by Lulu Taylor
Roddy left early the next morning, white and shaky from the force of his hangover, more subdued now but still obviously in shock. He had to go, he said, he had so much work to do.
Octavia summoned Steve, who had been having a comfortable stay at a local pub, thanked Elaine and asked her to let them know as soon as the funeral date was decided. Then she climbed into the car and they headed back to London. She wanted to read over the things inside the folder again – the contents hadn’t yet really sunk in.
As they left the village behind them, Octavia called Ethan.
‘Hey,’ he said. ‘How’s it going? How was everything at Mabbes?’ She’d told him the news the day before, as soon as she’d heard it herself.
‘It’s okay. Pretty sad. Horribly sad, actually. But I’m sure you can imagine it.’
‘It’s tragic. Really. Poor Iseult.’
‘But she’s left me something amazing.’ Octavia opened the folder again as she spoke. ‘She’s written down the most incredible plans for the future of Noble’s – how it can be redone and all the brands she recommends and hundreds of ideas for designs, the website, a beauty department, pop-up shops, which brands we should co-operate with … it’s an absolute treasure trove. It’s everything we need …’
‘Hey, that’s fantastic. Good old Iseult. What a brilliant legacy.’ Ethan sounded delighted.
‘I’m so glad you think so,’ she said happily. ‘If we follow this, we’ll be absolutely made.’
‘Uh-huh.’ There was a long pause and then he said, ‘Haven’t you forgotten something?’
Octavia frowned. ‘Have I? What?’
‘It’s my birthday, hon.’
‘Oh!’ She put a hand to her forehead and scrunched up her eyes. ‘I’m sorry. Happy birthday. I forgot – I’m sure you understand, with everything that’s happened?’
‘Of course, but you’ve got a present for me, right?’ He spoke teasingly. ‘I mean, you would have bought it before all this, right?’
She was taken aback. ‘Well … yes … I do have a gift for you.’
‘Cool. And are you going to be back in time for my party?’
‘Your party?’ She was astonished.
‘Yeah.’
‘Your party … tonight?’
‘What other party is there?’
Now she was horrified. ‘But, Ethan, you can’t have a party tonight! A friend has just killed herself! It’s so disrespectful! It’s like dancing on her grave.’
‘Hey …’ Ethan sounded upset. ‘What am I supposed to do? I can’t cancel now. It would be a huge waste of money. And anyway, I didn’t know Iseult that well. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.’
‘She was a member of your board. She died the day before yesterday. For crying out loud!’
‘Look, you don’t have to come.’
‘Oh, big of you,’ said Octavia, furious. ‘Were you really expecting me to dress up and drink and laugh and party as though nothing had happened? As though the fact that my best friend couldn’t see the point in living and has hanged herself from the ceiling means shit? Fuck off, Ethan!’
‘Fuck off yourself,’ he said brusquely, and hung up on her.
Octavia seethed all the way back to London.
79
When Octavia got home, Vicky told her there was a visitor waiting in the drawing room.
Octavia went in, still clutching her folder, wondering who it could be. To her surprise Gerry Harbord was sitting there, resplendent in a bottle-green velvet suit. He was leafing through one of the coffee-table books and looked up as she came in.
‘Ah, Octavia my sweet.’ He stood and went over to brush her cheeks lightly with his lips. ‘What a very sad time. I never wanted to see you in circumstances such as this. A desperate day. Poor Iseult.’
‘Thank you, Gerry. Sit down.’ She sat down too. ‘Strange to think how long you couldn’t stand each other.’
‘We were two bright birds who would fight to the death for their chance to display their plumage,’ Gerry said mournfully. ‘That was the problem. But people like Iseult and me are a vanishing species. You can’t afford to lose us.’
‘No.’ Octavia smiled at him. She couldn’t help being fond of him. ‘So what is this visit in aid of?’
‘Ah.’ Gerry sat back and crossed his legs. ‘Two words. Amanda Radcliffe.’
Octavia blinked at him in surprise. ‘What about her?’
