Another Way

by Frankie McGowan

  And that at least wasn’t a lie, she consoled herself.

  ‘My dear,’ said Debra, leaning forward in a confiding way. ‘I can’t tell you how relieved I am to hear you say that. You see, Theo and I are a good match. I understand him perfectly — and I am delighted to say he understands me. But he was quite wrong to have discussed your work with me. No, no. I’m not going to defend him, I won’t insult your intelligence by pretending he hadn’t expressed his concern to me over this feature you’re writing.

  ‘But,’ she shrugged her shoulders in an expressive, helpless gesture, ‘I am constantly telling him it is quite wicked to use his charm to get his own way all the time. Of course it doesn’t happen with me, I mean if you’re going to mar... well, that doesn’t matter.’ She hesitated but the slip wasn’t lost on Ellie.

  Suki reappeared with the hapless Pedro who was carrying glasses and chilled white wine.

  ‘Anything else, Debra?’ asked Suki. ‘If not, I’ll pop out and do those errands.’

  What was it about her that Ellie recognized?

  Debra followed her curious gaze and dismissed the girl from their conversation.

  ‘Oh, you may have seen her in walk-on parts on television. She is desperate to be an actress and hopes that just being around me she will pick up some tips,’ she said carelessly as the door closed behind Suki.

  I bet, thought Ellie bitterly. Just like Theo, using people. The girl didn’t have a chance in hell of becoming an actress with Debra around. She wondered if Debra knew the girl was clearly on drugs.

  ‘As I was saying,’ said Debra, curling up with her drink. ‘I was concerned that you might have got the wrong impression about the way Theo operates. That he had invited you on Saturday just so that you wouldn’t write anything unpleasant about him. Oh, c’mon.’ She smiled coaxingly, seeing Ellie’s wooden expression. ‘You can’t blame me for trying to defend him, I’m stuck with him after all.’

  ‘Don’t give it another thought,’ Ellie said carefully. ‘I’m so used to people thinking they can manipulate me, it rolls off my back.’

  ‘How very sensible of you to realize it,’ Debra said, sipping her drink. ‘I just thought that with Theo anxious to be in that sweet little village for a while and all these plans that he’s got going down there...’

  ‘Has he got plans?’ asked Ellie politely, though her knuckles were white clutching her glass of untouched wine.

  ‘Oh yes, there are some over there,’ replied Debra, waving an airy hand at what appeared to be drawings on a nearby table, casually unrolled and clearly visible to Ellie.

  Ellie could hardly breathe. ‘How fascinating,’ she managed. ‘Plans for what?’

  ‘Well, apart from building a new house — that dreadful mausoleum he’s got at the moment is hopeless — I believe he mentioned something or other about doing something for the area.’

  The actress yawned, clearly bored with the conversation. Ellie had had enough. The plans were in front of her. He was sleeping with Debra. He was a liar and a seducer and she had — like the hapless Caroline, the beautiful Gisella and countless more — fallen for it.

  Getting out of Debra’s flat was now a matter of such urgency, Ellie didn’t care about being rude. She told her Rosie would be waiting for her, grabbed her coat and rapidly began to gather up her shopping and started to leave.

  Just as she reached the door, she stopped and turned to Debra, looking curiously at her.

  ‘Just as a matter of interest, what is it that you see in him?’

  The question she longed to ask but which would have revealed her for the unquestioningly I journalist she was, was quite different. What do you see in a man who makes loves to one of his guests, while his soon-to-be wife watched television in another room?

  Debra laughed softly.

  ‘Oh my dear, I’m sure you didn’t mean that as an insult, but it has rather more to do with what he sees in me. You see, I don’t need his money. I’m very rich. And money is the only thing Theo understands. He knows I want nothing from him. And that’s very attractive to a man like Theo.’

  *

  Ellie walked slowly through Hyde Park, needing time to think. I’ll walk up to the Marble Arch entrance. By the time I get there I will know what to do.

  It was a game she had played as a child. A way to make a decision. Since there was no logic to what had happened, then why not pick an illogical way to decide? As though the gate at Marble Arch would make any difference.

