“Thanks so much,” Ally said. “That was great.”
Tom nodded. “Look behind you.”
She turned to see Caspar walking toward her.
“Hello, star girl,” he said. “Enjoy that?”
“It was fantastic.” Ally threw herself into his arms and hugged him. “I’m still alive.”
Caspar grinned. “I thought I’d come and make sure you didn’t need CPR.”
Ally rolled her eyes as she peeled off the gray suit.
“Did you muddle up right and left?” Caspar asked.
She nodded.
“I pointed out the R and L on the gloves,” Tom said as he folded up the kite. “It didn’t make a difference.”
Ally grinned. “So he tapped my shoulder on the side I was to lean.”
“And she still went the wrong way,” Tom said. “You’d think by the law of averages, she’d get it right half the time, but no.”
“Sorry,” Ally said.
“It made it interesting.” Tom smiled.
Caspar took hold of Ally’s hand and squeezed it. “Well, this is just a fleeting visit. I’ve got to go. There’s only one bus every hour and I’ve been summoned to lunch with my parents. Come ’round to my place tonight?”
Ally nodded and he kissed her cheek and walked away. When she turned, Tom headed toward the van with the equipment and she followed.
“Would you give Caspar a job?” she asked.
“I don’t have any vacancies.”
“If you did?”
“He wouldn’t work for me.”
“If he would?” Ally pressed.
Tom grunted. “I’d think about it.”
Progress! Ally was sure that wouldn’t have been Tom’s answer yesterday morning.
* * * * *
When Caspar walked into Wyndale Hall, he heard the distinctive sound of feminine laughter coming from the drawing room. Not his mother. He pushed open the door and saw Lina talking to his father. Oh fuck. Caspar glanced at his mother. She looked pink-cheeked and happy.
“Caspar,” his father said. “You didn’t tell us you tried out for the rowing team. Lina said you were almost chosen for the first eight.”
Bit of an exaggeration. Caspar had been in his college squad, but at six-three, he was too small for the Goldie crew.
Lina floated across the room in a green swirly dress and kissed him on the cheek. “The problem with Caspar,” she said, “is that he hides his light under a bushel.” She tucked her arm under his and pressed herself against him. “He was so brave yesterday.”
Brave? No he wasn’t.
His mother smiled and—shit—was that a smile on his father’s face or wind?
Caspar extricated his arm and stepped away from Lina.
Lina went straight to his father and took his arm. “I’ve been telling your parents what a wonderful home they have. The director is thrilled to bits to be filming here.”
“You’re not working today?” Caspar asked.
“No, so we could have fun this afternoon.”
“You could show Lina the Blue John Cavern,” his mother said.
“Borrow the car,” said his father.
Oh Christ.
“Dinner’s served,” Martha called from the door.
Caspar was being set up here and he wasn’t happy.
“Your mother and father don’t remember you mentioning me,” Lina said in a waspish tone as they walked into the dining room.
What a surprise. There’s this girl I’ve met at college who fucks a different guy every week.
“I said—what young man wants to tell his parents about his girlfriends? It’s such a shame we lost contact. I—”
Caspar bit back his smile when Lina broke off and blushed. Not that she’d tried to keep in touch when they’d left Cambridge, but four years in an Albanian jail had severed all links to friends or otherwise.
They sat at the dining table. His father took the seat at the head with his mother on the left and Casper and Lina on the right.
“We understand you can’t talk about…things that happened,” Lina said in a soft voice, and patted Caspar’s hand until he moved it.
“Bad time all ’round,” said his father.
Caspar stared at him. That was it? No “It damn well served him right”? No “You let us all down”? No “Pull yourself together”?
The food arrived and Caspar sighed. Martha had done the parsnips just as he liked them, roasted to perfection with dark-brown crispy edges. The sight of peas, carrots and perfectly cooked beef told Caspar that the fatted calf had been slaughtered for the prodigal’s return. They’d even found him a wife.