‘She’s sent me to pass on a message. Not a very nice message, I’m afraid.’
‘Why didn’t she come herself?’
‘Because – not to put too fine a point on it – she hates your guts.’ Gerry smiled. ‘She thinks you and Ethan Brody killed her father with your takeover of Noble’s.’
Octavia gasped. ‘But … that’s not fair! I was horrified to hear about his death, but I don’t see how we can be accused of causing it.’
‘Well, darling, he dropped down dead the minute he heard the news about Robert Young changing sides. In front of Amanda’s eyes,’ Gerry said tartly. ‘So I suppose that’s why.’
Octavia stared at the floor, absorbing this, full of confusion. ‘That’s terrible,’ she said at last in a small voice. Are we really to blame?
‘I’m sorry,’ Gerry added ruefully. ‘But that’s how she sees it. One can hardly blame her. It’s Brody she thinks most culpable, if that’s any comfort, though she believes you went ahead with the whole purchase of Noble’s as a personal vendetta against her.’
Octavia blushed. It sounded so appallingly childish when it was put that way. She wished that she’d never started all this.
‘And that’s why she’s decided to make sure Noble’s is in safe hands, knowing the kind of methods employed to take it off her. So …’ Gerry looked uncomfortable again ‘… it’s my unpleasant duty to tell you that her investigations have uncovered something rather … rather disturbing.’
‘Yes?’ Octavia sat suddenly very still. Her instinct told her something serious was about to happen.
‘It’s come to our attention,’ Gerry began, not quite able to meet her eyes, ‘that Brody, your boyfriend, is not all he’s cracked up to be.’
Octavia went cold.
‘You need to know that Ethan Brody is a thief. He invents companies, uses them to make as much money as he can and then dumps them, owing hundreds of thousands. He’s been very clever, he’s done it all semi-legally, so as not to arouse suspicion. But there’s a difference between going to the wall because you can’t help it and letting your company implode on purpose, and it’s a game you can only play so many times. Ethan was previously based in New York and got out just before the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Business Regulators started investigating him seriously. He operated there as Ethan Johnson, but an Ethan Brody was fined by the Australian authorities ten years ago for financial misconduct.
‘After New York he came here, took up his former name and started the same old tricks – a made-up venture capitalist company this time, which is very amusing considering he had zero capital and relied on the slightly less able of the City boys to introduce him to some. And then he met you. Hallelujah, the heavens open in glorious light and the sound of trumpets! Pay day.’
Octavia could only stare at him, fighting the awful sick feeling that was rising in her stomach. ‘Is this true?’ she whispered at last, through dry lips.
‘Of course.’ Gerry gave her a pitying look. ‘I wouldn’t bother spinning lies about something like this, and nor would Amanda. Anyway –’ he picked up a manila envelope from the table ‘– it’s all in here. I’m afraid you’d better look swiftly into what Ethan Brody’s been doing with your business affairs. I just hope it’s not too late, that’s all.’ He stood up. ‘Don’t bother getting up. I’ll see myself out.’
He turned to go and then stopped and looked back at her. ‘By the way, I don’t know if it helps but Amanda had big plans for Noble’s, you know. It was Young who stopped her instigating any of them – including her wish to stock
your friend Wildblood’s designs. Goodbye for now, darling. And sorry to be the bringer of bad tidings.’
80
The helicopter blades whirred overhead. Max looked over at Flora encouragingly and smiled. She smiled back, grateful he wasn’t talking today. He seemed to sense that both sisters needed their peace. Octavia was in the back, clearly still in shock after the events of the last few days.
It seemed strange suddenly to discover themselves leaving London far behind and heading for Scotland, but as soon as Octavia said that Max had offered them his Argyllshire house, it had made perfect sense. They needed to get away.
The only bad thing is that I’ll be so far from Nick, she thought to herself, staring at the countryside, a patchwork of dull green and grey as it spread out below them. But we’ll keep in touch.
