‘I’ll go and call Mr Benton,’ he said, ‘and tell him his car’s ready.’
Mikey’s eyes followed Hamish but quickly returned to Maggie. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.
Maggie’s heart was racing wildly and, because she couldn’t think of a single thing to say, she did the next best thing and launched herself at Mikey, kissing him passionately until she felt like there wasn’t a breath left in her body.
‘Oh, my!’ she said, once they’d parted.
‘Maggie!’
‘I’m sorry!’ Maggie blurted, looking everywhere but at Mikey.
‘Don’t be sorry,’ he said. ‘It was very nice.’
A laugh suddenly exploded from Maggie and she looked up at him. ‘Was it?’
‘Very nice indeed,’ Mikey said, ‘but what on earth have I done to deserve it?’
Maggie looked at him, her eyes wide and bright with love. ‘You’re you,’ she said simply.
Mikey frowned. ‘What about Ralph?’
Maggie looked at him in disbelief. ‘Mikey – Ralph’s not real!’
‘What do you mean, not real? I saw him with my own two eyes and you were kissing.’
‘Aye, I know but it was Connie.’
‘What was Connie?’
‘Ralph! Ralph was Connie. She was in disguise to get away from Colin Simpkins. It worked too – for a while.’
‘I don’t believe it.’
‘Well, you’d better.’
‘You snogged Connie?’
‘Aye.’
‘Oh my God!’ Mikey said, wiping his hand over his jaw. ‘I wish I’d known at the time. That’s really hot.’
‘Mikey!’
‘What was it like?’
‘Oh, stop it!’
‘Go on – tell me,’ Mikey said. ‘I’m heating up just thinking about it.’
‘You great pervert, you!’
He moved towards her and bent his head a little. ‘Kiss me again,’ he said.
Maggie could feel herself blushing. ‘I have to know how you feel about me first.’
Mikey cupped her face in his huge hands. ‘You’re the one for me, Maggie Hamill, and, if you hadn’t come here today to tell me then I would have come to tell you.’
Maggie felt tears welling up in her eyes. ‘Really?’
‘Aye,’ he said. ‘It’s been coming on a while now only I’ve been too stupid to say anything. That day I came into the shop to buy shortbread?’
‘What about it?’
‘I meant to tell you then but I was too tongue-tied.’
Maggie gave a little smile. ‘I wish you had told me,’ she said. ‘I was cursing you that day, Michael Shire.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘I’m telling you now!’ Maggie said.
Mikey smiled. ‘How much time we’ve lost,’ he said.
‘But I thought you only saw me as Hamish’s little sister,’ Maggie said.
‘Aye, well, I did for a while,’ he said. ‘But then you blossomed, Mags, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you.’
‘But you went away,’ she said. ‘You left. For months!’
‘I know. And that’s when I couldn’t get you out of my head,’ he said, his long fingers combing through her hair. ‘That gorgeous little smile of yours followed me right around the world.’
‘Liar!’
‘It did! Swear to God.’
‘And what about all those exotic beauties you met?’
‘Och!’ Mikey declared. ‘Mere distractions from the good stuff at home.’
Maggie didn’t look too convinced. Until he bent forward and kissed her.
‘I came back, didn’t I?’ he said.
‘For how long?’ Maggie asked.
‘What do you mean?’
‘How long will it be before you get itchy feet again and want to leave?’
‘Has Hamish not told you?’
‘Told me what?’
‘We’re taking over the garage. Dougie’s retiring at the end of the year. Hamish is going to do most of the mechanic work and I’m setting up a motorbike hire company on the side.’
‘What?’
‘Aye. It’s a done deal. It’s one of the reasons I came back,’ he said, pulling Maggie close to him. ‘Why on earth didn’t he tell you?’ Mikey asked. ‘Hamish?’
‘HAMISH!’ Maggie yelled.
Hamish stuck his head around the office door. ‘You two got things sorted out, then?’
Connie had walked away from Alastair’s cottage at the kind of pace Bounce would have had difficulty keeping up with. She wondered if Alastair would run after her and hoped he wouldn’t because she didn’t think there was any explaining to do.
Blinking away stinging tears, Connie cursed herself.
‘Stupid, stupid girl!’
What had she thought she was doing? But that was it – she hadn’t been thinking, had she? She’d let go of all that and simply fallen – deeply and hopelessly in love – and, all this time, he’d been living with Sara in his cosy little love nest at the top of the hill. How hadn’t she known? How hadn’t the village known? Surely Maggie would have said something. But maybe Alastair was cleverer than they all thought. Maybe he enjoyed the subterfuge, sitting in his snug little cottage, laughing at the inhabitants of Lochnabrae.
‘STUPID!’ she cursed again.
