A Jersey Affair

by Georgina Troy

  ‘So,’ said the immaculate blonde to her friend, as Paige returned from the storeroom, shoebox in hand. ‘When is the big day? Do you know?’ Paige took the shoes carefully from the tissue paper, placing them in front of their stocking feet.

  ‘I only know what the article said in the paper the other day. I think it’s sometime later in the year, but you can’t help admire Lucinda.’ Paige tensed instantly, certain they glanced at each other over her head. ‘What nerve, dumping someone as glorious as Sebastian Fielding, then having the nerve to come back two years later when he’s inherited God knows how many millions, and setting her sights on him for a second time.’

  ‘And succeeding,’ laughed the first woman, standing up and walking across the room to admire her reflection in the full-length mirror. She turned her feet to check them at every angle and then addressed Paige. ‘Yes, these are perfect. I’ll have them.’

  Paige didn’t think she recognized either of them, but could not be sure. She decided she was probably being a little paranoid, and it could simply be bad luck to have them gossiping about Seb in her shop. She didn’t react, but couldn’t help listening.

  ‘Do you know him?’ One of them asked, following Paige to the till.

  ‘Sorry?’ Paige played for time taking the shoes from her. She busied herself by packing them carefully in their box, then into a large cardboard carrier bag with her logo printed across the middle.

  The women looked sideways at each other, and Paige instinctively knew that Lucinda had in some way orchestrated this little scenario. She wasn’t surprised, just taken aback that she thought Paige such a threat to still be bothering about her.

  ‘Sebastian Fielding. He’s getting back together with Lucinda Barrow-Hughes, I imagine they’ll be married in no time at all. I would have thought you knew him. You used to work at De Greys, didn’t you?’

  Paige forced what she hoped was a convincing smile onto her face. ‘My shop used to be there, yes.’

  ‘Until you had to leave?’ The blonde tilted her head to one side.

  Paige refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing they were having any effect on her at all. ‘Something like that.’

  ‘So you do know him then?’ asked the other woman, looking very smug.

  ‘Yes.’ Paige smiled sweetly to each of them, handing the bag over with the woman’s credit card and receipt. ‘The shoes look so flattering on you. I hope you enjoy wearing them.’ If Lucinda’s friends wanted to upset her, buying her stock was the wrong way to go about it. Paige chewed her lip to stop from smiling.

  Each looked at the other, then back at Paige. She could tell they were aware they had just been dismissed, however politely. She watched them leave, the cheerful smile fixed to her face, as they made their way down the road laughing loudly.

  ‘What’s the story, morning glory?’ Olly asked, snapping her out of her reverie.

  Paige shook her head.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I’ve just had a visit from a couple of Lucinda’s friends.’

  ‘Did they buy anything?’

  Paige nodded. ‘Yes. They were so busy trying to put me down that they ended up buying one of my more expensive designs.’

  ‘Hah, good for you.’

  She narrowed her eyes. ‘It’s not lunchtime yet, why aren’t you at work?’

  ‘They let me have time off to go to the hospital with Clem, so I thought I’d call in and see how you were doing.’ He folded his arms and leant back against the counter.

  ‘I’m fine,’ she smiled. ‘So you can get back to work before you’re fired. You need all the money you can get now you’re preparing for parenthood.’

  ‘Not until you make me a tea and tell Uncle Oliver exactly what they said to you.’

  ‘It’s not worth repeating.’ She could see that the trauma of watching her sister have a threatened miscarriage had unsettled him, and he needed something to keep his mind occupied. ‘My online sales,’ she said, folding her arms across her chest, delighted to have the perfect solution. ‘We still have a few issues that need tightening up. I noticed some of the links to the sizes are a little odd.’

  He cheered up instantly. ‘Yes, I forgot all about that.’

  ‘Fine, so when can I expect you to sort it out?’ she asked, knowing he liked working to deadlines.

  ‘With everything that’s happened, I’m a bit behind, but I promise I’ll crack on tonight, as soon as I get back to your place,’ he said, excitement lighting up his face.

  ‘Great,’ she giggled. ‘Hopefully it’ll start earning us decent some money.’

