Winter at Wishington Bay

by Maxine Morrey

  ‘Hi.’ I forced out in as casual manner as I could muster. I used to be good at the faking-it, playing-it-cool thing, but it felt awkward now and I was pretty sure she wasn’t buying it. As she sidled closer to Nate, I knew for sure. She definitely wasn’t buying it.

  ‘This is Sophia,’ Nate said, his voice sounding off and strained. ‘She’s…’

  ‘The cleaner,’ I finished for him. Not because I wanted to put him out of any misery. He could swim naked in shark infested waters for all I cared. My only aim now was to extricate myself from the situation as soon as possible.

  ‘Oh, right.’ Serena smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. The beautiful make-up, which looked like it must have taken an age to apply, enhanced light brown eyes that almost shimmered with cold.

  ‘I was just checking if Nate needed any supplies or anything. Holly and Gabe asked me to make sure the fridge was stocked at all times.’ I gave what I hoped was a friendly, but detached smile. She wasn’t really paying that much attention to me as I spoke, though, so I needn’t have bothered.

  ‘Oh, great. I’m vegan, so now I’m here we’ll probably have to throw out anything that isn’t suitable.’

  I swallowed, picturing Nate’s eyes practically rolling back in his head with pleasure the last time he’d had a steak at the restaurant and thinking of the couple of meals I knew were already in the fridge that I’d spent time, and Holly’s money on, that were now apparently to be tossed away.

  ‘Well, if they’re going to go to waste, I can just take them back.’

  ‘That’s fine. I’ll give you a list of dinners I want and you can swap them when you deliver those.’

  I’m sorry. Did I miss the bit where I turned into Deliveroo?

  ‘It’s not really that sort of arrangement, Serena. Sophia’s just dropped some food off from time to time. Most of the time I cook myself, now.’

  ‘Oh. Well, we can eat out then I guess. Assuming there are some decent places round here. It didn’t look that promising.’

  I tried not to bristle at her dismissal of a village I loved and that she can have only seen for about ten minutes.

  ‘Well, I’d better be going.’

  Nate looked pained but I did my best to ignore it. Clearly his marriage wasn’t as over as he’d told everyone, and I’d got caught in the middle of it. Typical. The first time in nearly two years I meet someone I actually like and, moreover, let something happen with him, it turns round and slaps me in the face.

  Serena looked up from inspecting her nails and tilted her head.

  ‘Do I know you?’

  How on earth could this woman possibly know me? She lived thousands of miles away. I’d travelled to Australia in the past a couple of times on holiday but I highly doubted any passing contact, however remote the possibility, would have left any remembrance. Had I looked as good as Nate, the possibility might have been higher.

  ‘No.’

  ‘You look kind of familiar.’ She was peering at me now and I shifted my weight under the scrutiny.

  ‘I probably just have one of those faces.’ I was pretty sure I didn’t but I wasn’t sure what else to say. ‘OK then. I hope you have a nice trip. I’ll be back to clean later in the week but you can just let me know when you’re going to be out so I don’t disturb—’

  ‘Oh my God!’ Her exclamation made both Nate and I jump. Serena’s eyes were wide. ‘It’s you. You’re Lady Sophia Huntingdon-Jones!’

  ‘I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else,’ I said, desperately trying to keep any quiver out of my voice.

  ‘No, I haven’t.’ She leant forward and I took a step back. ‘It’s definitely you. I read all the society stuff and it’s been quite the mystery where you’d gone apparently when you walked out on your husband, although I don’t blame you. Everyone knew he was cheating on you,’ she added in a gossipy tone. ‘Oh my God! What are you doing here? And why the hell are you calling yourself a cleaner?’

  ‘She is the cleaner,’ Nate stated, confusion crumpling his brow.

  ‘I really have to go now.’ I turned away, my stomach churning. I’d kept away from the media, the gossip, the people who’d hurt me, for over eighteen months without a problem, and now someone who lived thousands of miles away, who, as far as I knew, wasn’t even supposed to be here, had the power to pull down the world I’d created. A world I was happy in – gorgeous Australian mishaps aside.

