by Various
“That was far better than dessert,” she said with a languorous smile.
“That was far better than just about anything I’ve had in my life, with the exception of a few other memorable moments today.”
For the second time in the last ten minutes she once more smoothed her dress, and checked her hair. She didn’t bother with her lipstick this time, although there was a nice bit of it smeared on Cam’s shirt.
As they walked out of the restroom together, an elderly man was coming out of the restroom next door. He grinned profusely at them as they walked away.
TEN
Pulling into the driveway leading to the inn, Elsie was shocked to see a half dozen extra cars in the lot. She hadn’t been expecting any new guests. As they got closer she saw that they were all occupied with one person per car. Her gut instinct told her this was not a welcome sight.
Her mother, father, Ida and Asher met them just inside the door.
“It’s not as bad as you’re going to think it is,” Asher said before the door had a chance to close.
“Shut up,” her father said. “This is all your fault.”
Elsie felt an impending sense of dread creep up her back and into her head.
“Those cars outside,” she said. “Paparazzi, right?”
“No dear, they’re photographers for the tabloids. And they’re very rude,” Ida said. “I caught one trying to sneak in the side door, but I gave him a good whack with my cane.”
“Well, it was bound to happen at some point,” Elsie said, trying to stay positive. “You can’t have celebrities here and never have them followed. And given your recent exploits, I’m guessing you’re big news.”
The room went silent.
“What?” she asked, looking around.
“Why don’t I get you a cup of tea,” her father said, at the same moment her mother told her to sit down.
“Tell her,” Ida said, glaring at Asher.
“First off, let me say that this is not,” he glanced at her father, “not my fault.”
Cam was looking out the window. “For Christ’s sake, what is going on?”
Asher took a hold of her hand. “They don’t know I’m here, Elsie. At least I don’t think they do.”
“Then what...” Realization dawned on her. She blanched. “Are they here looking for me?” She stood, pushing Asher away. “Why would they be looking for me, Ash?”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, there’s been a lot of speculation around London about who I’ve been seeing. You know what these rags are like. Nothing better to do. But Anna got spooked. She was afraid someone would leak her name. So she...” He took a step backward. “She left an anonymous tip that, well, that it was you, basically.”
Elsie was not violent by nature. Even when Lynette Andrews challenged Elsie to a fight behind the school over some boy Elsie had dared speak to at a high school dance, Elsie refused. She just let Lynette smack her until the other kids intervened. But now, for the first time in her life, a murderous rage settled on her.
She lunged for Asher. “I’m going to kill you!” she roared.
“Elsie,” her mother shouted, as Asher dashed behind the reception desk.
“No. I’m going to worse than kill you. I’m going to maim you. And then I’m going to... I’m going...” Rage clouded her vision and left her incapable of speech.
Cam wrapped his arms around her to keep her from getting her hands on Asher.
“Shhh,” he whispered. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll find a way to make this go away. Just breathe.”
Elsie wasn’t aware that she was on the verge of hyperventilating, but that explained the spinning room.
“Elsie,” Asher pleaded. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t right. I’m going to fix it, I promise you.”
“You are going to do nothing,” Cam growled. “If you set foot outside this house, if any of them dare see you, then that confirms the story in their eyes. No, you’re going to stay away from windows, doors, and anything else that can prove your existence.”
It was a good thing someone was thinking clearly. Elsie had been contemplating tossing Asher out the front door.
“Are you alright?” Cam said, stroking her back.
“The room isn’t spinning any more,” she said.
“That’s a start. What do you want to do next?” he asked.
“Besides wring the neck of this Anna chick?”
“Let me rephrase. What would you like to do next that won’t land you in the news, and in jail?”
“We need to figure out how to get those vultures away from here, without a story, so they don’t ruin my business. People come here to get away from the craziness that follows them. They won’t want to come here if I’m notorious for being the mistress of one of my guests.”
She groaned. Her worst fear was coming true. She was going to be branded a tramp, the inn owner who sleeps with her famous guests. Her rage at Asher and the Countess of Southcott was being replaced by a seething anger at herself for ever having broken her rule and sleeping with Ash in the first place. And now here she was, doing it again. Was she single-handedly trying to sabotage her own business?
“Can someone please make a pot of coffee? And then make sure the drapes are closed in the living room? Let me go change, and we’ll meet back here in ten minutes to figure out how we can fix this.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for my outburst. It’s just not what I was expecting to come home and face tonight.”
She squeezed Cam’s hand before sliding her fingers from his. She wasn’t even sure of when she’d taken hold of it, but it was going to be the last time she touched him. It was too risky. She should have stuck to her intentions. But it was too late for what-ifs. And the time she’d spent with him was too perfect to regret. It would just have to end. She’d tell him later, after they all talked. By then she’d know how to explain it to him. Or at least she hoped she would.
