What’s she implying? I’ve been carrying on with Will and causing Jonathan heartache? His heart was never mine to hurt!
Her mind raced on as she gradually became aware of Jonathan’s presence out there in the crowd. She didn’t want him to see her like this. If she was honest with herself, she had been looking forward to the tableau just so he would have a chance to see her in the spotlight for a change, so he might carry with him memories of her posing, serene and beautiful, when he moved on. When she examined her feelings she was ashamed. No wonder Peony was furiously territorial and insecure; Kelsey did wish Jonathan was hers instead.
Before the tableau, Peony had told her co-star exactly where she wanted him to stand to get the best view of her on her chaise, and her eyes were fixed upon that spot, her chin raised in a majestic pose. Jonathan Hathaway was there, but he wasn’t looking back at Peony. His gaze was transfixed somewhere down by her feet. He was watching Kelsey, utterly unaware of Peony’s fixed stare. Peony witnessed it all, unable to look away. She saw his lips parted in wonder and desire and a smile of amazement playing at the very edges of his mouth. And he had tears in his eyes.
The music swelled to its height as Jonathan took in the supernatural scene, enchanted. His chest was rising and falling heavily, but he stood stock still, as fixed to his spot as Kelsey was to hers. Kelsey’s eyes were trained straight down at the ground, wishing it would open up and swallow her. She had no idea that Jonathan was taking in her delicate white costume, just a sheer slip of white material over her pale skin. He saw her hair falling over her shoulders and shining like gold in the spotlights. He studied her eyes, sad, dignified, and suffering.
The applause began, wild and enthusiastic, as the curtain slowly rose again, concealing first the fairy children, then Kelsey and Peony, and finally Mirren who, once safely hidden, immediately tore at Peony’s crown, knocking it from her head, but she froze again as the director burst in through the back of the curtain demanding to know what the hell had just happened.
‘It’s OK,’ Kelsey said sadly. ‘I fell.’ She looked at Peony, expecting to see a smirk of triumph, but instead she was weeping.
The crowd were still applauding as the two friends ran back to the shed, shivering now in the evening air that had more than a hint of September in its falling.
‘I don’t get it,’ Mirren raged. ‘She pushed you, didn’t she, the nutter?’
‘No she didn’t, and if she had, I’d have deserved it. I’ve come between her and Jonathan and caused them both so much pain. I see it now.’ Kelsey’s eyes widened. ‘I have to get out of here.’
‘Don’t go,’ Mirren implored. ‘Let’s have some champagne and celebrate the end of the season and you can tell me all about what’s been happening with Jonathan since I last saw you.’
‘That’s just it, nothing has happened, other than me wishing he’d leave Peony for me, which is ridiculous and just plain wrong. Please just stay here, enjoy the party,’ Kelsey said, slipping her shoes on and kissing Mirren on the cheek. ‘You enjoy your hotel tonight and I’ll meet you for breakfast in the morning, yeah?’
After putting up a protest, Mirren eventually hugged Kelsey in dismay and watched her friend gather up her cameras and run away down the garden. When Kelsey was out of sight, Mirren sighed and reached for her red lipstick. The night was still young. Why waste the moonlight?
Chapter Thirty-Five
‘Ladies, sigh no more, men were deceivers ever;
One foot in sea, and one on shore, to one thing constant never’
(Much Ado About Nothing)
Out on the lawn, the partygoers formed quiet huddles, some were talking contracts and plans for next season while some were in amorous pairs making quite different kinds of plans. Kelsey ran all the way to the orchard gate until her cameras became too cumbersome. As she passed the yew tree bower, she could make out a deep, drawling American voice in the dark, and it was angry. Jonathan and Peony were deep in a tense exchange of words.
‘You have no right interfering,’ he was hissing.
‘I’m trying to protect you, but if you’re too dumb to see she isn’t going to leave him, then you’re a bigger jackass than I thought you were.’
Kelsey could barely make any of it out over the music filling the garden and it didn’t matter, anyway. Their lover’s tiff was no concern of hers and she’d finally learned her lesson to leave them well alone.