  ‘Is it true?’ Nate’s hand on my arm stopped me.

  ‘You should go back in, it’s cold.’ He was dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, without his customary thick jumper and, judging by the tiny dress his wife was wearing, Holly and Gabe’s heating bill had suddenly taken a hike.

  ‘Is it true?’ he asked again.

  I glanced over his shoulder. Serena was watching us. Suspicion clouded her eyes. ‘Did you lie about who you were?’ he pushed on.

  ‘No,’ I snapped. ‘And I have no need to explain myself to you anyway.’

  ‘What’s going on here?’ Serena narrowed her eyes. ‘Nate? Are you sleeping with her?’

  ‘Don’t start on me, Serena. I’m really not in the mood.’

  ‘You cheated on me!’ she screeched. There was something in her tone that suggested the thought he would even consider doing this was more astonishing than the actual situation.

  ‘I didn’t cheat on you, Serena,’ Nate snapped, whirling round on her. ‘We were separated and getting a divorce. Remember that whole thing about you leaving me to go and live with your tennis coach?’ A muscle flickered in his jaw as he ground the words out.

  ‘Looks like you didn’t waste much time being alone, though?’ she snapped back.

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t need to explain myself to you. I don’t even know why you’re here!’ The snow of earlier had begun to fall more heavily now and was dampening his hair and soaking through his t-shirt, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘I thought you’d be pleased to see me! I thought we could try to rebuild our marriage but I didn’t realise you were already sleeping with your cleaner!’ She practically spat the word out as she glared at me.

  ‘Do you know what, Serena? It’s actually been pretty relaxing to be away from you and all your drama. I didn’t realise quite how bloody exhausting being married to you was until I got the chance to put some space between us.’

  ‘From the sounds of it, space has been the last thing you’ve had.’

  Nate let his head fall back for a moment, turning his face to the sky, the snowflakes landing softly before melting. From the waves of tension still radiating out from his body, they might be cooling his skin but they were doing nothing to cool the anger wound tight within him.

  ‘Nate…’ Her voice had softened now as she reached out. ‘Come back inside. Let’s talk about things. I made a mistake. Maybe we both did.’

  Nate looked back down, his gaze fixing on me. ‘Maybe we did.’ The warmth his eyes had once held was gone and now they were as cold as the ice crystals that had settled on his long lashes. With that, he let Serena encourage him back inside and with one last cold look, she closed the door.

  For a moment I just wanted to sit. To slump down on the cold, wet path. I already felt numb inside, so what would it matter if the rest of me froze too? Instead I forced myself to turn round and walk back towards the village and the comfort of my cosy flat. There I could lock the door and shut out Serena’s glare, and Nate’s cold accusatory look. I never lied to him. Admittedly, I hadn’t told him who I was, but I’d been planning to for the last couple of weeks. It wasn’t really the sort of thing you just blurted out and I knew part of it was me not wanting to bring it up because that was the old me, and Nate and I were part of the ‘new’ me. Not that there was any Nate and I. Not now. I knew now I’d been stupid to think there ever would be. Women like Serena always got their way, however smart the man was. When it came to beauty and wiles like that, they didn’t stand a chance. Nate McKinley might have thought his marriage was over and might have ev
en been reconciled to it – but it appeared Serena had other ideas and I already knew, just as I was sure Nate did, that what Serena wanted, Serena got. And right now, it appeared she wanted her husband back.

  I powered on back through the village, the snow soaking through my shoes, my hair now plastered to my head. As I passed Flora’s shop, she waved at me through the window. I gave a brief wave in return but right now I just wanted to get inside and shut myself away from everyone. This morning the world had seemed bright and full of promise but now that had all seeped away. Why on earth had I let myself fall for Nate? Because I knew now that was exactly what I’d done, no matter how many times I tried to deny it to myself on my walk home. I’d had no intention of developing any sort of feelings for Nate, let alone love, and our first meeting had reassured me that wasn’t something I had any need to worry about. But, as barriers were lowered on both sides, something had changed. Somewhere along the way my heart had decided to take matters into its own hands and, without any rational consultation with my brain, had decided to leap in with both feet. And while, initially, that hadn’t actually looked like the disaster it could have been, the firm ground I’d landed on turned out to be quicksand, and I was now scrabbling to pull myself out before my heart became irrevocably damaged. Although, from the tight, painful feeling in my chest, it had already suffered far more injury than I’d anticipated.

