by Holly Martin
‘Yes, I’d love to. I’m sure it’s up to the normal high standards of your first series.’
That was a very diplomatic way of saying the second series was shit.
‘I’ve told him not to write anything crap, we don’t want a repeat of the utter rubbish that was the Hidden Faces series,’ Milly said and Cameron smiled to himself.
‘Cameron is a very gifted writer, every word he writes is pure gold,’ Olivia said, defensively.
‘It’s all right Liv, Milly knows I didn’t write it. Anyway, I’m taking a week’s holiday from it now, while Milly is here. I’ll feel a lot fresher when I go back to it.’
‘I don’t think you should let yourself get distracted,’ Olivia said. ‘You need to meet your deadline.’
‘My deadline isn’t until the beginning of August, I have plenty of time.’
The kettle boiled and he made three cups of tea and carried them to the table.
‘How did it go with Castle Heritage?’
Cameron thought about how to answer that for a moment. ‘It’s still ongoing.’
‘I thought they were coming out last week?’
‘They did, we need to wait for the test results.’
‘Did they seem keen?’
‘I don’t know. It’s tricky because a lot of the exterior is not part of the original building. But I have a really good offer from Extravagance.’
‘I thought you were going to go with Palace Hotels if Castle Heritage couldn’t help you?’
‘I never said that, I said I would consider it, but the offer from Extravagance is much better, plus I get to stay here too.’
‘You’re seriously thinking of staying here?’
‘The last few days have shown me what I’ve been missing. I’ve seen it in a new light.’
‘Have you signed anything, agreed to anything?’ Olivia asked.
‘No, not yet.’
He dished up the two breakfasts onto plates and the piece of toast too and carried them all over to the table.
‘Let me look into this Extravagance company first. I’ve not heard of them, let me do some digging.’
‘Go ahead,’ Milly said, over the rim of her mug, daring Olivia to find any dirt on her brother. Milly was acting defensive with Olivia and he didn’t know why. Olivia missed the underlying threat in Milly’s voice completely but for Cameron it was as if she had shouted it.
‘I just don’t think you should sign with a bunch of cowboys.’
Cameron placed a restraining hand on Milly’s shoulder before she could say anything.
‘I’m very impressed with Extravagance but some research on them wouldn’t hurt. And if Palace Hotels want to come back with a further offer, I’d definitely be open to it.’
He sat down next to Milly and gave her hand a squeeze under the table before he started eating his breakfast.
Milly didn’t take her eyes off Olivia as she started to eat hers.
Cameron sighed. This blissful week he had planned was not turning out as well as he had expected.
‘I need to go down to the village for some things, Milly do you want to come?’ Cameron asked after breakfast.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Olivia said, practically shooting out of her seat.
Milly smiled sweetly at him. ‘I think I’ll stay here.’
‘Ok, well I’m having a rope ladder made, it’s supposed to be ready to collect today. So when I come back …’
‘Yes,’ Milly interrupted, her eyes lighting up. She immediately pulled her pink sparkly trainers on. ‘I’ll get a few things ready.’
He opened the door and let Olivia go ahead of him. There was a white Triumph TR2 on the drive, an old classic car. It obviously wasn’t Olivia’s as her car, a sporty black BMW, was parked next to it, so it had to belong to Milly. The villagers had been as good as their word.
‘Hey Milly, is this yours?’ Cameron called back into the kitchen.
Milly peered round the door and then threw herself at the car, leaning her head on the bonnet with her arms wide as if she was actually hugging it. Cameron couldn’t help the huge grin from spreading over his face.
‘Dick, they brought you back, are you ok?’
She was talking to the car, Cameron didn’t think he’d seen anything so adorable before.
‘You call your car Dick?’ Olivia asked.
‘Yes, well my brother called him that and it sort of stuck.’ Milly walked round the car, inspecting it from all angles.
‘Why would you call your car Dick?’
‘Because he looks like a whale shark.’ She gestured to the unusual inverted grill underneath the bonnet that did indeed look like a giant mouth with teeth. ‘You know, Moby Dick, the great white whale?’
Olivia laughed politely though he wasn’t sure she totally got the reference.
‘We’ll see you soon,’ Cameron said. He strode off down the drive, but realising that Olivia was struggling a bit in her heels on the gravel, he took her arm and guided her out the gates until they were on the smooth road outside.
‘Milly seems nice,’ Olivia said, though Cameron guessed that she was being diplomatic. ‘Where did you two meet?’
Cameron knew that Olivia had wanted to come with him so she could talk to him about Milly.
‘She’s a friend.’
‘How long has she been your friend?’
‘It feels like a thousand years. Please don’t worry about her.’
‘Of course I worry, you’re my friend and you don’t pick wisely when it comes to the girls you choose to sleep with. First Eva screwed you for every penny you had and the last three have sold their stories to the papers.’
Cameron winced at the memory. The girls had all seemed nice, out for a quick shag, nothing serious. Maybe they had got involved with him in the hope they’d get taken to nice restaurants or be given expensive gifts, but none of them had seemed like the type to sell their stories to the papers. It really did go to show that you couldn’t trust anyone. Olivia put a hand on his arm and he stopped to look at her. Her green eyes were soft with concern. He trusted Olivia, she was his friend and she only wanted the best for him.