  Olly stopped smiling. ‘How am I going to make money out of it? You don’t have any spare cash to pay me to set up the site, and I wouldn’t accept any if you did.’

  ‘I know, and that’s why,’ she thought, deciding on an idea that had occurred to her only days before, ‘I’m giving you a percentage of the online sales.’

  ‘Seriously?’

  Paige laughed at his stunned expression. ‘Yes. I’ll get something drawn up between us, but I was thinking you two could have twenty per cent of the online net profit.’

  ‘Me and Clem?’

  ‘Who else?’

  ‘Twenty, but that’s massive,’ he shouted, his eyes lighting up at the unexpected offer.

  ‘Not really,’ said Paige, now in official mode. ‘The site I had was ridiculously amateurish, and would never have worked in the way I need it to. You’ve set the new site up for me, and you’ll be responsible for sorting out any technical hitches, updates, that sort of thing. I’ll need Clem to deal with any orders, invoices and payments.’ She winked at him. ‘Giving you both an interest in the business will save me paying to do all these things.’

  ‘Clem did mention something about running the site from home when she’s had the baby,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘It sounds good to me.’

  ‘Great,’ Paige said, happy to have sorted everything out so easily. ‘I’ll get a contract drawn up in the next few days and we can all sign it.’

  ‘Contract? Is that necessary?’

  ‘I won’t do it without one.’ She looked at him and loved that he trusted her so completely. ‘This is a business agreement and we each have to protect our interests, whether we’re friends, relatives, or whatever. It’s the only way to safeguard the finer details and ensure they’ve been covered.’

  He looked happier than she could ever remember seeing him. ‘OK, bring it on.’

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  ‘So? What’s the verdict then?’ Olly asked, as Paige reviewed the order spreadsheet for her first day’s sales.

  Clem tucked her legs under herself and glanced at the bottom line of the figures. ‘It’s been bloody brilliant.’ She pointed at the computer screen. ‘I’ve also been contacted through the site by someone who you met in a shop in Sorrento. She said that you’d swapped shoes with her, or something?’

  Paige thought back to the young shop assistant who she’d given her sandals to. ‘I wondered if she’d ever get back to me. Did she want to make an order?’

  Clem nodded. ‘Yes, but it’s only a tiny one and I think it’s for her personally rather than for the shop.’

  ‘It all helps,’ Paige said, delighted the girl still obviously liked her designs. She ran her finger down the columns filled with figures and stock references. ‘It’s better than I’d ever dared hope.’ She sat back, chewing the top of her pen absent-mindedly. ‘I can’t believe it. The best sellers are the thigh-high boots.’

  Olly rolled his eyes heavenward. ‘Why does that surprise you so much?’ He turned to his girlfriend and winked. ‘I wouldn’t mind seeing you in a pair of those again, Clem.’

  ‘Don’t hold your breath,’ she said, lifting up her swollen ankles in his direction. ‘I’d be lucky to get sandals on over these things.’

  Olly went over to her. ‘My poor little puffer fish – ouch!’ he said when she elbowed him in the ribs. ‘What did you do that for?’

  ‘Bugger off and let
me finish this paperwork.’

  ‘Ol,’ Paige said, waving him over. ‘Let’s leave Clem alone for a bit and you can give me a lift to the shop, if that’s OK with you?’

  ‘I don’t know why she’s working on all that so early,’ he said to Paige as they drove towards town. ‘She could have left it for later.’

  Paige shook her head. ‘Ol, you saw her feet. Clem’s best time of the day is morning, and although she doesn’t like to go on about it, I think she’s getting uncomfortable now she’s heavier, especially as the day goes on.’

  ‘She did say something about having a nap some afternoons.’ The idea seemed to worry him. ‘Do you think she’s all right by herself, or should I go back and check on her?’

  ‘I think the best thing we can do is leave her in peace. Let her make the most of some alone time before the baby arrives. She’ll phone if she needs anything.’

  ‘True.’

  ‘Right, now go to work. You don’t want to be fired, do you?’

  Olly grimaced, ‘I’ll come and get you at closing time, give you a lift home.’

