She winked, flicked her hair over her shoulder and set off across the room, her eyes firmly on her unsuspecting prey.
Caitlin sighed, picked up the two glasses and began pushing her way through the snogging, dancing couples on the floor. There was nothing worse than sitting at the bar or wandering round the club trying to look as if she was about to join someone. And since there was still no sign of Tom, at least talking to this Simon guy would pass the time.
The room was getting more crowded and she was attempting to dodge the gyrations and waving arms of several couples who clearly thought they were preparing for the finals of Strictly Come Dancing, when someone knocked her arm.
‘Hey, watch it!’
She spun round and gasped in horror at the sight of a large quantity of juice running down the cream chinos of a seriously fit-looking guy with the kind of suntan that definitely hadn’t been acquired on Brighton beach.
‘Oh gosh, sorry!’ She dumped the empty glass on a nearby table, pulled a paper tissue from the pocket of her jeans, began dabbing at his thighs, realised what she was doing and stopped, cringing with embarrassment.
‘Please, feel free!’ the guy said with a lopsided smile. Caitlin felt her face flushing. He was gorgeous. Seriously, heart-stoppingly gorgeous. And she was a complete idiot.
‘I’m sorry, really – I didn’t mean . . .’
‘Hey, it’s no big deal! Let me get you another drink – something less likely to leave a stain this time? What’ll it be?’
Caitlin stood staring at him, her mouth half open. He was at least twenty, she thought, with spiked hair that sported a sun-bleached streak down one side and the sort of slate-grey eyes you could drown in.
‘Drink?’ the guy repeated patiently.
‘Oh – er, white wine and soda, please,’ she replied with what she hoped was a dazzlingly confident smile. At least he looked old enough to get her a serious drink. ‘And I’m sorry about the trousers.’
The guy shrugged. ‘Forget it,’ he replied, heading back towards the bar. ‘Sorry – are you with someone?’
‘No – well, yes – well, just mates, you know . . .’
She glanced across the club and was pleasantly satisfied to see Bianca eyeing her in amazement.
‘You’re not one of Mulberry Court crowd are you?’
Caitlin nodded, wondering how he’d guessed.
‘And I don’t suppose by any lucky chance one of these “just mates” is Summer Tilney?’
Caitlin gasped and swallowed hard as Summer’s words came back to her. If anyone asks, you haven’t seen me.
‘I haven’t seen her,’ Caitlin replied hurriedly. ‘Not at all.’
‘Ah, so you know her then?’ the guy queried.
‘Um, no – not really. I’m quite new, you see . . .’
Clearly this guy had unwelcome designs on Summer – had probably followed her with the express purpose of coming on to her. It must have been him who sent her the text; that’s why she was in such a rush to go. Only last week, in Prego magazine, she’d read that cases of stalking were on the increase and that wealthy young society girls were prime prey. What with that, and Summer not liking men, she thought, she had to get rid of him as fast as she could. Which was a shame, considering he was such a babe.
‘White wine and soda and a half of bitter, please,’ the guy said to the barman, and then turned back to Caitlin. ‘And you’re quite sure–– Sorry, I don’t know your name.’
‘Caitlin,’ replied Caitlin, ‘Caitlin Morland.’
‘I’m Ludovic Tilney,’ said the guy. ‘But all my friends call me Ludo.’
‘Ludo – Summer’s brother?’ gasped Caitlin.
‘That’s me,’ he replied. ‘So you are a mate of Summer’s?’
Caitlin nodded. ‘Yes, I’m on the induction course at Mulberry Court and Summer’s been really nice to me.’
‘Now, that is a recommendation,’ Ludo smiled. ‘Sum’s going through one of her “I hate the entire universe” phases at the moment – the fact that she’s spoken to you at all is rather remarkable.’
‘Izzy said she was a bit of a loner,’ Caitlin began. ‘But the way I see it, there has to be a reason – there was this article in Destiny magazine that said that people who like their own company don’t really like it at all, it’s all down to their need to isolate themselves from any situation in which they could be challenged . . .’
She paused, realising that Ludo was frowning at her.
‘I’m talking too much,’ she apologised. ‘I do that a lot. Sorry.’