At that moment she caught sight of Will in his emerald-velvet costume and mask sneaking up the steps of the treehouse holding Mirren’s hand as she tiptoed behind him. Kelsey’s thoughts spun wildly. What should she do? She wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible but should she go back and drag Mirren out of that treehouse? When had the pair of them even had a chance to meet tonight? God, Will’s a fast worker! Mirren’s problems with Preston were obviously coming to a head if she could arrange a midnight rendezvous with a man she didn’t know from Adam. Before she had time to resolve that Mirren was a grown woman and she was going to leave her to it, Kelsey heard a loud ‘Fine!’ shouted in an irate voice. Turning, she spotted Peony running in her direction, mascara streaks down her cheeks. Kelsey quickened her pace but Peony’s strides were so long she had caught Kelsey by the elbow in seconds.
‘Kelsey, stop! Please!’
Kelsey raised her hands in defence and ploughed past.
‘How many times do you have to prove to me that Jonathan’s your man? I get it, OK! But nothing ever happened, I swear, except in my head. Just go back to Jonathan, forget I ever existed, please.’
‘No, you don’t get it,’ cried Peony through heavy sobs, pulling her to a halt. ‘You don’t get it at all. I love that dumbass like a brother, he’s the only family I have and watching you parading around with that Will guy has been killing him. Why didn’t you just leave Jonny alone if you don’t want him?’
‘What?’ Kelsey snarled in disbelief. ‘Peony, please, just let me go.’ She wrenched herself free of Peony’s grip and raced out of the garden, heading for home.
Norma was by the gate getting into a taxi with Gianfranco when she stopped open-mouthed at the sight of Kelsey in floods of tears. ‘Kelsey, dear. Let us drop you off,’ she called out in her claxon voice.
‘Not tonight, thanks, Norma.’ Kelsey came to a halt by the open door. ‘Although… can you take these until tomorrow? Safe keeping.’ And with that, she handed Norma her precious cameras and ran into the dark night. Norma watched her go before calmly raising a finger to the waiting cabby. ‘One moment please, driver.’ She slipped through the gates into the garden.
Chapter Thirty-Six
‘I would not wish any companion in the world but you’
(The Tempest)
By the time Kelsey reached St Ninian’s Close the sobbing had stopped and she was panting heavily, exhausted from running, her mind a cacophony of questions and unhappy memories.
What the hell happened tonight? Norma was right. The Midsummer Madness got me. She warned me about it. Be wise, she said. Well, we can chalk this up as a big fat failure for wisdom.
Closing the door behind her, she climbed the stairs in the dark. Walking straight past the entrance to her flat she clambered up the steps onto the roof terrace. The multi-coloured fairy lights she had strung up in honour of Mirren’s first visit were still twinkling away in the dark. Throwing herself down on the hard iron chair, she drew her knees up to her face and the tears fell all over again.
Kelsey shivered as her adrenalin ran out, making way for tiredness and heartache like she’d never felt before. Tonight was supposed to have been special, the night she worked the room and made a name for herself; the night she let Jonathan slip away while being all dignified and stoic. Instead, she’d been bawled out by Jonathan’s girlfriend in front of everyone and she’d made a fool of herself. And what was Peony going on about? She loved Jonathan like a brother? Her near fiancé? All she understood was that she’d hurt them both and it felt dreadful.
In the back of her mind
she heard a low rumbling and gradually became aware of lights flashing, and something else. What is that? There was a low voice calling out in subdued tones.
‘Kelsey! Down here!’
Shuffling to the edge of the terrace’s low wall, she saw a taxi in the street below. The driver was flaring the headlights again and again while a figure stood on the pavement, arms aloft, waving to her. Kelsey could make out Norma and Gianfranco in the back of the cab gazing up at her. Gianfranco’s face was all concern but Norma was smiling placidly.
Jonathan waved his arms frantically, trying to get her attention without waking the entire neighbourhood. ‘Kelsey, let me in.’
Without knowing where the strength came from Kelsey found herself racing downstairs and reaching for the lock. As she heaved the door open, the taxi pulled away into the night and she and Jonathan were left alone face to face on the doorstep. He burst into passionate speech the instant he saw her.
