He's Talking Secrets

by Rose, taylor

  “So how did the sleeping tablets get into your system?”

  Fleur put a hand on her chest and looked all innocent. “I have no idea. I don’t remember a thing.”

  “Thank you Miss Marriet. We may be wishing to talk to you again but that is enough information for now.”

  ”Darling, I am so glad I could help.”

  They all turned to leave the room.

  “Darling, are you not going to stay with me? After all I have been through with your indiscretions? Please, come, sit with me.”

  “Miss Marriet, I am sorry but we need to discuss some details with Mr. De Lecour. Perhaps later?”

  She fell back against the pillows for effect, “Yes, of course.”

  As the door closed Marty turned to Brandon. “She’s nutty”

  Before Brandon could answer Detective Unimpressed turned towards them and said “We’ve viewed the surveillance tapes from the Hotel and your story seems to be correct. Miss Marriet’s manager did turn up with another man. And you left well before they did. In fact we found it a bit suspicious that in her state you would have left her alone.”

  Brandon was relieved to hear he seemed to be in the clear of any misconduct. Martin asked “If that is the case can you explain to me why both my client and I were asked to be here?”

  “Certainly, we had a tip off that Miss Marriet was making more of your relationship than is the actual case. And from the look on your face throughout her depiction of events I would say she is making something out of nothing.”

  The second Detective said that they had uniforms out searching for the mobile phone. ”So at this stage you are no longer a suspect but we would appreciate it if you could come down to the Station to make a formal statement for our Investigation, would tomorrow suit?”

  Brandon could think of nothing he would prefer not to do tomorrow. He needed to get back to Sophia. “Tomorrow would be fine.’ Was all he could manage saying.

  As he was leaving the Hospital his phone rang. It was Steve the Vet. Steve said that in light of what had gone on perhaps it would be better if he passed on Brandon’s phone number to Sophia rather than give out Sophia’s number to him. Brandon could see that if he didn’t agree to this then he was not going to get anywhere anyway. So he agreed and sent the message along that he really needed to speak to Sophia and would she please call him.

  Brandon hung up feeling frustrated and defeated. He needed to get into a car and drive out to the Estate and talk to Sophia face to face but that was not going to happen today. If he could get this police statement out of the way early tomorrow morning he would be clear to go.

  Sophia was admitting defeat; he was not going to call. Yet another day had gone by with no contact. “Oh, well” she sighed. She was grasping at straws, at least it was interesting for a week of her life. Who knew perhaps she would meet another specimen like Brandon, and maybe this one would stay!!!! Like hell. She thought. This was her last thought as she fell into another restless night’s sleep.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Tuesday

  Brandon woke early. He needed to get this statement out of the way and get going. He had received some good news very late last night and he couldn’t wait to share it with Sophia. Today was going to be a good day. Or else! He showered, packed a few things into a bag and drove himself to the Police Station, only to find that the detectives were nowhere to be seen. He had to wait. He was never very good at waiting. About an hour later both detectives strolled through the doors of the Station. Brandon pounced on them to get this out of the way. He was out of the door within the hour. He called by Martin’s legal offices to pick up the relevant paper work and was on the M1 heading for Sophia. Only now did he hesitate about how she was going to react to what had happened within the last few days. He knew how he felt but was completely in the dark about her feelings. He put his foot down.

  Sophia was out in the garden, having taken Lilly to school she didn’t feel like hiding inside the house, too many memories in every room. She was amazed that she knew this man for just a week whilst she had shared this place with another man for years and yet Archibald’s presence was never as strong. His family had a hold on the house but Archibald as a sole person was really non-existent, that made her feel sad and a little bit guilty. This had been Archibald’s home, his heritage, not hers. She continued on with her pruning. It gave her something to do. A car pulled into the driveway and up to the side of the house. Sophia recognized that it was Racheal’s little car and went to greet her.

  Racheal walked up to Sophia and gave her a silent hug. She didn’t speak nor did she let go for some time. “Come on, we are off to the pub for some lunch.” Racheal said.

  “Oh, I don’t….”

  “I am not taking no for an answer. You need to see for yourself that no one around here could give a toss about some silly movie star or her second rate performance the other night. We all just want you to be happy. And you are not going to see that unless you get out and mix with us, the great unwashed. So go get changed, we are having lunch at the Wobbly. I’ll wait.”

  Sophia smiled. “I am not getting out of this…..”

  “No you are not.”

  “And I want to go on record that I have never referred to anyone as the “Great unwashed.”

  “Whatever, My Lady. Get your coat.” Racheal said as she leaned against a garden statute and started to tap her foot, rather loudly.

  Sophia could not believe that it was only a week ago that she would have given anything for people to treat her as one of them. And here it was happening……

  Racheal and Sophia were sitting out the back in the garden on a big heavy bench seat with their glasses of wine when Ian came out to inform Lady Sophia (some people will never budge) that Brandon had tried to glean any of her phone numbers from him, but he had not given them to him. It was for her own benefit to distant herself from Brandon. Sophia just sat and listened to Ian as he relayed his rather strong and changed opinion about Brandon. Sophia could feel herself shutting down. Finally Racheal thanked Ian and basically told him to go away, every so politely. But with enough force that Ian left.