  But then what would?

  Leafless trees with branches like grey sinewy fingers clawed bleakly into a leaden sky, a defiant gesture against the chill wind that whipped and flailed angrily at the last remnants of autumn.

  A cold, chill December morning unlikely to encourage any but the most stout-hearted to linger for more than a moment or two, was no time to be strolling out of doors, but it was important that she was alone and somewhere where she had to keep a grip on her emotions.

  The haven of her flat, the safety of her closed office door were designed to sap rather than fuel her resolve.

  The first message she got from Lucy when she finally made it back to the office was that Theo had called, and then his secretary, asking if eight o’clock was convenient for dinner.

  ‘No. Phone his secretary, Lucy, tell her, not dinner but a drink at six would be convenient,’ Ellie told her.

  Hearing that Paul was in the building having a meeting with the advertisers about travel for the January issues, she sent Lucy speeding off to locate him.

  Since Ellie had not spoken to him for weeks, except to decline all his pleas for dinner, it was not unexpected that he looked suspicious when he arrived in her office to hear that she thought a drink would be nice, for old times’ sake, and arranged to meet him at the same hotel but at six thirty.

  Lucy began to look nervous. She didn’t like the look on Ellie’s face and the way she was drumming her fingers purposefully on her desk as she punched out Oliver’s number.

  She told him that she had discovered that not only was Theo about to marry the ghastly Debra, but he was planning a house on the site and something noble for the area. The words came out in a cold fury.

  Oliver whistled softly. ‘So that’s why you were so preoccupied on Sunday. Jill thought you had got yourself too heavily involved with Stirling. She says most women do fall for him. I knew it was nonsense.’

  Ellie thought she would scream.

  Like a Sergeant Major going into battle she rapped out instructions to him to ramp up the campaign and promised that every available moment she had she would help him.

  Her next stop was in Jed’s office where she ordered a startled secretary to get him on the phone instantly.

  ‘Tell him that he can run the story on Debra Carlysle and Theo Stirling. Carlysle herself has just virtually told me.

  ‘Wha-a-at?’ screamed the secretary. ‘You’re kidding. Jed will flip. Ellie, you are after his job, admit it.’

  After that, Ellie told a saucer-eyed Sonya Lloyd that she wanted to see Jerome the minute he returned. Half an hour later she was in his office, telling him she would deliver the most crippling, paralysing, condemnatory profile on Theo Stirling if he promised not to use it until she said so.

  Jerome looked startled. Honestly, Ellie was really peculiar these days. Yesterday she made the speaking clock sound animated and now today she was like a firework going off.

  He gave her the promise she wanted. Next she went to Rosie and persuaded her to let her borrow the tightest, most seductive little black dress that normally Ellie in a hundred years would never wear, some dramatically bold and gold tasselled earrings, four-inch high heels that were like a foot fetishist’s dream and when Rosie asked sarcastically why she didn’t just go the whole hog and wear black fishnet tights, Ellie hesitated, looking wistfully at possibly the most vulgar pair ever made.

  ‘Ellie,’ squealed Rosie, whipping them out of her grasp. ‘I don’t know what all this is about, but there is a line to be drawn an
d these are it. They’re a joke from some PR company.’

  ‘No matter,’ said Ellie, surveying herself critically in the tiny mirror in the fashion room. ‘I don’t want to overdo it.’

  Rosie passed a hand over her eyes.

  News travels quickly in a magazine office. Gossip makes a streak of lightning look sluggish. By the time she left at quarter to six, it was generally being said that Ellie had flipped.

  The tiny foyer of The Burch House, an elegant, exclusive hotel in Kensington, famed for its English Country House charm, where she was to meet Theo, was crowded.

  Declining to leave the fur coat which Rosie had begged her to rethink but in the end, almost tearfully, lent her, Ellie peeped in at the bar. Her nerve almost gave out but she was sustained by the knowledge that in a very few minutes Theo Stirling was going to meet his match.

  She saw him before he saw her, sitting at the bar in conversation with a man in a pinstripe suit. She swallowed hard. He was laughing at something the man said. He looked happy. He glanced at his watch and then towards the door and saw her.

