The Dangers of Family Secrets: From the bestselling author of The Ex-Wife’s Survival Guide

by Debby Holt

  The next moment she thought she was dreaming. An identical man, his eyes fixed on Tess, was walking towards them from another part of the room. As he drew nearer she could see he was considerably younger. She glanced enquiringly at Tess whose face was a portrait of stunned bewilderment.

  ‘Jamie?’ Tess sounded almost angry. ‘What are you doing here? You should be at home. You have a serious meeting tomorrow.’

  ‘I’m getting a plane back later tonight,’ he said. ‘It’s under control.’

  ‘You must be mad. You have to prepare for it, you need to be alert and awake. I can’t believe you thought this was a good idea!’

  The young man offered his hand to Freya. ‘She’s not going to introduce us, is she? I’m Jamie Lockhart and you must be Tess’s mother.’

  ‘Please call me Freya.’ The man was lovely, she thought. His soft Scottish accent could melt an ice-cube. How could Tess not be impressed by him? She really must be a lost cause. Freya gave him an encouraging smile. ‘I gather my daughter’s been dragging you round graveyards and museums all August.’

  ‘She did me a great favour. I’m revising my entire marketing strategy thanks to Tess.’

  And now another gorgeous young man came up to them. He took Freya’s hand and kissed it. ‘You must be Tess’s mother. I’m Jamie’s brother, Rory.’

  Unlike Jamie, his voice held no trace of a Scottish accent. He had his brother’s dark eyes but was otherwise quite unlike him: reddish hair, not black, and an altogether more muscular and rugged type with a great deal of confidence. He had a bottle of champagne in one hand and caught her eyes drifting towards it. ‘If you finish your glasses,’ he said, ‘I’ll fill them up now. The waiters here are very slow to do it.’

  ‘Oh, why not?’ Tess said. ‘The whole world seems mad tonight.’

  If Tess felt it all right to do so, who was she to disagree? Freya swallowed her champagne and held out her glass, murmuring without much conviction, ‘I really shouldn’t.’

  ‘I’m delighted to meet you,’ Rory told her. ‘I’ve been staying with my brother in Scotland. I must tell you from bitter experience that if we stay with these two, they’ll talk about nothing but musty castles and dead writers. Let me take you away, Mrs Cameron…’

  ‘Please call me Freya.’

  ‘I love that name! Now if we go over to the piano, we can hog the canapés.’

  Freya said gaily, ‘I do love canapés!’ It was quite obvious that Jamie wanted to talk to Tess.

  Having emptied the bottle, Rory put it down, took her hand and walked purposefully towards the piano. He told Freya he refused to believe she was old enough to be Tess’s mother. His curse, he said, was that he found women of his own age dull. Older women were far more fun. He was an outrageous flirt and Freya was quite disappointed when they were joined by someone else.

  ‘This is my stepmother, Eva,’ Rory said. ‘Eva, this is Freya Cameron, mother of Jamie’s friend, Tess.’

  ‘You’re the genealogist,’ Eva said. ‘I’m so glad you could come tonight. Rory, will you go and talk to my aunt? She’s over there in the corner. You know she adores you and she’s all on her own.’

  ‘I’d be delighted,’ Rory said, making a face of silent horror at Freya as he went away.

  Freya cast a critical, if veiled, eye on her hostess. She would be far more attractive if she weren’t so thin and it was a pity she had chosen to wear a low-cut dress. Thin women should never wear low-cut dresses. Despite these handicaps, she was an excellent hostess, asking Freya various questions about her career and seeming genuinely interested in her answers.

  A couple came up to greet Eva who introduced them as, ‘our very dear friends, Harry and Nicola’. They couldn’t be that dear since Eva lost no time in slipping away to join another group. Harry, an overweight man with a puce-coloured complexion, seemed pleased to meet Freya, his plump wife Nicola less so. Harry was halfway through a long explanation as to how he had first met their hosts when a hand touched Freya’s elbow and a voice said, ‘Nicola and Harry, how lovely to see you. May I ask you to do me a favour? We’ve invited some new friends. They’ve recently moved to Marylebone and I know they’ll get on with you. Would you go and say hello to them? They’re over there with Charlie and Charlie is on his seventh glass of champagne so they need rescuing. I’ll catch up with you both later.’