——
When she returned downstairs a few minutes later her father and Cam were in the living room having a rum and coke. It hurt her to see them chatting away. Cam would have fit in wonderfully with her life. She stood just outside the door, taking in the scene.
“Did you have a nice day?” her mother asked, stopping with a tray of coffee and cups.
Elsie nodded, because to say how wonderful it was, while contemplating never experiencing another like it was too much to bear at this moment.
“We’ll figure this all out,” her Mom said. “Don’t you worry. You are not dealing with this alone, my love. Put on a big smile now and go in. Those two men in there are very worried about you.”
For the next hour they brainstormed and argued about the best course of action. Her father was all for calling the police and having them escorted off the property, but Cam pointed out that they needed a solution that didn’t make it appear that they were trying to protect Elsie, or hide her away. The best way to act as if it was nothing more than a rumour was to not let it affect life.
Elsie wanted to beat the Countess at her own game, and send out an anonymous tip directing them to her door. But her mother was the voice of reason in that scenario, pointing out that as much as Elsie might hate to admit, she was covering up the truth. Like it or not, she was in a situation similar to Anna’s. She wanted her relationship with Asher to remain a secret. What made them different is that Elsie would never have dreamed of protecting herself at the expense of another woman’s privacy.
When her mother put it that way, how could she argue?
Asher’s suggestion was the most creative to date, and she took a small bit of satisfaction at the lengths he was willing to go to protect her.
“I’ll create a bigger scandal about myself,” he said. “I’ll come out of the closet.”
“Ah ha. I always knew that about you,” Ida joyfully exclaimed.
“He’s not gay,” Elsie said.
“How do you know,” Asher demanded. “I might be. I have a lot of gay fans.�
��
“You’re not gay,” Cam said. “I’ve known you since school remember? Remember the night of William Simpson’s eighteenth birthday bash?”
The two shared a look that left the rest of the room curious. Elsie tucked it away to ask about later.
“What are we going to do then?” If Elsie didn’t already know how much her mother cared for her, the despair in her mother’s voice would have told her.
“We’re going to create a different story.” Cam said. “There are a couple of things that we can’t really hide for long. First of all, Elsie is here. They’re going to see her, and love her. She’s beautiful. Pictures of her will sell, regardless of the story. And we can’t really hide Asher away forever. He’s bound to arse things up at some point and they’ll get a glimpse of him and then it’s all over.” He clapped Asher on the back. “No offence, Ted, but you know I’m right.”
Cam stood and peeked out the window. “But we can change the reason why Asher is here in a heartbeat. And create a different spin on the whole thing. It’s so simple, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”
He sat next to Elsie. “It just depends on you.”
“What do I have to do?” she asked.
“Marry me.”
“Oh blessed Mary,” Ida exclaimed. “Of course she will.”
“Ida,” Elsie’s mother hissed.
“Or least be my fiancée,” he said.
——
The plan made sense, Elsie kept telling herself over and over as she put her new dress back on. It still smelled of Cam’s cologne. There was an irrefutable history of his friendship with Ted Corbin. Who was to say that they hadn’t spoken in almost twenty years? It stood to reason that he’d ask Ted to be his best man. As for Cam’s own public reputation as a ladies’ man, at least with the London crowd, well, Elsie was a saint, sticking by him all these years. Some of his less than pride-worthy antics that had been documented in the society pages would just happen to coincide with those times when Elsie had called off their relationship, which in turn prompted Cam to descend into debauchery. She’d snorted at that part. And also made a note to google Campbell Scott in the not too distant future. Perhaps as early as tonight. Of course, now, thanks to the unexpected presence of the paparazzi, they would have no other choice but to postpone the wedding. It was hard to have a private, intimate wedding with just close family and friends when it was ruined by the press.
At first Elsie would have nothing to do with it. She would still be known as the woman who had a relationship with one of her guests. It took her mother to make her see reason. Other than her staff, no one knew that she and Cam had only met a week ago. They were a long-suffering couple, her mother said, finally about to get their happy ending.
So it was that Elsie was getting dressed again so that she and Cam could be caught kissing. It was the first of several planned actions for tonight and tomorrow that should send the press away. Cam was no international celebrity. There wasn’t a lot of money to be made staying on that story.
She was trying to work out how she felt about the charade. It gave her a reason to continue spending time with Cam, which was much better than having to end it. But she wasn’t a very good actress. There was the danger that she might start believing the story herself. She’d just have to work hard to remind herself that the chemistry might be real, but the relationship was for show. If she could manage that, then she just might manage to protect her heart from shattering when it was all over.
——
“This had best be an emergency,” Daphne Scott grumbled into the phone.
