Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
C hristmas was now just a few days away, which meant that Ezra’s party was rushing towards us at an alarming speed.
Mum made a few flapping phone calls to me. “And don’t forget that you’re coming home with your brother to have Christmas with us.”
Marcus. We’d exchanged a couple of brief calls and texts recently, but nothing more. He’d been really busy with work, as had I. And I still felt complicit in a lie because I knew why Jacob had left him and about Mum’s part in it, so talking to him now was an uncomfortable and guilt-inducing experience. God, it didn’t bear thinking about if Marcus discovered what Mum had done, even though Samuel asked her for the money in the first place.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on?” asked Ezra.
I glanced across at him in the passenger seat of my car. “I’ve already told you as much as I know. My mother called last night and suggested I take you over to Bannock House. It’s so she can meet you – she’s very excited.”
Ezra cocked a cynical brow. “I understand that, and it’s a very good idea. But what I’m referring to is the sudden disappearance of your journalist friend.”
I focused on the road ahead and the banks of hedgerows sprigged with frost. My fingers dug into the steering wheel. “We’re not friends. And anyway, Zach had to return to Glasgow. He’s been tipped off about another big story.”
Ezra switched his attention to his passenger side window. “All very sudden, isn’t it?” He slid me a sideways glance. “You reveal your true identity and he announces he’s leaving?”
My cheeks zinged. “Well, I suppose that’s how the media world works. Fast moving.”
Ezra’s expression was pensive. After a pause he said, “It’s very kind of your mother to invite me over, especially with it being so close to Christmas.”
I was relieved Ezra had changed the subject. I tried to smile. “Oh, she couldn’t wait to meet you. I’m sorry if this is interrupting any of your pre-Christmas plans.”
Ezra grinned and assured me there was no need for an apology. “It’s giving me a chance to take a look around your gorgeous family home anyway.”
“What with you visiting today and the prospect of her having me and my brother back for Christmas, my mother can barely contain herself.”
I nudged my car down a country lane, the Sunday afternoon sky churning up blobs of moody clouds. The past couple of weeks had been manic in Flower Power, with more wreath orders and festive table decoration orders, not to mention Amber and Rowan and I throwing ourselves into sorting blooms for Ezra’s party and planning the first arrangements for his home.
We arrived at the sweeping private road. I got out and entered in the security code, and the gates swept inwards.
I climbed back into the driver’s seat and drove up the crunchy, pale pink, gravelled drive.
“Have I ever told you about the time I ended up in a sports car on Route 66 with Oliver Reed and two Playboy Bunnies?” Ezra said, out of nowhere.
“No, you haven’t! What was it like?” I asked with a grin.
He gave me a cheeky wink. “One of the best nights of my life!”
I laughed as I pulled up beside the house and climbed out of the car.
Ezra’s gaze swept appreciatively across my family home. “Well, well. It’s even more spectacular in real life.”
“I suppose it is.” Growing up, I think I viewed it more like a museum than a home. There were always assorted antiques Marcus and I were never allowed to touch, rooms we weren’t allowed to go in, ways we had to behave.
Ezra and I had barely made it up the first couple of steps before my mother came flying out to greet both of us, like an avenging angel wrapped up in pastel cashmere.
She clasped Ezra’s hand in hers and pumped it up and down. “It’s such an honour to meet you, Mr King. I’m a huge admirer of your work.” She flushed prettily. “I loved your role in that mafia drama and I never missed an episode of your detective series.”
Ezra bathed in a thousand-watt smile. “The pleasure is all mine, Countess Tweed Muir. And please do call me Ezra.”
As I witnessed their exchanges, I thought she was going to dissolve in a puddle in front of him. “Oh please! It’s Vanessa. No need for formalities, isn’t that right, Bailey?”
I blinked in consternation. What on earth had this strange woman done with my mother? “News to me,” I muttered to Ezra out of the corner of my mouth.
He grinned.
Mum ushered us into the hall and I drew up. Bloody hell! The two Christmas trees, which had been standing to attention on either side of the sweeping staircase the last time I was here, were now decorated and studded with crystal and white ribbons with matching lights swathed everywhere.
