Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Sweet Little Lies”
Conscious the others were approaching the steps to the front door, Ellie hesitated by the open gates.
‘What?’
Will removed the hat, turning his head aside and running a hand round the back of his neck.
Then he huffed out a breath, meeting her eyes with his own.
‘I’m sorry about… the last time we met. I wasn’t expecting to see the photos, but you’re right.
You gain nothing by doing it. Someone did, though, and I’ve been hiding out since.
A couple of the fan groups are rumoured to be scouting around, and I’d prefer it if they never found me. ’
Ellie frowned. ‘How did you know I’d be here? Now?’
‘Oliver. I phoned him earlier about something, and he mentioned you were all coming over to Kate’s. I wasn’t sure you’d take a call, so…’ He raised a hand, then it fell to his side.
Was he sorry about what he’d said, though?
Ellie remained silent, uncertain how to play this. Should she just say, ‘okay, thanks’? Should she say sorry too – but for what?
‘Look, I’m—’
‘Ellie! Come on!’ Nicki’s voice clattered into the moment.
‘I er… I have to go.’
Ellie turned away, but her reluctance must have been obvious because Nicki suddenly appeared at her side, tucking an arm through her cousin’s and all but dragging her to join the others, then tugging on the old-fashioned bell pull.
‘He doesn’t deserve your time or attention, love,’ Nicki muttered, then assumed a smile as the door swung open to reveal a beaming Kate.
‘Come on in. The place is ours for the night!’
Ellie’s simmering excitement wasn’t for Kate’s declaration as they followed her down the hallway.
Will was hard to interpret these days, a conflicting mixture of sincerity vying with his blatant lingering resentment, but there had been something about the intensity of those few moments outside.
The fact he’d come all this way to try and catch her, that he’d used the word ‘sorry’, that he believed her – over the photos, at least – wrapped Ellie in a cocoon of contentment.
It might not last, but for now, she’d take it.
‘Come on, slow coach,’ Kate called, and Ellie smiled and sped up to join the others.
They started with cocktails in the lovely central room with the glass ceiling. Dusk had completed casting its mantle, and candles burned in wall sconces and on the mantelpiece, below which a warm glow emanated from the hearth.
‘This is such a gorgeous room,’ Ellie murmured, smiling her thanks as Kate handed over a Cosmo. Boy, did she need this! Her heart was still playing ping pong with her ribcage.
‘Wait until you see the drawing room.’ Nicki grinned before taking a sip of her cocktail. ‘Yummy. Thanks, Kate.’
‘What drew Dev off to London at such short notice?’ Anna took a seat at the large dining table as everyone settled around her.
‘Dev wanted to go with Grandy for his next check-up, to get a handle on things.’ Kate’s features filled with sadness. ‘We know he’s not going to get better, but he’s so much more… at ease since he came back here.’
They solemnly raised their glasses to the elderly gentleman, and the conversation moved naturally on to Hamish and his recovery, and then on to the children, after which Kate led them into the warm and inviting kitchen.
‘We could have eaten at the big table in there.’ She gestured back along the hallway. ‘But this felt better.’
‘It’s perfect.’ Anna hugged Kate, then hurried over to peer into the pots on the stove. ‘This is much more informal.’
They dined, amidst much laughter, on grilled chicken with a Greek salad and garlic roasted potatoes, followed by a sumptuous pavlova.
‘Wow. That’s another one gone.’ Kate tossed a second bottle of wine into the recycling with a laugh. ‘I fear for my head in the morning!’
‘We’ve only had half a bottle each,’ Nicki protested, opening another. ‘And we all know the way back home.’
Ellie had relaxed after her first drink. Anna and Kate were such fun and lovely company, Bella was a scream, the food had been yummy, and Nicki had always been able to make her laugh at herself while still letting her know she understood.
Inexplicably, Will flashed into her mind, and Ellie drew in a sharp breath, placing her glass on the table.
It was a memory of seeing him the first time when she finally managed to extricate him from that ridiculous outfit; of his youthful good looks, the flash of his smile, those dark eyes boring into hers…
That was unexpected , she mused.
As was the direction of the conversation once they retired to the drawing room.
