From London with Love

by Jemma Forte

  ‘What the hell was Natasha doing looking through his diary?’ blustered Jessica, furious to have been put in this position, and hating the fact that Paul had been given cause to feel suspicious, something she knew would have tormented him terribly. How could she have been so stupid as not to have rung Jimmy Choo to warn them Natasha would be coming instead of her? She needed to get to Natasha before she wreaked any more damage.

  ‘Hardly the thing I’m most worried about right now,’ Paul snapped, frustrated and annoyed suddenly. He’d been waiting to be reassured for nearly a week now and his patience had just run out.

  ‘OK,’ said Jessica, wishing she didn’t have to do this now. She felt grimy and horrid from travelling but knew it couldn’t wait. ‘Firstly, there is an explanation and, secondly, when I tell you what it is, you’ll understand why I couldn’t say anything before.’

  ‘Go on,’ said Paul. Now that she’d admitted there was ‘something’ to explain, his voice had taken on a cold edge.

  ‘I’ve been babysitting Mike’s kids,’ she said quickly.

  Paul couldn’t have looked more surprised if she’d told him she was an Elvis impersonator in her spare time.

  ‘He and Diane, his wife, were in a real fix, so a while back I offered to help out. Anyway, it turned out – and if you repeat this to anyone, I’ll be so upset. Promise you won’t?’ she said.

  ‘Promise,’ said Paul dumbly.

  ‘It turned out that Diane wasn’t very well. Since having their second baby, Ava, she’s been rather depressed, so I’ve been helping out on a regular basis, afternoons here and there and a bit of babysitting, you know? Anyway, I really like the kids and I’ve enjoyed it actually,’ she said defensively. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, it’s just I promised Diane and Mike that I wouldn’t tell anyone. They didn’t want the whole office gossiping about them.’

  ‘I see,’ said Paul, astonished and a little irked about how much had been kept from him. ‘And you really felt you couldn’t tell me any of this? I mean, fair enough if Diane’s been ill. I can see why she wouldn’t want everybody knowing about that, but why didn’t you just tell me you were doing babysitting for them?’

  Jessica swallowed.

  ‘Oh, I get it. So all that market research stuff is bollocks then?’ he said, starting to figure things out aloud. ‘And you must have lied to me some evenings too.’

  Now Paul was looking pretty unimpressed and Jessica found herself struggling to come up with a decent defence. Maybe she’d got so used to being secretive in England that all her lies had meshed into one. She probably had lost a bit of perspective. What harm would it have done to have given Paul a bit of a heads up? She knew she could trust him implicitly.

  ‘Mike didn’t want anyone to know, but I was going to tell you anyway. I just wanted to check with Diane first,’ she said truthfully. ‘Which I finally got round to the other day, just before I went away. I’ve been meaning to for ages, but every time I go round there, it gets so busy with the little ones I end up getting side-tracked.’

  Paul shrugged his shoulders, almost giving himself a bit of a shake, as if to rid himself of the air of unease that had been surrounding him. Jessica was right. She hadn’t done anything wrong. In fact, she’d been helping people and it just hadn’t been the right time to tell him. He walked towards her.

  ‘Look, let’s just forget about it, shall we?’ he said firmly. ‘I don’t want to spend any more time worrying about bloody Mike. Not when we’ve got dinner at his house to get through tonight and not when we’ve got serious catching up to do.’

  ‘Me neither,’ giggled Jessica. She could see she’d been let off the hook and felt swamped with relief. Happily she let him pull her towards him and kiss her gently, then more hungrily as their feelings took over.

  ‘As long as you haven’t got any more deep, dark secrets hidden away,’ laughed Paul, leading her towards the bedroom.

  Jessica didn’t reply. After all, how could she?

  Still, telling Paul about her sideline in childcare had come as a huge relief and the time had come to fill Kerry in too. Now that the Bond show was over, she was ready to give in her notice and officially become Diane’s nanny.

  40

  ‘All quiet on the western front?’ asked Mike as Diane crept into the kitchen, having just put the girls to bed.

  ‘Think so. Had to promise Grace we’d save her some pudding though.’

