A Flight of Fancy (Scottish Island Escapes Book 6)

by Margaret Amatt

  ‘Yeah, you’re awesome. Get in there, man.’

  Egged on by the women’s cries, he edged his way through the crowd, closer to the throng in the middle. Quicker than expected, he came eye to shoulder with one of the giant bodyguards.

  ‘Hey, mate,’ said Magnus. ‘Any chance of me talking to the princess?’

  The guard folded his arms and glared down his thick nose.

  ‘We’re old friends,’ Magnus continued. ‘Just let me a bit closer so I can say hello. She’ll be mad if she finds out I was here and you kept her from seeing me.’

  The guard’s nostrils flared and he glanced around. He shifted slightly and Magnus saw long blonde curls bouncing around a perfectly made-up face, pink lips glittering like they were encrusted with diamonds and eyelashes like black widow legs. What a phoney. Her whole existence was fake. Her body, her face, even this foundation – all an act.

  But Taylor. When she’d been faking, she was real. The real deal and a deal Magnus had grown so attached to his heart wanted to crack open. Seeing Skylar now was like looking at a grossly overdone caricature of someone he wanted so badly. Damn his mother for being right, as always. As he funnelled his brain into remembering this was not Taylor, despite the likeness, Skylar looked up with a pout so big it could rival Mick Jagger. Her expression changed rapidly when her eyes landed on him.

  ‘Oh, my god.’ She raised her hand to her throat, lowering it over the bare expanse of her chest to rest on the low-cut edge of her black off-the-shoulder dress. Her trout pout had morphed into a gape. ‘Well, I never. Is that Handsome Hansen?’ she said in a loud, carrying voice.

  The large guard glowered at Magnus.

  ‘Yup. That’s me,’ he said to the guard with a wink. ‘I told you she’d want to see me.’ The crowd parted like the Red Sea before Moses, and Skylar snaked towards him, prowling like a catwalk model in her killer heels. He’d seen this move before. The last time it was followed by her arm swooping around his neck, her lips crashing against his, her tongue in his mouth, and her body all over him. What would she do now? His hand leapt to his black tie and he straightened it compulsively. Surely she’d behave herself; she was in public – not that it had bothered her before – but this time she was trying to show off a new squeaky-clean image.

  Two perfectly manicured hands gripped his arms. ‘Handsome Hansen, of all the people.’ She reached up and air-kissed him. First on the right cheek, then on the left. Before she pulled away, she whispered, ‘Hot as ever.’ As she drew back, she beamed. ‘Can y’all move back? I need to talk to this old friend of mine.’

  On cue, the two large men moved into position, folding their arms and the crowd melted back.

  ‘What are you doing here? It’s been too long.’

  ‘Has it? I think we met what? All of twice.’

  ‘Sure. I’ve missed you every day for nearly three years,’ she said, the pout back in place.

  ‘Five years. And no, you haven’t. Quit the bullshit.’

  ‘Is it really five years? Oh my god. But you’re so wrong. You’re like the hottest guy I ever had the pleasure of not getting it on with.’

  He smirked. ‘Don’t believe you.’

  ‘Tell you what.’ She moved closer, licking her lips. ‘Why don’t you and I get together later when this is done? We can play some catch-up.’

  ‘Hmm,’ said Magnus, pinching his lips together and staring at the gilded plasterwork on the ceiling. ‘I’ve come to beg a favour,’ he said.

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Where can I find Taylor?’

  ‘Who?’

  For a split second, his heart stopped. ‘Your twin sister.’

  Skylar beamed and Magnus’s pulse hammered in his ears. She did have a sister, didn’t she? Then the corners of her lips fell. ‘Wow, you know about her.’

  ‘I met her before I met you.’

  Skylar’s eyes narrowed. ‘But—’

  ‘Just tell me where she is.’

  She frowned and arched one perfect eyebrow. ‘How do you know her?’

  ‘I need to talk to her.’

  ‘What’s going on? Has she sent you here to spy on me or play some kind of trick on me?’

  ‘No, of course not. I just want to talk to her.’

  ‘About me? Please don’t tell me she spun some lies about me and how misunderstood she is?’

  ‘I can’t say what it’s about.’

