It Started with a Secret: The feel-good novel of the year, from the bestselling author of MAYBE THIS TIME

by Jill Mansell

  ‘Did you break into a house in Bude the other week?’

  ‘Well, yes.’ Wrong-footed, Lainey added, ‘But not in a burglar-y way.’

  ‘You were looking for some lost passports,’ said the woman, ‘and my ex-husband found them lying in the road.’

  ‘Yes! You mean Dan’s your ex-husband? He was a star!’ Lainey exclaimed. ‘Completely saved the day. I got the passports down to Southampton with minutes to spare. Is he here with you?’

  ‘No, I came down on my own— Oh good grief.’ Staring over Lainey’s shoulder, the woman did a double take. ‘Is that . . .?’

  ‘Lainey?’ Richard called from the side of the house. ‘Got a bit of a headache, can’t think why. Could you be an angel and bring me out a couple of paracetamol with a cup of tea?’

  ‘Of course. Give me two minutes.’

  ‘Who’s that?’ He pointed at the stranger. ‘Not another long-lost daughter, I hope.’

  ‘Blimey,’ said Dan’s ex-wife when Richard had returned to the back garden. ‘Dan did mention there was an old chap here who looked a bit like Richard Myles. He didn’t realise it was him.’

  Lainey dropped the car-cleaning sponge into the bucket of soapy water. ‘Come on inside. He’ll be grumpy if I don’t make him his cup of tea. We’ll have one too.’

  Once Richard’s tray had been delivered to him, they sat down together at the kitchen table. ‘So why are you here?’ Lainey asked.

  Dan’s wife, whom she now knew was called Sara, said, ‘Well I hope this doesn’t sound a bit weird, but when Dan dropped Majella back here, she was all excited about meeting some amazing new guy her friend had matched her up with.’ She hesitated, looked embarrassed. ‘And I . . . well, I kind of wondered how it went.’

  ‘Total disaster. He was awful,’ Lainey said promptly. ‘Awful and a drug dealer.’

  ‘Oh no, that’s terrible! Well,’ Sara amended, ‘terrible for her at the time, but probably good in the long run.’ She paused again to stir her tea, then said in a rush, ‘The thing is, I think Dan really likes Majella.’

  Wow. Was this a Fatal Attraction scenario? Proceeding with caution, Lainey said, ‘And . . . is that a problem?’

  ‘God, no! Not at all! I want him to be happy. That’s why I’m here. Every time he mentions her, I see his face change. It kind of lights up. So I told him he should come over here and ask her out, but he won’t do it in case he’s got it all wrong and she’s not interested. But honestly, he’s a lovely man . . . If you could just persuade her to give him a chance, I promise she wouldn’t regret it.’

  ‘Shall I tell you something?’ Lainey broke into the broad smile she’d been working so hard to suppress. ‘Ever since that day, Majella’s been kicking herself for not getting Dan’s number. She didn’t have any way of tracking him down; all she knew was that he lived in Exeter. Hearing you saying this is just . . . brilliant.’

  And now they were both grinning at each other like idiots, unable to control themselves.

  ‘If we tell them we’ve fixed them up, they might refuse to go along with it. I know what Majella’s like; she’ll be too scared in case it all goes wrong.’

  ‘Same with Dan. The more something matters to him, the more terrified he gets.’

  ‘We need to come up with a plan,’ said Lainey.

  ‘We’re like a pair of fairy godmothers,’ said Sara, ‘and we’re going to do this.’ Triumphantly, she took a biscuit out of the tin and waved it like a wand. ‘Honestly, I thought I might be a bit mad coming here today. But now I’m so glad I did.’

  Chapter 41

  ‘Oh no, please no.’ Majella knew she had to be firm, stand her ground. ‘Don’t try and make me change my mind, because it’s not going to happen. I said no more blind dates and I meant it.’ Honestly, why wouldn’t people believe her?

  ‘But this one isn’t from a dating app.’ Lainey had her wide-eyed, earnestly persuasive face on. ‘And it isn’t really blind, because I’ve seen him and you know you can trust me.’

  ‘I thought I could trust my friend Judi, and look how well that turned out.’ With a shudder, Majella said, ‘She thought I’d get on like a house on fire with her cokehead cousin. I mean, what was she even thinking?’