‘Oh my God, this is a dream,’ Ellie exclaimed as they entered the square room with its pairs of narrow arched windows facing outwards on three sides, each affording a different view of either the harbour, the bay or the open sea.
Another grand hearth blazed with a warming fire, a glittering chandelier hung from the centre of a beautiful central rose and wall lamps glowed.
There was an abundance of elegant furniture interspersed with comfier sofas and side tables, and soon they were settled on two of these on either side of the fireplace, each clasping another glass of wine.
‘So,’ Bella addressed Ellie. ‘What was up with Will earlier?’
Ellie leaned forward to place her glass on a coaster with an unsteady hand.
‘Don’t you get on?’ Kate laughed. ‘Dev and I didn’t exactly hit it off the first few times we met.’
Unsure what to say, Ellie’s gaze darted around, landing on her cousin by her side.
‘They have history,’ Nicki said, placing a comforting hand on Ellie’s arm. ‘But it’s ancient, not modern.’
‘The tensions look quite current.’ Kate put a hand to her mouth, her expression mortified as she saw the emotion flooding Ellie’s features. ‘I’m so sorry! I’ve touched a nerve, haven’t I? I didn’t mean to.’
Conscious of Anna’s compassionate expression, Bella’s encouraging smile, Nicki’s comforting hand and Kate’s genuine concern – oh, and the wine – Ellie did later concede the wine may have been a factor – she decided to open up.
‘Please don’t worry,’ she reassured Kate. ‘It’s hardly public knowledge. Even Nicki doesn’t know the whole story.’
Nicki pretended to bristle, then reached over to hug Ellie. ‘You don’t need to tell us anything.’
Anna nodded. ‘Yes, let’s change the subject.’
Ellie, however, shook her head. ‘No.’ She spoke clearly, firmly. ‘It is old history, and I’m letting it get to me. I buried it deep, but seeing Will again has brought the memories flooding back. The good and the bad.’ She drew in a short breath. ‘So here goes.’
Awash with a myriad of sensations as the memories flooded in, Ellie recounted the essence of how she and Will met and fell in love.
‘We became inseparable for the rest of the summer.’ Ellie sent her cousin a small smile. ‘And I wasn’t the only one who caught the love bug.’
‘Don’t look at me,’ Nicki trilled, sipping her wine. ‘Bella was as bad once she’d seen Alex.’
Bella merely rolled her eyes but Nicki’s look was sheepish. ‘I really fancied Alex when I first met him. Mind you, he turned out to be a tool. Still is. Sorry Bella.’
Bella gave a throaty giggle. ‘Don’t mind me.’
Ellie’s brow furrowed. ‘I thought I remembered you being with him at that party at the manor.’
Nicki laughed, but it sounded hollow. ‘We were. Until Bella walked in. It was like one of those cartoons, where the character’s jaw hits the floor and the eyes pop out.
Not that I cared.’ Her expression became dreamy.
‘I left the party to meet Hamish, and since we got together, I’ve never looked back.
What can I say. Posh college boy or hunky fisherman?
No contest for me.’ Then, she sobered. ‘It’s probably why I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on around me.
I mean, I knew you and Alex were pretty much joined at the hip that summer, Bella.
And Ellie being with Will, but none of you were around much once paired up. ’
‘We walked. For miles.’ Ellie’s expression became wistful too. ‘Along the coast path, discovering a secluded beach. And…’ she hesitated, then added, ‘on my twenty-first – it was about a week before we had to leave Cornwall behind – he proposed.’
‘What?’ Nicki sat up so fast, she almost spilled her wine. ‘You never told me that !’
Nicki exchanged a stunned look with Bella, who had gone strangely pale. ‘I thought you were just… having some summer fun, you know, like we all were. Dating but with no great intentions.’
‘You were so busy battling with your parents over refusing to return home, determined to stay with Hamish, you were pretty oblivious to anything else.’
‘So what went wrong?’ Anna asked quietly, her expression pensive.
Ellie sighed. ‘We kept it to ourselves. No one but Will and I were to know until we’d told our parents.
’ She clasped her hands. ‘Mum and Dad did everything to persuade me away from the commitment. I was too young, still in education. I said I’d postpone the masters, but the guilt was awful.
They’d scrimped and saved to put me through uni.