  ‘You’ve been pulled onto the Taylor sympathy bus. This is exactly why… Oh, never mind. She’s a danger to herself; she has been for years. We have to keep a close watch on her.’

  Magnus weighed the information but didn’t speak. He stared into the eyes that were so similar to the ones he wanted to be gazing into. Believing this act would be easy. Skylar was a seasoned pro. But he knew now which sister he trusted. Taylor’s lie had come from the heart; Skylar’s was malicious. ‘Just tell me where I can find her.’

  ‘Will you kiss me?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘If I tell you?’

  The chattering crowd seemed to close in as though they sensed something about to happen. Magnus scanned the faces and ran his hand over his cheek. ‘Seriously?’

  ‘Why not? For old times’ sake.’

  She had to be kidding, right? Her hard look said she wasn’t. ‘Now?’

  A man tapped Skylar on the shoulder. ‘Fifteen minutes until the next keynote.’

  ‘Oh, hell.’ She glanced at Magnus. ‘We have a deal,’ she said. ‘Don’t run off. I’ll be back for my payment.’

  ‘You haven’t told me anything yet.’

  ‘After the speech, thirty minutes.’

  Magnus let out a protracted breath as Skylar regrouped with her bodyguards and disappeared. Why was everything with her such a drama? A gentle touch on Magnus’s arm made him jump. One of the women in the regeneration group beamed at him. ‘Hey. Did you happen to mention us?’

  ‘Sorry, I couldn’t get an answer to anything; she just railroaded me. She has her own agenda, and I’m not sure how to get through to her.’

  Going through with her little game was a small price if she kept up her end of the bargain. If she didn’t, he was ready to blow his top. Despite his qualms about seeing Taylor again, a primitive urge was telling him to find her. She needed him and he needed her.

  Chapter 25

  Taylor

  Taylor’s suite was so huge the whole of Fenella’s house could fit inside it. Taylor sat cross legged on the enormous bed, tapping her iPad. Fenella was here downstairs with Magnus. So close! Ugh. Taylor flung herself onto the pillow. What could possibly be different from before?

  Her father was on high alert and she was under house arrest. This was her reality and it sucked. There was no escape from the misery. Twelve years ago when Taylor had been offered the part in Girls Get Gritty in the City, it had started. Skylar told a different version of the story and everyone had believed her. Have I kidded myself all these years? Made up a story and clung to it until it became my truth? Even her therapist had suggested it. Maybe she’d never been the more talented actress. She just wished for it. And if she made out Skylar had scuppered it for her, then she had a crutch, something to blame for her failings.

  She covered her face and held her hands over her eyes. She couldn’t be clear on anything. When she’d been with Magnus, she’d been whole and real, but under a cloak of lies. A resounding thump on her door made her jump. ‘What the hell?’ She moved her hands, revealing the giant satin bed canopy above her head.

  More pounding. ‘Open the goddamn door,’ shouted Skylar.

  Taylor sighed and hopped off the bed, padding across the floor in her fluffy slippers. Seeing her sister all dolled up while she was in her pyjamas always made her feel like a second-class citizen. But what was new?

  ‘Something very interesting just happened,’ said Skylar, marching straight in, crossing to the window and closing it.

  ‘You crossed the million-dollar mark?’

  ‘How should I know?’ She s
pun around from the window. ‘This is much more interesting than that. I met someone.’

  Taylor waited, her heart pumping fast. ‘Who?’

  ‘Someone who knows you.’ Skylar put her hands on her hips and stared. ‘It shocked me. A lot.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘I didn’t think he’d even worked out you were a different person. I thought I’d fooled him.’

  ‘Who?’ she repeated, but she knew.

  ‘Handsome Hansen, the sexy pilot.’

  Taylor walked backwards until the soft bedcover brushed her skin. She sat, placing her hands on either side of her and gripping the blanket. ‘You saw him?’

  ‘Yes, goddammit. Why the hell does he want to talk to you?’

  Taylor didn’t reply. How could she? If Skylar knew the truth, what the hell would she make of it?

  ‘Oh, god.’ Skylar slapped her forehead. ‘Don’t tell me! You met him somewhere and you’ve told him a pack of lies about me. Is that where you went when we were in Scotland? What have you done?’

  ‘Nothing.’

  ‘I don’t believe you. Everything you ever do is to scupper my career.’