  ‘Well I’m way better at matching people up than Judi. And I promise you’ll like this one. As soon as we got chatting, I knew he’d be perfect for you. Honestly, it was like love at first sight by proxy – when you meet him, you’ll be so happy I did this.’

  Majella shook her head. ‘I’m not going to meet him and I can’t believe you thought this was a good idea. How could you set me up without even asking me first? It’s just wrong.’

  ‘It’s called being spontaneous,’ Lainey exclaimed. ‘It’s called seizing the moment, rather than doing nothing and letting a brilliant opportunity slip by. Didn’t I tell you I’d sort you out and find you a man?’ Her eyebrows disappeared up beneath her fringe, and Majella’s spirits sank at the realisation that Lainey had clearly set her heart on this hideous meeting going ahead.

  ‘And where did you find him?’

  ‘On Mariscombe beach! I was throwing the frisbee for Ernie and Glenda and I accidentally clonked him on the back of the head, but he was really nice about it, and we got talking about mad accidents, and dogs, and he thought Ernie and Glenda were brilliant – and they loved him too, by the way – and then we chatted about St Carys, how I’d happened to find my way here and how much I loved working for you . . . I mean, we ended up talking for ages,’ Lainey rattled on, ‘and the whole time I just kept thinking how perfect you two would be for each other. And then remember when you met Dan and you couldn’t ask him for his number because you were too shy and it would’ve been too embarrassing if he’d said no?’

  There it was, the awful recurring pang of disappointment and regret. Dan, whom she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about and who, she was now certain, had been her perfect man. Majella nodded sadly. ‘Yes.’

  ‘Well it’s a lot easier to ask someone out on a date with somebody else. So I told him all about you, and said would he like to meet you, and he was completely up for it!’

  ‘And I still don’t want to go.’

  ‘Look, I can’t force you. But if you don’t meet him, I really think you’ll be missing out. He’ll be waiting for you outside Paddy’s Café at midday tomorrow. All you have to do is have a quick cup of coffee with him. Ten minutes, tops. Then if you want to leave, you can, and I hereby promise never to set you up on a date again.’ Lainey shrugged. ‘So how about that for an offer you can’t refuse?’

  This was her special skill, persuading you to do things you didn’t want to do. Feeling resentful and hopelessly outmanoeuvred, Majella said, ‘I don’t even know what he looks like.’

  ‘He looks . . . friendly and kind and nice.’

  ‘I meant, how would I recognise him?’

  ‘No worries.’ Lainey was triumphant. ‘I’ll walk down with you.’

  That had been yesterday. Now it was today. As she and Lainey made their way along the curving esplanade, the jitters rose like a cloud of locusts inside Majella’s ribcage and she wished more than ever that she had stood her ground.

  The church bells began to chime; it was twelve o’clock exactly. Feeling like Cinderella in reverse, Majella muttered, ‘If I don’t like the look of him, I’m not even going to sit down. I’ll be turning around and going straight back home.’

  ‘Fine,’ said Lainey. ‘But I think you’ll like the look of him.’

  ‘I feel sick.’

  ‘No you don’t. Just relax, it’ll be fun.’

  ‘One cup of coffee, that’s all. And no spying on us from a distance. It’s going to be bad enough as it is without worrying about you sneaking around corners, watching us like monkeys in a zoo.’

  ‘No spying, I promise.’

  They rounded the curve and there was Paddy’s Café. Scanning the tables outside, Majella saw only one man on his own, but he was ancient. Which meant her date was either la
te, or sitting inside, or not coming. Torn between relief and outrage, she said, ‘If he’s stood me up . . .’

  Then the words died in her throat and her ears began to buzz, because there, seated at a table for four along with a laughing brunette woman and two young girls, was Dan.

  Dan.

  Oh goodness, it really was him, here with his family, his wife and daughters, and it was so wonderful to see him again, but also completely awful.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ said Lainey, because Majella had stopped dead in her tracks.

  She unstuck her tongue from the roof of her mouth. ‘It’s . . . him.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Look. With the woman and the girls. Dan.’

  ‘Wow, so it is. Fantastic!’

