She turned her head, not wanting to see again the array of images of her and Will kissing. They’d been taken a couple of days earlier when the two of them had been walking in the grounds. She’d been able to work out the date by the colour of the T-shirt she was wearing, but how the photos had been obtained was a mystery to her. The spot where they’d paused to kiss before departing to their own tasks was not far from the edge of the formal gardens. It was an open space, and she couldn’t recall anyone else in sight. ‘Of course it bothers me! How can you possibly think otherwise?’
‘You seem to be very calm about it,’ Will snapped.
‘Only because you’ve been ranting enough for the both of us! Bloody hell, you roused the whole household, and to what aim? We can’t change anything.’
‘We can find out who betrayed us.’
Her head started to thump, an unwelcome partner to the queasiness in her stomach. ‘Betrayed us? Have you heard yourself?’ Her tired brain finally caught up with what he was saying. ‘Oh my God, you think it was one of family who did this, don’t you?’
She held his gaze for a long moment, willing him to refute what she’d said. ‘Where else could it have come from?’ he muttered, turning his eyes back to the screen.
‘I don’t believe this!’ An outraged Tristan was on his feet. ‘Look, I had every sympathy for the situation when you got us out of bed, and of course we want to help do whatever we can to contain this, but I can’t believe you’re holding one of us responsible.’
Will snapped the screen on his laptop shut with a snap, jumping to his feet to face off with Tristan. ‘You’re the ones who will directly benefit from this, and how else did they know where the hell I was, never mind get so much detail in the story?’
‘You’re paranoid. It could’ve been any number of people. We’ve had contractors on and off the grounds for weeks now. It might even have been one of the local press photographers when they came to interview Arthur.’
Will shook his head. ‘Balls. Those interviews were weeks ago, and I kept well out of the way until they’d left. The contractors have had loads of time to do this, and what do they gain, eh? They’re not the ones who were moaning about ticket sales, were they?’
Tristan stepped back, eyes wide with shock. ‘Jesus Christ, you honestly think this was me, don’t you?’
When Will only raised one shoulder in a negligent shrug, Iggy couldn’t believe it. He really did think Tristan capable of such a terrible thing.
‘Enough!’ Arthur was on his feet, stepping between the two of them. ‘This is getting us nowhere, and I’ve got better things to do than watch you two take lumps out of each other. The story is out, and that’s all there is to it. What we need to focus on now, is how we deal with it.’
‘How we deal with it?’ Will scoffed. ‘Jesus, you don’t have a clue, do you? There is no dealing with it! These photos-’ he swept his hand towards the closed laptop ‘-were taken with a long range lens of some kind, meaning they were likely taken from outside the boundary wall.’
‘How is that possible? You can’t mean someone propped up a ladder and shot these from outside.’ Arthur sounded as incredulous as Iggy felt. The wall had protected their family for generations, it didn’t seem possible that someone could breach their privacy so casually.
‘Either that, or they used a remote-controlled drone. You’d be amazed at what technology can do these days.’ Will shoved his hands on his hips and blew out a frustrated breath. ‘Unless you are prepared to put some kind of patrol out along the external wall, you’ve got no way of keeping them out if they want to try again, and if they used a drone, even that won’t work. As long as they think there’s a story here, they’re going to keep coming back for more.’
‘It can’t have been one of the contractors,’ Lucie said quietly from the opposite sofa. ‘They wouldn’t have known about the painting.’ In addition to raking over the sordid details of all of Will’s other supposed romances over the past few months, the article implied he was wooing Igraine because the Ludworth family stood to inherit a vast fortune.
‘So I was right, then. It has to be one of you!’ Will rounded on Tristan. ‘You couldn’t wait, could you? I only needed a couple more days to get the fountains sorted and we could’ve released the story we agreed upon. Only I don’t suppose that would’ve got you the national coverage you needed, eh?’
Iggy stared in horror as a vein started pulsing in her brother’s forehead and she saw his fists clench and unclench. ‘Tris …’ she pleaded with him, not because she believed what Will was saying, but because she hoped he was far enough removed from the situation to still be thinking rationally.