  ‘It wasn’t like that.’

  ‘Wasn’t it? Oh, god. You slept with him, didn’t you? And pretended you were me.’

  Taylor crossed her feet, matching the love hearts on her slippers. Shit was about to hit the fan. All of Skylar’s worst suspicions were about to come true. Taylor almost laughed. This was what she’d wanted: to get one over on Skylar, and it was exactly what her sister dreaded.

  ‘Tell me!’ demanded Skylar. ‘Or did you try to get him into bed and he guessed you were a fake? Is he blackmailing you? Does he want our silence?’

  ‘Yeah, fifty million dollars.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Each month for the rest of your life.’

  ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘No, of course not. But you’re making up some crazy story of your own, so I figure you’re not interested in the truth.’

  ‘Then tell me,’ said Skylar, pulling a goofy face as though Taylor was witless. ‘And hurry up, my speech is in five minutes.’

  Pinching her lips together, Taylor rocked on the bed. ‘You were almost right.’

  ‘What?’ Skylar’s eyes blazed with shock.

  ‘When I “disappeared”,’ she air-quoted, ‘he crashed into me at the airport.’

  ‘Jesus.’ Skylar raised her hand to her forehead.

  ‘He thought I was you and I played along.’

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘It was your fault. You ran off with the guy I’d arranged to meet.’

  ‘Oh, here we go,’ she said. ‘The fairy tales begin.’

  ‘Seriously, you know it’s true. I’d been messaging Alex for months.’ Taylor ignored Skylar’s headshake. ‘So, as I was saying, he knocked me over and—’

  ‘This is far-fetched even for you.’

  ‘It’s the truth. I let him think I was you and we… went off together.’

  ‘Jesus bloody Christ. How could he think you were me? He knows I don’t travel alone.’ She stamped her foot. ‘Ugh!’

  ‘He asked why no one was with me. I said I needed alone time.’

  ‘What the hell were you thinking?’

  ‘I wanted to piss you off.’

  ‘And you slept with him! While pretending to be me. That is despicable.’

  Taylor shrugged half-heartedly. ‘Why? It’s not like we shared him. The two of you never got that far. And he liked me—’

  ‘Because he thought you were me!’ Skylar screamed.

  ‘No. He thought you’d changed. He liked the new you better, the new you who wasn’t you at all. It was me. Me that he liked.’ Tears welled and Taylor sucked in her lips and stared at the canopy.

  ‘There is something far wrong with you.’

  Taylor couldn’t reply. If she’d told Magnus the truth from the start, she could have avoided all this and maybe he would still have taken her with him. If she hadn’t been so hellbent on revenge.

  ‘So what does he want to talk to you about?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Taylor. The expression on his face when he discovered the truth would haunt her forever. He wanted Skylar. Maybe he wanted her to have changed, but at the end of the day, Taylor was the wrong twin and always would be. Even Fenella’s kind words wouldn’t change that.

  Skylar left the room with a slam and Taylor flopped back on the bed. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she remembered those nights she’d slept next to Magnus, when they’d told each other all the things they loved about each other. It had taken place under a fake pretence but Taylor had meant every word. She’d made herself believe he had too.

  She swiped away the tears and sprang up, grabbed her case from the floor and raked through it until she found something semi-respectable. Throwing off her pyjamas, she dressed inattentively. She had to talk to him before Skylar got her claws into him again. The door opened silently. Phew. The bodyguard had his hands in his back pockets and was pacing the hall at the far end, looking out the window. Taylor slipped behind him, ran around a corner and through the door to the main stairs without looking back.

  Stopping on the landing, eye-to-eye with the enormous chandelier that hung from a double-height ceiling through the centre of the hotel, she peered into the grand lobby. A few people milled around but the main sounds were coming from a room on the left. Heads turned and eyebrows raised as Taylor shuffled past, feeling like Cinders again, only this time, the naughty Cinders who hadn’t escaped before midnight and was at the ball in her rags. With a deep breath, she straightened her black sheath dress and entered the main room. Most people were too busy talking, drinking or eating to notice her, but one or two people glanced up quizzically. She must look a fright with her hair pulled back into a makeshift up-do; the teeth of the crocodile clip bit into the back of her scalp. A gong sounded, and people started moving into the antechamber. Taylor flicked her family pass and nipped in, standing at a window, making sure the large swooped-up drape screened her.

