Harry cracked smile but Nathan was too worried. “Elise, Mr X is revealing his identity live on television tonight.”
“What?” The blood drained out of Elise’s head and she swayed dizzily on the sofa.
“He’s going as a guest on some talk show.” Nathan continued. “It’s up to you whether you want to watch but we’re more concerned about the media impact. Depending on who it is this could cause a media storm.”
“Are you sure you have no idea who it is?” Amanda asked gently.
“It could be anyone.” Abruptly she was filled with panic. “We have to get out of the city. What if they find out where I’m staying? Let’s book a hotel. Maybe I should fly back to Scotland.”
“Calm down.” Harry got to his feet and picked up one of the mobiles he had carelessly scattered on the coffee table. “We were supposed to be going to Papa Redwood’s tomorrow for dinner. I’ll call, tell him we’re coming tonight instead. He’ll be delighted.”
“What about the movies you brought?” Elise asked lamely and Harry shrugged, his grin so like Nathan’s.
“We can watch them at Papa’s. He won’t mind.” He raised his phone but Elise was shaking her head.
“No. Don’t call him. I need some time to think about this. What time is the tv show?” She jumped to her feet as Harry checked his watch.
“It’s in about an hour.”
“Give me some time.” Rushing through to the study she closed the door behind her and powered up the computer. He had to have emailed her. There’s no way he would go live on TV without some sort of private warning.
Her inbox was flooded with hundreds of messages and she scrolled through them frantically, trying to find the ones from today. She missed it the first time and then, on the second read through, her heart stopped.
To: Elise Waterford
CC: Mr X ([email protected])
From: Taylor Stone
SUBJECT: It’s me. I’m Mr X.
Elise,
This is going to come as something of a shock and I’m sorry for that. I’ve tried to call but can’t get through and, when I came round to explain, you weren’t in. My father told me that he’d fucked up and you’d resigned. I thought my heart was going to shatter when I got your latest blog post and you said it was your last.
Please Elise, I beg you. Don’t go back to Scotland. You wanted me to be honest so I’m being honest. I’m going on television tonight to tell everyone it was me. I’m going to own up to everything so there can be no doubt how I feel about you. I don’t care what my family thinks and this media circus has gone on for long enough. It’s time to put a stop to it.
I think I’ve loved you since the moment I laid eyes on you. You were just so damn funny swearing like a trooper, all flustered. I knew for definite you’d captured my heart when you put me in my place that night at the chalet. I know I’ve been an idiot Elise. I know I don’t deserve a second chance. I just wanted to prove to you that I wasn’t the shallow playboy you thought I was, that I genuinely cared and you weren’t just some tumble to me. All these weeks it’s hurt to hear so many people casually saying I couldn’t be Mr X because I didn’t have a romantic bone in my body. I do. I tried to show it in the only way I knew how without screwing up my career and yours. I know how painful it is to be tarred with nepotism. I messed up and it snowballed totally out of control.
I should have just come to you directly when you arrived in London but I thought you were angry with me because you hadn’t returned any of my communications. By the time I found out it was Anton, it was too late. I’ve spent so many hours this last week wondering what would have happened if he hadn’t interfered, if we had kept in touch, if you could have maybe come to love me in those months, if Nathan wouldn’t have been in the picture because I was there already, if I had kissed you at the ball when I wanted to so very much...
You were so honest with me when you emailed, when I was just Mr X and not Taylor Stone. I guess I forgot sometimes that you didn’t know who I was. I could hear your voice reading the words even as my eyes picked them from the screen. I meant every word I said to you.
I’m sorry. More sorry than you’ll ever know. I really do love you and I hope that you’ll forgive me one day because it’s too much to hope now that you would love me in return.
Ever yours,
Taylor xxx
Elise sat there, her mind reeling as she read it again. This was so many colours of fucked up she could paint a whole damn rainbow with it.
