by Georgia Hill
The rest of their conversation was lost in the fuss that Biddy and Arthur made as they left. Alex couldn’t hear anything over Biddy shouting her farewells. After they’d gone, Zoe and Eleri returned to quieter voices and all he heard was muted whispers.
His hand fisted around the bangle. Putting it down, he stared at it. It had been bent out of all recognition. So had his view of Eleri. How could he have fallen in love with someone who’d as good as admitted to promiscuity? The image of her portrait swam into his vision. She had sat proudly naked, flaunting her sexuality as a challenge. The queasy mix of electric arousal and horror he’d felt in Ken’s studio flooded him again. Eleri had professed to not having a moral code about sex, but it was as far away from his own beliefs as it possibly could be.
Pocketing the crushed bangle, he stood abruptly. He grabbed his coat and scarf, threw down some money and left.
Millie came to clear his table, astonished, as Alex ran out. In his haste he left the door swinging open, letting in snarls of a vicious winter wind. She closed the door and leaned against it. ‘I wonder what was all that about. Ri, what was wrong with Alex, do you think?’
Eleri looked up. She stared behind her, at the chair he’d hurriedly scraped back so that it was wedged against hers. ‘Oh no, she gasped.’ She stared up at Millie in horror. ‘I think I may have just blown the best thing in my life.’
Chapter 33
Eleri ran out of the café and paused, scanning left and right. Alex was getting into the Golf, which he’d parked on the prom. She got to the road just as he edged the car out from the kerb. Half closing her eyes, she stood, with her arms outstretched, straddling the white lines. She heard his tyres slide on the greasy tarmac as he braked to avoid her.
‘Eleri, I could have killed you. Get out of the road!’
She ran to the driver’s side. Her breath misting out as she panted. ‘Let me explain. Please Alex.’
‘What is there to explain? I heard what you were saying to Zoe. I heard all of it.’
‘Then let me tell you about it.’
Alex’s face was ashen, pinched with fury. ‘I don’t want to hear. I don’t want to hear the sordid details.’
Eleri let her hands slump against her sides. ‘But that’s just it. It wasn’t sordid. It wasn’t sordid at all. The men I shared my body with, well, we made something beautiful. But it was just something physical. Not like it could be with you.’
He revved the engine. ‘I don’t want to hear about you and all these other men. I thought I’d made myself clear.’
‘It’s who I am, Alex. Or rather it’s who I was. It’s in the past, but I can’t change that.’ When he still didn’t answer, she added, ‘Does it really make that much difference? Can’t we talk this through? We’ve always been able to talk. Can’t we get past this?’
A car came up behind Alex’s and tooted. ‘I think you’ve talked enough today. I don’t want to hear any more. I don’t know how many ways I can say it before you get the message. I don’t want to have anything to do with someone so lacking in morals.’ The car hooted again, this time more impatiently. ‘So, if you’ll be kind enough to get out of my way, that’s an end to it.’
She stepped onto the pavement and watched in misery as Alex gunned the engine and disappeared.
‘Lover’s tiff, my darling?’ called the bloke who had been hooting. ‘Cheer up. It’s not the end of the world.’ He drove off, tyres squealing as he rounded the corner.
‘Oh, but I think that’s where you’re wrong,’ Eleri murmured, too numb to cry. ‘I think it is the end of the world. My world, that is.’
The following day, Millie dropped her at Axminster to catch the London train.
‘I wish you weren’t rushing off like this,’ she said, as she parked up.
There was a dismal sleety rain falling and, despite the cheerful Christmas lights, everywhere looked dank and grey. People lugged holiday luggage towards the ticket office, their shoulders shrugged up against the cold.
Eleri didn’t answer. Her silence was only punctuated by the windscreen washers thumping rhythmically to and fro, until they stopped when Millie killed the engine.
Unbuckling her seatbelt, Eleri eventually began speaking. It came out in a rush. ‘Alex is never going to understand me. He’s never going to stay with a woman he considers has slept around. He’s too straight for that.’ She blinked back tears. ‘And what I told Zoe was only the half of it. I don’t think he’ll ever believe I’m good enough for him.’
‘Is that what he said to you? I can’t believe it. Alex is dotty about you – anyone can see that.’
