The Leading Lady

by Cathy Bramley

  ‘That’s as may be, but I think you should tell Molly before you go any further.’

  Archie blushed. ‘She knows. We were chatting and she told me that her father had heart problems, and before I knew it I was confiding in her.’

  My throat thickened with emotion. Amazing. I grinned at him. I could tick him off my worry list. He was going to be fine. They were going to be fine; another match made in Devon.

  ‘You’d better go in and play happy families under the Christmas tree, then,’ I said, forcing a smile. ‘While I go in and book my train to London next week to go and film my final scene in Victory Road.’

  ‘In a sec. But first I want to say something. All my life at the back of my mind there’s been this feeling that I had to do better than Dad. I was going to behave better, look after my family better, and never run away from anything. But actually I have been running away. I’ve thrown my all into my career, used my hectic life as a way of keeping relationships at arm’s length. And I think you do the same.’

  ‘Me?’ I retorted. ‘That’s not true.’

  ‘So you’re going to make a go of things with Jude, then?’ he challenged. ‘Even though you’ve lost out on the boat house?’

  ‘I … well, it doesn’t make sense,’ I said, flustered. ‘We don’t really know each other that well and everyone knows that long-distance relationships are hard to maintain.’

  ‘One thing I’ve learned from Dad and Tim is that what life comes down to at the end of the day is love. Nothing else matters. Nothing.’ He stared at me earnestly.

  ‘Hold on.’ I frowned. ‘How did you know we’d lost the boat house—’ I interrupted myself with a gasp. ‘Did you …? Are you the one who bought it?’

  ‘No.’ He pulled a large old-fashioned key ring out of his pocket, hung with two pewter-coloured keys and handed it to me. ‘You are. Or rather we are, I bought it with part of your pension fund and some of the proceeds from the sale of my company.’

  I gawped at him. ‘It’s ours?’

  ‘A joint investment.’ He nodded. ‘Penhaligon’s Properties. I thought we might start by offering the village first dibs on a twenty-year lease.’

  He gently pushed my mouth shut with his finger. ‘Now go on,’ he said, laughing at my astonishment. ‘Go and give Action Man the good news.’

  Chapter 40

  The mobile phone mast up at the farm was obviously already working because when I got my phone out to find Jude’s number I found I had a generous three bars of signal. My fingers were trembling so much I could barely tap in a text message to him.

  Meet me at the lifeboat house. Three o’clock. Bring a towel.

  A reply pinged back immediately.

  What are you up to?

  My fingers hovered over the touch screen while I tried to think of a suitably cryptic reply, a reason he wouldn’t be able to resist.

  You made me a promise, it’s time to deliver.

  At three o’clock, I was waiting for him. Not outside the boat house as he was expecting, but inside. When I heard the telltale sound of Mabel barking with her usual joyousness as she no doubt capered towards the waves, I quietly opened one of the doors to find him just a few paces away on the slipway, scouring the beach for me.

  I crept up behind him. ‘Looking for someone?’

  Jude whirled round and stared at the open boat-house door, a bemused smile on his lips. ‘What …? How …? Did Ned give you that key?’

  ‘No,’ I said chirpily, ‘and officially I suppose he should surrender his key now that there’s a new owner.’

  He scowled. ‘Don’t remind me.’

  I looked at his empty hands and sucked in air. ‘You didn’t bring a towel. You might regret that.’

  Jude’s face twisted into a smile and his eyes twinkled with curiosity as he folded his arms. ‘You’re very cheery this afternoon, given the news we’ve had.’

  ‘I’m standing in front of a very lovely man who’s about to go skinny dipping. What’s not to be happy about?’

  ‘What? Me? I’ll take the lovely man bit, but … No way,’ he said, shooting a worried look at the waves, which to me looked perfect for a dip – a very chilly dip.

  ‘Oh, but you promised,’ I said wide-eyed. ‘What were your words?’ I scratched my head, pretending to remember what he’d said. ‘Oh yes, “If we can pull this off, I’ll strip off, run down the beach and go skinny dipping.” And guess what?’ My eyes glittered as I held up my key ring complete with a full set of boat-house keys. ‘We pulled it off.’