Mum swung round to Ezra, who was taking in the vaulted ceilings of the hall. “I hope our modest little home meets with your approval.”
“Mum!” I ground out, embarrassed.
Ezra slid me a sympathetic wink. “It’s perfect, Vanessa.”
She bristled with pride. “Excellent! Well, I can assure you that everything is in hand, and Anastasia is doing a sterling job with the flower arrangements. I must say I’m a seasoned professional when it comes to entertaining,” she preened. “I will take you on a proper tour of the house once we’ve had afternoon tea. Anastasia’s father is just finishing up at bridge club and will join us directly.”
* * *
I squinted through the windscreen as the light became almost ethereal over the fields on our journey back to Heather Moore.
It had been a very successful visit, with Mum pulling out all the stops to make Ezra feel welcome. She had organised for Mrs Bamber to serve us a sumptuous array of sandwiches, scones and cakes. Mrs B was known for her coconut and cherry cake, and I’d never had a better scone in my life than her homemade creations.
Ezra made a show of patting his stomach as he slumped beside me in the car on the way home. “Good grief! I think I’ll have to hibernate like a bear for the rest of the winter!”
I smiled. “Between them, Mum and Mrs B always bring out the big guns when we have visitors. Mrs Bamber doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase ‘less is more’, bless her.”
‘Well, it was met with much appreciation by me,’ said Ezra, who turned to gaze out of the window at a couple of red deer skittering around on top of the hills. The whole landscape looked like something from a gorgeous, rural Christmas card.
He turned back to me, a hesitant look on his face. “Bailey, please don’t think I’m trying to interfere, but don’t you think you ought to contact that Zach chappie?”
I kept my eyes on the road. “I’ve tried, Ezra, but he doesn’t want to know.”
He let out a tired sigh. “It’s Christmas in a few days. I know I can be somewhat of a Grinch at the best of times, but you’re a lovely young woman. You and Zach shouldn’t let your pride get in the way of something wonderful.”
“You’re very sweet,” I said with a smile. “I’m not too proud. I’ve tried to reach out, and to explain, but Zach won’t hear it. Or he doesn’t care. I don’t know.” I fought not to think about Zach’s intense, dark gaze as I guided the steering wheel.
“He didn’t appear to me like a man who doesn’t care. Quite the opposite, in fact. Maybe he cares a little too much––”
“Zach made it clear he doesn’t want anything to do with me. He said he has other important stories to focus on, and he practically left tyre tracks with how fast he drove off.” I flicked Ezra a look. “And Zach has his own secrets. He obviously has no intention of sharing them with me.”
Ezra folded his arms beside me. “And why do you think that might be?”
I paused as we eased up to the junction that would take us past Flower Power and towards Ezra’s home. “I really don’t know,” I said, then glanced sideways at him. “But thank you for caring. It means a lot.”
“Friendship,” Ezra said. “Genuine friendship, that is. Is worth its weight in gold.”
I smiled. I found this charming, eloquent man so easy to talk to. I still regretted our falling out over Caroline and Laura, which was why I’d decided not to mention them. I didn’t want to rock the boat again so soon after reconciling with him. He knew they were looking for him, and he knew how to get in touch with them. I hoped he would seek out a relationship with them on his own, but ultimately it was up to him.
Our disagreement and subsequent reunion actually seemed to have made our friendship stronger somehow; it had broken down a barrier.
I drew up outside Ezra’s home, noting its manicured lawns that were tipped with frost and the swathes of gold Christmas lights draped around the nearby trees. There were glowing lights from inside too, casting amber pools of light through the mullioned windows.
“Bailey.” Ezra squeezed my hand. “I know we haven’t been acquainted very long, but I feel I have something of the measure of you by now. And I’m not getting out of this car until you tell me what you’ve not been telling me about your handsome journalist.” He gestured to Duxbury Hall. “I’ll sit here all evening if I must. I’ve got nothing and nobody to rush in there for, apart from Mrs Watson and Jackson.”
I switched off the car engine, defeated. “They don’t call you a cantankerous old bugger for nothing, do they.”