  The room filled with people. Finally, Taylor saw someone who made her heartrate skyrocket. Magnus, looking utterly glorious in his tux. Memories of what they’d done in Carl’s spare bedroom flooded back. Then more images of how they’d cuddled on the beach and written those words in the sand. But they were transient. Magnus couldn’t love Taylor forever.

  Skylar emerged from the front of the crowd onto a podium and started her rehearsed speech.

  Taylor kept her eyes on Magnus. He seemed to have taken up with a group of women and was whispering to them quite at his ease.

  Loud applause broke out and Skylar stepped off the podium into the crowd. Magnus made his way to the front until he was beside Skylar. She beamed at him and Taylor balled her fists as he spoke to her, his hands gesticulating. He pointed at the group of women; they grinned and waved at Skylar who gave them a condescending raise of her hand in return.

  Magnus smiled and closed in on Skylar, as though saying something more private. Taylor moved closer. Skylar was whispering something in Magnus’s ear. He nodded triumphantly before Skylar glanced up, her fluttering eyelashes provocative and alluring. She clutched him by the lapel and tugged it. With an oddly quick movement, like time had speeded up, Magnus slid his hand around Skylar’s waist, dipped his head and kissed her. Taylor stopped dead. Maybe her heart had stopped too. No, it was beating, pounding in her ears, deafening, but everything else went silent. Skylar had moved in for the full Hollywood, and Taylor couldn’t watch any more. Bitter bile burned in her throat.

  Turning around, she tried to run from the room. People blocked her everywhere and she dodged them. Now or never. It had to be. She couldn’t wait any longer. For years and years, she’d suffered this. Every time she’d tried to escape, they thwarted her, every time she had something good, Skylar stole it. No one ever saw her, believed her, listened to or recognised she had worth in herself. No one except Magnus and the people in his life. Now he was here i
n Skylar’s arms, and Taylor’s phoney dream was blasted out of the water.

  Chapter 26

  Magnus

  Wolf-whistles rang out and Magnus yanked himself out of Skylar’s clutches. As the consummate Hollywood actress, she knew how to put on a good kissing display but, despite going through the motions, Magnus felt nothing other than the physical touch of Skylar’s lips on his.

  She pouted, looking annoyed he’d stopped her just as she was getting into it. Which was exactly why it had to stop. ‘Why’d you stop?’

  ‘Remember where you are,’ he said. ‘It’s not a club or a private room.’

  ‘Oh, yeah.’ She straightened herself out and beamed around. ‘I love this guy,’ she told the onlookers.

  Magnus grimaced. Those words meant nothing from her.

  ‘I haven’t seen him for such a long time, excuse me for getting carried away.’ She turned back to him. ‘At least there’s no paparazzi here, or you and I would be all over the internet.’

  ‘Anyone here could have been filming that.’ Magnus didn’t give a shit if every website on the planet displayed the footage. He had an address for Taylor. Now he needed to get out and find her.

  ‘Would you like to meet me upstairs after?’ asked Skylar. ‘We have a lot to catch up on and there’s no point in you going to Taylor’s apartment. It’s out of town and too late to call now. Taylor’s a sad little puppy who goes to bed very early.’

  ‘Is she?’

  ‘Well yes. Obviously, you don’t know her that well.’

  ‘Did I say I did?’

  ‘What happened when you met her? I suppose she pretended to be me.’

  Magnus frowned and fiddled with his cuff. ‘What makes you say that?’

  ‘It’s what she always does. She’s totes insecure and pretending to be me makes her feel better. Everybody knows about me and the problems I had growing up. I’m in the public eye, I can’t hide. Everything I’m doing here and now is because of that. But it’s just as well people don’t know about Taylor. She’s a hundred times worse.’

  ‘How so?’

  ‘I’m not sure I have time to tell you, right now. It started when we were fourteen and we both auditioned for the same part. She made up all sorts of lies about why she didn’t get it and then went totally over the edge. She’s been a liability ever since. My parents don’t let her get too far, she’s a danger to herself. But sometimes it happens; she runs off, pretends to be me, leads some kind of double life for a few days, then comes back, or my parents find her and drag her back. I guess that’s what she did to you.’