  For a moment Jude just stared transfixed and then as the penny dropped, his face spread into a slow smile. ‘Did we?’

  ‘We did.’

  ‘So it’s not going to be an art gallery?’

  I shook my head. ‘Nor a posh boutique. It’s going to be anything and everything we want it to be.’

  ‘Really?’ he said, and with a whoop of delight, he scooped me up into his arms and swung me round and I felt the tension of the day drop away like grains of sand on to the beach.

  ‘That’s amazing! I’m not sure how you’ve managed it, but you’re amazing too.’

  ‘Well,’ I tipped my head to one side, ‘it was a team effort.’

  Mabel, sensing our mood, ran over and dropped her rope toy at our feet, and after he’d set me down again Jude picked it up and threw it into the waves for her. We slipped off our shoes and rolled up our jeans and began to walk through the edge of the surf, letting foamy waves wash over our feet.

  ‘So come on,’ Jude grinned, ‘put me out of my misery, who is the new owner?’

  ‘The leading lady in a new drama series set in Devon. And her brother.’

  ‘You? But …?’ Now it was Jude’s turn to gawp. ‘I don’t believe it,’ he said in a voice not much stronger than a whisper.

  ‘Believe it,’ I said solemnly. ‘But there’s one thing.’

  ‘Right.’ He ran the tip of his tongue around his lips, his eyes riveted to mine. ‘I’m listening. Whatever it is, we can fix it between us.’

  My eyes pricked with tears. We could. Him and me, between us, we could fix anything.

  I thought back to earlier today when I couldn’t think of the right words to say. Now was my chance. This was my Meryl Streep moment. I took a deep breath.

  ‘Okay …’ I began.

  ‘Wait.’ Jude stopped, ankle deep in the water. ‘Please let me. There’s something I need to say before we go any further.’

  He rubbed a hand through his hair and looked down at his feet. ‘What I said to you today. About setting you free. That was the hardest speech I’ve ever had to make. I said it because … not because I didn’t care but because I do, very much. What I should have said was that whatever you do, wherever you go, given the chance, I’ll be here waiting for you. For ever.’

  I swallowed hard, unable to speak, my heart thumping like a drum.

  ‘I nearly drove over this afternoon to tell you I’d made a mistake,’ he continued, his words tumbling out over each other like the waves. ‘I don’t want to hold you back, that much is true, but I was wrong not to give us a try. And the reason I’m saying this is because if I tell you now how I feel about you, I don’t want you to think I’m only saying it because you’re staying in Brightside Cove. Does that make sense?’

  I nodded. ‘I think so, but just for the record, how do you feel about me?’

  Jude smiled a smile that lit up my heart. ‘I love you.’

  I’d never heard such wonderful words in my entire life. ‘If you shout that out loudly, I might just let you off the skinny dipping.’

  He cupped his hands to his mouth and bellowed. ‘I LOVE YOU, NINA PENHALIGON.’

  My heart might have just burst with joy.

  ‘Excellent voice projection.’ I nodded, impressed. ‘Thank you, you are officially absolved.’

  He took my hands and brought them to his lips. ‘I’ve never felt like this about anyone. Until I met you I didn’t even know I was capable of feeling like this. I’v
e avoided love, I guess.’

  ‘Same,’ I said, beaming. ‘But not any more. I love you too. Very much. I’ve hidden behind my career, using my job as a way of keeping myself at arm’s length, but really I was too afraid to love. My mum found it hard to show emotion and if I’m honest I’m better at acting love scenes than coping with the real thing.’

  Jude shook his head in amazement. ‘I don’t believe that for a moment. When I look at you, I see a beautiful girl so full of love it shines from her like the sun.’

  ‘Oh Jude, that is a lovely thing to say.’

  In that moment, he was probably right; my entire body felt as if it was glowing with love for him.

  He stepped closer until our feet were touching, my small feet between his. He released my hands and touched my face, stroking my cheeks and brushing hair from my face.