  ‘No worries there,’ grinned Mike. He’d gone rather overboard on food, so excited was he about entertaining his younger colleagues tonight. He wanted them to have a really nice time. He also wanted to show them that he wasn’t such a bad guy and that he wasn’t so different to them either. Of course, being Mike, he hadn’t stopped to think that a ‘spag bol’ and a few beers might, in that case, have been more appropriate. As it was, his guests were going to be treated to a three-course meal, which included stuffed sirloin of beef, home-made chocolate mousse and some very expensive wine. He’d be offering them champagne on arrival and had put olives, crisps and cheese straws out for people to nibble on.

  This was the first dinner party Mike and Diane had given since they’d had Ava and tidying the house, laying the table, preparing the food, getting two children fed, washed and into bed had been an enormous challenge, but one they’d risen to rather well as a couple, he thought. He was inordinately proud of his wife. She’d raced around just as frantically as him all day and as long as no one looked in any of the cupboards (where they’d stuffed most of the children’s plastic crap), no one would ever know what a feat it had been to get it all done in time.

  ‘Well, if you’re under control in here then I might just go and put some lippy on quickly,’ said Diane.

  ‘Yes, do, darling, I’m fine. Though I’m wondering which wine glasses we should use. The normal ones or our wedding crystal?’

  ‘Oh, normal I think, definitely,’ said Diane. ‘It’s not Christmas. You don’t want to look like you’re trying too hard.’

  Mike considered this for a second. The crystal probably would be a flourish too far, he thought, as he went to retrieve some freshly baked ciabatta from the oven. ‘Right as ever,’ he conceded. Then, ‘Come here, you. You look lovely in that top. Makes your boobs look great.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Diane, going to give her husband a hug. There was no need to tell him she’d hiked them up with a Wonderbra. Two children later, what had once been her pride and joy looked a bit like deflated balloons these days. Spaniel’s ears.

  ‘I have to say, I feel all right too,’ she said. ‘I’m actually looking forward to this evening, whereas a few months ago I couldn’t have even contemplated it.’

  ‘Mmm,’ said Mike, suddenly feeling a bit fruity. Diane had finished breast-feeding and, while he knew it wasn’t very ‘new mannish’ of him to admit it, he was happy to reclaim what were rightfully his once more. ‘Well, if you play your cards right,’ he said suggestively, ‘maybe later we could do something else we haven’t done in months?’

  Diane giggled. ‘Maybe,’ she replied just as the doorbell rang. ‘They’re here,’ she squealed, beyond excited about seeing Jessica. She had a delicious secret to share with her, one she’d been hugging to herself all day.

  Forty minutes later, Kerry, Luke, Natasha, Paul and Jessica were seated around the Connors’ dining table. Conversation, which had been stilted at first while they’d all taken in their surroundings and got used to the fact that Mike was wearing an apron, was now flowing. They’d all devoured Mike’s tasty avocado and crab salad starter and he was serving up delicious-smelling beef, potato dauphinoise and vegetables. Meanwhile, Diane had decided that now was as good a time as any to bring up the elephant in the room. Having spoken to Jessica on the phone earlier, she knew everyone was now aware of what had been going on, in terms of her looking after the children. She also knew that Kerry hadn’t taken the news that well.

  ‘Kerry, I honestly don’t know what I’d have done without Jessica over these last couple of
months,’ piped up Diane, ‘but I want you to know that I never deliberately set out to poach her. Did I, Mike?’

  ‘Er, no,’ her husband answered doubtfully.

  ‘And Jessica only kept it secret because I asked her to,’ added Diane bravely. ‘You see, I wasn’t in a particularly good place. I was suffering from post-natal depression, to be completely frank. Not a very severe case, but bad enough, so she was helping me out in more ways than one …’

  Jessica glanced nervously at Kerry to gauge her reaction. She wasn’t exactly cracking open the party poppers, but she did give Jessica a small smile. Bless Diane for speaking up like that.