They’d made love and she’d thought he was in love with her. She’d trusted him, believed him, when he’d told her the story about Sara. She’d assumed that Sara was part of his old life and the reason why he’d come to Lochnabrae. She hadn’t realised that he’d brought Sara with him. He hadn’t told her that.
He lied to you.
Connie thought back to that moment in LA when she’d read Maggie’s letter, remembering how she’d envisaged Lochnabrae as some sort of retreat. In her mind, it had been a perfect place where the mountains shielded you from the miseries of the world and you could drown your sorrows in the beautiful blue depths of the loch. But Lochnabrae was just like anywhere else with its problems and its secrets. It wasn’t a perfect place where she could hide from the world and she wasn’t going to meet the perfect man there – far from it. It was just as Bob Braskett had told her. She couldn’t stay there. She didn’t belong.
Connie stopped and took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The castle, the new home and friends, it was all just a dream but, like Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday, Connie had to wake up to reality and, for her, reality was LA.
Tears filled her eyes, obliterating the view of the village before her, the loch becoming just a long blue smudge. She didn’t want to go. There was so much that was good in Lochnabrae: dear sweet Maggie and Hamish, Isla with her motherly ways, funny old Angus and the rest of the LADS. She’d even miss grumpy old Mrs Wallace.
And Alastair? And Euan?
Of course she was going to miss them – more than she wanted to admit. But it would be impossible to stay now.
‘CONNIE!’ a voice cried behind her as she entered the village. She kept on walking, picking up speed once again. ‘Connie – wait!’ She felt a hand grab her shoulder but, still, she didn’t stop.
‘Keep away from me!’ she shouted.
‘Listen to me – Sara’s just visiting.’
‘Right.’
‘You’ve got to believe me. She turned up the other night completely unexpectedly. I had no idea she even knew where I lived.’
‘I saw her – in your kitchen – in her nightdress! How can I trust you? Why didn’t you tell me she was staying with you the other night?’
‘I was scared you wouldn’t believe me.’
‘Scared I wouldn’t sleep with you, more like!’
‘No – Connie – I didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want you getting embroiled in all this. Sara’s my past and I’m doing my best to sort things out and she’s leaving today – we were just talking about that when you arrived.’
They’d almost reached the bed and breakfast and it was only once they were outs
ide the door that she slowed down and looked at him.
‘Have you any idea how many times I’ve been deceived? Have you? I’ve spent my life giving my heart to men who think nothing of breaking it! I thought you were different. I trusted you!’
‘You can still trust me!’
‘But you didn’t tell me the truth.’
‘I know and I’m so sorry.’
Connie opened the front door.
‘Don’t go like this – Connie!’
She slammed the door behind her.
Her head was spinning with what she’d just heard – from Alastair as well as from Euan. I have a new father, she thought to herself, because there was no doubt in her mind that Euan – at least – had been telling her the truth. She’d seen it in his eyes and she’d also held the proof in her hands in the postcards from her mother. So why hadn’t her mother told her? Why had she made Connie believe that Steve Lassiter was her father?
Connie had a feeling she knew why. It was because her mother had left Lochnabrae behind her. It represented her past and, even though the father of her child lived there, it meant nothing to her.
Please don’t try and find us. Making a new life here.
That’s what she’d written and it had been her last words to Euan. Poor man, Connie thought. What had he suffered all this time?
Connie marched up the stairs to her room thankful that Isla was nowhere to be seen.
Euan was a good man, she thought; she’d known that almost from the moment she’d met him. There was a strength of character about him. You knew you could trust somebody like Euan.
And he’s my father, Connie thought. Euan Kennedy. Connie Kennedy. My name is Connie Kennedy! I even have my own clan!
Now she thought about it, it was rather strange that she’d taken her mother’s name rather than Steve Lassiter’s. Considering her mother had married him shortly after her birth, it would have been perfectly normal for them to take his name but she hadn’t. Did that have anything to do with her mother’s feelings for Euan? Was she reluctant to name another man’s child after Steve? And did Steve even know that Connie wasn’t his child? It was all so confusing.
Then there was Alastair who had lied to her. Connie was so angry at him and she knew she couldn’t stay in Lochnabrae for a moment longer. She had to leave, and the sooner the better.
Maggie was floating on air as she went to rehearsals that night. Mikey said he was going to make a special effort to join everyone and Maggie couldn’t wait to see him again. They were a couple! He didn’t love her just for her shortbread – he loved her because she was Maggie and she was bursting to tell the whole world.
Nothing – absolutely nothing – was going to dampen her mood that evening. Or so she thought. She was just pulling herself out of a very pleasant daydream involving herself, Mikey and a midsummer swim in the loch when she heard Alastair and, as usual, he didn’t sound in a good mood.
‘Catriona,’ he said. ‘I want you to take over the role of Viola.’
‘But I’m Sebastian,’ Catriona said. ‘I can’t play both twins.’