  Inside the shop, Flora was moving towards the door, flapping at me to wait. Pulling the door open, she beckoned me in.

  ‘I can’t today, Flora. I really need to get home.’

  She studied me for a moment. ‘You know already.’

  I shook my head, pushing a stray, damp lock of hair back behind my ear. ‘About Nate? Yes. I had the pleasure of meeting his ex-wife. Or apparently not so ex-wife. So yes, I know. Hence I just want to get inside, not to mention I’m soaked.’

  She pulled me in. ‘I can see that. Come in here a moment.’ I didn’t have the energy to protest any further. ‘Nate’s ex is here?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But I thought…’ she trailed off. I knew what she’d thought. She’d seen him leave my flat earlier this morning for a start.

  ‘Yes, I thought so too,’ I shrugged.

  She gave a brief shake of her head. ‘We’ll come back to him in a minute.’

  ‘There’s nothing to come back to, Flora. Honestly. I’d rather just forget about it all.’

  Flora gave me a look. ‘Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be as easy as it sounds.’

  I shrugged. ‘It was just a couple of days. How hard can it be?’ I tried to smile but the action felt alien and from the look on my friend’s face, it didn’t look much better from the outside. ‘Anyway, what did you mean, what should I know?’

  The sympathetic look on Flora’s face caused my insides to twist into even more knots, which, considering how my day was already going, took some doing, but my stomach still managed it. She took my hand and led me over to the counter. From underneath she took a tablet and woke it up. The page displayed a website of a popular gossip magazine and right in the middle of it, splashed in big letters were the words ‘Mystery Influencer Unveiled!’

  Underneath was a picture of my Instagram feed, including the one I’d taken earlier today of Carrie’s Christmas tree. And next to that was a shot of me in my apron, at work, clearly with no idea I was being photographed. With all the shit that was hitting the fan today, it would definitely have been a good idea to have been prepared with some make-up but, by the time Nate had left, I’d barely had time to shower and get dressed in order not to be late. Had I known someone was planning to sneak pictures which would then be spread over the internet, not to mention meet Nate’s super hot ex, I might have made a different choice…

  Sophia Jones, an unassuming waitress and cleaner from the small village of Wishington Bay on the south-west coast of England has been today, thanks to a secret source, unveiled as the mystery influencer behind the cleaning blog that’s becoming a firm favourite among followers. Ms Jones has refused to reply to any of our attempts to contact her in order to explain why she wanted her blog persona to remain a secret but, having seen other similar blogs succeed and bring success to their owners, we can’t imagine she’ll be anything but grateful! Watch this space for more news.

  Grateful? Grateful?! There were a lot of things I was feeling right now and not one of them was grateful. I was also pretty sure who their anonymous source was, but that was the least of my worries right now.

  ‘Are you OK, lovely?’

  I looked up from the screen and met Flora’s eyes. ‘I’m fine.’ I was every emotion other than fine, but it seemed like the right thing to say. A very British thing to say and, had my mother ever been proud of me, she might have been so now for not collapsing into a puddle behind the shop counter.

  ‘You don’t look fine.’

  I could believe that.

  ‘Can I ask something?’ she asked, her voice soft.

  I nodded.

  ‘Why have you been trying to keep it all a secret? Everyone seems so concerned about Likes and popularity these days. Why not you?’

  I opened my mouth to reply but was stopped by the door flying open and Corinne bursting into the shop.

  25

  ‘Oh my God! You’re a Lady?’ She let out a laugh that was nothing but cold amusement. ‘No wonder you didn’t want anyone to know about your stupid Insta account! Did Nate know he had aristocracy cleaning his toilet?’ Her laugh was high-pitched and annoying as a word that began with a capital F. ‘I guess we should have all been bowing in front of you at the restaurant.’