‘More or less. Let’s just say he wasn’t in a mood to discuss the matter.’
‘Oh Eleri, that’s awful, not to mention completely untrue. How dare he? I’m sure he was just angry and shocked, though. It’s not like Alex to be so judgemental. Can you give him another chance?’ Millie went to turn the car engine on. ‘Come on,’ she said, decisively. ‘I’ll take you up to the hotel now and you can thrash it out with him.’
Eleri stayed her arm. She shook her head. ‘It would be no use, Mil.’
‘It must be worth a go. You two are made for each other.’
‘Ah, but that’s just it, I don’t think we are,’ Eleri said softly. ‘If I have to be someone else for him, it just wouldn’t work, much as I want it to. And now, well, now he’s discovered the truth of who I am …’ she trailed off. ‘Let’s just say for once I don’t think I can trust the cards.’
Millie stared open-mouthed. She had no idea what Eleri was on about. As the woman got out, heaving her rucksack onto her back and striding purposefully to the ticket office, she called out, ‘Keep in touch,’ but was ignored. So much for all being well, she said bitterly, as she reversed the car out of its space. The way things are going, they couldn’t be worse. Peering through the windscreen and at the rain now falling heavily, she groaned as she joined the queue at the traffic lights. She’d agreed to meet Savio tonight. If he really had driven across Europe to find her, he deserved to know that there was no future between them.
Chapter 34
‘So what did he say, our kid?’
Millie was sitting in Tessa’s kitchen, drinking tea and sampling a new variety of flat bread. She chewed thoughtfully, eyeing up the fibre-optic tree on the windowsill. It was changing colour every few seconds and was peculiarly hypnotic. At least it was cheerful. Outside it was another day of dark clouds and cold winds. The calendar might be hurtling towards Christmas but the weather hadn’t noticed. So much for Arthur’s promised snow.
Tessa watched anxiously. ‘The bread. No good?’
‘Oh Tes, it’s gorgeous but I’m not sure fig and Serrano ham fits in with my ethos of locally sourced.’
‘Suppose not. But hey, the caff isn’t going to be yours for that much longer. Why do you care?’
Millie swallowed. It was true. The thought that her life in Berecombe would be over in a few short weeks was terrifying.
‘And I thought you’d like the Italian connection. Speaking of which, you still haven’t told me how he reacted.’
‘Who? Savio?’
‘Know lots of Italian millionaires, do you, pet?’
Millie stared into her tea. ‘He took me to Samphyre, Dora’s parents’ place. It was great food.’ She drifted off for a second, dreaming about what she’d eaten the evening before. ‘I had the house fish pie with loads of juicy prawns and a chocolate mousse with real gold flakes on it. It was fabulous.’
‘Concentrate, Mil. Back to Savio.’ Tessa rapped a teaspoon on the kitchen counter, making Trevor bark.
Millie pulled a face. ‘I felt really guilty about him. I mean, I’d never actually encouraged him. He didn’t need much encouragement, to be honest. Savvy sort of steamrolls you into submission and I suppose I’d just gone along with it.’ She blew out a breath. ‘He was okay about it, in the end. Sighed in an extravagantly Italian way, declared his undying love for me and then spent the rest of the night chatting up
the waitress.’
‘Oh bab, that’s priceless. Is he going back to Italy now?’
‘No, he’s driving on to Cornwall. Turns out I was right about me being a bit of a stopover, he was heading to stay with family for Christmas.’
‘Nothing to feel guilty about there, then. More tea?’
‘Thanks.’ Millie held out her mug. ‘Hopefully not.’
‘And no regrets over missing out on a Maserati and a villa in Tuscany?’
‘Not quite my style.’ She reached down to fondle Trevor’s ears.
Tessa stirred a generous spoonful of sugar into her own mug. ‘Ought to give this up, but the weather’s so cold I need all the calories I can get.’ She nodded to the gunmetal sky outside. ‘At least we’ve got rid of that freezing fog, but I’m not sure this is any better. I’ve never known it so cold down here. Temperature dropped to minus three last night.’ She gave a dramatic shiver. ‘I’m not sure I’d have given up on some Italian sunshine so easily.’ As Millie didn’t rise to the bait, she went on. ‘How’s the wedding panning going?’