  Paige was relieved that the day went quickly, with several excited phone calls from Clem each time a new order was placed online.

  ‘That’s great,’ Paige said, relieved their new venture was going so well. ‘But you’re supposed to be taking it easy. I hope you’re checking the orders from the sofa?’

  ‘Of course I am,’ Clem groaned.

  Paige stopped sketching the designs she was working on. She put down her pencil. ‘Good, because I don’t want Olly giving me a hard time.’

  ‘No, I suppose not.’

  ‘Brilliant.’ She put down the phone and checked her watch. It would soon be time to close up anyway. She was relieved to have so much to concentrate on. She began altering the angle to the heel on one of the sketches when Olly bounded in, like an over-excited Labrador puppy.

  ‘Hey, slow down a bit. What’s the hurry?’ she asked when he only just managed to stop before crashing into one of the displays.

  He snatched the pencil from her hand and slammed it down on the counter grinning from ear to ear. ‘You’ll never guess what I’ve just found out!’

  Paige sat up and folded her arms. ‘I can see by the look of satisfaction on your face that you have gossip you’re dying to pass on.’

  ‘Oh, I do,’ he said, the enthusiasm in his voice unmistakable.

  ‘No doubt it’s fascinating stuff?’ She raised an eyebrow, loving Olly’s childlike excitement.

  ‘It is.’ He leant forward over the counter towards her. ‘I’ve had to sort out problems with some of the software on Sebastian Fielding’s secretary’s computer.’

  ‘Not exciting quite yet, Ol.’ She teased, pulling a face at him.

  ‘It will be if you just listen and stop interrupting me.’ He linked his fingers together and cracked them back. ‘I went up to the office to find out what the problem was and she told me a document was frozen. Guess what page it was frozen on?’

  ‘I’ve no idea.’ Paige tried to concentrate, but was having difficulty getting the angle of her heel from her mind. ‘Go on.’

  ‘Well,’ Olly said, glancing over his shoulder when the shop door opened. ‘Shit. I’ll wait out here.’ He raced out to the storeroom, as if he’d just been caught doing something naughty, which, thought Paige, was probably the case.

  She looked up, surprised to see Sebastian standing in front of her. ‘Sebastian? What brings you here?’ she asked, thinking how uncomfortable he seemed.

  ‘I thought you were going to give me a call,’ he said, his eyes humourless.

  ‘Yes, sorry. I’ve been tied up with the shop, and the re-launch of the site.’

  ‘You think I’m all talk, like that ex of yours seems to have been.’

  Paige was conscious that Olly was listening to everything they were saying, and tried to feign disinterest.

  ‘I was going to call you,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t trust me to work this out, do you?’

  She couldn’t lie to him. ‘I don’t want to put myself through any more heartache than I’ve already had to deal with this year.’

  ‘So, you expect me to accept that we should end our relationship?’ He narrowed his eyes. ‘And what if I disagree with you?’

  ‘I’d say that for once, Sebastian, someone else is making a decision about your life. I have to think of my family.’

  Sebastian stared at her for a few seconds. ‘As do I, Paige.’ He turned and walked out of the shop, shutting the door quietly behind him.

  Immediately Olly reappeared from the storeroom. ‘What the fuck did you do that for?’

  ‘What?’ Paige jumped, taken aback by his uncharacteristic anger. Olly never swore at her. ‘What have I done?’

  Olly rubbed his face roughly with his hands. ‘Bloody hell, that’s what I came to tell you.’

  She shook her head, confused. ‘I’ve no idea what you’re going on about, but I wish you’d hurry up and tell me.’

  ‘The files I was telling you about before, the page that was frozen open. Well, it was his.’ He motioned towards the door.

  Paige stepped up on the stool behind the counter. ‘Go on,’ she said, intrigued to find out what Olly had discovered.

  ‘I’m not sure how to say this, so I’ll just spit it out. He’s been subsidising your rent here.’

  Paige sat bolt upright. ‘What did you say?’

  ‘You heard.’

  ‘Sebastian has? I don’t understand,’ Surely Olly was mistaken. She chewed her lower lip trying to let this unexpected news sink in. ‘No, you must be wrong.’