‘Kelsey, I am so sorry about Peony tonight. She’s always been like this, looking out for me, but she shouldn’t have interfered. I’ve asked her a hundred times not to. I guess tonight she couldn’t help it.’
‘I get it, she’s your girlfriend, she has every right to be mad given the things I’ve been thinking about you this summer… the things I’ve been hoping.’ Kelsey looked down at her feet.
Jonathan seemed to become breathless at hearing this. He gasped imploringly, ‘But she’s not my girlfriend. I told you that, that night at the Yorick?’
‘Yeah, and then you ran off and never told me why and the next thing I know I’m reading about how you’re as good as engaged to her.’
‘Huh?’ he spread his hands, dumbfounded.
‘You’re the jelly in her peanut butter sandwich?’ Kelsey looked accusingly at him.
‘Oh! You saw that? I didn’t think anybody read that tacky rag,’ he smiled as his shoulders dropped in relief.
‘What are you so pleased about? It isn’t funny, finding out that the guy you had the best date of your life with, at least I thought it was a date, is actually in a long-term relationship with his co-star.’
‘Everything they printed in that interview was bullshit. Peony didn’t say any of it. I mean… it is true about our nicknames, PB and J, but that’s all.’
Kelsey’s eyes widened as she scrutinised Jonathan’s face. ‘You’re not getting engaged?’
‘No. And she didn’t even say that. Wait until I get my hands on that sleazy old reporter!’ Jonathan’s jaw worked and flexed as he spoke through thinned lips. ‘She’s given enough interviews to know the amount of lies these losers print so now she records every one she does. She made me listen to the whole thing, not that I didn’t believe her. Peony’s no liar. I told you we’re like brother and sister, through thick and thin… granted, this appears to be a particularly thin bit, but she always has my best interests at heart.’
‘If you’re not together, and she’s not jealous, why’s she so angry with me?’
‘She’s frustrated with me because all this time I thought you were with Will and it was killing me. She told me to just stay away from you, but I couldn’t. When I heard your crazy boss lady was in charge of the gala set-up schedule, I asked her if she’d put us together, even though Will had told me you two were an item, and then I saw you reading the poetry he sent you, so I tried to just be a friend to you and I tried to fall out of love with you, but I couldn’t. Norma just told me in the cab that she wasn’t so sure at the time, but she’s certain you and Will aren’t together now. Is that… is that true?’ Jonathan held his breath, not daring to hope for too much.
‘Of course I’m not with Will. We flirted a bit and he’s a bit of a dog on heat but… Hold on.’ Kelsey slapped a hand on Jonathan’s chest. ‘Go back a bit. You tried to fall out of love with me?’ She sounded out each word in slow amazement.
‘Yes. And it’s been killing me. I’m sorry I let Will scare me off so easily. I was holding back, trying not to get in the way. Peony’s had to deal with my moping around like a love-struck Romeo all summer and I guess things blew up tonight because she’s sick of watching me wanting you. And, man, I want you so much.’ His pale eyes closed as he forced the words through his gritted teeth.
When he raised his eyes to meet Kelsey’s again they were clear and earnest. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been hurting, thinking Peony was my girl. But most of all I’m sorry for being an idiot and leaving it too late to tell you that I am completely, ridiculously in love with you.’
‘Stop, stop, shh shh, I get it now,’ she soothed, reaching out for him in the moonlight and slipping her arms around him. ‘Jonathan,’ she spoke into his warm chest as he circled his hands across her shoulders. ‘I’ve been in love with you since the day we met.’
Stepping up onto tiptoes, she lifted her face to his, closing her eyes. Jonathan inhaled deeply. She felt his chest expanding as he tightened his arms around her, raising her off her feet. The touch of their lips when it came contained the entire summer’s longing within it.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
‘Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream’
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
It had started slowly at first. Kelsey led Jonathan from the moonlit doorway upstairs to her flat where they had fallen onto her little white bed in the dark and kissed all night, his hands cradling her face, their eyes open even as their lips met, relishing the sensation of being so close at last.