“Sorry for waking you, darling sister, but I have some news.” Cam couldn’t wait to hear his sister’s reaction.
“Unless you’re about to tell me I’ve won the lottery, I’m not interested.”
“How about I tell you I want you to get dressed, go to the airport, and fly across the ocean to be at my wedding.”
Silence. Still more silence. And then the reaction he was waiting for came.
“Are you shitting me?” she screamed.
“Partially,” he said.
“What does that mean?”
“It means that right now, for all intents and purposes, I am getting married. But whether it actually happens might depend on a few long shots, one of which is your intervention, in case I need it.”
That was the part of the plan to which only Cam was privy. A curious thing had happened to him this evening when they returned to the inn. Seeing Elsie’s terror caused a protective surge of anger to course through him. If her first instinct was to kill Ted, Cam’s was to smash the face of anyone who dared hurt the woman he was falling in love with. That was the real shock of the moment.
He didn’t believe in love at first sight, or destiny, or soul mates or any of that crap. That stuff was for people who wanted to justify why they settled for the person they married when they took a good hard look at their relationship a year or two later. It was that kind of thinking that prevented him from enjoying his twenties. He wasted those years on Maureen instead. But what else could it be but love at first sight when it came to Elsie?
Sure, it was pure attraction at first, but there was much more under the surface than passion. He just had to see if she felt the same way. He wasn’t that sure of himself, to lay it all on the table and hope for the best. He’d done that once before. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. But he was determined to let it play out and see where it led.
After explaining the situation, including his feelings, Daphne was on board. They argued about whether the rest of his family should be made privy to the scheme but Cam won. It wasn’t likely they’d read about it. They lived a quiet life in a small village in the Highlands and didn’t pay much attention to anything that came out of England. His other siblings might get wind of it, but by now they’d both learned that Cam wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to share things with his family, with the exception of Daphne. And they didn’t even know he was close with her. No, it was best to keep them in the dark unless it seemed as if a real wedding might actually take place. In that case, he’d share the news.
——
Cam waited for Elsie in the dining room. It had the biggest windows, and could be partially seen from the parking lot. One of the tables next to the window was set with candles, a bottle of champagne chilling in the ice bucket, and her father was whipping up a dessert in the kitchen. George Walsh was a good man, Cam thought. Oddly, Cam was impressed when her father had threatened to “beat him from stem to stern” if his daughter was hurt in any way from this ruse.
“Are you nervous?” Elsie was a vision of perfection as she entered the dining room. He couldn’t look at that dress without thinking about earlier in the evening.
“I was more nervous last night when you invited me into your room,” he said, low enough so that no prying ears—Ida’s—could hear.
“Was it only last night?” she mused, as he pulled out her chair.
“Almost twenty-four hours ago,” he said, kissing her forehead. He thought he saw movement behind one of the sprawling burning bushes outside. “I think our audience is assembling.”
He poured her champagne, and then his. Holding his glass in the air he said, “Here’s to the unexpected. May it always lead us to embrace the moment and revel in it.”
“How poetic of you,” she said with a smile.
“I may not look like it, but I do have the soul of an artist, you know.”
“I’ve seen glimpses of that today. I noticed the way you look at things. You don’t just glance, you observe. When we were downtown today, there were times when I thought you wished you had your sketch pad.”
“I did have it. I just didn’t want to bore you by pulling it out.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If that’s what makes you happy, you have to do it. Promise me that if I’m ever around and you want to draw that you’ll tell me. I can amuse myself in other ways.”
“Would you let me sketch you?”
>
“I’m not a nude model,” she said, all seriousness.
“It’s not your body I want to draw. It’s your face.”
“Oh.” She looked down at her hands, and fiddled with a ring on her left hand.
“A ring,” Cam said and laughed. “Smart thinking. I didn’t even think of a ring.” And then he remembered the ring he’d bought for her earlier today. He wasn’t sure when he was going to give her the present, but now wasn’t the time.
“Yea, I thought it would be pretty stupid to be engaged and not be wearing one. It’s not real. It was a joke gift from a friend of mine when we were in grad school together.” She flashed her hand for him to see.
Up close it was hideous. The whole thing was plastic, from the band to the huge diamond that would have been about three karats if it were real. From a distance it would look impressive.
“I hope it’s something you could afford.”
“Afford, yes. Actually buy, no.”
“It’s truly hideous, isn’t it?”
Cam thought a ring pop was better looking than that thing.
“I’m not interrupting, am I?”
George came into the room with a platter heaped with angel food cake, berries and cream.
“Dad, you didn’t have to make anything big.”
“Do you think it took me long to rip apart a bought cake and toss on some berries? Now take your chocolate sauce and pose for the nasty photographers. Your mother and I are taking the Admiral’s room for the night. Don’t disturb us.”