Mary Lyons - The Valentine Affair

‘No, well...I hadn’t quite sorted out the final details before being struck down by the flu,’ she told him briskly, doing her best to sound businesslike and confident. ‘It’s just a matter of tying up a few loose ends, and—’

‘We’ll have to insist on knowing exactly who you’ve lined up,’ Imogen interjected sharply, before turning to the editor. ‘For this feature to work she’s going to need a wealthy, well-known and socially prominent couple. It’s really no good dear Alex relying, as she does so often, on the last-minute help of some of her idle, rich layabout friends...is it?’

‘That woman’s an absolute bitch!’ Tessa muttered sympathetically as she rose from the table. ‘Go for it, kid. Smash her in the eyes with some really glamorous names.’

Unfortunately Alex—only too well aware that she hadn’t yet come up with any ideas for the upper-class pair of lovers—could only desperately pray for divine guidance, frantically cudgelling her brain in an effort to provide a satisfactory answer.

‘Well?’ her editor barked impatiently. ‘Hurry up! We can’t sit around here all morning, you know.’

Thinking about the episode later, Alex could only imagine that she’d been blindly trapped within the coils of some evil, malign influence. What else could have led her to commit an act of such folly? However, with her mind completely blank and just about to admit defeat, she found herself staring down at the newspaper open on the table in front of her.

Even as she raised her hand—pointing with a trembling finger to the picture of the man about whom Tessa had made such a crude joke—she could hear loud warning bells echoing in her head. But, as she ruefully acknowledged to herself later, both the sin of pride and an overwhelming, urgent need to escape from such a sticky situation proved to be irresistible.

‘It’s this man,’ she said defiantly. ‘I’m going to be featuring Leo Hamilton and his fiancée, Fiona Bliss.’

‘Do me a favour!’ James Boswell laughed scornfully, gathering up his papers and walking towards the door. ‘You’ll never get him to go along with it. Not in a month of Sundays!’

‘That stupid girl has just plucked a name out of thin air!’ Imogen agreed furiously. ‘The Leo Hamiltons of this world would never agree to cooperate with us. He might just respond to an approach from The Times, for instance, but definitely not a down-market rag like the London Chronicle.’

‘Thank you for those few kind words, Imogen!’ Mike grated angrily, prevented from saying any more as James, about to leave the room, turned to underline the older woman’s words.

‘I hate to say it—but, unfortunately, Imogen’s quite right,’ he shrugged. ‘I don’t normally reveal my sources. However, it seems only fair to say that it was the girl’s mother who tipped me off about the engagement. Believe me, Leo Hamilton would prefer to slit his own throat rather than court any publicity. And, as far as cooperation with this newspaper is concerned...?’ He shrugged again. ‘You’re likely to get more information out of an oyster!’

‘Hmm... Well, it looks as if I’ll have to cancel the feature. Especially since there’s not enough time to line up anyone else.’ Mike nodded slowly in agreement. ‘I’m very disappointed in you, Alex,’ he added sternly. ‘Why promise something you can’t deliver?’

‘I can deliver Leo Hamilton,’ she told him firmly.

James Boswell smiled and shook his head. ‘Come on, Alex! What’s the point in flogging a dead horse? Everyone knows that both the guy and his family have always avoided any publicity like the plague. So, there’s no way he’s going to agree to participate in an article about his engagement. Right?’

‘No, you’re wrong,’ she protested, before turning to her editor. ‘I’ll admit that James has a point—Leo Hamilton wouldn’t normally be too happy about the idea. Well, not at first, anyway. But, please give me a break, Mike,’ she begged earnestly: ‘Because, in this particular case, I can virtually guarantee to bring home the bacon.’

‘This is all a complete waste of time,’ Imogen snapped. ‘I don’t know about you, Mike, but I’ve got better things to do than to listen to such nonsense.’

‘Calm down, everyone,’ the editor said firmly, before regarding the younger girl intently for a moment. ‘You seem very certain that you won’t have any problems with this article, right?’

‘Right.’

‘Now, you’re certainly not stupid, Alex,’ he continued slowly. ‘You must know that if you want my backing I’m going to need some hard facts. What makes you so certain that you can gain the cooperation of this guy? Are you one of his ex-girlfriends, for instance?’

‘Certainly not!’ she snapped curtly.

‘Well...?’

Alex hesitated for a moment, and then gave a heavy sigh. ‘OK, Mike. I normally try to keep family and business matters entirely separate. However, if you’re insisting on some “hard facts”...’ She shrugged. ‘Well, it just so happens that Leo Hamilton is my stepbrother.’

CHAPTER TWO

‘GO AWAY—you great big bully!’ Alex muttered angrily, impatiently tooting her horn at the driver of a large delivery truck who was clearly trying to force her small car out of the way as she drove through the narrow, crowded streets of the city.

Ever since the meeting in Mike Tanner’s office only two hours ago it felt as though she’d been frantically spinning like a top. Which had, at least, the virtue of keeping her mind fully occupied, and unable to think too much about the forthcoming confrontation with Leo Hamilton.

But now as she pulled on the handbrake, staring blindly out through her windscreen at the lines of cars and trucks all firmly stalled in the heavy traffic, there seemed little she could do to combat the wild, nervous fluttering in her stomach.

Relax! Keep calm...there’s no need to panic. Quite apart from anything else, there’s a good chance that Leo probably won’t even recognise you, she told herself firmly. ‘And let’s hope he doesn’t!’ she added out loud, with an attempt at grim humour, almost shuddering as she recalled the deeply unhappy young girl who had suddenly found herself dumped in a strange household in Italy all those years ago.

Most teenage girls looked a mess at one time or another—but she’d really gone to town, with that ‘heavy Gothic’ style!

It was difficult to remember now exactly what had prompted her to dye her hair jet-black. Or why she’d ever thought that smothering her face in chalky-white foundation and applying both sooty-black mascara and dark crimson lipstick with a heavy hand could be a good idea. Could it have been some sort of protest? An infantile act of rebellion against an unkind world? If so, it had, most unfortunately, proved to be a fatal mistake.

After one appalled glance at the strange-looking sixteen-year-old girl who’d suddenly arrived at her holiday home in Tuscany, Leo’s mother, Eleanor Lucas, had swiftly taken matters in hand. However, by the time she’d forcefully bullied Alex into looking more like the girl’s normal self, it had proved to be far, far too late. Because, barely moments after setting eyes on him, Alex had fallen desperately in love with her tall, dark and handsome twenty-three-year-old stepbrother. While he, for his part, had clearly only thought of her as some ghastly teenaged version of one of the Munsters.

Over the years, Alex had done her level best to forget that long, baking-hot and totally dreadful summer holiday, where one disaster had been swiftly followed by another, like a Greek tragedy. But now, with the prospect of meeting once more the man who had so blighted her young life, she could feel her skin almost crawling with embarrassment and humiliation.