  Having phoned everybody earlier to tell them about her moonlighting, and to tell Kerry that she planned on leaving once she’d helped her find a new assistant, Jessica had decided that one secret at a time was enough to cope with. The revelation that she’d been working for Mike as opposed to anything more suspect seemed to have silenced Natasha too, for now. So instead of telling Paul her life story she’d kept quiet, figuring one more day couldn’t possibly make any difference. As a result, the two of them had spent a lovely day, happily lazing around in bed, watching DVDs, making love and sleeping. She planned on having the ‘other chat’ with him on Sunday. Tomorrow.

  ‘Kerry,’ said Jessica, ‘you’ve been an awesome boss and I’ve enjoyed working for you so much, but I bet your next assistant will be better than me. I’m not sure I’m entirely cut out for showbiz really, whereas I love being around children. In fact, for the first time ever I’m starting to work out what I should do with my life. And, besides, you’ve got me for two more weeks so I’ll help set up all the interviews.’

  Kerry shrugged, not convinced. ‘Well, I thought you were great at the job myself. I doubt whoever I get next would be able to salvage a disaster like you did the other week when Nadia Vladinokova dropped us in it.’

  Jessica blushed and was about to reply when, to her surprise, Diane winked at her.

  ‘So what have you decided you want to do?’ asked Paul, picking up on what she’d said before. ‘You never told me that part.’

  ‘Well, I’d rather not say yet,’ Jessica said coyly. ‘Not till I’ve looked into it a bit more and stuff.’

  ‘Oh, hang on now,’ said Diane. ‘You can’t keep us in suspense like that. At least give us a clue?’

  ‘Yeah, go on,’ encouraged Luke.

  ‘O-K,’ said Jessica hesitantly. ‘Well, I was thinking that while I’m working for Diane I might also look into doing a course in child psychology. I think I’d like to be some kind of child therapist one day.’

  ‘You’d be amazing at that,’ enthused Diane. ‘You’ve got such a great way with children, so it follows that you’d be brilliant at understanding how their minds work.’

  ‘I agree. I mean, I haven’t seen you with the kids but you’ve said yourself you’re not that fussed about working in TV so I think it’s brilliant that you’re finding out what it is you really want to do,’ said Paul supportively.

  Natasha rolled her eyes. She was growing heartily bored of this ‘Jessica appreciation’ evening. ‘Well, I’m just relieved there won’t be any more cloak and dagger behaviour in the office,’ she interjected. ‘I mean, at one point I thought you and Mike were having an affair.’

  Diane swivelled round to glare at Natasha, her expression thunderous.

  ‘I mean … not an affair obviously … that was a joke … just something fishy … Anyway, where did you two meet?’ Natasha improvised hastily, scrabbling out of the hole she’d created.

  ‘You tell them,’ grinned Mike, reaching over to squeeze Diane’s hand affectionately.

  ‘At a rave,’ said Diane, still glaring at Natasha.

  Paul couldn’t help himself. ‘Come again? You met Mike at a rave? As in a rave in a club?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Mike. ‘Well, it was more of a warehouse than a club really, wasn’t it, darling?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Diane, a wistful smile playing on her lips. ‘I’ll never forget you writing your phone number on my tummy.’

  Paul looked so stunned that Jessica had to giggle. Luke was similarly flabbergasted. Kerry and Natasha had both stopped eating, even though their mouths were full of food.

  ‘I always had you down as more of a James Blunt kind of guy,’ said Luke eventually.

  ‘Oh, I am,’ said Mike. ‘I love James Blunt. Don’t you?’

  Luke didn’t reply. He was too busy struggling with an image of Mike, Mike who played golf and talked about property all the time, wearing white gloves and dancing on speakers to drum ’n’ bass. It was turning out to be quite an evening, although he was still mortified about his earlier faux pas. Mike had offered him a glass of ‘poo’ as soon as he’d walked in and not ever having heard this middle-class shortening of the word champagne before, he’d assumed Mike was making some kind of juvenile, lavatorial joke. As a result he’d replied, to Mike’s alarm, ‘No thanks, but I’ll have a glass of piss, please.’

  Mike had looked totally baffled until a highly amused Kerry had pointed out his mistake. And now all his assumptions about Mike were being challenged. Maybe his boss hadn’t segued from school uniform straight into chinos and dinner parties after all?

  ‘Blimey,’ said Paul, impressed as the world of the Connors seemed to turn on its head.

