by Lulu Taylor
‘Very well.’ Margaret shot a look over at Coco, but she pretended she wasn’t listening and the assistant went on her way to fulfil Daddy’s orders.
73
SERGEI WASN’T COMING. It didn’t matter whether he wanted to or not, there was no way he could get through the snow to them, Daisy was certain of it. Christophe was less sure.
‘He’s used to this weather,’ he said reasonably. ‘Russians know how to deal with it in a way we don’t. What looks impassable to us might be something they can get through with the right equipment. Why would Sergei want to let us starve up here?’
‘He didn’t seem to mind all that much when I was kidnapped,’ Daisy said, but she was calmed by Christophe’s words. He wasn’t panicking and that helped her, even though she was nervously watching the wood pile go down and the tins in the cupboard diminish as they used up their stores.
‘If it comes to the worst,’ Christophe said with a smile, ‘I’ll go out and cut more wood and hunt something down to eat.’
‘Good luck with that,’ retorted Daisy. ‘I haven’t seen a living thing for days! And do we have an axe?’
‘Honey, if it comes to it, you can eat me. I’ll gladly surrender an arm or a leg.’ He laughed but Daisy shivered. She didn’t want to think about such an awful eventuality as their starving, but she was becoming increasingly anxious.
On the other hand, it was also blissful to have the kind of warmth and happiness she hadn’t known since the days they’d spent together at Nant-y-Pren. The two of them were locked away from the world here, perfectly content with each other. When they weren’t sitting in front of the fire, talking and making plans, they were in bed where they couldn’t get enough of each other’s body, making love with a ferocity that was sometimes overpowering, or with a tenderness that left Daisy weak and helpless and close to tears.
‘I’m so sorry we’ve spent so long apart,’ she said to him, touching his cheek gently.
‘But we wouldn’t have had this sweet reunion if we hadn’t,’ said Christophe with a smile, and she knew it was true.
On the fifth day, even Christophe looked concerned. It hadn’t snowed for a while but there was no sign of a thaw. They went outside, clearing a path with shovels, but the snow was deep. If they attempted to walk on the surface, they sank down at once. They were warm with the effort when they went back inside at last.
Christophe looked around. There was a handful of logs left on the hearth and he could see now that just getting the few feet to the forest was going to be difficult, let alone cutting wood when he arrived there. ‘Daisy, how many tins of food do we have left?’
She went through to the kitchen and returned with three tins. ‘Two of mince, one of potatoes,’ she said helplessly. ‘And we’re even out of vodka.’
‘Out of vodka?’ Christophe tried to lighten the mood. ‘Well, that is bad. No one can expect me to stay here without vodka.’ He beckoned her over to the sofa. ‘Come and sit down.’
They sat together. Christophe took Daisy’s hands in his and looked at her seriously.
‘Do you know what I really want?’ she said suddenly. ‘A change of clothes!’ She’d been washing her underwear in the basin at night and drying it out on the stove while she slept but her other clothes hadn’t been washed for days. ‘I haven’t worn anything else since I was kidnapped.’
‘Yes,’ Christophe said gravely. ‘It’s time for us to be serious. We can’t sit here forever waiting for Sergei. We don’t know why he hasn’t come. It’s probably the weather but the fact is, he might not get through. And I don’t want either of us to die here. I want to live a long and happy life – with you, if at all possible.’
Daisy’s cheeks flushed as she felt happiness surge through her, but she said nothing.
‘So the time has come.’ Christophe lifted his wrist and pulled back his sleeve to reveal his watch, a large silver timepiece with a black face, compass points etched around the face, and bulky knobs on the case. ‘Do you know what this is?’
‘A watch,’ Daisy deadpanned back.
‘Yes. But it’s a very special kind of watch. You see this large button on the side?’ She nodded. ‘In a moment, I’m going to pull it out. When I do that, it will release antennae that will transmit a signal on the distress frequency and reach a distance of 160 kilometres. It should be picked up and trigger a rescue team to save us.’
Daisy stared at it, then laughed. ‘Very good. I almost believed you then.’