His expression was mock outrage. “How dare you,” he said but with an impish gleam in his eyes. “I’m serious, Bailey. Talk to me.”
I fumbled about with my car keys, then sighed and settled back in my seat.
“All right, then. I found out that Zach was dismissed from a newspaper for misconduct.” I examined the branches of the gnarled trees wrapped in lights for a few moments. “I tried to talk to him about it, but he just clammed up.” I shook my head in dismay. “It feels so hypocritical, Ezra. I’m not allowed to have a past, or to keep anything from him , but he’s keeping so much from me . I just want him to feel he can trust me, but maybe there’s too much … dishonesty between us now for that.” I rubbed at the knees of my dark jeans. “As soon as Zach found out I was the ‘runaway aristo’ he’d been chasing, he just wanted to distance himself from me. He seemed so angry … disproportionately angry. Unfairly angry. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was the one who was deceived and conned and left at the altar. I worked so hard to heal, and to start again, and I didn’t want my new life to be tainted by the stain of who I used to be. Yet he’s acting like I was the one who was conning people and stealing their money and breaking their heart.” I stared ahead through the car windscreen at the twisted branches. “I don’t deserve that. At least, I don’t think I do. And now it turns out he’s not being upfront about his own past, yet he’s holding mine against me.”
My shoulders sunk. “Lady Anastasia McLaren-Kerr. I never wanted the bloody title in the first place or what goes with it. It isn’t me. It’s not who I want to be, yet he’s acting like I’ve committed some crime just by being born into this family.” I raised my right hand from the steering wheel and flicked it. “It’s not fair.”
Ezra considered my words in silence for a moment. He appraised his spectacular property out of the passenger side window. Then he looked across at me, his light eyes like shards of glass in the descending dark. “I think you’re wrong. I don’t think he wants to distance himself from you at all.”
“What do you mean?”
Ezra twisted himself round in the passenger seat. “I think Zach’s gone because he’s got feelings for you. You’ve made him doubt himself and his choices.” Ezra’s mouth pressed itself into a sympathetic smile. “Perhaps all this has brought back some painful memories for him and he’s not prepared to make himself … vulnerable … and be hurt for a second time.” Ezra angled his head to one side so that his thick crop of silver hair flopped onto his face. “And if something did happen in his career that he’s still struggling with, then I would say it’s more to do with him than it is with you.”
My heart tightened. “But what am I supposed to do with that if he won’t talk to me?” I rested my head back against the driver’s seat and stared out at the blueberry-black sky. “I wish I’d been able to tell him who I was when Declan began trying to stir things up again, but I just couldn’t.” I gestured out of the driver side window. “I love the life I’ve built for myself here and I just couldn’t face having everything rubbed in my face again. I want the people in my life to like me for me, and for my business to thrive because I’m good at what I do. I actually felt like I was being more honest, because this is who I am and not the title I was born with. But Zach doesn’t see it that way. He only sees my past and my name. I thought, of all people, he would understand.” Hurt rampaged through me. “It’s like as soon as he discovered who I really was, he pushed me away.”
Ezra considered this. “Maybe he understands better than you know, and this is what’s bothering him so much. I think you should keep trying with him, Bailey. His pride is hurt. But he will come round, I’m sure of it. And, remember. He’s a journalist for a gossip magazine, where a story like yours is a gold mine. If he didn’t care about you, he would have thought nothing of writing that story, wouldn’t he?”
“He doesn’t care,” I insisted, but deep down I knew that was a lie. Ezra’s words were forcing me to acknowledge that he might be right.
He’s a good person , my heart told me.
“Maybe,” I said quietly.
“Right-oh, I think we have made some progress.” Ezra opened his door and began to get out of the car. He adjusted his woollen scarf and stooped down with a dramatic flourish that was so much a part of his charismatic presence. “I think you’ll find, young lady, that I am correct on this matter.” His eyes twinkled at me. “Maybe in some sort of twisted fashion, Zach thinks that by leaving you to enjoy your new life without exposing your secrets, he’s showing you exactly how much he cares. How about that?”
He winked and then closed the car door before marching away towards his front door.