  Sophia only then realized that Brandon would not have a phone number for her because she didn’t have any of his phone numbers and she was sure he had more than one. So she had been hoping, waiting for him to ring her but never thinking that he had no way of doing that without the number.

  She and Racheal had a pretty good time sitting out the back of the Wobbly Boot with a few laughs and some silliness. She was very glad that Racheal had insisted that they do this. She looked at her watch only to realize that it was about time to pick up both Lilly and Jesse from school. Racheal offered to drive both of them to the school and drop Sophia and Lilly up at the Estate. Sophia accepted the offer. Whilst they were at the school a really large storm was brewing on the horizon. So they hurried to get the girls out of the storm before it hit.

  Within ten minutes the heaviest rain storm to ever hit just opened up over the top of the house. Lilly was concerned that the roof was going to fall in with the weight of the water. Everyone was sitting in the kitchen trying to have a conversation which had somehow turned into a game of charades because of the sheer noise. Suddenly the kitchen door blew open with a burst and a sheet of water entering the room instantly. Everyone turned around with Harold running over to close the door. “Oh, my, dear” was all Harold could manage to get out before a very, very wet Brandon and a not so little chestnut foal found their way right into the kitchen with a very, very wet Grace following him straight in to the kitchen as though it was very normal for a horse to enter the kitchen, without hesitation.

  All hell broke loose, strangely not because there was a rather large horse and her foal standing in the kitchen but because Brandon was standing there. Lilly and Jesse started to squeal, it was loud enough to be heard over the rain, and jump around the kitchen like they were suddenly full of sugar Agnes jumped up to get him a towel, because that was worthwhile
with two horses dripping water all over the floor. Sophia suggested that perhaps she would need more than one towel, maybe a couple of towels for all the guests. To this Brandon looked straight at Sophia and gave a hearty laugh. He looked around at the madness. Grace was standing there quite calmly with her little boy standing under her chin. Although it was a crazy idea there was really no logical reason to try to get a sizeable horse to go back out into this storm. And it would appear that Agnes had taken Sophia’s suggestion seriously because she arrived back with about 10 towels.

  The next few minutes where spent drying horses. Harold arrived with a dry T-shirt for Brandon, who was not at all shy in taking off his wet shirt and drying himself in front of them. Rachel thoroughly enjoyed the view, nearly spilling her drink down her shirt. The show was not missed on Agnes either, as she seemed unable to hold anything in her hands for the next five minutes and was generally flustered. In hindsight, Sophia wished that she had filmed the whole thing. It would have been a YouTube sensation overnight.

  Sophia did eventually get the chance to ask what had happened to cause Brandon to come through the door with the horses in tow. He had to shout that he had driven up the driveway only to see Grace running down the driveway. He realized that he couldn’t catch her but had all but tackled the little guy and basically carried him back to the house. He tried to get a stable door to open but trying to hold a wriggling horse and open the door was proving impossible so he headed for the house. He didn’t actually mean for horses to be in the kitchen. Brandon apologized for the disruption. Sophia just threw her head back and laughed. She had to explain, this Estate dated back to the 11th century and she was reasonably sure that a horse had never entered the house. She was pretty sure that it would have been recorded somewhere if it had happened, historically speaking.

  So in an attempt to look normal everyone sat around the kitchen table and drank hot chocolate provided by Agnes whilst Grace stood beside the long table with a blanket thrown over both her and her foal. Eventually the storm broke and it was time for Grace to go back to her stable. So Sophia went to get a halter and lead rope. Brandon really wanted to talk to Sophia privately. He needed to fill her in on what had happened and to try and find out what she was thinking. But she suggested that he go and get his car from the driveway. He realized that he would have to wait. At least Sophia was not openly hostile towards him. She seemed to be friendly, enough.

  So he ran down and retrieved his car, parked it out the back in the stable alley. Sophia, Grace and foal were standing outside Grace’s stable when Brandon approached. Sophia was looking a little perplexed. Brandon looked about to see what was worrying Sophia. Grace’s stable door was closed and locked. Sophia looked up at Brandon “Well unless both horses jumped out of a perfectly dry stable in the middle of that storm I would be guessing that someone opened the door and then locked them out. Who would do that?”

  “I could have a guess.” Brandon mumbled more to himself then to Sophia. She turned to him and looked at his face. “Would I be guessing you think it might be a slimy neighbor?”

  “That would be my guess.” Brandon said.

  Sophia put Grace away and started to walk towards the house. She looked over her shoulder and said ‘Are you going to stand there checking out my backside, or are you coming inside?”

  Brandon jumped at that “You have just given me a fantastic visual. That was very dangerous, you know.”

  Sophia started to run for the house only to have Brandon overtake her and open the door for her. As she walked past he bowed and said “My Lady.”