  It was the man who had smiled at her. It was like looking at Jamie Lockhart twenty years on. The man had the same dark hair, eyebrows and eyes and the same pale skin. But whereas Jamie’s face was curiously immobile, this man had an easy laugh and a winning smile with which he was currently seeing off poor Harry and Nicola.

  He turned to Freya. ‘The trouble with being a host is that too many of your guests want to talk to you. I’ve been trying to meet you forever. My name’s…’

  ‘You have to be Neil Lockhart,’ Freya said. ‘You look very like Jamie. I’m…’

  ‘You are Freya Cameron. I recognise you from the picture on your website. It doesn’t do you justice.’

  ‘Thank you.’ His eyes seemed to bore into her soul, firing every nerve-end in her body. There was an almost tangible electric current between them. This was turning into a very good party. ‘You shouldn’t stare at me, you know,’ she said. ‘It’s a little off-putting.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I’ve been trying not to stare at you ever since you arrived.’ He nodded towards Tess and Jamie who were listening politely to a man with a beard. ‘Look at our children. I suspect my son has lost his heart. Is there any hope for him?’

  ‘To be honest,’ Freya said, ‘I doubt it. My daughter’s only interest is her work.’

  ‘Jamie’s a very persistent man. Let’s go and help them out. Once Julian starts talking, he never stops.’

  He was very impressive, she thought, apologising to his friend Julian but insisting that he needed Jamie and Tess to find Eva. ‘I think you’ll find her in the study, Jamie. Tell her I need to show Freya the Lord Chancellor and then I’ll be back for the speeches. And, Julian, I have a request for you too. Eva’s aunt is desperate to talk to you. She’s sitting by the fireplace. Can you go and have a word? Thanks so much.’

  He led Freya out of the drawing room, one hand lightly resting on the small of her back. She had to fight against the urge to lean into him. As they walked down the stairs, she asked, ‘Is Eva’s aunt really desperate to talk to him?’

  ‘Eva’s aunt is desperate, full stop.’

  ‘And is Eva really in the study?’

  ‘I very much doubt it but Jamie needs some privacy with your daughter. He’s come all the way from Scotland to see her.’

  Freya sighed. ‘She’s a funny girl.’

  ‘He’s a funny man. They are clearly made for each other. Jamie says you live in Somerset. I occasionally come to Bath on business.’

  ‘We live outside Darrowbridge. Bath is only a half-hour drive.’

  ‘I must come and see you sometime.’

  Freya said primly, ‘That would be nice.’

  Neil opened a door on his right and said, ‘Here we are.’

  Oh!’ She put her hand to her throat. ‘This is a lovely room. It is just what a library should be.’

  She could imagine her father in a room like this: book-lined walls, chocolate-brown carpet, sturdy oak desk. There was even a fire in the grate. She noticed a wide, ornate frame above the mantelpiece and asked, ‘Is this your Lord Chancellor?’

  He nodded. He stood in the middle of the room with his hands in his pockets. She wondered if he knew how attractive he was.

  She walked across to the fireplace and studied the pen and ink print of a good-looking man in army uniform, with short curly hair and dark, brooding eyes. The inscription beneath told her that he was Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain to His Royal Highness, George, Prince of Wales. ‘It would be fun to find out about him,’ she said. ‘Do you still want me to research your family?’ She turned. ‘You’re staring at me again, you know.’

  ‘I can’t he
lp it. I’ve wanted to be alone with you from the moment you arrived. To be honest, at the moment, I don’t give a damn about my ancestors. If they give me an excuse to see you again, I shall be most grateful to them.’

  Freya wondered if the margarita had been a good idea. It was wildly exciting to be alone with this man in this library but she had no idea how to respond to him. Her heart pounded. She should probably tell him to behave himself. She should possibly walk out now and go back to the party. This man was dangerous. She stalled. ‘We’ve only just met.’

  ‘This has been the longest evening of my life. Every moment’s been an hour.’ He took his hands from his pockets and walked over to her. ‘You have no idea how beautiful you are.’