  Instantly Theo was on his feet, his eyes alight with pleasure, and Ellie thought her heart would break.

  ‘Hi,’ he said softly, kissing her swiftly on both cheeks. ‘You smell nice.’

  Ellie wondered why life was so unfair. ‘Have I kept you waiting, I’m so sorry.’

  ‘You’re worth waiting for. I’m sorry you can’t have dinner. Working?’

  ‘No, I’m having dinner with someone else. I haven’t got long, I just thought you should know the decision I’ve come to.’

  She did not miss the expectant look that leapt into his eyes.

  ‘Of course. Let me get you a drink and let me take your coat.’

  Then and only then did Theo get the full impact of what Ellie was wearing. He didn’t even blink.

  ‘Exactly who are you having dinner with?’ he said, taking in the long legs, the neckline so low Ellie knew if she even coughed she would be courting disaster.

  ‘A friend,’ she said, tossing her hair back and crossing her legs. She then ordered a double scotch.

  ‘I thought you hated spirits,’ Theo remarked mildly, thus far remaining outwardly unmoved by this quite different version of Ellie.

  Ellie looked at him from under her lashes and leaning across the table, giving him the full benefit of her astonishing cleavage, trailed one long, freshly painted red nail seductively across the low neckline of her dress, and ran the tip of her tongue slowly along her top lip. ‘There’s a lot about me you don’t know.’

  ‘Evidently,’ he said drily as her drink arrived. ‘Okay, Eleanor, what is all this?’ he said impatiently.

  ‘This is to say, I’ve thought over what you said. Yes,’ she said taking a very large swallow of whisky. ‘We could get to know each other, we could put the past behind us. You could make an attempt to get me to fall for you — you’ve already done that — and,’ she paused for deliberate effect, ‘failed.’

  ‘Do go on,’ he said icily. ‘This is fascinating.’

  ‘I’m so pleased,’ she purred. ‘Because the good news is that I’m going to save you the bother of trying to charm me. I’m going to let you know now what a waste of time it would be. And playing good little Ellie really is so boring. Let’s just say you’ve made me an offer I find no difficulty whatsoever in refusing.’

  ‘You could have told me this on the phone,’ he said calmly, but she noticed his mouth was now set in a hard line and he was looking pale.

  Matching his calm tone she told him she thoroughly agreed.

  ‘You’re absolutely right. But I wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings. So let me make myself clear. If you make any attempt to build on the land next to Delcourt, I will ruin you. I will repeat everything Caroline Granger has told me and print word for word what Matt Harksey says about your father.’

  At those names he jerked his head up and looked at her with an odd and startled expression.

  ‘You spoke to Caroline?’

  Ellie, who was near breaking point, managed to nod, taking a sip of the whisky she thought was vile.

  ‘Where? And more interestingly, when?’

  ‘I never reveal my sources,’ she retorted, seeing Paul entering the bar, scanning the room for her.

  ‘You’ll hurt so many people, why can’t you trust me? I thought you were beginning to?’

  Her answer was to smirk pityingly at him. She saw the confusion flickering in his eyes. She almost cracked.

  ‘Eleanor, why are you doing this?’ Theo leaned across the table, gripping her arm. ‘What the hell has happened? I can’t believe you mean any of this?’

  ‘Oh, ver-ry good,’ she said admiringly. ‘Very convincing. Nothing’s happened. I’ve just decided we are both too busy to continue with this charade and I’ve started being myself again. I recommend you do the same, far less strenuous.

  ‘Darling,’ she waved at Paul who came across looking startled at being addressed so affectionately by the girl who had so recently dumped him for cheating on her.

  As he reached the table, Theo’s face for one brief second looked surprised but then he gazed impassively as Ellie stretched her arms invitingly up and Paul leaned down to kiss her.

  ‘I believe you’ve met,’ she said, knowing she was going to settle another score in one evening when she eventually told Paul what she thought of his deceitful nature.