His eyes flicked to hers for a moment before returning to Will. ‘Fuck you,’ he said, his voice all the more awful for its measured calmness, and then stalked from the room.
Will might have followed had she not leapt up and grabbed his arm. ‘Stop it, just stop it for God’s sake!’ She saw Arthur move towards them and shook her head to warn him off. ‘No, leave it, Arthur. Go to bed, the pair of you and we’ll sort this out in the morning when we’ve all got clearer heads.’
Though he stared hard at the restraining hand she’d looped around Will’s forearm, Arthur didn’t do anything more than nod before holding out his hand to Lucie and leading her from the room.
When they were finally alone, Iggy couldn’t hold back an enormous yawn. ‘Sorry,’ she covered her mouth. ‘I’m just so tired.’ Another shiver racked her, and she pressed herself to the warmth of Will’s body. ‘Come to bed now, please. There’s nothing more we can do tonight.’
Expecting to feel the comforting warmth of his arms closing around her, it shocked Iggy to the core when Will brushed past her and headed towards the door. Pausing at the threshold, he looked back at her. ‘I can’t be where I don’t trust people.’
‘You can’t be including me in that statement.’ He couldn’t be.
Will stared at the floor for a long moment before meeting her gaze once more. ‘You sided with your brothers over me.’
‘No!’ She hesitated. ‘Well, I mean, I believe Tristan when he says he had nothing to do with this, of course I do, but …’
‘Family sticks together, right?’ Will’s lip quirked up, the twisted smile she’d always loved an ugly caricature. ‘Especially families like yours. Pull up the drawbridge, lower the portcullis, repel outsiders, that’s how it works.’
‘Will, no!’ She ran after him, the tiles of the great hall chill beneath her feet.
Refusing to look back, he continued to march up the stairs. ‘Go to bed, Igraine. We’ll talk again in the morning.’
Her foot froze on the bottom step. Go to bed. Without him. Though he’d not said as much, it was clear he didn’t want her in his bed that night. Shivering and sad, she hurried in his wake, turning left when she reached the landing along the corridor which led to the family quarters.
* * *
Iggy stared at her hollow-eyed reflection feeling as though the woman she’d been the last time she’d looked in the mirror wearing the pretty green dress was a complete stranger. In less than two months since that day in the dress shop, her life had altered beyond all recognition. She’d had a home, a purpose, a boyfriend with whom she’d begun to dream about building a future. After today, she’d have none of those things.
The gardens were complete. Though they’d argued fiercely about it, Arthur had accepted her reasoning for finding a new job beyond the estate and although she would stay on to oversee the summer fete, she’d stepped down from all her other duties. As for the boyfriend … well, the less said about Will and his Lord Lucan vanishing act the better.
Her mobile phone buzzed, startling her. She still wasn’t used to the improved phone signal on the estate thanks to the booster mast Arthur had installed. For a second, hope filled her heart as though thinking about Will had finally summoned him from wherever it was he’d disappeared to in the early hours following his bust up with Tristan.
&nb
sp; Quelling her foolishness with a hand pressed to her belly, she answered the call to hear the frustrated tones of her uncle on the other end. ‘Iggy, darling girl, can you pop over and give me a hand with this blasted cravat? Constance is busy with Lucie and your brothers have disappeared down the pub for a pint without having the decency to invite me, the blighters!’
She couldn’t help but smile at the affront in his voice. Tristan had asked her if she wanted to join them, but she’d declined. It would be good for him and Arthur to spend a bit of time together and so many of the locals wanted to wish Arthur well on his big day. Already melancholic, she’d feared she’d start bawling in front of everyone if she’d tagged along. ‘I’ll be with you in two shakes,’ she told her uncle. ‘And I’ll steal us a bottle of champagne on the way.’
‘Now you’re talking! Did I ever tell you that you were always my favourite of the three?’