‘I’m not joking.’ Christophe gave her a candid look. ‘This is a Breitling Emergency watch.’
‘Really?’
He nodded, a big smile spreading over his face. He tilted it so that she could read ‘Emergency Chronometer’ written on its face. ‘It’s a pretty pricey piece of kit, designed for pilots. There’s a large fine for calling out the rescue service unnecessarily but I think this counts as an emergency.’ He looked down at the watch. ‘I’ve had it since my flying days.’
Daisy picked up a cushion and threw it at him. ‘All this time you knew you had this rescue watch, and you didn’t tell me?’ she cried, indignant but also deeply relieved.
Christophe laughed and dodged the cushion. ‘We were having such a good time, I thought it might take the edge off if you knew about the watch. Now – I’m going to trigger the signal and then we should have time to go back to bed for a bit before the rescue team get here.’
74
NATURALLY EVERYBODY ASSUMED that Coco was Daddy Dangerfield’s mistress. Almost immediately items appeared in the gossip columns using the kind of snide language that meant everybody assumed that the ‘new friend’ was a sleeping partner. When the more oily gossip magazines pictured her and Daddy at a gallery opening or a book launch or a charity dinner, they called her his ‘close companion’, which said the same thing in a more acceptable way.
They didn’t realise that she was more like a daughter to him than a lover; Daddy simply enjoyed having her about. If he admired her sexiness or having someone so young and beautiful in the house, it was more in the way of the owner of this remarkable object than as a red-blooded male staking a sexual claim. Perhaps he knew what people were thinking; if he did, he never made any effort to correct it.
One day he took her into company headquarters with him, riding the executive lift to the top of the impressive City premises, and showed her the view across London and the luxurious appointment of his office. Coco was impressed, though she pretended it all meant very little to her.
‘Tell me what you do, Daddy,’ she said, and he went on to lecture her for the rest of the day about the remarkable history of his father’s business and how he himself had continued to build it up to the peak of success. It nearly drove Coco to tears of boredom.
To cope with her new role, she took as much time away from him as she could. He understood that she needed to visit her hairdresser and beautician and re-stock her wardrobe. But the evenings he considered his, and she had to spend them with him. All the time she listened carefully and watched as well.
One morning, lingering outside the dining room where Daddy was having his breakfast, she heard Margaret’s voice coming from within.
‘Sir, the Foundation needs more funds. The professor has told me he’s on the brink of some exciting discoveries. As usual he’s at the forefront of developments.’
‘What kind of discoveries?’ Daddy asked, sounding eager.
‘Some of the serums he’s testing have had remarkably positive effects,’ was the reply. ‘New cell growth, incredible rejuvenation, and the possibility of renewing entire organs. Imagine!’ Margaret sounded more enthusiastic than Coco had ever heard her before. ‘Every part of your body could be reinvigorated. Eternal youth, sir! And you would be the very first to experience it.’
So that’s her game, Coco thought grimly. She’s another snake-oil saleswoman, peddling her stuff to a rich man. Just then a maid came along the corridor, bearing a tureen of oat bran porridge. Coco breezed through the dining room door in time to see Mar
garet pushing the needle of a syringe into Daddy’s arm.
‘Ah, Coco,’ he said, his face lighting up at the sight of her. ‘I’m just getting my special shot. You should try them, they’re remarkable.’
‘Maybe I will one day,’ she said airily. Margaret was observing her closely but Coco took care to seem unconcerned. ‘But I prefer eating an orange. I hate injections. Ugh!’
Margaret quietly packed away her equipment and left the room.
Coco ran through the Belgravia streets on her way back from Hyde Park. She was semi-oblivious to the world around her, plugged into her headphones and listening to the music from her MP3 player. She loved her running sessions. She felt at peace as she pounded through the park, more so than anywhere else, and it was a blessed relief to be away from Daddy for a while. She found life with him claustrophobic and stressful.
Not too much longer, maybe. We’ll see.