She took a sip of her drink and frantically tried to think of something witty to say.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Jamie and Izzy coming in to dance, clearly gobsmacked at the sight of Caitlin chatting up a guy.
‘Well,’ sighed Ludo, ‘if Summer’s not here, I’d better get going. I tried phoning but she won’t pick up my calls.’
He gulped his drink down in one, his affable expression completely gone now.
‘I don’t suppose she said anything to you recently about meeting anyone – or stuff like that?’ He sounded awkward and uptight.
Caitlin shook her head.
‘Only if she did, I really need to know. I’m not being funny – it’s for her own good.’
So that was it, she thought. Ludo knew about the stalker and realised that being the daughter of a millionaire industrialist put Summer at risk. He was just out to protect her from unsavoury fortune hunters.
‘Well, to be honest––,’ she began.
‘So there you are!’ Tom suddenly appeared at Caitlin’s side. ‘I’ve been looking for you everywhere.’
‘I wasn’t the one who went anywhere,’ Caitlin replied pointedly, turning to Ludo. ‘Actually, about Summer . . .’
Tom eyed Ludo suspiciously and then grabbed Caitlin’s hand.
‘Sorry, I was just chatting to an old mate of mine from the sailing club – I didn’t mean to be so long.’
He squeezed her hand and looked apologetic. It occurred to Caitlin that he seemed a lot nicer when he was on the defensive.
‘Come on, let’s go on to Funky Buddha’s. This place is too tame by half.’
He began dragging her towards the door that led out on to the seafront and then paused.
‘Or would you rather go somewhere else?’
Despite her pleasure at being consulted for the first time that day, Caitlin wrenched her hand free and turned to Ludo.
‘Please tell me where she is. This is urgent, believe me,’ pleaded Ludo, completely ignoring Tom.
‘She’s here,’ Caitlin burst out. ‘I mean, now I know you’re family, I can say. She’s in the loo. See, she said that if anyone asked about her, I was to say I hadn’t seen her, but I guess that was because . . .’
‘OK, I get the picture.’ Ludo said. ‘Go and fish her out, will you? Please?’
‘She won’t like it,’ Caitlin warned.
‘Please – I can hardly go charging in there, can I? I’m doing it to save her skin, believe me.’
He smiled at her, head on one side and a pleading expression on his face. In that moment, Caitlin knew that she would have climbed Everest with Summer on her back if that was what he wanted.
‘Why did you dash off like that? . . . made it so obvious. Now Dad . . . one of his rages . . .’
Caitlin averted her eyes from Tom’s impatient, enquiring face and strained to hear the rather heated conversation that was going on outside the loos between Ludo and Summer.
‘. . . it’s just cruel . . . he has no right . . . immoral . . .’ Summer’s voice was brittle.
‘. . . not fair on him, really . . . done his best . . . Can’t you just humour him this once? ’
‘This once? Our whole lives are being turned upside down . . .’
Clearly something pretty serious was going on in Summer’s life.
‘. . . He’s insisting . . . her birthday . . . You have to come now, Sum . . . You’ll just have to fa
ce it . . .’
Suddenly, Summer’s shoulders sagged; she picked up her bag and without a backward glance, followed her brother out of the door and on to the seafront outside.
Caitlin stared after them, the knots in her stomach tightening as she recalled Summer’s words to her in the loo.
‘And I thought you of all of them could be trusted to keep your mouth shut . . . How wrong could I be?’
I’ve probably got her into deep trouble and she’ll never speak to me again, thought Caitlin miserably, and if she doesn’t, then there’s no way I’ll get to see Ludo again.
‘OK, Izzy and me are heading off now.’ Jamie came over to Caitlin, his car keys in his hand. ‘Tom – you’ll take Caitlin home, right?’
‘Home? Already?’ Tom asked.
Caitlin nodded. Now that Ludo had left, there suddenly seemed little point in hanging around anywhere.
‘But first, Izzy and me just need the loo,’ Caitlin said.
‘No I don’t . . . ’ Izzy began and then paused as Caitlin glared at her and nudged her in the ribs. ‘On second thoughts . . .’
Caitlin shoved her through the door to the ladies’.
‘About your party––’ she began.