“You were emailing Mr X?” Nate demanded. “Why didn’t you say anything?” She’d been so absorbed reading the email she hadn’t heard him come in behind her and she realised he’d read the whole thing over her shoulder.
“Because I knew you’d fly off the handle with jealousy.” She replied honestly.
“And you think that makes it okay to speak to your secret admirer behind my back?” His voice was incredulous and she couldn’t blame him.
“No. It doesn’t. It’s not okay but I couldn’t help myself. I was so curious about who he was and then he turned out to be funny and intelligent. It seemed rude not to reply to his emails.” Filled with shame she hung her head.
“I can’t fucking deal with this.” He stormed out the room and she suddenly felt herself flooded with anger. He couldn’t deal with it?
“You can’t fucking deal with this?” She yelled, following him out into the living room. “You think it’s okay to not tell me who you are but I have to tell you everything that happens every goddamn minute of my life? I’m not allowed to have a private conversation with anyone?” Harry and Amanda gaped at them from the sofa as they shouted at each other.
“This guy is leaving you love letters and all this time you’ve been lying to me, swearing blind that you don’t care, that you’re not curious about him. You lied to me!”
“And you lied to me!” She yelled back. “Do you have any idea how it feels to wake up and find out from the news that the guy you thought was a nice, quiet librarian is actually a bazillionaire? Do you have any idea how stupid that made me feel?”
“But it’s okay for your precious Taylor to lie to you all this time just because he said he was rich up front?”
She gasped at the nastiness of it. “First off, he’s not ‘my’ anything. Secondly, he’s never actually lied to me. I never asked Taylor if he was Mr X because I just assumed he wasn’t. And for the record, in all my emails with Mr X he’s been honest about everything except his name. It’s a long time since I’ve had a conversation that honest with anyone.”
“Well aren’t you two just the happy couple?” Nathan sneered. “Do you love him?”
“What the hell sort of a question is that?” Elise gaped.
“A pretty fucking simple one. Do you love him?”
“We’ve been together all these weeks and you still have to ask me that?” Elise abruptly burst into tears. “I can’t do this anymore. I’m going home to Scotland.” She grabbed her handbag and Harry finally jumped into motion.
“You can’t, not at this time of night Elise.” He took her bag from her and pulled her into a hug, moving her away from where Nathan was visibly shaking with rage. “I think you’ve both fucked up quite considerably in this relationship but right now, with everything that’s going on, it’s not the time to make rash decisions. I’m going to take Nate home and Amanda is going to stay here with you. We can all have a calm discussion about this in the morning when some of the steam has blown off, okay?”
“Okay.” She snuffled and he handed her over to Amanda, almost forcibly bundling Nathan out of the flat.
“Try and get some sleep.” He called back over his shoulder and then they were gone, leaving Elise shaking in Amanda’s arms.
Easy words to say but Elise wasn’t really surprised when she found herself in the kitchen at 6am having barely slept a wink. She hadn’t watched the tv show and her phone was still switched off. She hadn’t even looked at her emails. She’d been
lying awake wondering how she had ever found herself in this crazy situation and the more she thought about it the more she realised that it just wasn’t her. All she’d ever wanted was to settle down somewhere quiet, maybe get married and have a child or two. She just wanted to write books. This was too much.
As the thought settled in she became more and more homesick for her little cottage in the highlands and that finally decided it for her. Plugging in the house phone she called directory enquiries and asked to be put through to the airline that had flown her down. There was a flight leaving for Inverness just after half nine so she booked a seat on it. She was going home. Once her payment had gone through for them, she looked up the number for a taxi company in the house folder and called them too. They agreed to send one for her as soon as possible, so she threw a few things in a bag, grabbed her guitar, scribbled a note for Amanda and then crept out of the flat to wait. By the time 7am had come around she was on her way to the airport.
The taxi driver gave her a curious look as she handed him the money and then he cleared his throat. “Do I know you from somewhere?” He asked and she winced.