  ‘And when I look at you,’ I murmured, ‘I see a strong, wonderful man whose heart is big enough to care for an entire village. And, I hope, big enough to care for me too. So back to the thing I mentioned.’ I placed my hands on his chest, feeling the solid wall of muscle beneath his T-shirt as I slid them up around his neck.

  ‘Oh yes?’ Jude was all ears.

  ‘Will you be my leading man?’

  He grinned. ‘That is the best offer I’ve had all day.’

  ‘All day! Cheek!’ I stepped back, my eyes dancing with happiness as I skimmed the water with my foot, sending a huge arc of water in his direction.

  He gasped as the cold water splashed his stomach. ‘Right, this means war.’

  I screamed as he dived at me and together we fell into the shallow water. The icy water took my breath away for a second and my lungs contracted with shock. And then Jude’s lovely, smiley face was in front of me and we staggered to our feet laughing and gasping for air.

  ‘Say it,’ I laughed, ‘say that thing again.’

  He didn’t shout it this time but pulled me into his arms and whispered softly, ‘I love you, Nina Penhaligon. Have done I think since you mistook me for a stripper at the hen party and you were all stroppy and stressed.’

  ‘What? Not when you saw me in my mermaid outfit being carried over the waves?’ I said, pretending to be insulted.

  Jude grinned. ‘I admit you did do something for me then, but the feelings were a bit more lust-based, especially when you did your juggling act with your bikini top.’

  ‘I’m happy with lust.’

  ‘Good.’

  ‘Then that’s another match,’ I murmured.

  He raised his eyebrows questioningly and I smiled.

  ‘A match made in Devon.’

  And he kissed me very thoroughly. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the kiss, my body tingling as a response to his touch. I thought about Maxine’s wise words: always make room for love, dear heart. I was making room and it felt like the most natural thing in the world. I was in Jude’s arms where I was meant to be and as the sea swirled around our feet, the seagulls wheeled overhead and somewhere in the distance Mabel signalled her presence with her ever joyful bark, I was sure my life had never been more perfect.

  ‘Excuse me, are you Nina Penhaligon?’ a small voice said somewhere close by.

  I broke away from Jude’s embrace to find a girl of about twelve or thirteen holding a pen and blue piece of paper out to me. She was panting from exertion and her trainers were wet from having waded up to us.

  ‘Yes.’ My voice came out a bit post-kiss husky so I tried again. ‘Yes, I am.’

  ‘Can I have your autograph please? I heard someone shout your name from over in the harbour and I came running. I really love Victory Road. Nurse Elsie is my favourite character.’

  Jude looked on amused as I scrawled my name on the back of what I now saw was a Siam Palace takeaway menu, the place where he’d bought our hen party dinner from all those weeks ago.

  The girl walked away, pink cheeked, and Jude wrapped his arm round my waist as we made our way back to where we’d left our shoes.

  ‘I’ll have to get used to the fame thing.’ He grinned, and then stopped. ‘Hey, will you still love me when you’re a Hollywood legend?’

  ‘Even then,’ I confirmed solemnly. ‘And if I do have to work away in LA or New York or somewhere exotic, I’ll always come home.’

  ‘Home?’ Jude raised a hopeful eyebrow.

  I filled my lungs with the fresh clean air and took a sweeping look at the beach before returning Jude’s loving gaze.

  ‘Yes, home to Brightside Cove.’

  The Thank Yous

  Thank you to Francesca Best, Hannah Bright, Julia Teece, Candy Ikwuwunna, Janine Giovanni and all the wonderful team at Transworld who add the sparkle and magic to make my books the very best they can be. Thank you to Hannah Ferguson, Joanna Swainson and Thérèse Coen at Hardman Swainson for waving the Team Bramley flag here and around the world.

  Thank you to my wonderful writer chums who are always there with a word of encouragement and their cheerleading pompoms: Miranda Dickinson, Rachael Lucas, Jo Eustace, Lisa Dickenson, Alex Brown, Lizzie Lamb, June Kearns and Milly Johnson.

  Thank you to the fabulous women I’ve met through my writing; they always make me feel a million dollars: Jane Streeter, Kim Nash, Harriet Bourton, Sharon Moore, Tracey Tyrell and Jackie Buxton.

