chapter034
‘Why do you say that?’ she said.
With almost anyone other than Fraser Owen, Edie might smell gambit. However, Fraser would never do that. He was devoid of machinations, low cunning, and deceit, and Edie knew the esteem he held her in was genuine. Even having overheard him being frank with Elliot about their shaky foundations, she never thought any different. Truthfully, it was Elliot betraying her there.
‘There was the one about you and him at our engagement party. That was probably my fault, and I’m really sorry. People get wankered, and phones get waggled.’ Fraser gave a what you gonna do shrug. ‘But it’s not the only sneaky thing. Don’t tell Elliot this – I’d feel strange about him knowing – but after the adoption came out, I set up a Google Alert on mentions of him. You know I generally stay away from that bullshit, but I didn’t want any surprises for a while. As a result, I’ve caught a few things that made me go hmm.’
Oh God. Neither of the brothers were telling each other about the leaking mole? The Leaking Mole sounded like a tavern in a fantasy novel.
‘Too accurate?’ Edie said, sipping her drink.
‘Yeah, like it’s been briefed by someone who knows a lot? Quoting Elliot’s Elliot-isms? As you say, they’re getting too much right, which is certainly a massive change. Then at the weekend, Molly shook the shit out of me by pointing out some American account she follows on Instagram had the story he came to see you in Derbyshire. I mean, how in the fuck? That knowledge was super locked down, he said? I only found out ’cos I happened to call him and could hear he was at an airport.’
‘Yes, Elliot’s publicist told him about that one. I was pretty embarrassed – it made me sound like a banshee. Mind you, I was.’
Wait, Molly told Fraser? Molly – she wouldn’t actively alert him to her own misdeed, would she? Hope flourished that it wasn’t Molly. Fraser could prove it if he’d not told Molly about Elliot’s mad transatlantic dash beforehand, but he very likely had. Edie’s purpose would be far too obvious if she asked.
‘But who can it be? We’d not do it – his friends wouldn’t do it. Your parents wouldn’t do it,’ Edie said.
‘Exactly. Super sinister. I best get to the bottom of it, because if it carries on, he’ll think it’s Molly, and there’s no way it’s Mol. No way. Don’t tell him this, but she thinks Elliot’s a bit distant with her as it is. She doesn’t need this hanging over her.’
Edie held her breath in case Fraser asked her if Elliot suspected his fiancée, but he didn’t. She intuited it was due to Fraser not imagining his brother’s thinking could be that far along rather than sparing Edie being put in the middle.
She and Fraser parted outside, a typically effusive farewell that involved her being enveloped in Puffa jacket to point of suffocation.
‘C’mere! I’m so loving having you as a sister! Dunno what the whining soy boy did to deserve you, but I’m glad he did.’
Edie WhatsApped Elliot as she walked to Ad Hoc.
Edie
Brace for news: I saw Fraser. He knows about the insider info stories – he’d noticed himself. Crucially, he said in passing *Molly* pointed out this weekend’s one about you coming to home for an hour to see me. I don’t think therefore it can be her? xx
PS I think I’ve fallen in love with your family, too, now, FFS. Can I keep access to them in the event of any separation?
Elliot
Interesting … Equally, pointing to something, exactly as you describe, establishes your innocence? Sorry, I know you’ll think I’m an icy bastard, but this world forces you to become one. I really don’t want it to be her. I’ll bear it in mind, and thanks for the heads up, though. If Fraz knows it’s happening, that means I should speak to him. xx
PS Nope, scorched earth! The stakes are really going up for you, huh?
As Edie arrived at work, Declan bounded out the doorway of their building, an unexpected look of concern on his face. ‘Edie!’
His desk on their first floor didn’t overlook the street; he must’ve been peering out the window to know she was approaching.
‘Everything all right?’ she said.
‘Behind you!’
Edie turned to see a man with a camera, kneeling on the pavement across the road, camera with large flash held aloft.
‘Oh … Ugh,’ she said. It was both troubling and oddly anticlimactic at the same time. She realised she’d been so fearful of this prospect, and now it had arrived, and it was some middle-aged guy in a fleece with a piece of equipment you could buy from Currys.
Declan shrugged his jacket off his shoulders and held it in front of Edie, like a matador with a cape.
She started laughing.
‘We can at least ruin the wanker’s shots.’