They were still wearing the clothes they had left the gala in as the sun came up and their kisses slowed. Kelsey shivered in the dawn light from the window, the lacy curtains waving in the breeze. Jonathan reached out and pulled the window shut while Kelsey drew the covers up over them. Lying back on the pillow, warm in each other’s arms, they wordlessly fell asleep.
It was full light when they awoke to a fine September morning. Jonathan stirred first and was stroking Kelsey’s long hair and running his fingertips over her temples, watching her as she slept. As she opened her eyes and looked into his, the electric connection between them sparked into life. Pulling him closer, Kelsey pressed her body against his. Jonathan rolled his head back, his heart beginning to pound in his broad chest, before bringing his mouth down to meet hers.
Every movement had been perfect, from his tender hands undressing her, to the endless mouthy kisses he had pressed into her flesh, to the first exhilarating movement of their hips together and the slow, languorous rhythm of their bodies.
It had been difficult to drag themselves out of bed on that first morning, but they were both ravenously hungry. Kelsey’s face was flushed and she was smiling to herself in a dopey post-sex glow, feeling like the most gorgeously womanly woman in the whole world. She watched from beneath the covers as Jonathan made the coffee, heating milk in the microwave, and popping bread in the toaster. There was next to nothing in the fridge, but they still managed a decent breakfast up on the terrace. Kelsey dragged the duvet up the narrow steps and they sat snuggled up and warm as the sun shone in a watery sky.
In the gardens below, the rowan trees were thick with red berries but their green leaves were tinged with gold and brown at the tips. Autumn was on its way and soon Jonathan would be gone.
‘So what do we do now?’ Kelsey asked with a shrug.
Jonathan wrapped the covers tightly around her, kissing her forehead before he replied. ‘Well, if you want to be old-fashioned about it, I’d ask you to wait for me. Would you do that?’
‘I can do that. I’ll be right here when you get back.’
‘It’s not all that long until Christmas, right? And I can try to extend that visit by a few days so we can spend Christmas Day together? And then I’ll be back for Love’s Labour’s Lost mid-February.’
‘In time for Valentine’s Day?’ She broke into a broad smile.
‘I’ll do my best.’
‘I wish you didn’t have to go.’
‘Hey, don’t worry, I’ll call you every day. Besides, you are
going to be pretty busy.’
Kelsey thought of the tenancy agreement she’d signed and the office on the town’s busy main street lying vacant. She had no idea what to do first. Some new signage for the front? A website? Adverts in the local papers? Would Mr McLennan be able to sell her some reflectors and a backdrop so the office actually resembled a real studio? There was so much to think about, and with everyone leaving town, she really would have to do it all alone. But something told her she’d manage. It had been a hard summer, and she’d learned a lot of lessons about trusting her instincts and knowing when to take action. This was her time now. And she was ready.
‘Stay there, I’ve got something to show you,’ Kelsey said, as she wriggled out from under the warm covers.
‘Don’t be long.’ Jonathan smiled as he watched her slip down the stairs to her apartment.
Once in her room, Kelsey made a beeline for the pile of big cardboard envelopes under the bed. She was looking for one photograph in particular. Now where was it? As she searched she caught sight of a flash from her phone. It was a text from Mirren. She was on her way home.
Believe me when I tell you I’m not proud of myself. I got the early train this morning. I’ll be home in an hour. I’m going to tell Preston that it’s over. I think we both deserve better than this. I’ll just have to follow your example and be brave. See you in a couple of days. Love Mirren, xxx
Kelsey sat back on the floor, her legs crossed, looking down at her phone.
‘I got lonely up there,’ came Jonathan’s voice from the doorway. He had the duvet over his shoulder. He threw it over the bed and climbed in. ‘And it’s kinda chilly on the roof too. Are you OK?’
‘Yeah. Mirren’s gone home to break up with Preston. He’ll be devastated. He worships the ground she walks on.’
‘But she couldn’t love him really, could she? And cheat on him like that? Poor doofus deserves better than that.’
One Summer's Night Page 25