“Only if you’ve been watching the news for the last week. I’m the woman that’s about to break the hearts of two really nice, good and kind men.” Feeling like a grade A bitch, she grabbed her guitar case and got out of the car, hurrying into the terminal building. It seemed like there were newspapers everywhere with pictures of Taylor and a few of her on the front page but she tried to ignore them as she checked in. The woman behind the check-in desk opened her passport and did a double-take, glancing at her speculatively as she processed the boarding pass and handed her documents back.
“Are you sure about this?” She asked suddenly. “I know it’s not my place but that Taylor Stone is a bit of a dish.”
“He is but I don’t belong in his world.” Elise pocketed her ticket. “Happily ever after is for fairytales. I’m no Cinderella.”
“Well that’s a shame. But best of luck.” The check-in assistant smiled brightly at her and Elise nodded, too weary to reply. As she walked away she realised that this was what being a celebrity must feel like, everyone having an opinion on your life whether you invited it or not. The thought was depressing.
She put her hand luggage through security and killed the time waiting for her flight to board absently browsing the duty free. She’d left in such a rush that she hadn’t had an opportunity to buy anything for Fern. Spotting her friend’s favourite perfume she bought her a large bottle and left it at that. It wasn’t particularly anything to do with London but Elise didn’t even want to think about the city she was leaving right now. Such a wasted opportunity...and all because of two men. All those museums she should have visited, the shows she should have seen...it was a waste. Perhaps when this didn’t all hurt so much she’d come back and visit her projects. Perhaps she could come back for a wedding if they were successful. The thought made her smile.
Finally it was time to board and as the plane took off she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, glad it was all behind her.
By the time she got back to her village she’d decided to go straight to Fern’s. She’d be frantic by now, not knowing what the hell was going on and with Elise’s phone still switched off. When Fern opened the door she gaped at Elise for a moment and then dragged her into a stiff bear hug. Before she knew what was happening Elise had burst into tears and just sobbed and sobbed until she felt like she was going to drown the whole world.
“You poor thing.” Fern pulled her into the kitchen, parked her at the table with a roll of kitchen towel and then set about making her some tea. “Have you even eaten today? You look exhausted. I’ll make some tea and here’s a slice of cake. You’ll stay for lunch. And maybe dinner. I’ve got a movie we can watch this afternoon to take your mind off things. What happened? You should have let me know you were coming.”
“I didn’t know until this morning and I couldn’t face switching my phone on to call you.” Elise tried to dry her eyes but they just kept welling up again. “I’m sorry, I know this is pathetic. I just can’t seem to stop.”
“It’s not pathetic at all. What made you come back? I thought you and Nate were going to try and ride it out.”
“We were. Until he discovered I’d been emailing Mr X trying to find out who he was. He went nuts and started shouting at me because I hadn’t told him. It got pretty nasty.”
Fern winced. “Did you watch the program? You do know who Mr X is now, right?”
“I didn’t watch it but I didn’t need to. He sent me an email to tell me he was going to do it. I was reading it last night when Nate came in. That’s what sparked the argument.”
“I’m glad it was Taylor.” Fern said after a moment. “I think secretly I was always rooting for him. I can’t work out if you’re crying over him or Nate.” Elise shrugged.
“The whole thing is a total mess. I just wanted to come home. I know it was probably the cowardly thing to do but I couldn’t breathe in the city. It was starting to feel like a prison. I’m just not emotionally ready to face Taylor yet and as for Nate...when you start a relationship with so much lying between you I don’t know how you come back from that. To love each other you have to be able to trust each other and I think that’s lost forever. It’s got echoes of Max all over again.”
“Well I’m glad you’re home.” Fern set a cup of tea down in front of Elise and gave her another quick hug around the shoulders. “I missed you while you were gone. Come on, drink your tea and then we’ll go watch films and laugh until we forget you’ve even been away.”