  This was crazy. She felt as if she were on fire. She stared up at him and tried to tell him he was being absurd but he stopped her with a kiss and she thought: tomorrow, I will go back to my husbandless home and I shall never forget this moment.

  ‘Freya Cameron,’ he said, ‘can I see you again?’

  And now she took a step back. ‘No,’ she said. ‘You absolutely can’t.’

  For Tess, the evening was like a dream during which she seemed to be an entirely different person from the Tess she had always known herself to be.

  The new Tess appeared briefly when she put on her new dress in her mother’s hotel bedroom and saw her reflection in the mirror. Then, when she saw Jamie walking towards her at the party, she felt a rush of such joy that she thought she might faint. And when he looked at her, she could see in his eyes that he thought she was beautiful. That was when the new Tess elbowed the old to one side. She wanted to hug Rory when he offered to take her mother away.

  ‘I hope she’ll be all right with him,’ Jamie said. ‘He’s definitely trying it on with her.’

  ‘Mum will love that,’ Tess assured him. ‘I can’t believe you’ve come all this way for such a short time. You must be mad.’

  ‘I wanted to see you.’

  The old Tess would have been tongue-tied, confused, unsure how to proceed. The new Tess looked up at him and said, ‘I’m glad you came.’

  ‘I was afraid you might be angry. You did seem so certain our situation was hopeless.’

  She said, ‘Well, actually…’

  And that was when the first of a stream of guests came up and said, ‘Jamie, I’m so pleased you’re here! Are you going to introduce me to your lovely companion?’

  It had never occurred to Tess that she might be more than averagely attractive. She had a beautiful mother and a blonde sister with breasts. She was long accustomed to playing third fiddle in the family. But tonight, she did feel lovely. Confidence was a new sensation and she enjoyed it, although she would have preferred to enjoy it in Jamie’s exclusive company. Jamie’s manners were impeccable but she could sense he was as impatient as she was with the fact that they were spending their precious time in party talk with random guests.

  And then, while they were listening to probably the most boring man in England telling them exactly why the congestion charge in London was doomed to fail, the cavalry arrived in the unlikely forms of her mother and Jamie’s father.

  The presence of Jamie’s father only added to the dream-like quality of the evening. He looked so very like Jamie: like Jamie with a face whose features had been shaken and stirred. He even wore an identical dark suit and white shirt. He came over with her mother and asked, a little apologetically, if she and Jamie would go and find Eva. Even more apologetically, he asked the boring man to go away and talk to someone else. It was impossible not to like him, even if he did guide her mother away with what seemed to be a rather proprietorial hand on her back.

  The boring man said, ‘That’s so typical of Neil. He wafts up here with the most beautiful woman in the room – apart from you of course, my dear – and tells me to go and talk to Eva’s hideous aunt. I’ll catch up with you two later…’

  ‘Not if I can help it,’ Jamie murmured, ushering Tess away. ‘Another two minutes and I might have had to kill him. Let’s go to the study.’

  The study was downstairs. It was half the size of the drawing room, with pale green walls and primrose-coloured curtains. There was a small sofa opposite a long table of palest ash on which sat an impressive amount of computer hardware. Behind the table was a tall, elegant chair. Tess thought that if she had a room like this in which to work, she would finish her thesis in no time at all.

  ‘Well,’ she said, ‘Eva’s not here.’

  Jamie shut the door behind him. ‘I know she’s not. I saw her in the sitting room.’

  ‘Jamie! We should go and tell her what your father said.’

  ‘My father knew very well where she was. He also knew I wanted to be alone with you. In a few hours’ time I’ll be back in Scotland. You and I need to talk. Come and sit down.’

  On the wall behind the desk, there was a framed Marc Chagall print of a man in a black suit, holding the hand of his partner who was flying in the air above him. Tess felt as if she were flying too. She walked over to the sofa and sat down.

  Jamie remained standing. He put his hands in his pockets and cleared his throat. ‘I came here tonight to prove that distance, at least, isn’t a problem. I live in Scotland and you live in London but I’m here now and it hasn’t been difficult.’