  Theo looked at Paul and then at Ellie, who was making a big fuss about slicking on more red lipstick and collecting her quite outrageous fur coat from behind her chair. She knew he was completely stunned. Only last night she had told him her relationship with Paul was over.

  Quietly he got up and shook Paul’s hand. ‘You certainly are a devil for punishment,’ he said to a bewildered Paul, moving away from the table. ‘Have a pleasant evening. Goodbye, Eleanor.’ He looked steadily at her. His face was pale, his eyes betrayed nothing.

  ‘Oh, are you going?’ she said as though she had only just noticed. ‘Bye,’ and linking her arm through Paul’s she walked out of the restaurant, chatting animatedly.

  As they reached the pavement, she saw Theo’s driver open the door of the Mercedes and as he paused before sliding into the back, she heard him quite distinctly give the driver Debra’s address.

  When Paul asked her where she would like to have dinner, Ellie pushed him away.

  ‘Dinner with you? God, I don’t even want to be seen with you,’ and she turned, leaving Paul to gape open-mouthed after her as she balanced on one foot, whipping off one and then the other of her impossibly high-heeled shoes and hailed a taxi.

  Leaning back against the leather seat, safe in the gloom of the cab, Ellie didn’t think her heart would break. She knew it had.

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Just before the New Year, Jerome made three announcements. The first was that Jed was going to be an editor at large, which meant he would divide his time between London and New York; the second that Paul was taking a six-month sabbatical to write a book and would be based at his home in Juan les Pins; and the third that in the late spring Rosie was to do a special fashion spread in Venice, where a glittering charity ball was being held at which every society name in Europe was guaranteed to be present.

  Ellie flashed a delighted smile at Jed who was trying not to punch the air. They would celebrate later.

  Ellie and Jed would be going too, he told the assembled staff at the special advance planning conference after the Christmas break.

  Ellie was to interview Prince Stefano Ferrucini, who had just taken over as head of a cosmetics empire and was hosting the ball, from which all proceeds would go to environmental campaigns.

  ‘Jed, you can do the social stuff, make sure you get the names right and his wives in the right order.’

  Jerome glanced around the room at their bemused faces.

  ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Bentley has had another brilliant idea and we are very fortunate that these are all his friends and we
won’t have any problem getting co-operation.’

  The heavy sarcasm was not lost on them as it all became plain. The idea of sending three journalists on one story was unheard of but not when the proprietor of the magazine had decided it was a good idea.

  Ellie knew that Roland would never have been coerced in this way, but right now knowing she had a full diary three months ahead suited her. She was thrilled for Jed. His relationship with Ashley was once again on a roller coaster. Putting the Atlantic between them seemed like a great idea. She was simply relieved about Paul.

  Ever since the night Ellie had exacted her revenge for the shallow way he had treated her, he had missed no opportunity to try to undermine her. Occasionally she thought it might resolve the whole childish business if she pretended he had managed to score a point, but it had been too long now, and she was too much in the habit of refusing to be reduced to a mass of insecurity to allow him even a glimpse of anything other than cool indifference.

  Jerome watched her file out behind Rosie and Paul, wondering when she was going to crack. It was now three weeks since she had promised to produce the piece on Theo Stirling and so far he had not seen one word of copy. Every now and then he cautiously asked about its progress and every time she just said stonily that the moment wasn’t right.

  The relationship between her and Ian was cordial. Almost close. Jealousy and insecurity had always been Jerome’s weakness and the continuing warmth between his boss and the girl he felt was a walking reminder of his grossest error of judgement occupied him more than was good for him.

  Jerome was waiting for his moment, but as each day passed it seemed to slip even further from his grasp. Always slight, Ellie was now gaunt. The slender face looked strained. Her eyes had lost their laughter. It was all tied up with Stirling, but he couldn’t piece it together. He knew for a fact that Stirling was back in New York, and his marriage to Debra Carlysle was on the cards for when she finished this movie that Max Culver was directing.

  When they had wanted to interview Max, he had said only if Eleanor Carter did it, and she had sent a note direct to Max — wasn’t there anybody she didn’t know — saying it was just not possible with her present commitments.