Jill Mansell - Chapter 1

‘So she asked you to stop seeing her son. Erm,’ said Gabe, ‘did it ever occur to you to say no?’

‘She didn’t ask me. She made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.’ Lola hated even thinking about that bit; had spent years doing her best to banish it from her mind.

‘You’re not serious!’ At last she had Gabe’s full attention. ‘You mean, like swimming with the fishes? She actually threatened you with a concrete overcoat and a trip to the bottom of the Thames?’

‘Not that kind. She offered me money. I was seventeen years old.’ There was a bitter taste in Lola’s mouth now; no matter how compelling the reason, the inescapable fact remained that she had betrayed her boyfriend. ‘And she offered me ten thousand pounds if I’d stop seeing Dougie.’

‘Which you took?’

‘Which I took.’ The bitter taste was guilt; it wasn’t an action she was proud of, hence never having mentioned it to Gabe before.

He let out an incredulous bark of laughter. ‘You let her buy you off?’

Lola shivered as a blast of icy air wrapped itself around her stomach. ‘I didn’t want to, but I had to:

‘Bloody hell! len grand. What did you spend it on?’

Lola hesitated, but it was no good; she couldn’t tell him. ‘ icked with remorse, Alex had begged her never to reveal their secret to another living soul and it was a promise she had to keep. Alex might be gone now but her mother must never find out what had happened. Which meant she must never tell anyone. Choking up at the memory, she said, ‘I just needed it. You don’t understand what a—’

Crackkk.

She froze at the sound of a dry twig snapping underfoot behind her. Swinging round with her heart in her throat, Lola saw the tall figure just visible in the darkness at the entrance to the rose garden.

Not just any old tall figure either. That silhouette was instantly recognisable.

‘Ten thousand pounds,’ said a quiet voice every bit as incredulous as Gabe’s.

Oh God.

‘I don’t understand what?’ complained Gabe, for whom patience wasn’t a strong point. ‘Don’t stop there! What is there to not understand?’

‘I’ll call you back.’ Her hand suddenly trembling with more than cold, Lola ended the call and dropped the phone back into her bag.

Chapter 9

’Ten thousand pounds,’ Doug repeated, shaking his head.

Lola swallowed. ‘Your mum was desperate to split us up.’

‘I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’ He moved towards her. ‘You wrote me a letter and left the country’

‘Because that’s what she wanted me to do. Don’t you see? All that stuff I said in the letter wasn’t true!’ Lola knew she had to make him understand. ‘I still loved you! It broke my heart too, I was miserable for months.’

‘Oh, don’t give me that.’ Doug’s tone hardened. ‘I’ve heard some lines in my time, but—’

Dougie, I’m not lying! And I’m sorry, so sorry I hurt you. But it was your mother’s idea — she was the one who offered me the money. And trust me, she was desperate,’ Lola pleaded. ‘If I’d turned it down she’d only have found some other way to get rid of me.’

‘Jesus! You could have mentioned it! Did it not even occur to you to tell me what was going on?

Did you not think it might have been fair to ask me how I felt about it?’

‘I was going to.’ Lola’s fists were clenched with frustration; not being able to tell him the truth meant he was always goingto think she was a mercenary bitch. Helplessly she said, ‘But you were moving up to Edinburgh, you’d have started socialising with all those girls up there ...’

‘What?’

‘We were so young! What were the chances, realistically, of us staying together? I knew I loved you,’ Lola rattled on in desperation, ‘but what if I’d said no to the money then a few weeks later you’d met someone you liked more than me? How stupid would I have felt if you’d sent me a Dear John letter then?’

In the darkness Doug raised his hands.’Fine.You did absolutely the right thing. Let’s just forget it, shall we?’

Did he mean that? ‘Let’s.’ Lola nodded eagerly, wondering if now might be a good moment for a lovely-to-see-you-again kiss. ‘From now on all that stuff’s behind us, right? We can start afresh.’

‘Start afresh?’ There was a smidgeon of sarcasm in his voice. ‘No need to go that far, surely.You’ll be leaving soon enough.’

‘I don’t have to.’ Hurrying after him as he abruptly turned and headed down the path leading back to the house, Lola said, ‘I’ve only just got here! Dougie, it’s fantastic to see you again, we’ve got so much catching up to do.’

‘Trust me, we haven’t.’

‘But I want to know what you’ve been doing!’ Desperation made her reckless. ‘And you came outside, so that means you wanted to talk to me too.’

Dougie reached the front door and paused to look at her. ‘I came outside for a cigarette.’

‘You smoke now?’

‘Not a lot.’

‘You should give up,’ said Lola.

A muscle twitched irritably in his jaw. ‘I did give up. Six weeks ago.’

So her sudden reappearance had jolted him. Lola sniffed the air but could only detect cold earth and aftershave. ‘I can’t smell smoke.’

Dougie pulled a single cigarette and Bic lighter from his shirt pocket. ‘I was about to light it when I heard you talking on the phone.’

‘So you didn’t smoke it, you listened to me instead. See? I’m coming in useful already.’

Reaching out and snatching the cigarette from his hand, Lola snapped it in two and tossed it over her shoulder into a lavender bush.

Dougie heaved a sigh and pushed open the front door. ‘If you hadn’t been here I wouldn’t have been tempted in the first place. If you want to do something really useful you’ll leave.’

‘There you are.’ Adele, flinty eyed, was standing in the hall with Sally beside her. ‘We were wondering what had happened to you.’

‘We’ve been catching up.’ Dougie’s tone was brusque. ‘I’ve just been hearing about the ten thousand pounds you paid Lola to stop seeing me.’

Adele shot Lola a look capable of shrivelling grapes. ‘So she told you, did she? Ten thousand pounds, is that what she said?’ Lola’s heart sank like a dropped anchor.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Doug demanded.

‘I offered ten thousand. But that wasn’t enough for her. She demanded fifteen.’ Adele shrugged elegantly. ‘And then, when I refused, she started haggling.’

Oh God.

‘So did you,’ Lola whispered.

Doug shook his head. ‘I don’t believe this. How much did you end up with?’

‘Twelve.’

‘Twelve and a half,’ said Adele the hateful witch.

‘OK, but I needed that—’

‘Stop.’ Dougie held up his hands. ‘I’ve heard enough. Now I definitely need a drink.’ He turned and strode back into the drawing room.

Lola watched him go. It probably wasn’t the moment to be thinking this, but he was even more irresistible when he was angry.

‘Now see what you’ve done: said Adele. ‘Why don’t you leave before you ruin the entire evening?’

It might have been a tempting proposition earlier but that was before Dougie had turned up.

Since leaving was no longer an option – because what if she never saw him again? – Lola said,

‘Look, I’m not as bad as you’re making out. I only took that money because there was an emergency and I desperately needed it. I’m actually a really nice person. Can’t we just forget about all that old stuff?’

I patted your thigh, for God’s sake.

Adele exhaled audibly. ‘None of us was expecting this to happen this evening. I’m grateful for what you did the other night, obviously. But I can’t pretend I’m happy to see you again. Giving you the money was what I needed to do at the time, but I never wanted Doug to find out.’