‘I don’t want you to get hurt again. The last time I saw you, you said you were taking a break from women. And I understand that you get lonely, especially up here, but please be careful. You’ve already told Milly about the Hidden Faces series not being yours, if that sort of thing gets out you could be in a whole heap of trouble. You know most women are only after your money, that sort of information would be worth a fortune in the wrong hands.’
‘Milly’s not like that, she’s different.’
‘You said that about the last girlfriend, Stacey, and she screwed you over in the papers. All those lies she told about you, it broke my heart to read them.’
‘I know, it hurt me too. I know you’re worried but you don’t need to be about Milly. Trust me.’
Cameron turned away, walking along the short road towards the green. Stacey had been very sweet, a bit ditzy maybe, but never in a million years had he thought she would ever go to the papers and sell them a complete pack of lies. She had even denied she had done it afterwards, sobbing down the phone to him. Of course he hadn’t believed her, all the photos had come from her phone and there were snippets of real information in there that only Stacey and those closest to him would know.
He stepped out onto the village green. All the festivities from the night before had been cleared away, so no one would ever know what had gone on there. He looked at the giant oak tree in the middle which Milly had been tied to and smiled. Best night of his life.
Tucked into the corner of the L-shaped road was the little thatched pub. He wondered how welcome he would be in there now, since he had agreed to be in the play. Would the villagers stop chanting “Oogie” at him every time he walked past?
‘Lord Heartstone,’ a voice boomed out across the green.
Cameron turned to see the vicar that had married him and Milly the night before st
riding towards them. He was still wearing his cassock, making Cameron wonder if he was a real vicar.
The vicar shook his hand. ‘Congratulations on the happy occasion. I presume, as you and Milly didn’t join us for the celebrations last night, that you went home to consummate the marriage.’
Cameron blushed and Olivia stared between them in confusion.
‘You did consummate the marriage, didn’t you? It’s very important.’
‘Erm … yes.’
‘Good, good, excellent in fact.’ The vicar strode off and Cameron stared after him in confusion. The wedding the night before had been part of the play, it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real.
He turned back to Olivia. ‘Stay here for a second.’
He sprinted after the vicar.
‘Wait, wait.’ He caught up with him. ‘The wedding, last night. That wasn’t a real wedding was it?’
Chapter Fifteen
Milly was drilling into one of the wooden beams in the banqueting hall when she heard Cameron return.
She heard him call for her.
Not wanting to draw attention to her whereabouts if he was with Olivia, she quickly put the sample from the beam into a bag, labelled it, plopped it into her briefcase with the other three samples she had taken and put the drill away.
‘There you are, what are you doing?’ Cameron asked as he walked towards her.
‘Is Olivia with you?’ she whispered.
‘No, she’s sending some emails in the kitchen.’
‘I’m just doing a few tests now I’ve got the rest of my equipment back.’
‘You’re on holiday.’
‘Believe it or not, this kind of stuff is exciting for me. Don’t worry, it won’t get in the way of … us. I just thought I’d do some while you were out.’
Cameron looked over her samples with interest. ‘Tell me about it.’
Milly looked over Cameron’s shoulder to make sure they were alone.
‘It’s called Dendrochronology, which is tree ring dating. We can tell a lot about the age of these pieces of wood from the rings.’
‘One ring per year?’
She shook her head. ‘No, it’s not that simple, if a year had been particularly rainy then you might get several rings in that year. So we have to compare the samples with samples taken from other local trees that we have dated and the patterns at certain points will match up. It’s quite a detailed process but I can show you some samples or photographs of samples I have with me and explain how I come up with an exact date.’
Cameron grinned. ‘I’d love that.’
She looked at him and laughed. ‘You would not! I’m such a geek and this stuff makes me really excited but you’re very sweet for humouring me.’
He moved closer, his hand at her waist. ‘I love your passion for stuff like this. It’s infectious.’
She smiled. ‘I’ve thought recently about becoming a lecturer and teaching people about it.’
‘You would be amazing at that. Trust me when I say I could listen to you talk about it all day long.’
‘Well, I’ll bore you about it all one day. Not now though, we have a cove to explore. Did you get the rope ladder?’
He nodded.
‘I put together a picnic. I know we’ve just had breakfast but I thought …’ she trailed a finger over his chest. ‘We could spend a little while down there.’
He smiled. ‘I’d like that.’
‘Well let’s go.’
They walked back to the kitchen and Milly stowed her stuff in the cupboard in her bedroom, just in case Olivia was feeling a bit nosy. When she returned, Cameron had the picnic bag slung over one shoulder and what was probably the rope ladder in another bag.
Olivia was talking on the phone and Cameron waved to get her attention.
‘Hold on one second,’ Olivia said to whoever was on the other end of the phone and gave Cameron and Milly her undivided attention. Well, probably more Cameron than Milly.
‘We’re just heading out for a bit, will you be ok on your own for a while?’