‘Good, thanks. All set.’
‘Still on for next week?’
‘Yup. A Christmas Eve wedding. I’m just agreeing the menu. Steak pie with a Stilton and leek crust, winter veg and Pavlova with a berry compote.’
Tessa grimaced. ‘Sounds a bit heavy for a wedding breakfast.’
‘Well, it’s what they want and the ceremony is at five, so people will want something warming to eat after they’ve been sitting on a cold beach.’
‘Fair enough. Are the dogs still going to be bridesmaids?’
‘Yes.’ Millie giggled. Biddy’s wedding was the one bright spark in her life at the moment. ‘It’s so sweet, they each have green velvet waistcoats and Elvis is ring bearer. It’s in a little sparkly box hung from his collar.’
‘Get away. Gotta love our Biddy. Tessa shook her head, fondly. ‘What about a honeymoon?’
‘Think they’re waiting until the New Year and then going to somewhere on the Gower. Biddy said the beaches there are great for the dogs.’
‘Ace. Speaking of all things Welsh, has that Eleri left you in the lurch?’
‘Oh I can manage. Not that busy and Zoe is feeling better, so she’s holding the fort today.’
‘Can’t understand what happened.’
‘Nor me.’
‘Mind you, Ken said that Alex was a bit of a stick in the mud. Went all peculiar when he showed him Eleri’s portrait.’ Tessa sniffed. ‘Seemed an odd couple to me.’
‘Did you? I thought they were well suited.’
‘Cold fish, I thought he was. Not like his brother.’
Millie winced at the mention of Jed. She shrugged. ‘I don’t agree. I think Alex is just very conformist. I agree they were complete opposites, but I thought it worked. It’s such a shame Eleri didn’t give him more of a chance. He’s distraught.’
‘Is he?’
‘It’s all quite romantic in a way,’ Millie sighed. ‘He’s gone up to London to try to find her.’
Tessa gathered up their empty mugs. ‘Well good luck to him with that. Fresh one?’
‘Oh, go on then.’ Millie nodded. ‘I agree with you there, but Alex seems to have friends in high places. He might just find her.’
Tessa snorted derisively. ‘If there’s one place you can hide in, it’s London. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so quick to judge the girl. We’ve all got our pasts.’ Flicking on the kettle, she huffed at the injustice.
‘That’s just it, though, Tes. He hasn’t rejected her. Not to my knowledge, anyway. Eleri assumed he wouldn’t want her. She doesn’t actually know. She didn’t bother to stay and talk it through.’
‘Always said she was weird.’
Millie raised her eyebrows. ‘You said no such thing.’
‘Hmm. Thought it, though. All that mermaid crap, I ask you.’ Tessa opened a cupboard and rootled around. ‘If Roland has eaten all the biscuits again, I’ll tan his hide. Ah, here we are, choccie Hobnobs.’ She threw the packet to Millie, who caught it. ‘Don’t suppose you know where she is, then? Ri, I mean.’
‘No idea whatsoever. Only have her mobile number.’
‘And I don’t suppose you’ve given it to Alex, have you?’
Millie caught Tessa’s eye and grinned. ‘No, I don’t suppose I have.’
Chapter 35
‘I’d better go.’ Millie drained her mug. ‘Promised Trevor a run on the beach while the tide is so low.’
‘Stick the news on for me, bab. I’ll watch the headlines then take Ken a flask over to the workshop.’
Millie checked her watch. It was later than either of them had thought. ‘Think you might have missed the main news. It’ll just be the local stuff.’
Tessa shrugged. ‘That’ll do.’
Millie unearthed the remote from under a pile of yet to be put up tinsel and switched on the television. ‘Yes, I was right, it’s just starting.’
‘Good afternoon, the headlines in the South West today –.’
As Tessa settled down to watch, Millie ran some hot water over their mugs and plates and wandered into the hall to find her coat and woolly hat.
‘Mil!’ It was Tessa screeching from the kitchen. ‘Millie, get in here. You’ve got to see this. It’s Jed!’
Millie ran back, tripping over an excitedly barking Trevor as she went. Hurtling over to where the television screen was crammed up behind a spaghetti jar, she saw Jed standing in front of the Blue Elephant café in Berecombe. ‘What’s he doing on the telly? He’s supposed to be recuperating. Turn it up, turn it up.’ She flapped an arm at Tessa. ‘I can’t hear over Trevor’s barking.’