Chapter 13
Two days later Elise went into the local courier and begged for her old job back. Pleased to have something of a celebrity working for them, they didn’t make her try too hard and over the next couple of weeks she settled back into life in her cottage. It seemed so quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of the city but Elise knew she’d never take it for granted again.
After ten days she’d finally been brave enough to turn her phone on but was screening calls and slowly they tailed off. Nathan hadn’t even tried to contact her and she realised she’d probably really hurt him with her disappearing act on top of the argument. She felt full of shame for not even having left him a note but reasoned that it took two to fight for a relationship and he had yelled some pretty nasty things during the row. Her email inbox had remained unopened. She wasn’t ready to face whatever was there from Taylor.
She had steadfastly stayed away from reading the newspapers or watching the news on television so she was a little surprised when Fern let herself into Elise’s house unannounced one morning and slapped a newspaper on her desk.
“You need to read this.” She said decisively and then walked out. Elise gaped after her for a moment and then looked at the paper. Taylor was on the front page with the headline “Heartbroken Editor Lays It All On The Line!” For a long moment she was tempted to just tear it up but she knew Fern wouldn’t have brought it if she didn’t think it was important. Setting it on the table she made a cup of tea, fetched a box of tissues and then began to read.
Following rumours of a split between Elise Waterford and Nathan Redwood, fuelled by the former’s shock decision to return to her home in the Scottish Highlands, we can now report that Taylor Stone, millionaire playboy editor of Monochrome Magazine, the highest grossing magazine in Europe, has decided not to give up on her without a fight. Sources close to the six-time winner of the Most Eligible Bachelor UK award say he has resigned from his post at Monochrome and followed Ms Waterford to Scotland, where he is staying at his holiday home in Aviemore while he tries to decide how to win her back. Friends and relatives have been speculating about their relationship since Taylor Stone put all of his London properties on the market ten days ago, only four days after confessing his love for Ms Waterford live on national television. There are also rumours that he purchased a set of prints from a photography session with Ms Waterford at a well-known gallery.
There has been no response to his unmasking as the mysterious Mr X from Ms Waterford but we are led to believe that she knows Mr X is Mr Stone. She was unavailable for comment at the time of printing. A spokesperson for Mr Stone confirmed that the thirty-three year old had indeed resigned from the magazine and was asking for people to respect his privacy while he retreated to Scotland to think about his future. A source at Monochrome was heard saying she hopes Taylor and Elise get together. “They’re both such sweet people and he is clearly head over heels in love with her.” It seems in these times of financial hardship and depression that everyone would like, for once, to see a Cinderella story with a happy ending.
Epilogue
To: Mr X ([email protected])
From: Elise Waterford (CinderellaoftheHighlands @hotmail.com)
X,
I’m writing because I need your advice. I trusted you with my biggest secret so I guess I can trust you with my heart. You see, there’s this guy. I really like him. He’s smart, funny, gorgeous in a very rugged and GQ way. He’s romantic and sweet and writes the cutest little love letters. The thing is, I totally fucked up. He told me he loved me and instead of dealing with it in an appropriate and adult manner I totally freaked out and ran away. I don’t know if he’ll forgive me, even when I tell him how sorry I am and confess to being a total idiot. And even if he does forgive me, I still don’t know that we should be together. When we’re alone away from the city and it’s just the two of us we get on like a house on fire but his family totally disapprove of me and I don’t want to drive a wedge between them. He’s worked so damn hard to get where he is and I couldn’t live with myself if I messed it up for him. I’m also hurting from the nasty break-up of a recent relationship. This guy I like? He’s too good to be a rebound guy. I’m so torn...part of me wants to turn up at his house in Aviemore and sing him Ronan Keating wearing nothing but my guitar to prove to him that I really want to try and I’m sorry, but part of me wants to just keep my head down and hope that one day my heart stops hurting. What should I do?
Summer Loving Page 19