Nick was still busy working with the lawyer at Fawcett & Mather to come up with the solution to the Otto problem: how to guarantee that he would destroy the recorded material in his possession and ensure that it could never be found, and that he would never bother Flora again once he’d been paid off. The one good thing was that Nick had promised to come to Scotland to inform her personally of any major developments. She hoped it was because he cared about her enough to want to make sure she had the support she needed if the news was bad. Time was running out and every hour was precious now.
‘As long as you’re sure that you’ve made the decision you really want to make. Handing over seventy-five million to a low-life dick makes me a touch unhappy,’ he’d said to her. ‘But I’ll do whatever you want me to, you know that.’
Flora couldn’t help thinking that he wished she would turn and fight Otto, make him give up the money he’d stolen and pay for what he’d done. But the price was too heavy; the idea of her most private self being revealed to the world was too much. Besides, she needed her strength for something else now.
She glanced over at her sister, who was looking pale and drawn. Octavia.
Octavia was enjoying the thudding of the engines. She wanted the world to be blanked out for a while. How much more could she cope with?
The loss of Iseult was still acute. And on top of that, she now had to live with the awful sense of being duped.
Is this how Flora feels? We’ve both been such idiots. Maybe we are the same person, just split in two. We’ve certainly both been taken for a ride.
As soon as Gerry had left, Octavia had run to her room and put on the first party frock she could see and a pair of silver heels. Then she’d hastily applied some make-up and brushed her hair in the car as Steve drove her to Quaglino’s, which Ethan had booked for the night to celebrate his birthday.
She strode past the security guards on the door and down the staircase into the restaurant. The first person she saw was Shagi, in a tight metallic Delphine dress, bopping away while she chatted to an admiring gaggle of men. Then she saw Ethan holding court in the middle of the gathering, accepting birthday wishes and directing people to put their expensive-looking packages on the gift table at the side. He was dressed in a hand-made Kilgour suit with a purple silk shirt and a Gucci tie. He looked good in them. When he’d caught sight of Octavia walking towards him, pushing her way through the crowd, his face had split into a massive grin of pleasure. ‘Octavia!’ he’d called. ‘You made it – fantastic.’
As she reached him, he said in a sexy voice, ‘So what are you going to give me for my birthday?’
‘This,’ she said, drawing back her hand and delivering a stinging slap across his cheek. The room fell silent and everyone turned to look at the unfolding drama. ‘That’s for Iseult,’ she said as he stared at her in astonishment, his face flushing under her blow. She whacked him again on the other side. ‘And that’s for me.’
Ethan’s face turned steely and he clenched one meaty fist. ‘What the fuck are you doin’?’ Then he turned to the people round them, forcing out a laugh as he said, ‘She’s kidding. Carry on, people, carry on. Just a little lovers’ tiff.’
‘I don’t think so,’ Octavia said in ringing tones so that the whole room could hear. ‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth, Ethan? All those nights when you whispered your secrets to me while we were in bed together … You could have told me that you’re not much more than a petty criminal. Someone who’s built a life for himself on other people’s money. How many people have you left in the shit? How many pensions and life savings have you stolen, you bastard? And me? Have you stolen from me too?’
The room was deathly silent as everyone stared at Ethan, waiting to hear his reply. He went paper-white under his tan.
‘Octavia, I-I-I …’ he stammered. ‘I can explain, sweetheart. Let’s talk about this somewhere else, huh?’
‘No. Right here. Right now.’ She folded her arms across her chest and waited.
Ethan stared at her, panic-stricken, and then a moment later he was elbowing his way through the crowd and making for the door as fast as he could. No one stopped him. They were all too stunned to see the birthday boy exiting his own party.
Octavia had pulled out her phone and dialled Nick. ‘I think I’ve got an urgent case for you,’ she’d said, ‘but you might need the police to help on this one.’
Auditors had been brought in immediately and given access to the entire company structure, not simply the British companies. Their first perusal of the records had been enough for the police to be called in immediately and for an arrest warrant to be issued for Ethan Brody. He wasn’t at his house when the police entered to cart away his computer and hard drive and any files in his study. No one knew where he was.
