‘But after all the things I’ve said,’ she looked at Olly. ‘I was going to have a termination. I was going to get rid of our baby, Ol.’
He crossed the room in one movement and took her in his arms. ‘Angel, you mustn’t talk like that. You were only trying to figure out what to do, nothing more. And you kept the baby after all, didn’t you?’
‘But look what’s happened,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m losing my baby, I know it.’
Paige moved back to give Olly space on the sofa. ‘You don’t know that,’ she soothed. ‘How long ago did you phone the doctor?’
‘Fifteen minutes. He should be here soon.’
Paige checked her watch and hearing a car on the gravel, raced to open the front door. ‘She’s in here,’ she called, her voice choking with emotion.
Paige and Olly left the doctor to examine Clem, and within moments, he was out in the hall trying his best to reassure them. ‘She needs to keep her feet up and rest,’ he said pushing his round tortoiseshell glasses up his narrow nose. ‘Above all, she must try and remain calm. It won’t do her or the baby any good for her to carry on being upset in this way.’
‘We’ll make sure she does,’ said Paige. ‘And the baby, do you think it will be OK?’
‘I don’t think it’s as bad as she fears, but we can’t tell just yet. I’ll arrange a scan for her in a couple of days, by then we should be able to get a better prognosis.’
‘Is there anything we have to look out for,’ asked Paige, feeling Olly’s anguish as he listened to the doctor’s words.
‘The bleeding has stopped for the moment.’
‘If the bleeding starts again, call me immediately,’ the doctor said, ‘but above all, please try and remain as calm and supportive to Clementine as possible. She doesn’t need you two fretting. She’s doing enough of that for everyone.’
He passed Paige his card. ‘These are my emergency numbers. If there’s a problem, call me on one of these.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘Don’t worry, my dear, I’m sure everything will be fine. Try and get some rest. I’ll pop in again in the morning.’
‘Thank you,’ Paige said, showing him out.
She followed her sister upstairs, assuring her that if the doctor thought there was any immediate problem, he would have arranged for her to go straight to hospital.
Paige waited until Clem was cleaning her teeth and took Olly to one side. ‘Olly, promise you’ll wake me straight away if she gets in a state,’ she lowered her voice. ‘Or if anything else happens.’
Olly nodded. ‘Of course.’
‘It’ll be fine,’ she said, rubbing his hunched shoulders. ‘Don’t you get in a state too, she needs us to stay strong for her, remember?’
She stared at him, waiting for his reply. ‘Well?’
‘Yes, of course, but it’s bloody frightening.’
‘I know it is,’ she agreed, saddened to see him so anxious. ‘But if it’s this grim for us, you can only imagine what Clem’s going through right now.’
Olly shrugged. ‘Shit, I’m a selfish sod.’
‘No, you’re not. Now stop wallowing. Go and give her a cuddle.’
Clem caught them chatting. ‘Hey. What are you two nattering about? Did the doctor tell you something?’
Paige could hear the panic rising in Clem’s voice, and crossed the room with what she hoped was a confident smile on her face. She gave her sister a hug. ‘Don’t be daft,’ she said, pulling back the duvet and waiting for her sister to get into bed. ‘Now settle down and get some rest. Everything will be fine, you’ll see.’ She covered her sister and walked to the door. ‘I don’t know about you two, but I’m exhausted. I’ll see you in the morning.’
Paige’s smile disappeared as soon as she left the spare room. Sitting down heavily on the edge of her double bed, she thought how loving someone could cause you so much heartache and pain. Then, picturing Olly and her sister comforting each other and so much in love, Paige knew she would give anything to go back to Sebastian. She felt very much alone.
Her feelings of serenity from her holiday had dissipated in the midst of this unexpected drama, and already felt a lifetime ago. Lying in her bedroom later that night, she pictured Sebastian’s tense face in the blackness. She could see him as clearly as if he were standing in front of her. She missed him and for a moment she envied her sister and Olly’s relationship. How could she be selfish enough to feel jealous of her younger sister being with the man she loved, and expecting his baby, especially with what was happening right now? Why did she torture herself like this? Paige heard her sister and Olly’s muted voices from the next room and sighed. The sound made her smile. Maybe everything was going to be fine after all.
Olly phoned Paige as soon as Clem’s ultrasound appointment had finished. ‘They found a heartbeat,’ he said, his voice tight. ‘Thank God, it was just a false alarm. Clem is so relieved we decided not to mention it to your parents for now. Imagine how dreadful it would have been to have worried them too.’