She slowed down as she approached the house, panting and taking a drink from her water bottle. In a moment, she’d back inside the gilded prison. Still, she’d chosen it. She could hardly complain. If ever a girl had made her bed and now had to lie in it, it was her. Bed made her think of the wonderful hours she’d spent there with Will, pressed against his muscular body, tasting the delights of his skin and tongue, feeling him deep inside her, driving her on to a fierce torrent of pleasure …
Stop it, she told herself sternly. Don’t you dare think about that! It’s over. He’s out of your life forever. The desolation that possessed her at that thought was almost unbearable, and her head drooped. As she was approaching the door to the house, a man stepped out from against the railings where she hadn’t noticed him. ‘Coco?’
She looked up at pair of dark eyes and a thin face covered with dark stubble. ‘Roberto?’ she said, astonished. Then she smiled. ‘Oh my God! It’s been a long time.’
‘It sure has.’ He smiled back. ‘I won’t kiss you, you look a bit … glowing.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ She wiped a film of sweat from her forehead with one sleeve. ‘Sorry.’
‘Listen, have you got a moment? Can we go somewhere? I need to talk to you.’
Coco looked at her watch. ‘Sure – but I can’t be long. Ten minutes max. Is that OK?’
‘It won’t take long.’ Roberto looked up admiringly at the huge white mansion. ‘Hey, you’ve done very well for yourself, haven’t you? Well done, doll.’
‘Thanks.’ She turned and began to walk with him towards the private garden at the centre of the square. ‘I can’t believe you found me. How did you know where I was?’
‘Funny what you can find out when you need to. I saw your picture in the paper the other day, along with the bloke whose party you danced at.’ He raised his eyebrows. ‘Looks like you got lucky there after all.’
‘Yeah. If you can call it that.’ She longed suddenly to be able to go with him to a café, and sit and drink coffee and chat like they used to. Instead they leaned against the garden railings. ‘Tell me how things are going,’ she said.
‘Honey.’ Roberto put his hand on her sleeve and Coco suddenly felt nervous. ‘There’s no easy way to say this so I’ll come straight out with it. I had a visit at the club the other day, from someone looking for you to tell you about your mum. She’s … she’s dying.’
Coco felt a jolt of her heart and a rush of panic, and then said with a mirthless laugh, ‘She’s been dying for fucking years!’
‘Yeah, but now she really is. And she wants to see you.’
75
IT WAS STRANGE going back to being Daphne Fraser, Daisy thought. I’ve almost got used to being Daisy again. She’d loved it when Christophe had begun calling her by her real name.
On her return, she’d had to report to Karen O’Malley with a full explanation of what had happened abroad. She told the version that she’d also sent to Darley in a private email, hoping that he would back it up when he was in a fit state to explain himself. She expected that he would, since she was protecting his back and buying him some more time. For now, he was on indefinite sick leave.
‘OK,’ Karen said, when Daisy had finished her explanation. ‘So this was really a sight-seeing trip that went wrong when Darley got sick and you got snowed in?’
‘That’s about the size of it,’ Daisy said lightly. ‘Except that we were there initially to inspect a possible investment in Anatolski’s hotel business. It looked like a good one, in my opinion.’
Karen sat back behind her desk, pushing her glasses higher on her nose. ‘That’s reassuring to hear. But we’ll have to see what the thoughts from upstairs are on this one.’
‘You mean … Mr Dangerfield?’
‘That’s right. I’ll have to make my report to him. Word is that he wasn’t impressed by two executives going missing. But I think you’ve explained everything adequately. He’ll be satisfied, I’m sure.’
Daisy’s stomach fizzed with a curious mixture of fear and excitement. ‘I see. Well, I’m happy to explain myself further as necessary.’
She left Karen’s office feeling strangely elated. The odd thing about her experience in Siberia and the reunion with Christophe was that she now felt liberated. She’d been released from the strain of her previous state of mind, where she’d felt herself to be locked in a furious, invisible battle with her father. Somehow, suddenly, she didn’t care. All this time, she’d been keen to show him that she mattered, that she was worth something, that she could make him proud of her even though she wasn’t his daughter.