Nick called Octavia over the weekend to tell her that it looked as though Ethan had been building a complex series of companies that allowed him to keep restructuring loans, essentially lending money to himself. The cash that had come from the sale of the Noble’s freehold was supposed to have paid back the bank loan. It had repaid some of that loan but the rest of it had been ‘lent’ to another company founded by Ethan and, supposedly, Octavia. That money had duly disappeared into other loans, but it was a fair bet it had ended up buying the Notting Hill house, the yacht and all of Ethan’s various toys.
‘I think anyone else would have been suspicious of how Brody could afford all this stuff on his salary,’ Nick said to her. ‘You weren’t paying him a fortune – a generous salary but not enough for some of the baubles he’s got. That Lamborghini alone must have cost over a hundred grand.’
‘I thought he was independently rich,’ Octavia said lamely. ‘He told me he was.’
‘I’m afraid he was lying.’
‘Am I ruined?’ she asked despairingly. ‘Has he taken everything?’
‘Not quite,’ replied Nick. ‘He used the investment company as his main vehicle. That means your losses are limited. But others will have lost out too.’
‘I’ll make it all good,’ Octavia said immediately, but Nick cautioned her to wait and see the extent of the whole situation before taking any decisions.
Then she had called Max.
They arrived at the house in the late afternoon and it was almost dark. There were no streetlights here to lighten the gloom, just lanterns to show the helicopter where to land. Max brought the aircraft down gently. Once the propellers had slowed to a stop, they climbed out. The butler waited nearby to unload the luggage and the housekeeper held another lantern to lead them over the cold field to the back door. They stepped into a warm, welcoming country kitchen radiating heat from an old iron range cooker, with a kettle already whistling on the hot plate.
‘You’re very welcome here,’ Hilda said in her soft Scottish accent, smiling to see Octavia again. ‘Now, I’ve got some hot scones in the oven, so sit yourselves down and we’ll have them.’
While Godfrey the butler took the luggage up to the bedrooms, Hilda put out a pot of tea, a plateful of scones, some jam and a big dish of thick yellow cream.
The girls sat down gratefully and tucked in. Max had stayed outside to finish up with the helicopter but a
moment later he came in.
‘Bit colder than London,’ he said, rubbing his hands. ‘Thanks for this, Hilda. It looks wonderful, as usual.’
Octavia was looking at Flora with a smile. She wondered if her sister felt the same way she did. As soon as the helicopter had landed and she’d breathed in the cold air and seen the lights shining out, the same sense of peace and calm as last time had come over her. What is it? I feel like I belong here! But how could I? I’d never even been in Scotland before I came here, as far as I know …
‘See?’ she said quietly. ‘Didn’t I tell you? Isn’t this place like home?’
‘Like a home from a book,’ Flora answered. ‘I can hardly believe it’s real.’ She turned to Max. ‘Thank you so much for letting us stay here.’
‘Not at all. I like to share this place,’ he said, sitting down at the table. He smiled at them. ‘Every time I come here, I feel all the pressures lift away.’
As soon as Octavia had told him what they were both facing, Max had said, ‘You two need a refuge. Glachach is the place for you. It’s completely removed from everything else in your life. It’s my solution for a troubled soul. Please, consider it yours as long as you need it. I’ll happily take you there, but I’ll be leaving the next day for meetings.’
Octavia had been overwhelmed by his generosity, but absurdly disappointed that he would not be staying with them. Don’t be silly, she told herself. He’s a very busy man. Why would he drop everything to stay with us?
But she longed to be with someone with experience and knowledge, someone who’d be able to teach her about the world. It’s because we know nothing that we’ve got into all these problems, she thought. She remembered the way Iseult had always had interesting things to say about what was going on, the way her flat had been crammed with books, magazines, pictures and ornaments. She knew so much – and now Octavia too felt a hunger to know more and more about life beyond the narrow existence she and Flora had been restricted to all their lives. At first she’d been dazzled by everything on offer to her that she’d previously been denied: beautiful clothes, shoes and bags, as many as she wanted. But now she was ready to begin devoting herself to something more serious.
