Fairytale Christmas. Liz Fielding

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СКАЧАТЬ you’re my responsibility.’

      She shook her head in disbelief.

      ‘You’re afraid I’d trick you? That I’d take you to him?’

      He didn’t appear to take offence which, considering the way she’d been casting doubt on his character, was suspicious in itself and Lucy shook her head again. Her entire world had been turned upside down for the second time in months, but this time not for the good.

      ‘I can’t trust anyone. I thought I knew Rupert. I thought he cared for me. I don’t and he doesn’t. The only thing he appears to care about is his profit and loss statement.’

      ‘Are you sure? I don’t know Henshawe, other than by reputation,’ he continued when she didn’t say anything. ‘What I’ve read in the financial pages. Frankly, he’s not a man I’d want to do business with, but love can change a man.’

      ‘Well, that’s just rubbish and you know it,’ she declared. ‘The only time you can change a man is when he’s in nappies.’

      She saw him pull his lips back tight against his teeth, doing his best not to smile. His eyes let him down.

      ‘It’s not funny!’ But she found herself struggling with a giggle. ‘Rupert Henshawe is not, and never was, in love with me. What we had was not a romance, I discovered today, but a marketing campaign. That’s why I gave him back his ring.’

      ‘A masterpiece in understatement, if I might say so. You have a good throwing arm, by the way. Have you ever played cricket?’

      ‘They showed that on the news?’ She groaned, mortified at the spectacle she’d made of herself. Then she sighed. ‘What does it matter? It’ll be on the front page of every newspaper tomorrow morning. The only story about our relationship that wasn’t carefully stage-managed by his PR team.’

      ‘You and the PR team got lucky. Tomorrow’s headlines will all be about the weather.’

      ‘It’s still snowing?’

      ‘Deep and crisp and even,’ he said. ‘Traffic chaos from one end of the country to the other. It’s no night for an elf to be out.’ He paused. ‘Especially not in something that doesn’t cover her—’

      ‘I’ve got the picture.’ She tugged on the back of the tunic. ‘Thank you.’

      When she still didn’t move he took her hand and pressed his phone, warm from his pocket, into it.

      ‘If you can’t trust me, take this, call Enquiries and ask for a cab firm, although I warn you you’ll have a long wait in this weather.’

      Calling her bluff. He knew she had nowhere to go. She opened it, anyway. Keyed in the number for Enquiries but, before it was answered, she broke the connection.

      ‘We both know that if I had anywhere to go, anyone to call, I wouldn’t be standing here in this ridiculous outfit,’ she said. ‘I’d be long gone.’

      Nat watched her accept the bitter truth and felt his heart breaking for her. No one should be so alone. So friendless.

      ‘I’m sorry. It’s tough when you love someone and they let you down.’

      ‘Love is a word, not an emotion, Nathaniel. We’re sold on it from the time we’re old enough to listen to fairy tales. Songs, movies, books…It’s a marketing man’s dream. I was in love with the idea of being in love, that’s all. Swept up in the Cinderella story as much as anyone buying the latest issue of Celebrity. It’s not my heart that’s in a mess. It’s my life.’ About to hand the phone back to him, she said, ‘Actually, would you mind if I sent a message?’

      ‘You’ve thought of someone?’

      Why didn’t that make him feel happier?

      ‘Half a million someones,’ she replied. ‘My Twitter and Facebook followers. Some of them must be genuine.’

      ‘It seems a fair bet,’ he admitted. ‘What will you say?’

      ‘Don’t worry, I’m not about to ask them to descend en masse on Hastings & Hart and rescue me.’

      ‘Pity. It would make this the best Christmas H&H have ever had,’ he said, then wished he hadn’t.

      ‘Sorry. While I’d like to oblige you by delivering a store full of customers at opening time, right now I’m doing my best to stay beneath the radar while I figure out what to do.’

      ‘It’s your call. What will you say?’

      ‘Trust no one…springs to mind. Or does that sound a touch paranoid?’

      ‘Just a touch.’ He turned away, giving her a moment to think while he pretended to scan the shelf. ‘And since Henshawe, in his statement to camera regarding your outburst, managed to imply that you not only had an eating disorder but were mainlining tranquillisers to deal with the stress of your new lifestyle, that might not be in your best interests.’

      ‘He did what?’

      ‘He was touchingly sincere.’

      Her eyes narrowed.

      ‘I’m just saying. Having met you, I can see how unlikely that is. At least about the eating disorder,’ he added, tossing a packet of chocolate biscuits into the trolley. The ones with really thick chocolate and orange cream in the middle. Maybe they’d tempt her to stay.

      ‘Thanks for that!’

      Lucy noted the chocolate biscuits. The man was not just eye candy. He paid attention…

      ‘Any time. And, let’s face it, you’re a bit too sparky to be on tranquillisers.’

      ‘Sparky?’ She grinned. Couldn’t help herself. ‘Sparky?’

      ‘I was being polite.’

      ‘Barely,’ she suggested. ‘You’re right, of course. It was my mouth that got me into all this trouble in the first place. But I can see how his mind is working and that does scare me.’ And, just like that, she lost all desire to smile.

      ‘He blamed the press for causing the problems by hounding you out of the flat you shared with your friends.’

      ‘If you’re attempting to reassure me, I have to tell you that it’s not working.’

      ‘You didn’t feel hounded?’

      Nat added some crackers to the trolley, then crossed to the cold cabinet and began to load up with milk, juice, salads, cheese.

      ‘A bit,’ she admitted, trailing after him. ‘I couldn’t move without a lens in my face, but since it was his PR people who were orchestrating the hysteria it seems a bit rich to blame the poor saps wielding the cameras. But I have fair warning what to expect when Rupert catches up with me.’

      Nat glanced at her.

      ‘I’ll be whisked into one of his fancy clinics for my own good,’ she said, СКАЧАТЬ