Caspar didn’t need to hear his parents say it, their unspoken words echoed in his head. Perfect for you…good family…high cheekbones…impeccable manners…elegant bearing. His father hadn’t spent years breeding livestock without learning something.
Lina’s toes slid under the bottom of Caspar’s trousers and the peas fell off his fork and splattered gravy on the white tablecloth. When his mother didn’t tut, Caspar was really worried. He moved his leg, but Lina crossed hers and slid her foot into his lap beneath the cover of the cloth.
Before his cock did something stupid and said yes instead of no, Caspar lifted her foot off and pushed his chair well back from the table.
“Have you thought about going into acting?” Lina asked.
Caspar waited for the back legs of a donkey comment but it didn’t come.
“He starred in a number of school plays,” said his mother.
His father stayed quiet. Was he ill?
“Good beef,” said his father.
A parallel dimension, Caspar decided. It was the only explanation.
* * * * *
“Not much farther,” Tom said as he cycled next to Ally.
“You’ve said the exact same thing for the last fifty miles.”
Tom laughed. “We’ve cycled five.”
Ally was at the head of the line. Unlike the others, she was used to getting around London by bike. Well, she had been until the accident. Wes held up the rear to poke stragglers with a cattle prod, but Ally and Tom were a few hundred yards in front of Bryony, the next rider.
“I hope the next bit’s downhill,” Ally mumbled.
“Lunch at the pub coming up on the left…other left,” Tom said when Ally looked the wrong way. “Then it’s downhill all the way to the weaseling.”
Every time she heard the word, Ally sniggered.
“I should have put sleeping for the last choice,” she said. “They’re going to kill me.”
“Talking of killing you, what makes you so sure those incidents were deliberate rather than accidents?”
“I felt someone push me in front of the train.”
“Were the police involved?”
“They said it was an accident,” Ally said. “If I’d had some tangible proof, they might have taken me seriously, but no one saw anything. I’m pretty sure they have me down as a neurotic attention seeker.”
Tom didn’t say anything and Ally could tell he didn’t believe her. “What did you do with the snake?”
“Gave it to the chef. He has a recipe…”
Her front wheel wobbled and she almost fell off. “Not funny.”
“Called the local vet. He’s a pal of mine. He texted to say he’d gotten it. Nothing else in your room, by the way. I asked him to check. He liked your underwear but I told him you were taken. Not by me, unfortunately.”
Ally rolled her eyes, but it was quite nice to be flirted with. She turned into the pub car park and dismounted. Once she’d leaned her bike up against the wall, she bent and stretched her back.
Tom put his bike against a metal rack. “I can’t imagine you pissing anyone off enough for them to want to hurt you. What point did that snake serve?”
“It scared me.”
“So someone wants to frighten you, not kill you. I’d look to one of your friends. Sounds the sort of thing a jealous woman might do.
”
“Maybe.”
Tom looked over his shoulder. “Here come the peloton.”
Bryony jumped off her bike and put it against the rack.
“Drink, drink,” Sal gasped, and leaned her bike next to Tom’s.
“Oh my God, I’ve never had so much exercise in my life,” Bryony said.
Ally smiled. “Nor so much fresh air.”
Emma cycled in last with Wes behind her. “My aching butt,” she wailed.
“It’s lovely,” Wes said, and Emma let out a choked groan.
“Don’t worry. It’s downhill after lunch,” Tom said.
“You two going to be cycling together again?” Delia winked at Ally.
“I bet they’re looking forward to the weaseling.” Sal giggled.
“When are you going to tell us what the hell that is?” Kerry asked.
“You have to wait and see,” Tom said.
Emma shrieked when she walked into the pub. Ally spotted Geoff walking away from the window.
“What are you doing here?” Emma snapped.
“Having a drink,” Geoff said.
He sat down next to Jack and Mark. Ally blinked hard but they didn’t disappear. This was freaking her out.They were like Marley’s three ghosts except she wanted none of them in her future.