*
‘Look at you,’ Lancelot exclaimed as he relieved her of the bottle of champagne and planted a smacking kiss on her cheek. ‘Pretty as a picture. You’ll have to be careful or you’ll upstage the bride.’
‘I don’t think there’s much chance of that. The moment Lucie takes her place at the top of the aisle, no one will have eyes for anyone else.’ Which was exactly as it should be.
Iggy followed her uncle into the little kitchenette and watched as he pulled a couple of mugs from a cupboard before twisting the cork from the bottle with practised effort. She’d peeked in on Lucie on her way across, just to let her know where she would be if they were looking for her and to check everything was all right. She and Constance had been clad in matching dressing gowns, their hair in rollers as the girl they’d hired to do hair and make-up fussed around them.
She’d been invited to join them, of course, but it was a special moment for the two of them and Iggy had wanted them to enjoy it together. Helena had been given strict instructions not to intrude, and Iggy had commandeered the assistant who’d come with the hairdresser and dispatched her off to Helena’s rooms with instructions to keep her there as long as possible.
Offering her one of the mugs, Lancelot rested his hip against the counter behind him and raised his own in toast. ‘To the happy couple.’
‘Cheers.’ Iggy raised her own mug then took a mouthful of the ice-cold champagne. Smacking her lips together, she sighed in appreciation. ‘Is there anything better than cold champagne on a hot summer’s day?’
‘Not at half ten in the morning, there isn’t,’ Lancelot said with a wink. ‘We’ll have to pace ourselves. Morgana will kill me if I’m half-cut when I walk Lucie down the aisle.’ His expression turned wondering. ‘I still can’t believe she asked me to do it.’
‘I can’t think of a better man for the job,’ Iggy said, before an image of her jolly, lovely father popped into her head, stealing her breath away.
‘Uther would’ve loved her,’ Lancelot said, gruffly, his thoughts clearly having moved in the same direction as hers.
‘Yes, he would.’ Iggy drew in a shaky breath. ‘But it’s right you do it.’ She’d already seen the way Lucie had begun to turn to Lancelot for support, how the two of them and Constance were beginning to form their own smaller family unit within the bigger whole.
They exchanged wobbly smiles before Lancelot lifted his mug for a bracing draft of champagne. ‘Right, enough of that maudlin nonsense, today is supposed to be a celebration.’ He set his mug down and gestured to the pale grey cloth dangling over the back of one of the mismatched kitchen chairs. ‘Give us a hand with this blasted thing, will you?’
‘Stop turning the screen around!’ Iggy gave her uncle’s hand a playful slap as he tried to turn the tablet she’d propped up on the table towards him once more. The instructions which had come with the cravat had proven incomprehensible, so she’d resorted to looking up how-to videos on the internet. ‘And put your chin up so I can see what I’m doing.’ Lancelot chuckled, but did as he was told, even managing to sit still long enough for her to gather the complicated folds of the material together. ‘Okay, hand me the pin.’
She slid the diamond-tipped pin into the cravat, then fumbled behind the knot to screw on the little end cap which would keep it secure. Stepping back, she gave her work a critical glance, then nodded. ‘You’ll do. Although why you didn’t ask Maxwell to do it, I don’t know.’
Rising from the chair, Lancelot moved through the kitchen to the open door of his little bathroom to study himself in the mirror. He made a couple of deft adjustments to the cravat, his hands moving in an assured way which raised her suspicions. ‘You didn’t need my help to do this at all, did you?’
Having smoothed the ends of the cravat once last time, her uncle turned to face her with an unrepentant grin. ‘Not really, but I wanted an excuse to check up on you.’
‘Check up on me?’ Iggy kept her voice light. ‘There was no need.’
Lancelot shook his head at her. ‘You can’t kid a kidder, darling girl. I know how hard these past few weeks have been for you, and I wanted to see how you were holding up.’
‘I’m fine.’ The lack of conviction in her voice was all too clear. ‘I’m going to be fine,’ she amended.
Her uncle closed in on her, taking her hand in the comforting warmth of his own. ‘I know you haven’t been down to the water gardens since Will left. If you find you’re having a hard time at any point during the reception, you come and find me, okay?’