‘Where d’you put the remote?’ Tessa snapped. ‘Oh, here it is.’ She turned the volume to maximum.
‘These are very serious allegations you’re making, Jed. Can you back up your claims with evidence?’ The journalist batted her eyelashes at him and thrust the microphone suggestively in his face. She was wearing an over-sized fake fur hat and looked frozen.
Millie picked up Trevor, hushed him and watched, open-mouthed.
‘Obviously I can’t – and won’t – go into details right now,’ Jed was saying, But yes, I have comprehensive evidence that Blue Elephant is not what it claims.’
‘And what exactly do you mean by that?’
‘I mean that the company is not sourcing any of its stock from ethical and Fair Trade suppliers.’
Millie made a little shocked noise.
The journalist scaled up her flirting. ‘And can you explain why that’s such an issue?’
‘Well, Chloe, it matters to Berecombe as we’re currently trying to obtain Free Trade status. Having a prominent company in town not willing to trade within the Fair Trade agreement certainly isn’t an asset to our campaign. And besides, it should matter to all of us that the coffee we drink is grown –.’
‘Thank you, Jed.’ Chloe cut him off and turned to camera. Her face filled the screen. ‘We approached Blue Elephant’s head office for a statement but have received nothing from them as yet. And, as you can see, although it was expected to be open today, the café here in Berecombe is closed. More news on this developing story in the late-night bulletin.’ She looked up at the sky. ‘And now, from a very chilly Berecombe, back to you in the studio and the weather forecast. Maybe you can tell us if we really have some Christmas snow on the way!’
‘Oh, my God,’ Millie finally breathed. She collapsed onto a stool. ‘Blue Elephant not using Fair Trade suppliers.’ She stared at Tessa, wide-eyed. ‘And Jed is telling the press all about it. Oh!’ she put a hand to her mouth. ‘Do you think that’s why he was in South America so much? He was scouting the coffee plantations?’ A guilty blush stole over her face. ‘I accused him once of playing James Bond. Looks like that’s what he was actually doing.’
‘But he’s working for them.’ Tessa crunched into a biscuit, scattering crumbs, to Trevor’s delight.
‘And what better way to discover exactly wh
at’s going on.’ Millie clapped her hands as a thought struck. ‘That’s why he did it. That’s why he got a job with them. Oh Tessa. He joined Blue Elephant in an attempt to uncover them!’ She ran back out into the hall. ‘Can you look after Trev for me? I’ve got something I really need to do.’
Chapter 36
Millie shoved the accelerator hard to the floor and cursed that her car was twelve years old and had a top speed of forty. Overtaking a tractor, she willed her little car wings so that it would fly up the hill, out of town and towards The Lord of the Manor.
Her mind was racing. Jed must have taken the job with Blue Elephant so he could investigate them. Had he suspicions before about their buying policy? Millie thought back to when Tessa was baking bread for them. She remembered her complaining that they’d wanted her to use less expensive ingredients. But it was a huge leap from cutting corners to maximise profit to deliberately sourcing from non Fair Trade coffee growers. Millie knew all about coffee worker exploitation. She had always bought from wholesalers who could certify that their supply was Fair Trade. It added to her outgoings but she thought it was worth it. That Blue Elephant were undercutting her through such means drove a glorious, white-hot fury through her. Changing down to turn onto the long drive leading to the hotel, she ignored the ominous groaning coming from her car. She gunned the engine towards the front door. Could it all be true? She had to know.
There were no white transit vans in evidence today. Millie did a tail-end skid and came to an abrupt halt next to a sleek grey limo. As she did so, the door of the hotel opened and Jed staggered out. He was flanked by two sinister-looking men in dark suits. They were gripping him by the arms.
Millie leaped out of the car and raced towards him. ‘Jed! I’ve just seen you on the news.’ She stopped. The men holding Jed didn’t speak. Didn’t stop. They propelled him to the limo.
‘Mil, they’re taking me to Exeter. To the Blue Elephant offices.’ One of the men pushed him forward more roughly and he yelped in pain.