Mark leapt to his feet, rushed toward Ally and halted partway there. Ally guessed he’d spotted Bryony behind her.
“We didn’t know you’d come here to eat,” Geoff said. “Want us to leave?”
“’Course not,” said Kerry.
Sal tapped her foot. “You can finish your beer first.”
Jack slid out of his seat and came over to Ally. “Can I talk to you now?” He stared at her anxiously.
And ruin a perfectly good lunch? She sighed. “Okay.” At least it avoided a confrontation with Mark, who’d been waylaid by Bryony.
Jack bought Ally a drink, Tom provided the pre-ordered meal and they sat in the corner away from the others.
“I’m sorry I rattled you in that restaurant,” Jack said. “I was out of order. Moment of insanity.” He gulped. “Not that you’re not lovely— Ah, shit.”
Ally squirmed.
Jack took a deep breath. “I’m going to start the business up again and I wondered if you had any emails or information on your computer that could help.”
Ally didn’t believe him. Even if it were true, he could have asked over the phone.
“No, I don’t,” she said.
“Nothing?”
She shook her head.
“Would you let me look at your emails?” he asked.
“No.”
A look of pain flooded his face. “Fine. Okay. I’ve tried hiding, I’ve tried lies and now I’m going to try the truth. The thing is, Ally, I’m in trouble. I owed the bank, they called in the debt I borrowed from elsewhere to pay them off. The ‘elsewhere’ I picked wasn’t a good choice.”
“Ah.” She’d guessed he was in trouble.
Jack edged closer. “They persuaded me to get involved in something illegal. I washed their money through our accounts.”
Oh shit. Ally thought about the invoices raised on companies she’d never heard of. The emails she’d sent to him that weren’t answered.
“Even that wasn’t enough. So…I set fire to the business to claim on the insurance.”
Ally’s fork clattered to the table. “Oh God, Jack, you idiot.”
“No one knows. Only you.”
“Why did you tell me?” Ally whispered. “I don’t want to know. Now I do. Why did you have to tell me?”
“Because of those emails you sent me about Radicon and Emetix. If the police see those on your computer, I’ll end up in prison.”
“You should be in bloody prison. Oh God.” Ally pushed her plate away. “Is that what all this is about? You’re worried about some bloody emails?”
“Delete them from your sent box.”
“And when I’m asked if I think you set fire to the business, what am I supposed to say?” She kept her voice low.
Jack’s face hardened. “I’ll deny everything. I’m appealing to you. Think of my wife and kids.”
“You should have thought of them before you said yes to those people.” She lowered her voice. “Money laundering? Are you crazy?”
“I got caught up. I made a mistake. Everything will be all right if you don’t say anything. Please, Ally.”
“I don’t want Bella and the kids to get hurt, but I won’t lie if I’m asked,” Ally said.
“Everything okay here?” Tom asked as he walked over to their table.
“Just telling Ally some company secrets,” Jack said with a laugh. “’Course, now that I’ve told her, I’ll have to kill her.”
Chapter Twenty
Caspar emerged from lunch feeling as though he’d been manipulated at the hands of three masters. His mother’s tremulous hope, his father’s almost jovial civility and Lina’s blatant flirting had combined to lower his resistance until he found himself agreeing to take Lina to the local limestone cavern, the Blue John Mine.
What was one short drive if it kept his father smiling and made his mother proud for a while? He’d soon be rid of Lina and everyone would be happy. His father handed over the keys to his silver convertible with something resembling a smile, and for the first time in five years, Caspar sat behind the wheel of a car.
He grinned and pressed the button to retract the roof.
“Don’t put the roof down,” Lina said. “It’ll mess up my hair.”
Caspar pressed the other button. He wished it were Ally beside him. He doubted she’d have complained about the wind in her hair. The afternoon was perfect for rattling over the hills with the top down. He felt bad about taking Lina out and maybe he should tell Ally about this outing that wasn’t a date before she found out from someone else. Yep, he would.