‘Doesn’t bear thinking about,’ Paige said, smiling at the thought and thanking him for letting her know everything was back on track.
‘I could sleep for a bloody week right now,’ Olly said.
‘You’re not the only one.’ Paige pictured her sister’s relief. She stifled a yawn just in time to spot two women entering the shop.
‘I’ve come to try on these,’ said one of them dangling a pair of Paige’s highest high heels from her fingers. ‘In a size seven.’
‘So,’ said the immaculate blonde to her friend, as Paige returned from the storeroom, shoebox in hand. ‘When is the big day? Do you know?’ Paige took the shoes carefully from the tissue paper, placing them in front of their stocking feet.
‘I only know what the article said in the paper the other day. I think it’s sometime later in the year, but you can’t help admire Lucinda.’ Paige tensed instantly, certain they glanced at each other over her head. ‘What nerve, dumping someone as glorious as Sebastian Fielding, then having the nerve to come back two years later when he’s inherited God knows how many millions, and setting her sights on him for a second time.’
‘And succeeding,’ laughed the first woman, standing up and walking across the room to admire her reflection in the full-length mirror. She turned her feet to check them at every angle and then addressed Paige. ‘Yes, these are perfect. I’ll have them.’
Paige didn’t think she recognized either of them, but couldn’t be sure. She decided she was probably being a little paranoid, and it could simply be bad luck to have them gossiping about Seb in her shop. She didn’t react and couldn’t help listening.
‘Do you know him?’ One of them asked, following Paige to the till.
‘Sorry?’ Paige played for time taking the shoes from her. She busied herself by packing them carefully in their box, then into a large cardboard carrier bag with her logo printed across the middle.
The women looked sideways at each other, and Paige instinctively knew that Lucinda had in some way orchestrated this little scenario. She wasn’t surprised, just taken aback that she thought Paige such a threat to still be bothering about her.
‘Sebastian Fielding. He’s getting back together with Lucinda Barrow-Hughes, I imagine they’ll be married in no time at all. I would have thought you knew him. You used to work at De Greys, didn’t you?’
Paige forced what she hoped was a convincing smile onto her face. ‘My shop used to be there, yes.’
‘Until you had to leave?’ The blonde tilted her head to one side.
Paige refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing they were having any effect on her at all. ‘Something like that.’
‘You do know him then?’ asked the other woman, looking very smug.
‘Yes.’ Paige smiled sweetly to each of them, handing the bag over with the woman’s credit card and receipt. ‘The shoes look so flattering on you. I hope you enjoy wearing them.’ If Lucinda’s friends wanted to upset her, buying her stock was the wrong way to go abo
ut it. Paige chewed her lip to stop from smiling.
Each looked at the other, then back at Paige. She could tell they were aware they had just been dismissed, however politely. She watched them leave, the cheerful smile fixed to her face, as they made their way down the road laughing loudly.
‘What’s the story, morning glory?’ Olly asked, snapping her out of her reverie.
Paige shook her head.
‘What?’
‘I’ve just had a visit from a couple of Lucinda’s friends.’
‘Did they buy anything?’
Paige nodded. ‘Yes. They were so busy trying to put me down that they ended up buying one of my more expensive designs.’
‘Hah, good for you.’
She narrowed her eyes. ‘It’s not lunchtime yet, why aren’t you at work?’
‘They let me have time off to go to the hospital with Clem, so I thought I’d call in and see how you were doing.’ He folded his arms and leant back against the counter.
‘I’m fine,’ she smiled. ‘So you can get back to work before you’re fired. You need all the money you can get now you’re preparing for parenthood.’
‘Not until you make me a tea and tell Uncle Oliver exactly what they said to you.’
‘It’s not worth repeating.’ She could see that the trauma of watching her sister have a threatened miscarriage had unsettled him, and he needed something to keep his mind occupied. ‘My online sales,’ she said, folding her arms across her chest, delighted to have the perfect solution. ‘We still have a few issues that need tightening up. I noticed some of the links to the sizes are a little odd.’
He cheered up instantly. ‘Yes, I forgot all about that.’
‘Fine, so when can I expect you to sort it out?’ she asked, knowing he liked working to deadlines.
‘With everything that’s happened, I’m a bit behind, but I promise I’ll crack on tonight, as soon as I get back to your place,’ he said, excitement lighting up his face.
‘Great,’ she giggled. ‘Hopefully it’ll start earning us decent some money.’
Olly stopped smiling. ‘How am I going to make money out of it? You don’t have any spare cash to pay me to set up the site, and I wouldn’t accept any if you did.’
