wasn’t just that he’d
She walked round to the front of the house and took a few moments to look at the view down the river. This morning’s clouds had evaporated and the river now twinkled and the cool sunshine made the windows in far-off Dartmouth glint and shimmer. Through the haze, she could even see the chain ferry endlessly crossing the river, touching first one bank and then the other.
Inside the house, the phone started to ring so she dashed in the front door and grabbed it before the answering machine kicked in.
‘Hello, gorgeous.’
She had to prise the grin off her face to answer. ‘Ben.’
‘I just wanted to let you know that Jas and I have arrived at my sister’s.’
‘That’s good. Did you see anyone, you know, hanging around your house?’
There was a pause. ‘No photographers or anything like that.’
She breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Anyway, I’m also calling to ask you out on a date.’
‘A date?’
Ben laughed. ‘Yes, a date. It’s what men and women do when they like each other, and I’ve kind of taken a shine to you.’
‘Like dinner and a movie kind of a date?’
‘Not quite,’ he said slowly. ‘Perhaps it was fate that this all came out in the press. I’d wanted to ask you, but I didn’t think we’d be going out in public for a while.’ He paused. ‘Lord Batterham is having a New Year’s Ball at his home and I would like you to come with me.’
Oh. That was kind of scary. Talk about a baptism of fire.
‘Louise? Are you still there?’
She glanced up at her reflection in the big hall mirror and immediately was reminded of the day of the fireworks display, of how he’d stood behind her and all of her senses had suddenly retuned themselves so they registered nothing but him.
‘Yes, I’m still here,’ she said quietly. ‘And I would love to go to the ball with you.’
Somehow, she could hear him smiling on the other end of the line. ‘Fantastic. I’ll see you in two days. I can’t wait.’
Once they’d said their goodbyes, Louise hugged the phone to her chest. A ball. Normally, she’d have found an excuse not to go, but she’d be there with Ben, and that would just make the whole evening seem magical.
Slowly, she replaced the phone in its cradle. When she looked in the mirror again, she was frowning. It would be magical. It would. She forced her reflection to soften.
Then why was a sense of foreboding hovering about her? Why did she feel that everything was so perfect that something absolutely, positively had to go wrong?
How Ben had volunteered to take Jas and her two younger cousins shopping he couldn’t quite remember. His sister was subtle like that. Dangerous. Especially when the twin nephews in question were at that in-between age when they were too big for a pushchair but too young to behave themselves in crowded shops. He supposed it was his penance for foisting himself on Tammy like this.
One slippery little hand wriggled free from his and one small boy was suddenly running into the busy crowd in the shopping mall. He yelled for Jas to follow him, scooped the other boy up into his arms and gave chase.
Thankfully, Peter-the tearaway-was stopped in his tracks by a rather fed-up-looking man in a furry turkey costume. Confronted with over seven foot of slightly disgruntled bird, he began to cry.
Angus, who was fidgeting frantically in Ben’s arms, saw that his brother was in distress and started to howl too. Great. The end to a perfect shopping trip. Tammy was going to wonder what sort of ordeal he’d put them through when he got back to her house.
He was now in grabbing distance of Peter and he hauled him up to join his brother. The turkey guy gave him a dismissive look.
‘Ought to watch out where them kids are going,’ he said, and waddled off.
Ben was tempted to yell something after him, but compromised by muttering, ‘Aren’t you past your sell-by date, mate? Christmas was almost a week ago.’
Jas giggled beside him.
‘Remind me what else is on the list, Jas.’
She gave him a self-satisfied grin. ‘A magazine for me and colouring books for the boys.’
Ben hefted the twins, who had obviously been overdosing on Christmas pudding, under his arms and set off back to the other end of the mall. One of the large chain of newsagents had a shop up that way and he could kill two birds with one stone.
As he walked into the magazine and newspaper section at the front of the shop, something very much like deja vu made his skin pop into goosepimples. Although he was sure it was just tiredness, he took a quick look around the shop.
Jas was heading over to look at the magazines and, in one swift action, he grabbed her arm and steered her in the opposite direction. ‘Why don’t you go and look over there?’ he said, pointing to the slightly older teenage magazines.
‘Cool!’ Jas didn’t need to be told twice.
He was probably going to hate himself for buying her one of those later, but it was a far better option than letting her see the front page of one of the newspapers on the other display stand.
There, in full colour, was a picture of Megan kissing him on the cheek, accompanied by the heading: ‘LOUISE FOILED IN LOVE AGAIN.’ There wasn’t much text, but he could make out another small picture of Louise. She seemed to be sneering.
Of course, the main photo looked much worse than the actual event-like an intimate moment between lovers.
Hell.
He couldn’t let Jas see that. Surreptitiously, he wandered over to the display and pulled another paper across to hide the offending article. Then he accepted the magazine that Jas was waving at him, stopped by a pile of colouring books, grabbed a couple and headed for the till.
His blood was one degree off boiling temperature.
After paying, he grabbed a twin in each hand and bustled Jas out of the shop so fast she gave him one of her ‘madam’ looks.
Problem one dealt with.
Problem two? How was he going to explain this to Louise?
When another email popped in her inbox from Jason, Toby’s agent, Louise just knew that her perfect little daydream had exploded. Nausea swirled her stomach and every part of her body went cold.
‘Front page of today’s
Her finger hovered above the mouse button. She waited a second, and then another. Finally, she squeezed her eyes shut and clicked. When she opened them again, she stopped breathing. Ben was looking awfully cosy with his ex-wife. Everything inside her seemed to melt and slide away. Blood rushed in her ears.
She tipped her head to one side. A pointless gesture. It wasn’t going to look any better from a different angle. But she forced herself to remember the hundreds of photos she’d seen of herself in the past, all seeming to tell a true story when a split second taken out of context could tell so many lies.
Ben had said he loved her.
And she’d seen the way he was with Megan. He tolerated her, nothing more.
She closed the file but a ghost of the photograph lingered, a trick of the light, so she got up and walked to the window. She’d thought those days were behind her-the dread each morning when she watched the news or walked past a paper stand. And she’d never thought she’d have to worry about that with Ben. But then, she’d wanted him, and having him meant dragging him into her world and dealing with the consequences. It was more pressure than a