They were worried. Acting was an unstable career.
Will had pretty much no income. We barely knew each other.
What was two months? And so it went on.’
There was silence as four pairs of eyes stared at Ellie with varying degrees of empathy.
‘What happened?’ Anna’s voice was a mere whisper.
Ellie swallowed hard on the lump forming in her throat. ‘I had no doubts about my love for Will. But I’d be a fool if I couldn’t see some sense in their advice.’
‘You ended it!’ Kate exclaimed. ‘Oh no!’
Ellie lowered her head, staring at her clasped hands. Then she lifted her chin. ‘There’s more. His agent had secured him an amazing role in a film in Australia – Will was excited at first.’
Ellie turned despairing eyes on the others as the gut-wrenching pain returned as though it was yesterday.
‘He declared we could make it work; he’d turn the role down and keep looking.
It was madness. The type of job every actor dreams of and—’ She stopped, trying to swallow again, and Bella leaned over to top up her glass.
‘I realised the best thing I could do for Will was to let him go – for his sake, not mine. I dreaded he might one day come to resent me.’ She lowered her head, awash with the tendrils of grief reaching out to draw her back in time.
‘I cited the family opposition, said I had to do what was right by my parents. We had to end the engagement. The masters had to come first. When he realised I was adamant, he was livid. So angry, and he just stormed off.’
The pain was agonisingly fresh as Nicki hugged Ellie again.
‘And was that it?’ Kate looked appalled. ‘I’m so insensitive, Ellie. Please forgive me.’
‘There’s no need,’ Ellie reassured her. ‘You didn’t know any of this.’
‘You are the least insensitive person I know,’ Anna added, taking Kate’s hand and squeezing it.
‘But was that it?’ Nicki persisted.
‘No. I couldn’t bear the torment of seeing Will so hurt. I understood my parents’ reasoning, but I was young and so much in love. Why couldn’t we do both, Will take the role and me defer the masters? I could follow him once I’d got a visa.’
Ellie quickly related how she’d come to this conclusion during a sleepless night, tried to contact Will but hit a block every time, until she recalled the email address.
There was a collective holding of breath. Ellie’s gaze moved from her cousin to Bella, whose expression was unreadable, then on to a sympathetic Kate and Anna.
She stumbled on a weak laugh. ‘Lordy, it was an outpouring! I told him everything, how I’d been stupid, that I loved him more than anything. I’d go with him, anywhere in the world, if only he’d give me another chance.’
‘Oh my God,’ Anna whispered, a hand to her throat and tears shining on her lashes. ‘It’s a bit like Persuasion .’
‘If only.’ Ellie felt broken all over again. ‘There’s no happy ending here.’
‘What did he say in response?’
‘Nothing. I never got a reply to the email.’
‘Maybe he didn’t receive it,’ Bella offered, but even she sounded disbelieving.
‘I had a read receipt.’
‘Then he can’t have loved you enough,’ Kate declared.
‘Agreed,’ Nicki added, draining her glass. ‘I told you he didn’t deserve you.’
‘There’s more.’ Ellie confessed. ‘I went up to London to try to see him. It must have been late October.’ Dark memories were crowding in on her, and she drew in a short breath.
‘I was told Will had already gone to Australia, flown the day before. What was more, Will had moved on emotionally too, was seeing someone else, one of the production assistants on the film. She’d been on the same flight with him.
The message couldn’t have been clearer. Still—’ Ellie summoned a smile as she looked around at the supportive faces.
‘It was the closure I thought I needed. I tried to move on, but no one was ever enough. I haven’t found love since. Not as I’d known it.’
There was an awed silence. Anna dabbed at her eyes, and Kate sniffed as she reached under the table to produce a box of tissues.
‘Who was it?’ Bella’s voice was harsh as she moved to the edge of her seat, staring across the low table at Ellie. ‘Who told you Will had moved on?’
Ellie bit her lip, but Bella’s razor-sharp eyes held Ellie’s with fierce determination.
‘Alex Tremayne.’
But it wasn’t his fault was it, Ellie mused to herself as the drinks were topped up and the conversation moved to other things. Alex was just the messenger, and just because Ellie didn’t like what he’d told her, it was hardly his fault.