‘I’ll be fine, I have a ton of emails to reply to so I’ll be kept very busy. Go and have fun.’ She flashed Cameron a huge smile and Milly tried to find a reason to hate her but couldn’t. She was such a nice person and Milly regretted that her first impression of Olivia wasn’t a good one.
Cameron escorted her out, taking her hand as he walked into the banquet hall.
‘I’m sorry, I know it must be a bit weird for you, having Olivia here when we’re just getting to know each other, but she’s lovely, you’ll like her a lot if you give her a chance.’
Remembering how accepting Cameron had been of Jamie just because she had vouched for him made her want to do the same for his friends.
‘I will, I’m sorry, I just got the impression that she didn’t like me when we first met.’
‘Well, I’m sure that’s not the case but if it was, it’s only because she’s looking out for me. She’s scared I’m going to get hurt again. And she does a good job of organising me. I haven’t got the patience or inclination to organise myself, I can’t fault her for that. Look, let’s try to enjoy ourselves over the next few days. I’m sure she will love you as much as I do before she goes and then she will know she’s leaving me in safe hands.’
Milly nodded, determined to make a good impression on Olivia and to be nice to her too.
They walked quickly up the stairs and into the study. Cameron pushed the bookshelf open, and it swung easily now he had broken the locking mechanism.
As Milly stepped into the little chamber with him, he closed the shelf behind them, plunging them into darkness. Although she couldn’t see him, just holding his hand was enough to keep her calm. He switched on his torch and unbolted the door and then closed it again behind them.
They made their way down the stairs in silence, following the tunnel to the fork and taking the right one that slanted steeply into the earth. Eventually, following the sounds of the sea, they came to the entrance in the cliff face.
Milly waited whilst Cameron secured the new rope ladder to the edge, tying the end to several rocks until he was happy. She looked out to the sea, it was a gorgeous sunny day, there wasn’t a cloud in sight and the water was as flat as a millpond.
‘I’ll go first, make sure it’s strong enough,’ Cameron said as he pulled the picnic bag over his shoulder and swung himself out onto the ladder. Milly held her breath that it would be, it was quite a long way to fall if it broke.
Cameron confidently made his way down the ladder with ease and then shouted up for her to follow when he reached the bottom.
She carefully lowered herself over the edge but became more and more confident as she climbed down and realised the ladder clearly wasn’t going to break.
As she neared the bottom, Cameron grabbed her waist and guided her down the last few rungs.
‘Careful, these rocks are a bit slippery.’
She hopped down onto the sand and looked around. Her eyes fell on the upside down boat right next to where they stood. It was wedged on top of the rocks and she wandered over to take a closer look at it.
‘I wonder how long it’s been here,’ Milly said. Cameron dumped the bag on the sand away from the rocks and came to join her.
‘Well, I’m no dendrochronologist but judging by the wood I’d say a long time.’
Milly laughed. ‘The tide has been in many times which would cause the boat to rot much quicker than if it was on dry land but I suspect that the tide doesn’t reach this high or this part of the beach otherwise I don’t think there’d be much of the boat left at all.’
‘Could explain why it’s all broken,’ Cameron suggested.
‘It could, but I would suggest that the boat hit something big or something heavy fell on it whilst it was upside down.’
She ran her hand over the pale wood, it had been painted at one point but most of the paint had faded away now.
Cameron went around the other side and gasped.
>
‘What?’
She hurried round. In very faded black writing was the name ‘Sophia’.
‘Do you think this was Uncle Boris’s boat?’ Milly asked, fingering the letters.
‘He loved her, I know that much, it wouldn’t be a far stretch that he called his boat after her.’
‘It could belong to anyone.’
Cameron nodded. ‘You’re absolutely right, it could.’
‘But … I bet no one comes here apart from the people that live in the castle. The cove itself is protected from the sea with all these rocks in the water. It would be quite difficult to negotiate a passage through them to get here.’
Cameron looked around them thoughtfully.
‘There’s a ring over there that you’d tie the boat to,’ Cameron gestured to the far side of the cove where a rusty ring protruded out of the wall.
‘So why is the boat here?’ Milly said. ‘I think this boat was dragged here and turned upside down for a reason.’ She looked up at the cliff face. ‘Someone had been trying to reach something.’
‘By Jove, my dear Watson, I think I’ve got it,’ Cameron said, putting an imaginary pipe into his mouth and pretending to smoke it.
Milly laughed. ‘Pray tell, my dear Holmes.’
Cameron started striding up and down, gesturing with his imaginary pipe.
‘Mad Uncle Boris took the treasure chest into his boat and hid it, maybe in a cave down the coast. He returned to the cove as the tide was coming in. He tied the boat up on the hook as he always did and returned to the rope ladder but as he started to climb, the ladder, after years of use, broke. Knowing he needed to be out of the cove before the tide came in, he dragged the boat underneath the ladder, turned it upside down and stood on it so he could reach the remains of the rope ladder. It was still too far, so he jumped, he missed, crashed through the bottom of the boat and fell, smashing his head on the rocks, killing him instantly.’
‘You’re full of the joys of spring, aren’t you? What happened to his body?’
‘It was washed out to sea.’