‘Sorted,’ Izzy interrupted. ‘The theme’s going to be a Night at the Movies. And what’s more, you’re wrong – Jamie’s up for it!’
‘It must be love!’ Caitlin gasped.
‘He said he’d go as Captain Jack from Pirates of the Caribbean,’ Izzy said excitedly. ‘I just know I’m not going to sleep a wink until I think of something . . .’
‘Obvious,’ replied Caitlin. ‘You go as the Little Mermaid. Then he can rescue you from the billowing deep!’
‘Oh, like I’m really going to wear a fishtail!’
‘How about diaphanous blue chiffon with a skimpy thong underneath and little diamantes stuck on you to look like drops of water?’
‘You’re amazing!’ Izzy cried in delight. ‘That is so cool! Will you help me do it? Pleeease – pretty please?’
‘On one condition,’ Caitlin burst out eagerly. ‘You have to invite Summer.’
‘I said I would,’ Izzy sighed, ‘but she won’t–– oh my God! Don’t tell me – I mean, you’re not, you can’t be . . .’
‘You fancy her!’ One of the cubicle doors swung open and Bianca, still zipping up her jeans, burst out. ‘Tell me it’s not true!’
‘Oh, grow up, the pair of you,’ Caitlin snapped, glaring at Bianca and turning back to Izzy. ‘You’ve both got totally one-track minds. Just invite Summer to the party and make sure she brings Ludo. My whole life depends on it.’
‘Ludo? Her brother?’ Izzy gasped.
‘Like how many Ludos are there in the world? Of course her brother – isn’t he gorgeous?’
Izzy shrugged.
‘So that was who you were talking to. I thought I recognised him – he’s gone all blond. I guess he’s OK, if you go for the head boy, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth type, which I don’t,’ she said.
‘So – it’s him you want, not Summer?’ Bianca asked.
‘Of course it’s him,’ Caitlin sighed. ‘Trouble is, I didn’t have time to make any kind of impression – he was too uptight about finding Summer. Something about their dad being in a rage. What’s all that about?’
‘I don’t think they get on that well,’ Izzy remarked, reapplying her lip-gloss in the mirror. ‘Summer and her dad, I mean. You see, ever since her mother died––’
‘Her mum’s dead? She never said.’
‘Well, she wouldn’t, would she?’ Izzy added. ‘Not under the circumstances . . . look, must dash – Jamie’s waiting and I don’t want him cooling off, OK?’
She winked at Caitlin.
‘What circumstances?’ Caitlin persisted, chasing after her as she headed for the door.
‘Tell you later,’ Izzy hissed. ‘Right now, I’ve more important things to attend to. Like your brother.’
Three hours later, Caitlin was lying flat on her back in bed, staring at the fluorescent spider’s web she had painted in the corner of her ceiling during a particularly bad dose of PMT. She was thinking about Ludo. She re-ran every detail of the evening, punching her pillow in fury each time she recalled her clumsiness with the drink, and then hugging it whenever she let her mind flash back to those slate-grey eyes and lopsided smile.
Tom had quizzed her like mad on the way home in the car, demanding to know who Ludo was, and saying that in his view he seemed a bit of a loser. And then he asked her to go to Izzy’s party with him.
And like an idiot, she’d said yes, just to shut him up. But that didn’t matter, did it? Once she was there, she could chat Ludo up and besides, going to a party with someone didn’t mean anything, not really.
It was what happened when she got there that mattered to her.
It was no good; she couldn’t sleep. She threw back the sheet and padded over to her drawing desk, grabbing a stick of charcoal and instantly sketching sweeping lines, her tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth the way it always did when she was engrossed in design. Within minutes, he was there: Ludo Tilney, smiling up at her from the sketchpad, his mouth slightly open as if he was about to speak.
Caitlin D Morland. Caitlin signed her name in the bottom right hand corner and then, in letters so tiny that no one, in the unlikely event of the picture being found, could possibly see them she added, C 4 L and the tiniest pink heart.
CHAPTER 3
‘If adventures will not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.’
(Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey)
‘HEY, CAITLIN, WAIT!’ SUMMER RAN DOWN THE STONE steps from the music block at breaktime on Monday morning and grabbed her friend’s arm. ‘I have to talk to you.’