She nodded, not quite able to speak. Arthur had mooted the suggestion they move the wedding reception to the back lawns, but she’d refused point blank. He knew he was doing it to try and spare her feelings, but she would not let the spectre of Will spoil anything about today. Tristan had taken over project managing when Will had walked out on them, although the groundworks supervisor had proven infinitely capable and had only need someone to nod through his decisions.
‘Have you heard from him at all?’ Lancelot’s question was full of tender concern and it would be so easy to fall into his arms and sob out the grief and loss threatening to split her heart in two.
Stuff that. She hadn’t shed a single tear since the moment she’d discovered Will had left-at first, she’d simply been too shocked to properly register it, but then it had become a matter of pride. He didn’t deserve her tears, any more than he’d deserved her love. His apparent belief that one of the family had been behind the betrayal had only served to prove she hadn’t really known him at all; no more than he’d known her. ‘This was always on the cards, Lancelot. It might have happened sooner than either of us expected, but there was no future for us. We were a summer fling that got a bit ahead of itself. It was convenient at the time, nothing more.’
Her uncle frowned. ‘I don’t know who put those words in your head, my girl, but none of that sounds like you, nor is it an accurate description of the closeness I witnessed between the two of you.’
She looked away. ‘I don’t normally agree with her, but on this occasion, Mother was right.’
Lancelot barked an ugly laugh. ‘I might have recognised her poison behind those words. Haven’t you learned by now not to believe a word that comes out of the Hellbeast’s mouth?’
Turning away from him, Iggy reached for her champagne and took a sip. ‘She’s not always wrong.’ She indicated to her dress. ‘She picked this out for me.’
‘Well, that’s the only decent thing she’s done for you in all her years.’
Perhaps it was the champagne giving her courage, but Iggy couldn’t hide her curiosity any longer. ‘I know she did us wrong, but why do you hate her so much?’
If she’d stuck a pin in him, she didn’t think he could’ve deflated more quickly. Sinking into the chair behind him, Lancelot scrubbed a hand over his face. ‘Because she broke my heart.’
Stunned, Iggy sank into the other chair. ‘What on earth do you mean?’
Tipping his head back, Lancelot stared up at the ceiling as though seeking divine guidance. ‘I always swore I wouldn’t talk about it,
but perhaps we shouldn’t have kept it hidden all these years.’ Tilting his head forward once more, he nodded towards the bottle on the table. ‘Fill us up, first, and then I’ll tell you.’
Iggy did as she was told, then settled back with her mug cradled to her chest as she watched Lancelot wrestle with himself. ‘When I was nineteen, I met the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life. Incandescent, she was able to light up a room with not only her looks but her sweetness and charm. She was the life and soul of every party and I fell in love with her before we’d even exchanged a single word.
‘Helena led me a merry dance, and I enjoyed every moment of the chase. When I finally got her to agree to go out with me, I was a goner for her. I told her everything about me, all my hopes and dreams for the future, how I was struggling to find my fit in the world as the spare to the heir.’
He sighed. ‘I showed her all the parts of me, and I believed she was doing the same. We were inseparable for weeks, and then she had to leave town and go back to her parents as she’d been away from home longer than intended and they were starting to put pressure on her. She said she wanted to take me, but that they were very traditional and would be very upset to find out we’d been all but living together out of wedlock. When she asked me to give her a little bit of time to ease them into the idea of our relationship, I agreed to give her all the time she needed.’
Their eyes met, and the pain in his gaze shattered her heart. ‘Oh, God. We had no idea you even knew her before she met Dad.’
His lips twisted into a wry smile. ‘Imagine how excited I was when your dad telephoned to tell me he’d met the most marvellous girl at a house party, and he was madly in love with her. It felt like serendipity, the two of us finding our perfect matches at the same time. When he told me he’d proposed, I thought it seemed a bit hasty, but then again, I’d fallen in love at first sight so I knew such things were possible.’
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