  ‘It’s true. Sebastian’s secretary went off to make a cup of tea, but before she left she told me that the information was strictly confidential, and that I couldn’t repeat anything I’d seen, blah, blah, blah. I had time to double check the information on the document before she came back to her desk,’ he added guiltily.

  ‘He’d fire you if he ever found out.’ She couldn’t believe Olly had done something to endanger his job. ‘What did it say exactly?’

  He looked thrilled. ‘I knew you’d want to know. Apparently, the company you lease this building from is one of his.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ she asked, thinking back to the contract agreement and knowing she didn’t recognize the landlord’s company on it. ‘No, Ol, it can’t be. I’d have noticed something like that.’

  ‘What? You checked it out, did you?’ he asked. ‘Your lease is with a holding company. Sebastian is the sole director of the company that owns 100 per cent shares in the holding company, therefore he owns this property.’ Olly watched Paige shake her head. ‘He actually owns several holding companies, one of which has Sara’s restaurant.’ He paused for a moment to let this next piece of information sink in. ‘Another owns this place. He is, in effect, your landlord, once removed, or something like that.’

  Paige could not believe what she was being told. ‘But it doesn’t make sense,’ she said, her voice barely above a stunned whisper.

  ‘Yes it does. In fact, far from being the mercenary shit we all thought him to be, he’s been secretly supporting your shop behind the scenes.’

  ‘By how much?’ she murmured, wanting to be angry for this deception, while at the same time knowing he had been instrumental in giving her the chance to strike out on her own and become independent.

  ‘It looks like he charged you enough so you’d assume you had to push yourself to make the payments, but not so much that you couldn’t cope.’

  ‘I don’t believe it.’ She was glad to be sitting down, her legs seemed to have turned to jelly. ‘And Sara?’

  Olly shrugged. ‘Who knows? Maybe she’s a friend he wanted to help out. Does it really matter that much?’

  ‘No, it doesn’t.’ Then a thought occurred to her. ‘I think he’s gone for good this time.’

  Olly nodded. ‘I heard. So, what are you going to do about it?’

  She stared at Olly trying to work out what to
do next. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Come on, Paige. You heard the man. He’s spent months trying to get you to try again with your relationship. Granted, we all thought he was a self-centred posh git, but it seems that he isn’t how we thought him to be at all.’

  Paige thought about him subsidising her shop. ‘He didn’t expect me to ever find out about this place either, did he?’

  ‘No. He obviously wasn’t trying to score points with you.’ Olly sighed. ‘And look how he helped that kid, the boxer who had that accident. That jockey, too. Come along, Paige think about it, before it’s too late.’ Olly leant against the wall and crossed his arms.

  ‘What is it?’ she asked.

  He started to laugh. ‘I have a confession to make.’

  Paige pulled a face. ‘Another one?’

  ‘You know the other night when Clem was in tears and was trying to get me to tidy up the magazines at your house?’

  Paige vaguely recalled something to do with the messy pile. ‘What about them?’

  ‘She was trying to hide an article in the Glitz magazine about Lucinda and Sebastian Fielding getting married. I think it was a story sold by “a close confidante of Lucinda’s”.’

  ‘Ah,’ Paige sighed, picturing Lucinda’s friends from the shop the day before. ‘Really, what is wrong with that woman?’

  ‘What is wrong with you, you mean?’

  Paige stood up and glared at him. ‘Hey!’

  ‘No, it’s true. The man does all this on the quiet, the shop I mean, and you still don’t believe he’s worth your trust.’

  Paige chewed her lower lip. She wanted more than anything to be able to do exactly what Olly suggested. ‘It’s not that easy, I have to think of Bea and the rest of my family getting caught up in his world.’ She blinked back tears. ‘Anyway, if I phone him, he’ll wonder why I’ve suddenly changed my mind about him. I can’t tell him how I know, can I?’

  Olly sighed. ‘Bollocks, I hadn’t thought of that. I suppose not.’ He gave her a hug. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have told you, then you’d be none the wiser about what he’s done. I wish you could tell him.’