  ‘As a female, you should curtsey. Not that you’d know anything about manners,’ Flora lashed out at Corinne, who for a moment looked stunned at this kindly, elegant lady putting her in her place. ‘And I assume it was you who contacted this magazine?’

  Corinne gave a smug smile. ‘It was. And why shouldn’t I? Got paid a nice bonus for it too. Some of us weren’t born with a silver spoon in our mouths and have to earn our own money.’

  ‘Oh, don’t talk such rubbish. Your parents have spoiled you rotten from the day you arrived on this earth so don’t act all hard done by,’ Flora snapped back. I was still numb and although words screamed and raced in my head, nothing seemed inclined to make its way out.

  Corinne flashed her a dirty look which Flora gave right back.

  ‘I guess your little fling with Nate is well and truly over now. Even if his wife wasn’t back, he had that big thing about being honest, and I guess finding out you’ve been lying to him, actually to the whole village, hasn’t gone down well.’

  I met the cold glare.

  ‘Yeah, Serena and I have become really good Facebook friends after I found her page,’ Corinne continued. ‘We’ve got so much in common.’

  That I didn’t doubt.

  ‘And then, of course, when I told her Nate was obviously miserable without her, she told me the thing with the tennis guy wasn’t working out anyway so I suggested she come over and surprise him. I’m sure he’s thrilled!’

  He didn’t look thrilled but then he’d looked pretty thunderous at me too, so I wasn’t really in much of a position to talk.

  ‘She messaged me after you’d been to the house. He’s livid with you, by the way. But, of course, we both thought it was hilarious that you’re supposed to be this super rich aristo type and there you are with a bog brush in your hand half the time. Oh my God! I mean, I can’t even!’

  ‘I think it’s time you left,’ Flora said.

  ‘I’m not done yet.’

  ‘Oh, you’re done. You’re more than done,’ Flora returned in a voice that didn’t offer space for argument. ‘And I want you off my premises right now. Also, you’re barred.’ She hustled Corinne out of the door and shut it firmly behind her before looking back at me.

  ‘You OK?’

  I nodded automatically. ‘I need to go home now.’

  ‘Of course, love.’ She rested her hand
on the catch. ‘Is it true?’ Her voice was soft.

  Again, I nodded. There was no point denying anything now. ‘Yes. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before and I’m sure you have questions, which I promise I’ll answer, but right now I—’

  ‘You don’t need to explain anything to me, love,’ Flora said as she pulled me into a gentle hug. ‘You’re a wonderful person and that’s the friend I love. It doesn’t matter to me what your name, or your title is. I’m sure you have your reasons to have kept it to yourself, but they’re your reasons and you should only explain them if you want to. Remember that.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, feeling the tears swim in my eyes but, with years of training behind me, I refused to let them fall in public.

  She patted my hand, opened the door, and I quickly made my way to my front door, unlocked it, and bolted it behind me before dropping my bag and pelting up the stairs, barely making it to the bathroom before I threw up.

  I woke to the unfamiliar sound of voices outside my flat. It usually took a while for the village to rise from slumber in the winter, and the peacefulness was something I loved about the place, having spent a great deal of time over the years in London. Shoving the covers back, I shuffled my feet into cosy slippers and moved across to the window. Peering cautiously through a gap in the curtains, I looked down to the street. Quickly I took a step back as my legs suddenly weakened. Putting my hand out blindly behind me, I felt for the end of the bed before sinking down on to it. The voices continued outside, but they were being drowned out by the clanging that now reverberated in my brain. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. I’d worked so hard on building a new life. A life away from everything that had made me unhappy before and now all that had come rushing back, careering into the present and shattering the calm, happy existence I so loved.

  ‘Lady Sophia! Lady Sophia!’ The shouts permeated my thoughts and I could hear the front door being thumped and banged. I put my hands up to my ears, trying to shut it out. Perhaps, if I closed my eyes and pretended it wasn’t happening, I could transport myself back into the better world I’d found. It didn’t work. Of course, it didn’t. I wasn’t bloody Dorothy trying to get home from Oz, and no matter what I’d tried to pretend, I was Lady Sophia Huntingdon-Jones and it appeared that no one was going to let me forget that.