  “Oh good gracious.” Was all she said as she walked past him.

  Harold, Agnes, Rachel, Lilly and Jessie were still in the kitchen, still sitting around the table, talking about girls’ day at school. It hit Brandon yet again that this was a family unit and was very close knit. Could he belong to this?

  Chapter Thirty

  Harold looked up as they entered. He suggested that they might like to take their conversation into the library. He had already poured a couple of small ports, for the purpose of warming them up. So this was it, thought Sophia as they walked into the library. This is where she found out what he was thinking.

  Drinks in hands they sat opposite each other. Brandon felt that he should be the one to start after all he was the one who had caused the problems. “I am so sorry about the other night. I had no idea that Fleur was going to show up. I haven’t seen her in months.” He ran his hand through his hair in a sign of frustration. “I only went to a couple of functions with her, but I knew on our first date that she was a little strange and a complete drama queen, which probably suits her profession.” He laughed at that.

  “I agreed to take her to a movie premiere in Paris but I didn’t enjoy any part of the evening. She wouldn’t leave me alone and was telling anyone who would listen that we were a tight couple and that we were moving in together. I have never shared my life with a woman and I certainly was not going to have Fleur move in on me.” Sophia just sat and listened to what he had to say, there was not really anything else she could do. She was too curious to not hear him out. She had to ask “So what happened Saturday night?”

  “Fleur had had a driver bring her up here and then dismissed him back to London. I really just wanted to get her out of there and to stop embarrassing everyone, including herself. So I drove her back to London and had every intention of just dropping her off at her Hotel and leaving. But she hadn’t booked in anywhere. I organized a room and used her phone to ring her Manager to come and keep her company.”

  “And the photo in the Lift?” Sophia had to ask.

  “I actually think that I was set up, there. The flash went off just as the doors were closing and no doubt you saw the look on Fleur’s face. But she is an actress. I stayed with her until her Manager and a doctor turned up. Fleur fell asleep and I left her with the other two. That was the photo of me leaving in the early hours and again I would have to question who was out the front to get that shot of me leaving? I did not stay. I have no interest in any other woman, but you. You fascinate me. And I meant it when I told you that I love you, because I do. I have never felt this way for any other woman, but enough about that. I want to know what you are thinking.”

  Sophia put down her drink and tucked her feet underneath herself. “I don’t know. I mean look at you. You are like a God. I am just an average person. I’m not anything special. You’re recognized everywhere you go. You’re really famous. What do I have to offer you? How could I possibly hold you attention? I know that life doesn’t have many guarantees but I really don’t want to get involved in something that is going to end quickly. I don’t think I want to get involved because my heart will break when you move on to the next woman. I would rather not get involved at all. A bit of a chicken, I know, but it is easier for me to be on my own. So I don’t know……….I’m sorry.” She stood up to leave the room. Brandon stood up and put his arms around her and held her close. She didn’t want to feel him but the temptation was too strong. A silent tear fell down her face. It could be so easy to fall into him and not think about the consequences. She moved away from him slightly but looked at the floor.

  He said “I can’t guarantee the future but I can honestly say that I have never felt this way about anyone and I can see us as a couple for a very long time. I want to be with you 24 hours of the day, for every day of my life. And it scares me half to death that I feel this way, it scares me more to think that you may not be a part of my life.”

  There was a discreet knock on the library door. Harrold’s voice called out that Rachel and Jessie had gone home and Lilly would like to speak to Brandon as he apparently owed her a book reading before dinner. Brandon laughed at that. “Duty calls, I guess.” He kissed Sophia on the forehead and walked out the door and into the kitchen. Sophia followed. She couldn’t shake the feeling that he really did belong here. He just looked so at home.

  After several books and lots of protests about having to leave fo
r a bath Lilly and Sophia went upstairs whilst Brandon stayed in the kitchen. Sophia and Lilly came back down to dinner with all sitting around the kitchen table to eat. It was noisy and entertaining. Agnes left the washing up for Brandon to do. Cheeky bugger! But Brandon got into the dish washing whilst Sophia and Lilly went back upstairs for bed. He had finished only to have Harold come in with his old book from the other night. Brandon’s eyes lit up and opened to the page he had stopped at, the other night. It was one of the most interesting books he had read in years. So when Sophia came down she found him absorbed in what she thought was yet another old book. She poured herself a glass of water and sat down to watch him, discreetly.

  “You are making it very hard to concentrate on this book when you are staring at me.”

  “I am not staring, I was watching you discreetly.”

  He turned the page with great care “remind never to send you in behind enemy lines to spy.”

  He put the book down very gently. “Can I stay here tonight in the room, beside you? Whereby I will get no sleep because I will be next door to you and I know of a secret passage way into a certain beautiful Ladies room. But I have something planned for tomorrow and I need to be here early. My final argument is that I don’t think that Ian will welcome me back to the Wobbly Boot anytime soon and I am too tall to try and sleep in my car.” He looked at her with his best puppy dog face.