking and when he summoned her to heel she asked me how much I charged. In case she ever wanted an evening off.’
‘How much do you charge?’ he asked pointedly.
‘This one is on the house, Kal. I owe Rose. My father was killed in a car accident when I was ten years old. My mother was badly injured-’
‘Your brave, determined mother.’
‘She lost the man she loved, the use of her legs, her career in the blink of an eye, Kal.’
‘I’m sorry.’
She shook her head. It was a long time since she’d cried for the loss and when he reached out as if to take her hand, offer comfort, she moved it out of reach. Right now, comfort would undo her completely and she was in enough trouble without that.
‘Is this what you do? I mean, is it a full-time job?’
‘Hardly. Two or three gigs a month at the most. The day job is on the checkout at a supermarket. The manager is very good about me swapping shifts.’ She was going to tell him that he wanted her to take a management course. As if that would make any difference…‘The money I earn as Rose’s lookalike has made a real difference to my mother’s life.’
The electric wheelchair. The hand-operated sewing machine. The car she’d saved up for. And the endless driving lessons before she’d eventually passed her test.
‘So, like Rose, you have no other family?’
She shook her head.
‘And, like her, no lover? You are a beautiful, vivid woman, Lydia. I find that hard to believe.’
‘Yes, well, I live a rather peculiar life. My day job is in a supermarket, where staff and customers alike call me Rose despite the fact that I wear a badge with my real name on it. Where most of them can’t quite decide whether I’m fish or fowl. The rest of the time I’m pretending to be someone else.’
‘And taking care of your mother. I imagine that takes a chunk out of your time, too. Who is with her while you’re here?’
‘A friend stays with her sometimes so that I can take a holiday. And I’m not totally pathetic. I do get asked out. Of course I do. But I’m never sure exactly who they think they’re with.’
‘Someone must have got through. If we…If I…If that was the second time.’
She nodded. ‘He said he was a law student. He always came to my checkout at the supermarket. Chatted. Brought me tiny gifts. Wooed me with sweet words and posies, flattery and patience. Endless patience. It was weeks before he asked me out.’
Months before he’d suggested more than a kiss. So long that she’d been burning up with frustration. Ready to go off like a fire-cracker.
‘It was the patience that did it,’ she said. ‘The understanding. How many men are prepared to put up with the missed dates, always coming second to my mother, the job, the gigs? To wait?’
‘A man will wait for what is precious,’ Kal said.
‘And who could resist that?’ Not her. She’d fallen like a ton of bricks. ‘It was that flash, bang, wallop love thing that you so distrust, Kal. In this case with good reason because when I say precious, I do mean precious. My worth, it seems, was above rubies.’
She could have made a lot of money selling the story to the newspapers but she’d never told anyone what had happened. Not her mother. Not her friends. Not even the agency that employed her. But, sitting here in this quiet space above a beautiful garden carved out of the desert, nothing but the truth would do. She had lied to Kal, hidden who she was, and if she was to win his trust now, win him over so that she could fulfil her promise to Rose, she had to strip herself bare, tell him everything.
‘When he asked me to go away for the weekend I felt like the sun was shining just for me. He made it so special, booked the honeymoon suite in a gorgeous hotel in the Cotswolds. I suppose I should have wondered how a student could afford it, but I was in love. Not thinking at all.’
‘So what went wrong?’
‘Nothing, fortunately. The “Lady Rose” effect saved me.’
He frowned. Well, why wouldn’t he? Unless you’d lived it, how would anyone know?
‘An elderly chambermaid-a woman who’d seen just about everything in a long career making beds-thought I was Rose and she waylaid me in the corridor to warn me, told me where to find the hidden cameras.’
She swallowed. Even now the memory of it chilled her.
‘When I confronted my “student” he confessed that he was an actor who’d been hired to seduce me by a photographer who intended to make a fortune selling pictures of “Lady Rose” losing her virginity with some good- looking stud. Someone who worked in the hotel was in on it, of course. He even offered me a cut of the proceeds if I’d go ahead with it since, as he so eloquently put it, “I was gagging for it anyway”. I declined and since then…’ she shrugged ‘…let’s say I’ve been cautious.’
‘And yet you still believe in love?’
‘I’ve seen it, Kal. My parents were in love. They lit up around each other and my mother still has a dreamy look whenever she talks about my dad. I won’t settle for less than that.’ She looked at him. ‘I hope that Rose won’t either. That this week away from everyone, being anonymous, will help her decide. Will you let her have that?’
‘She’s safe?’ Kal asked, reserving judgement.
‘She’s been wrapped in cotton wool all her life. I’ve loaned her my car and right now she’s as safe as any anonymous woman taking a few days to do something as simple as shopping without ending up like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, or appearing on the front page of next day’s newspaper eating a hot dog.’
‘So what was the panic this morning?’
‘I think someone must have said something that panicked her. She’s not as used to people commenting on the fact that she looks like Lady Rose as I am.’ She used her free hand to make little quotes, put on a quavery voice. ‘“Has anyone ever told you you look a bit like Lady Rose, dear?”’
Kal smiled, but wondered what it must be like to always be told you look like someone else. Whether she sometimes longed for someone to say that Lady Rose looked like her.
‘I’ll bet that gets old. How do you cope?’
‘It depends. If some old biddy whispers it to me in the supermarket, I whisper back that I really am Lady Rose and I’m doing undercover research into working conditions. Warn her not to tell a soul, that she’s spotted me. Then wait to see how long it takes before she points me out to someone.’
‘That’s really bad.’
‘You said it, Kal. I’m no angel.’
And for a moment he thought only about the touch of her lips beneath his fingers, the taste of them beneath his mouth. Then forced himself to remember that she had deceived him. Put his own mission in jeopardy. If the Emir, the Princess ever discovered the truth…
‘Sometimes I do a flustered “good heavens, do you really think so, no one has ever said that before” routine,’ she said, distracting him with the whole surprised expression, fluttery hand to chest routine.
‘I like that one,’ he said, which brought that light-up-the-day smile bubbling to her face.
‘My favourite is the one where I put on a slightly puzzled smile…’ she did a perfect version of the world famous luminous smile that was about a hundred watts less bright than her natural one ‘…and say “Only a bit?” and wait for the penny to drop.’
‘You’re a bit of a clown on the quiet, aren’t you, Lydia Young?’
‘Quiet?’ she repeated.
He’d caught glimpses of this lively woman beneath the Rose mantle, but in full flood she was irresistible. Now that she’d stepped out of the shadows, was wholly herself, he knew that it was the lippy woman desperate to break out of the restraints of being Lady Rose that he desired, liked more and more. Her laughter lit him up, her smile warmed him. Even when he was furious with her he wanted to kiss her, wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe, love her…
‘Maybe that wasn’t the most appropriate word,’ he said quickly. ‘Did you never consider a career as an actress?’
‘No.’
One minute they were laughing, the next they weren’t.