  ‘Oh, everyone has a past, you know,’ said Mike, looking at Paul. ‘And it’s not always what you think.’

  Jessica chuckled to herself, loving the revelations and proud of Mike and Diane for managing to silence some of the most outspoken people she knew.

  ‘In fact,’ said Mike, getting up, ‘let’s put a few old house tracks on now, shall we?’

  Bounding eagerly over to where his iPod was, he switched off the carefully constructed dinner party playlist that was currently emanating from it and scrolled through his tunes till he found a Utah Saints track.

  ‘It’s true,’ shouted Diane, struggling to compete with the thudding bass line that was suddenly booming around her kitchen. ‘People are never what they seem on the surface.’

  As she said this, once again Jessica was alarmed to note that Diane was staring right at her, a disconcertingly knowing expression on her face.

  The evening continued apace, everyone having to shout to be heard over the hardcore house music that Mike was now insisting on playing. For the first time ever he’d sensed some grudging respect from his workmates and as a result was determined to go with his new image of a raver. An image that was rather ruined when, as he doled out dessert, Diane suddenly started flapping at him to turn the music off. When he did, the sound of Grace screaming for her mother could be heard through the monitor.

  ‘Switch that bloody racket off,’ snapped Diane. ‘It’s woken Grace.’

  ‘Shit,’ said Mike sheepishly, dashing over to turn the volume down.

  ‘I can’t wait to see her,’ said Jessica longingly. ‘I’ve really missed her.’

  ‘Then let’s both go,’ insisted Diane. ‘Come on.’

  Grace was delighted when both her mother and Jessica appeared in her room, but was so sleepy that she didn’t take too long to settle back down.

  ‘Switch my light on,’ she instructed, her eyes already drooping shut. ‘Stroke my hair.’

  ‘Yes, madame,’ whispered Diane affectionately, nodding at Jessica to go. Jessica started creeping out of the room but Grace immediately opened one eye again and whined, ‘I want Jessica to stay too, Mummy.’

  ‘OK, darling, Jess will stay. We both will,’ Diane said, stroking her little girl’s hair, soothing her back to sleep. Jessica crept over to the chair in the corner of the room and sat down. A couple of minutes later when it looked like Grace had finally dropped off, Diane turned to Jessica. ‘Are you OK?’

  ‘Yeah, I’m having a great time, thanks,’ Jessica whispered back. ‘The food’s delicious. Mike’s a great cook.’

  ‘Listen, before we go back down I have to tell you something,’ said Diane, grinning madly.
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br />   ‘OK …’

  ‘I think I know.’

  ‘Know what?’ said Jessica, at a loss.

  ‘That you’re Edward Granger and Angelica Dupree’s daughter, aren’t you?’

  Jessica gaped at Diane, who was staring at her expectantly. It was such a shock to hear that said out loud. Her secret had been so well kept in England, she honestly couldn’t believe she’d been found out.

  ‘You are, aren’t you? Go on, you can tell me.’

  ‘How do you know?’ managed Jessica eventually, realizing there was nothing to be gained from a denial. This clearly wasn’t a random guess.

  ‘Well, I was having a quick flick through Hello,’ said Diane, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. ‘And there was this huge picture of Edward Granger at an airport, with a girl who clearly didn’t want her picture taken because she had a jacket wrapped round her head. Anyway, for some strange reason the girl’s legs caught my eye and, you’re going to think this is mad, but I sort of recognized them. Anyway, the more I stared, the more this person reminded me of you, because I could have sworn you had the same jacket too. Anyway, at first I thought it must be coincidence, so I was just staring and thinking, well, if it was Jess, what the hell would be she doing with Edward Granger? So then I got on the Internet, looked up Edward Granger and eventually a picture of you cropped up, taken a while back I think, with your friend – Dulcie, isn’t it? At some fundraiser.’

  Jessica nodded mutely and Diane clapped her hands together, delighted by the gossip. ‘I just can’t believe you didn’t tell me.’

  ‘I haven’t told anyone,’ said Jessica quickly, suddenly on her feet, her body having gone into fight or flight mode. ‘Not even Paul.’