Caitlin eyed her warily. Summer had ignored her totally at registration, hadn’t spoken a word during music appreciation and she wasn’t sure what was coming next.
‘I was a cow on Saturday, OK?’ she gabbled. ‘You know, yelling at you and everything. Ludo told me he practically manhandled you to the door of the ladies’ and forced you to find me.’
I wish, thought Caitlin. A bit of manhandling from Ludo would make my day.
‘Everything had gone wrong and I was really stressed, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.’ Summer bit her lip and sighed. ‘Friends?’
She opened her arms and looked pleadingly at Caitlin.
‘Of course,’ Caitlin replied, hugging her with relief. ‘And so . . . is everything OK now?’
‘On a scale of one to ten, it’s about minus four,’ she said wearily. ‘But listen – what are you doing for the holidays?’
Caitlin wondered how to make a fortnight in the Isle of Wight sound stunning.
‘Well,’ she began, ‘there’s Izzy’s party – and then my parents have taken a house on the island . . .’
That could mean anywhere, she reasoned. St Lucia, the Windward Isles . . .
‘And you really have to go?’ Summer looked crestfallen.
‘Well, I’m not likely to get a better offer . . .’
‘That’s where you are wrong!’ Summer cried triumphantly. ‘How does a couple of weeks with me at Casa Vernazza sound?’
Caitlin stared at her in disbelief.
‘Me? You’re inviting me to go to Italy with you?’
‘Uh-huh,’ said Summer, grinning. ‘I just can’t hack it on my own. Well, Ludo’s coming, but he’s always . . .’
What he was Caitlin didn’t hear. She was too busy dealing with the images swamping her mind. Ludo and her swimming in the sea, his hand gently brushing her thigh under cover of the water; Ludo pouring a glass of cool wine and holding it to her lips; Ludo telling her how gorgeous she is . . .
‘You don’t want to come, right?’ Summer’s voice jolted her out of her reverie.
‘Of course I want to come!’ Caitlin exclaimed. ‘I can’t believe it – when do we go?’
‘End of next week,’ Summer s
aid. ‘It’s only for two weeks because I’m going on a concert tour with the Music School but it would be so cool if you came.’
‘And what about your dad?’
‘What about him?’
‘Well, I mean I couldn’t help overhearing Ludo saying about his rages and . . .’
‘Quite the little eavesdropper, aren’t you?’ Summer replied acerbically and then broke into a smile. ‘Actually it was Dad’s idea – one of his “sweetness and light” moments. He does have them occasionally – he’s not all bad. Of course, I was about to say no way . . .’
‘Why?’
‘Because he’s doing it to try to soften me up. “It’ll be a chance for Gabriella to get to know your friends . . . She’s got heaps of fun ideas for you all.” Vomit making stuff like that.’
‘Er – who’s Gabriella?’ asked Caitlin, although she was rapidly forming a pretty good idea of the answer.
‘His new woman,’ Summer muttered, through gritted teeth. ‘Well, not new at all, really. She’s been hanging around him like a lovesick puppy for ages. It’s just that now he’s decided to go public about her. And she’s doing all she can to play the “future stepmother” bit.’
Her face clouded. ‘I guess that was her plan all along,’ she muttered. ‘Pretending to be grief-stricken when Mum died and then sucking up to Dad . . . I hate her.’
She shook her head as if to rid her brain of these thoughts and her tone changed.
‘Well, stuff that,’ she went on. ‘She’s going to be there and there’s nothing I can do about it, but if you come with me, it’ll be more bearable. We can bum off any time we like. Tell them about the art project and say we’re doing the galleries – there are loads of them – then we just go and have a good time. What do you think?’
‘Sounds amazing,’ breathed Caitlin. ‘Thanks so much!’
‘And your parents will be cool about it?’
Caitlin was not about to admit that ‘cool’ and her ‘parents’ were words that normally did not go together.
‘Sure – no probs,’ she assured her. ‘None at all.’
‘But we don’t know these people,’ Mrs Morland protested at supper that night, after Caitlin had poured out her plans. ‘We can’t let you go halfway round the world with just anybody.’
Summer of Secrets Page 4