Now, as she considered facing Daddy’s wrath in her new incarnation, she wanted to laugh. Perhaps I should take my revenge after all, she thought. I know I could. But is it what I really want?
The rescue from the hunting lodge had come about just as Christophe had promised. The signal had been picked up and a search-and-rescue helicopter dispatched to find the source. It hadn’t been able to land, but first Daisy and then Christophe had been airlifted aboard, and the aircraft had sped them away over the miles and miles of snow-covered country beneath. It seemed that within mere minutes they were back in Komsomolsk. Sergei had met them there the next day, full of vehement apologies and assurances that he had done his best to reach them, but that the unexpected snowfall had been too much for any vehicle to tackle. He promised that only one more day would have gone by before he would have alerted the rescue services himself.
Darley Ross had been returned to the UK already, so all that was necessary was for Sergei to fetch Daisy’s luggage, including her travel documents, and then they were free to go.
All the way home she and Christophe held hands, unable to let go of each other again. Now they were back together, Daisy felt complete and it had seemed utterly natural for him to move in with her at the rented flat in Shoreditch. Neither of them could contemplate being apart, but the future was not at all clear.
‘I thought I knew what I wanted,’ Daisy told him over dinner the day of her interview with Karen. ‘I’ve been driven on by this need to show my father what I was capable of. And today, it felt like it had all just melted away.’ She smiled at him. ‘All that desire and passion … vanished. Now that I have you again, I don’t need to face him any more.’
‘You have no need to prove yourself to that man,’ Christophe said, wrapping tagliatelle around his fork.
‘I know.’ Daisy toyed with hers, leaning her head on one hand. She looked up at him. ‘I could also bring Dangerfield toppling down, you do realise that? I know about the hidden debts, the precarious nature of the whole company, and the fact that one rogue executive has got the business involved in a crazy mining scheme that’s more like a money pit than a sensible investment.’
Christophe smiled at her. His brown eyes looked even more velvety in the candlelight. ‘So bring it down. Why not?’
‘Because I still love it, I suppose,’ she replied simply. ‘And I want to work there, just as I always did. I’m not sure how long I can go on being Daphne Fraser, though. And at some point he has to know about me. That�
�s the final step.’
‘Is it?’ Christophe gazed at her tenderly. ‘Maybe you need to know about you. Maybe you need some answers, and you don’t even realise it.’
Daisy frowned. What he’d said suddenly sounded right. ‘Yes,’ she said slowly. ‘Maybe that’s exactly what I need.’ She looked him straight in the eye. ‘But even if I decide to leave Dangerfield, there’s something I need to clear up first. I’m going to Scotland to solve a little problem. And I need you to come with me.’
76
I THOUGHT I would never come back round here, Coco told herself. Her mother had been taken into King’s College Hospital in Camberwell, so Coco took the train out to Denmark Hill and walked to the hospital from the station. She felt like a creature visiting from another planet in her Dior jeans, outsize blazer, McQueen scarf loosely wrapped at her neck, a Mulberry satchel over one shoulder.
But as soon as she’d heard from Roberto that her mother was dying, she’d known she had to go back. He had offered to go with her, but she’d said no, she would go alone. The hospital was enormous. Outside the entrance she passed people in pyjamas, attached to drips or in wheelchairs, puffing away at cigarettes, enjoying one of the few pleasures they had left. Inside, she passed signs to the different departments, and marvelled at all the knowledge and skill contained under one roof, along with all the sickness and misery too.
She found the right floor and department, and a receptionist directed her to where she would find her mother. The ward was full of patients and yet the place seemed eerily deserted. She’d thought it would be full of medical staff, but the nurses seemed to be grouped at a desk outside, there was no doctor to be seen, and the sick lay in their beds unattended getting on with the tiring and tedious business of being ill. Some of them had visitors, some were curtained off from view. Coco found her mother at the far end, lying prone against thin hospital pillows and attached to a variety of machines, apparently asleep. Coco went up to the bed and gazed at her for a moment. Michelle was a shadow of her old self, thinner and more wizened than ever, her hair sparse and streaked with grey. Coco bent over her.