Caspar pulled out of the village and began the climb to Dawes Peak.
“So spill the beans,” Lina said.
“What beans?”
“When did they approach you? At Cambridge? How did they choose you?”
Caspar swallowed to try to bring moisture into his mouth.
Lina’s hand crept onto his thigh. “My very own James Bond.”
Oh fuck.
* * * * *
“No racing down the hill,” Tom said as they piled out of the pub. “Take it steady.”
Ally fastened her helmet and wheeled her bike to the road. Despite the slog uphill, everyone apart from Emma seemed to be enjoying themselves. Ally knew Sal and Bryony were sporty, but she wasn’t sure Kerry had this in mind for her hen party. Ally suspected naked men and getting drunk were more Kerry’s sort of thing, though a day in London had been arranged to do something outrageous with the rest of the money they’d stumped up three months ago.
The first inkling Ally had of anything being wrong with her bike was when she came round the bend. She squeezed the brakes and nothing happened. Assuming she’d not used enough pressure, she tried again. The bike gathered speed. Ally survived the curve, but her heart had leapt into her mouth, probably preparatory to escaping.
“Slow down,” Tom yelled behind her.
Ally yanked on the brake levers as though some miracle would make them work. It didn’t. She eyed the road ahead and groaned. A long, winding downhill slope.
“Ally!” Tom shouted.
“Can’t stop.” Her voice was whipped away by the wind.
Should she put her feet to the tarmac? Ally took them off the pedals but didn’t dare let them touch the road. She was going too fast. Feet back on the pedals, she concentrated on negotiating the next bend. Only there were hundreds of the damn things coming up and the bike rolled faster and faster.
Oh God, had Jack nipped out of the pub and cut her brakes? Was he behind all the other incidents? She whizzed past a cyclist slogging up the hill and heard him yell, “Too fast!”
I’m going to get hurt. I’m a dead woman. Oh shit. Tears streamed
from Ally’s eyes as the wind blasted into her face. She blinked them away, unable to ease her grip on the handlebars and useless brakes. Her gaze flashed back and forth between the road ahead and what lay in the distance. No way would she get to the bottom without falling. Maybe her best chance was steering onto a bank at the side of the road. Falling on grass had to be better than slithering on tarmac, except there was no soft, grassy hill to slow her down. A boulder-strewn karst landscape lay on either side.
Oh Christ. She’d have to concentrate on making it to the bottom where she could slow on the flat.
After she almost fell off at the next bend, Ally began to shake, fear beginning to swamp her. Unless there was a pile of feathers or a large pond conveniently situated to cushion her fall, there was no way she’d walk from this unscathed. At least there weren’t any cars around.
Oh fuck.
A silver sports car was on its way up the hill. So far Ally had been able to use the whole road to take the turns but if she met this car on a section where she was forced to stay left…right. “No, no, no,” Ally groaned.
She kept squeezing the brakes as the car approached. Jack was such a bastard. What the hell was he thinking? The car passed in a blur and Ally whimpered. She leaned so far over on the next bend she thought she’d topple, but as she followed the line of the road, the bike returned to the upright position.
Ahead, like an oasis in a desert, loomed a bracken-covered upslope. In front of it, the road curved in a tight horseshoe bend. No way would she make that. The other side of the road dropped away. Do it, do it. As the point grew nearer that she’d have to make the decision to steer off the tarmac onto the gravel and then onto grass and hopefully into the bracken, Ally stopped breathing.
I don’t want to do it.
But she kept going when the road turned. The bike started to shake on the loose stones and Ally fought to keep it level. She hit the grass, missed one rock, ploughed into the bracken for several yards, slowing all the time, then hit another rock and felt the back wheel lift. Once she lost her grip on the handlebars, it was as though everything happened in slow motion and Ally flew into the air.
Wow. Now I really am like a bird.
Kiss a Falling Star Page 23