  ‘You won’t think that tomorrow,’ Tess said. ‘You’ll be exhausted.’

  ‘I’d rather be exhausted and happy than not exhausted and unhappy. I don’t mind waiting till October to see you as long as I know you will come up in October. I want to say that, as far as I’m concerned, it’s all very simple. I don’t want to say goodbye to you. And if you feel the same, then nothing else matters. I appreciate you have a problem with… with physical intimacy but I’ve thought about that. If you have a problem, then it’s my problem too. We can work it out together… There are people we can see for that sort of thing. I’ll wait, I’ll wait as long as it takes.’

  Tess stood up and walked across to Jamie. He had made the most monumentally romantic gesture in coming here and she felt it was time to make an effort of similar magnitude. She took a deep breath and raised her face to his. ‘Jamie,’ she said, ‘will you kiss me?’ There was the ticking of a clock from somewhere in the room and for a few moments its sound seemed to get louder and louder.

  His response was unexpected. ‘To be honest,’ he said, ‘I’m not sure I want to. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t normally kiss women who have to clench their fists in anticipation of the experience.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’ She unclenched her hands. ‘I didn’t know I was doing it. Please. I want you to kiss me.’

  He approached her warily, stared at her unhappily and gave her a brief, fleeting kiss. ‘How was that?’

  ‘Well,’ Tess said, ‘I didn’t hate it.’

  He gave a polite nod. ‘Thank you. That’s most encouraging.’

  She laughed. ‘Actually, it is.’

  A head appeared round the door and Jamie said, ‘Oh, Eva, we were looking for you. Dad thought you might be in here.’

  Eva did not point out, as she was fully entitled to do, that it was fairly obvious she hadn’t been. A flicker of amusement did cross her face but she only said, ‘I was looking for him. We ought to get on with the speeches.’

  ‘He’s gone to the library to show Tess’s mother the Lord Chancellor.’ Jamie looked purposeful. ‘Tess and I will go and get them.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ Eva said. ‘It will be nice to get away from the noise for a moment or two.’ She smiled at Tess. ‘I’m so glad you could come tonight. We don’t see enough of Jamie. I’m sure you’re the only reason he’s here this evening.’

  ‘I don’t see enough of you and Dad,’ Jamie said, opening the door for the two women. ‘I feel quite ashamed. I must make more of an effort to see you both in the future.’

  ‘That would be nice,’ Eva said, adding pointedly, ‘you live in London, don’t you, Tess?’

  They walked across the hall. ‘I do
hope Neil isn’t boring your mother,’ Eva said. ‘He’s so proud of his Lord Chancellor.’ She opened a door and that was when the dream ended and the nightmare began.

  For a split second Tess was conscious of a large, comfortable, brown room but almost immediately her attention was drawn to the entwined couple in the middle of it. It was the outrageous black zip – half undone – that alerted her to the fact that the woman with her arms round Jamie’s father’s neck was her mother.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  It was almost comical, though Tess had never felt less like laughing. As Jamie’s father registered the fact that he had an audience, he froze and for a few moments his face was devoid of expression. There was a terrible silence while everyone took in what was happening.

  Her mother was the first to move. She turned sideways and spoke with commendable control. ‘Neil,’ she asked, ‘would you mind doing up my zip?’

  He did so immediately and she walked over to the sofa, picked up her bag and went straight across to Eva.

  ‘I am so very sorry,’ she said. ‘This is entirely my fault. I’m afraid I drank far too much champagne. I shall go back to my hotel and drink gallons of water.’ She glanced at Tess, murmured, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow, darling,’ and walked out of the library, shutting the door behind her.

  Neil stirred at last. ‘Eva,’ he said, ‘I’m so sorry you had to see that.’

  ‘I’m sure you are.’ Eva’s face was deathly pale.

  ‘It was the act of a moment. I was showing her the picture…’

  ‘I’m sure you showed her all sorts of things. I think, in the circumstances, we will keep the speeches as short as possible.’

  ‘Eva,’ Neil said, ‘you have to believe me. It was nothing but a drunken grope. You know I have no head for alcohol…’