  Thank you to Lucy Salmon, whose cat, Mittens the kitten in the book is named after and thanks to the Lucas family whose dog Mabel is Jude’s much loved Springer Spaniel. Thanks to Ken and Mandy Buxton whose South American adventure inspired Kate’s trip. Thanks to Christie Barlow for her help in finding out from Emmerdale how top-secret storylines are handled by the cast and crew – all inaccuracies are mine! Thank you to Cath Cresswell whose love of a rock-solid itinerary inspired Catherine, the chief bridesmaid.

  Thank you, and much love to my family: Tony, Phoebe, Isabel, Mum, Roger and Mary Monica for all the love, help and support you give me each and every day; I couldn’t do this without you.

  Don’t miss Cathy Bramley’s wonderful new novel…

  Hetty’s Farmhouse Bakery

  Thirty-two-year-old Hetty Greengrass is the star around which the rest of her family orbits. Marriage, motherhood and helping Dan run Sunnybank Farm have certainly kept her hands full for the last twelve years. But when her daughter Poppy has to choose her inspiration for a school project and picks her aunt, not her mum, Hetty is left full of self-doubt.

  Hetty’s always been generous with her time and until now, her biggest talent – baking deliciously moreish shortcrust pastry pies – has been limited to charity work and the village fete. But taking part in a competition run by Cumbria’s Finest to find the very best produce from the region might be just the thing to make her daughter proud … and reclaim something for herself.

  Except that life isn’t as simple as producing the perfect pie. Changing the status quo isn’t easy – and with cracks appearing in her marriage and shocking secrets coming to light, Hetty must decide where her priorities really lie …

  Out now!

  About the Author

  Cathy Bramley is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the romantic comedies Ivy Lane, Appleby Farm, Wickham Hall, Conditional Love, The Plumberry School of Comfort Food, White Lies and Wishes, The Lemon Tree Café and Hetty’s Farmhouse Bakery. She lives in a Nottinghamshire village with her family.

  Her recent career as a full-time writer of light-hearted, romantic fiction has come as somewhat of a lovely surprise after spending eighteen years running her own marketing agency. However, she has been always an avid reader, never without a book on the go and now thinks she may have found her dream job!

  Cathy loves to hear from her readers. You get in touch via her website or on social media.

  Facebook.com/CathyBramleyAuthor

  @CathyBramley

  www.CathyBramley.co.uk

  Have you read the other funny, feel-good novels by Cathy Bramley?

  Settle down with one now – they are sure to put a smile on your face …

  Ivy Lane


  Tilly Parker needs a fresh start, fresh air and a fresh attitude if she is ever to leave the past behind and move on with her life. As she seeks out peace and quiet in a new town, taking on a plot at Ivy Lane allotments seems like the perfect solution. But the friendly Ivy Lane community has other ideas and gradually draw Tilly in to their cosy, comforting world of planting seedlings, organizing bake sales and planning seasonal parties. As the seasons pass, will Tilly learn to stop hiding amongst the sweetpeas and let people back into her life – and her heart?

  Appleby Farm

  Freya Moorcroft has been happy working at the café round the corner from Ivy Lane allotments, but a part of her still misses the beautiful rolling hills of her Cumbrian childhood home: Appleby Farm. Then a phone call out of the blue and a desperate plea for help change everything, and Freya heads home to lend a hand. As Freya summons up all her creativity and determination to turn things at the farm around, Freya is surprised as her own dreams for the future begin to take shape …

  NB. Appleby Farm follows the story of one character from Ivy Lane who has gone off to have her own adventure. It’s a completely different story, though some of the Ivy Lane characters pop in. So if you like to meet up with old friends in books, read Ivy Lane first.

  Conditional Love

  A takeaway, TV and tea with two sugars is about as exciting as it gets for thirty-something Sophie Stone – until a mysterious benefactor leaves her an inheritance. There’s just one catch: in order to inherit, Sophie must agree to meet the father she has never known. Saying ‘yes’ means the chance to build her own dream home, but she’ll also have to face the past and hear some uncomfortable truths …