‘I know, and that’s why,’ she thought, deciding on an idea that had occurred to her only days before, ‘I’m giving you a percentage of the online sales.’
‘Seriously?’
Paige laughed at his stunned expression. ‘Yes. I’ll get something drawn up between us, but I was thinking you two could have twenty per cent of the online net profit.’
‘Me and Clem?’
‘Who else?’
‘Twenty, but that’s massive,’ he shouted, his eyes lighting up at the unexpected offer.
‘Not really,’ said Paige, now in official mode. ‘The site I had was ridiculously amateurish. It would never have worked in the way I need it to. You’ve set the new site up for me, and you’ll be responsible for sorting out any technical hitches, updates, that sort of thing. I’ll need Clem to deal with any orders, invoices and payments.’ She winked at him. ‘Giving you both an interest in the business will save me paying to do all these things.’
‘Clem did mention something about running the site from home when she’s had the baby,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It sounds good to me.’
‘Great,’ Paige said, happy to have sorted everything out so easily. ‘I’ll get a contract drawn up in the next few days and we can all sign it.’
‘Contract? Is that necessary?’
‘I won’t do it without one.’ She looked at him and loved that he trusted her so completely. ‘This is a business agreement and we each have to protect our interests, whether we’re friends, relatives, or whatever. It’s the only way to safeguard the finer details and ensure they’ve been covered.’
He looked happier than she could ever remember seeing him. ‘OK, bring it on.’
Chapter Thirty-seven
‘So? What’s the verdict then?’ Olly asked, as Paige reviewed the order spreadsheet for her first day’s sales.
Clem tucked her legs under herself and glanced at the bottom line of the figures. ‘It’s been bloody brilliant.’ She pointed at the computer screen. ‘I’ve also been contacted through the site by someone who you met in a shop in Sorrento. She said that you’d swapped shoes with her, or something?’
Paige thought back to the young shop assistant who she’d given her sandals to. ‘I wondered if she’d ever get back to me. Did she want to make an order?’
Clem nodded. ‘Yes, but it’s only a tiny one and I think it’s for her personally rather than for the shop.’
‘It all helps,’ Paige said, delighted the girl still obviously liked her designs. She ran her finger down the columns filled with figures and stock references. ‘It’s better than I’d ever dared hope.’ She sat back, chewing the top of her pen absent-mindedly. ‘I can’t believe it. The best sellers are the thigh-high boots.’
Olly rolled his eyes heavenward. ‘Why does that surprise you so much?’ He turned to his girlfriend and winked. ‘I wouldn’t mind seeing you in a pair of those again, Clem.’
‘Don’t hold your breath,’ she said, lifting her swollen ankles in his direction. ‘I’d be lucky to get sandals on over these things.’
Olly went over to her. ‘My poor little puffer fish – ouch!’ he said when she elbowed him in the ribs. ‘What did you do that for?’
‘Bugger off and let me finish this paperwork.’
‘Ol,’ Paige said, waving him over. ‘Let’s leave Clem alone for a bit and you can give me a lift to the shop, if that’s OK with you?’
‘I don’t know why she’s working on all that so early,’ he said to Paige as they drove towards town. ‘She could have left it for later.’
Paige shook her head. ‘Ol, you saw her feet. Clem’s best time of the day is morning, and although she doesn’t like to go on about it, I think she’s getting uncomfortable now she’s heavier, especially as the day goes on.’
‘She did say something about having a nap some afternoons.’ The idea seemed to worry him. ‘Do you think she’s all right by herself, or should I go back and check on her?’
‘I think the best thing we can do is leave her in peace. Let her make the most of some alone time before the baby arrives. She’ll phone if she needs anything.’
‘True.’
‘Right, now go to work. You don’t want to be fired, do you?’
Olly grimaced, ‘I’ll come and get you at closing time, give you a lift home.’
Paige was relieved that the day went quickly, with several excited phone calls from Clem each time a new order was placed online.
‘That’s great,’ Paige said, relieved their new venture was going so well. ‘But you’re supposed to be taking it easy. I hope you’re checking the orders from the sofa?’
‘Yes, I am,’ Clem groaned.
Paige stopped sketching the designs she was working on. She put down her pencil. ‘Good, because I don’t want Olly giving me a hard time.’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Brilliant.’ She put down the phone and checked her watch. It would soon be time to close up anyway. She was relieved to have so much to concentrate on. She began altering the angle to the heel on one of the sketches when Olly bounded in, like an over-excited Labrador puppy.
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