  At that moment, a tall man emerged from inside the café, carrying a coffee and heading for an empty table. Majella said fearfully, ‘Is that him? Is that the one I’m supposed to be meeting? Oh God, I can’t do it now, how can I sit there and talk to a stranger in front of Dan, there’s no way I could—’

  ‘He’s seen us! Come on!’ Clutching Majella’s arm, Lainey called out, ‘Hellooo!’ and dragged her along the pavement. Majella was simultaneously mortified by the awfulness of the situation and awash with adrenalin because Dan was now less than twenty metres away. Although he and his supposedly ex wife were looking so relaxed in each other’s company that she was probably about to find out that he was still happily married to her after all.

  ‘You’ll have to tell the other one I can’t do it.’ She was doing her best to dig her heels in. The man was now looking over at them; at closer quarters he bore a startling resemblance to a horse.

  ‘Hey, remember what I told you? Relax,’ said Lainey. ‘I wouldn’t choose someone you didn’t like.’

  Except she’d evidently chosen someone with a really long face and enormous yellow teeth. Perspiration prickled at the back of Majella’s neck as she pretended not to have noticed Dan and his family. But to her surprise, Lainey steered her right past the horse-faced man and said cheerfully, ‘Well, it took a bit of persuading, but I got her here in the end! Now, shall we leave them to it?’

  And within a minute, she found herself seated opposite Dan at an otherwise unoccupied table littered with half-finished soft drinks. Lainey, Dan’s ex-wife and the two girls had disappeared together in the direction of the beach.

  ‘Well,’ Dan said at last. ‘Looks like we’ve been set up.’

  ‘I’m confused.’ Majella’s hands were trembling. ‘I don’t know how this has happened.’

  He paused, meeting her gaze. ‘When your friend said it took a bit of persuading to get you here, was that because you knew you were going to see me?’

  ‘What? No! I didn’t want to come here because Lainey told me she’d fixed me up with a stranger! I thought it was him.’ Furtively Majella indicated the man on his own, reading a paper, over to their left.

  ‘He looks like a donkey,’ Dan murmured.

  ‘I know.’ So many questions were bubbling up. ‘Are you really divorced?’

  ‘Sure am. How did it go with the guy at your friend’s party?’

  ‘He offered me half-price cocaine. And no, that isn’t a good thing.’ Majella grimaced. ‘He was repulsive.’

  ‘Well that’s a good thing.’ Dan smiled for the first time.

  ‘I’m sorry, I’m still trying to work this out. Did you know I was going to be here?’

  He shook his head. ‘I may have casually mentioned you once or twice to Sara. Or maybe three or four times,’ he amended, his tone rueful. ‘Yesterday she said why didn’t we come down to Cornwall and have a day out in St Carys, because we hadn’t been here for years, and I was happy to do that. Secretly I was hoping we might bump into you, because . . . well, I suppose because I wanted to see you again.’

  ‘So your wife . . . ex-wife, she arranged this? With Lainey?’ Majella was still struggling to make sense of the situation.

  ‘When I dropped you off last time, I spotted the name of the house. I must have mentioned it to Sara. Might even have pointed it out to her on Google Earth. You know, just in a casual way.’

  If he could be honest, so could she. Majella heard herself say, ‘I was planning to go to Bude next June, to see if I could accidentally bump into you again.’

  ‘Really?’

  She blushed; now she sounded like a complete stalker. ‘This way’s much better, though.’

  ‘I agree. Quicker, too. You’re looking great, by the way.’ Dan indicated her turquoise sundress, her hair and face. ‘A bit different from last time. Not that you didn’t look great then . . . Eurgh, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.’

  ‘I’m wearing make-up and clean clothes.’ Majella grinned. ‘And I don’t have a giant spider in my hair. I hope.’

  ‘Your eyebrows are different too. Symmetrical.’

  ‘I just thought I’d try them this way for a change.’ She nodded at his bottle-green polo shirt. ‘No kittens.’

  His eyes danced. ‘It’s a miracle we even recognised each other.’

  Paddy came over to see what Majella wanted to drink, and they ordered more coffee. As Dan carried on figuring out how the two of them had been set up, she found herself beginning to relax at last. A warm Ready Brek glow of happiness was spreading through her body. Against the odds they’d found each other again, and it felt every bit as natural and thrilling and perfect as she’d hoped it would during her daydreams about something like this happening. It just seemed so right.

  ‘You knew where I lived, so you could have driven down here to see me at any time,’ said Majella, once Dan had worked out that Sara had come down to St Carys and met Lainey.

  ‘But I wouldn’t have been brave enough to do that; it would’ve felt too presumptuous. I didn’t know if you were with that other guy, or if you’d even be interested in me. You might have laughed in my face. If that had happened, I’d never have had the nerve to look at another woman again, let alone ask her out.’

  A flicker of a smile lifted the corners of his mouth, and Majella had to force herself not to say, Maybe you won’t need to. You’ve got me now.

  Because it might be what she was thinking and hoping, but it wouldn’t do to scare him off completely. Instead she said, ‘I wouldn’t have laughed.’

  ‘Well that’s reassuring. But I was too scared to take the risk.’

  He had a beautiful upper lip. Majella stirred her coffee, then rested her right hand palm down on the table. She watched as Dan did the same with his left hand, his fingertips a couple of centimetres from hers. Crazy though it was, her stomach flipped with anticipation, because other than lifting the spider from her hair, there had been zero physical contact between the two of them.

  No contact whatsoever.

  Sometimes you had to force yourself, didn’t you, to take the risk.

  Majella gave her fingers a tiny experimental wiggle and moved them a couple of millimetres closer to Dan’s.

  He watched them, then looked up at her and edged his own fingers fractionally towards hers.

  Now they were both smiling. Thanks to Sara having made the first move, they could relax and enjoy what was happening. Together they slid their hands forward until their fingertips touched.

  And zingggg, there it was, and just like that, all the bad dates of the past few weeks were cancelled out. This moment, this perfect moment, was all that mattered—

  Majella jumped out of her skin as her phone burst into life, playing Sir Mix-a-Lot’s Big Butts song at maximum volume. Just what you needed at a moment like this. Scrabbling in her bag to make it stop, she said, ‘Sorry, my eleven-year-old changed my ringtone, it’s his favourite song . . . Oh, it’s a text from Lainey.’ She shielded the screen from the overhead sun and read aloud, ‘“This is your emergency get-out option. If you’re hating every minute, text me and I’ll come and rescue you. If you’re happy, give us a wave – we’re down on Mariscombe beach.”’

  Dan, opposite her, slanted his eyebrows. ‘
Which is it going to be? The suspense is killing me.’

  Together they rose to their feet and made their way across to the left-hand section of the terrace, from where they could gaze over the beach. And there they were, Lainey and Sara with the two girls, all waving madly up at them.

  As Majella and Dan waved back, Dan slid his free arm around her waist and Majella felt her heart swell with joy, because it felt even more wonderful than just touching fingertips.

  He said, ‘Sara’s going to be so smug about this,’ as his daughters jumped up and down on the sand.

  ‘So’s Lainey.’

  And just at that moment, another text arrived: What did I tell you? Sorry, couldn’t resist!

  Chapter 42

  The atmosphere at Menhenick House was mixed, to say the least. Lainey was thrilled for Majella; since meeting Dan on Saturday, she’d been fizzing with happiness. But as counterbalance there was Seth, back from Bristol and acting as if everything was fine, although clearly everything wasn’t. Furthermore, the connection between Seth and herself had been abruptly turned off like a switch in a fuse box.

  Which was why, at breakfast on Tuesday morning, she really wished Kit wasn’t trying so hard to be helpful.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Lainey insisted. It was her day off and she was heading up to the Cotswolds to visit her grandmother. ‘Honestly, I don’t mind catching the train.’

  ‘Trainzzz, plural,’ Kit emphasised. ‘It’s going to take how many hours to get there?’ He had to have one of the cars for the school runs and Majella needed the other for work. Having heard that Seth would be driving up past Cirencester to visit his mother at her spa, Kit said, ‘But Lainey’s gran isn’t far from there. You could drop her on the way and pick her up afterwards. Doesn’t that make more sense?’

  And once he’d appealed to Seth, who was practically forced to agree to take her, Lainey found herself, in turn, forced to accept. Even though it was painfully obvious that this was the last thing either of them wanted to happen.

  The journey from Cornwall to Cirencester was blissfully free of traffic hold-ups but still awkward. His manner distant, Seth explained briefly that Matteo had died in Italy and he needed to tell his mother in person, hence today’s trip. He then enquired politely about Lainey’s Granny Ivy and, equally politely, Lainey explained that she liked to go and visit her at least a couple of times a year.