‘You won’t have to,’ Alastair said. ‘I’ll take over Sebastian for now. We’ll sort it out properly later.’
‘Hang on a minute,’ Maggie said. ‘Where’s Connie?’
Alastair scratched his head. ‘Connie won’t be coming back,’ he said.
‘What do you mean, she’s not coming back?’ Maggie asked.
‘Och, she’s not given it up, has she?’ Sandy asked.
‘Alastair?’ Maggie said. ‘What’s happened?’
‘Nothing’s happened.’
‘Well, something must’ve happened because the last time I saw her, everything was hunky dory,’ Maggie said. ‘What have you said to her?’
‘What’s going on?’ Angus asked.
‘That’s what we’re trying to find out,’ Maggie said.
Alastair looked from left to right as if assessing whether he could make it to an exit before having to explain.
‘Alastair!’
‘All right, all right!’ he shouted. ‘We had a misunderstanding.’
‘Oh God!’ Sandy groaned. ‘You’ve scared her off, haven’t you, lad?’
Maggie’s mouth dropped open. ‘Oh, Alastair! What have you done?’
Alastair shrugged hopelessly. ‘I had a visitor – an old girlfriend – staying at my house and Connie got the wrong idea.’
A terrible silence fell as everyone stared, open-mouthed, at Alastair.
‘The wrong idea? You’re sure it was the wrong idea?’ Maggie said sternly.
‘Of course I’m sure! There’s nothing between me and Sara but – well – Connie wouldn’t listen to me and we had a big fight.’ Alastair looked completely defeated and everyone watched as his shoulders sank heavily.
‘He might not be the only one to have scared her off,’ Euan suddenly said from his seat at the back of the room.
‘What do you mean, Euan?’ Maggie said. ‘What on earth could you have done to upset Connie?’
Euan blew out a huge sigh. ‘You’ll find out sooner or later, I guess,’ he said.
‘Find out what?’
‘That I’m Connie’s father.’
For a moment, nobody spoke. They simply stared at Euan in disbelief.
‘What?’ Alastair said at last.
‘You can’t be serious,’ Sandy said. ‘I mean, she’s a good-looking lass. You can’t have spawned a movie star.’
‘Sandy!’ Maggie shouted. ‘Is it true?’ she asked, looking at Euan.
‘Aye, lass, it’s true.’
‘How long have you known?’ she asked.
‘Shortly after Connie was born. Vanessa sent me a postcard from LA telling me the news.’
‘Jeez!’ Sandy said. ‘A postcard! I’ve never heard the like.’
‘That’s why you set up the fan club, isn’t it?’ Maggie said.
‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ Hamish asked.
‘Because you wouldn’t have believed me,’ Euan said.
‘We don’t believe you now,’ Angus said.
‘Shut up, Angus!’ Maggie said. ‘I’m trying to sort things out here.’
They were all quiet for a moment.
‘And you’ve told her?’ Maggie said.
‘Aye. This morning.’
‘After you called at the B&B?’ Isla said.
Euan nodded. ‘I thought it was time,’ he said.
‘So, that’s why she’s left?’ Isla said.
‘Connie’s left?’ Maggie screamed.
‘Well, she wasn’t at the B&B when I came out,’ Isla said.
‘Did you check her room?’ Maggie asked. ‘Have her things gone?’
‘I don’t know,’ Isla said.
Suddenly, there was a stampede towards the door of the village hall as everyone left for the B&B.
Chapter Forty
‘If she’s left Lochnabrae,’ Maggie yelled as they all ran down the street, ‘I’m knocking your two heads together then drowning you in the loch.’
‘Aye,’ Angus said, ‘and I will too.’
‘Maybe she just went for a wee walk,’ Hamish said hopefully.
‘I should’ve known something was wrong,’ Isla said.
‘It’s not your fault, Isla,’ Maggie said.
‘It’s nobody’s fault,’ Euan said.
‘Oh, really?’ Maggie said, glaring at him. ‘You’ve probably scared her half to death!’
‘She had a right to know, Maggie,’ Euan said. ‘I did nothing wrong.’
The gang – Bounce included – arrived at the B&B and Isla opened the door.
‘Connie?’ Maggie shouted, taking the stairs two at a time and banging on her bedroom door. ‘Connie? You in there?’
‘Is the door locked?’ Isla asked.
‘No,’ Maggie called back as she dared to open it. ‘Oh, Isla! She’s gone.’
Everyone ran up the stairs and stared into the empty bedroom. Every single possession of Connie’s had vani
shed, along with their owner.
‘We’ve lost her,’ Sandy said, shaking his head. ‘Well, it was nice while it lasted.’
Maggie felt anger bubbling up inside her. ‘How can you be so calm? She’s left, Sandy! Gone for good!’
‘But she was never going to stay, was she?’ Sandy said. ‘Not here. Not with the likes of us. You didn’t really think she would, did you?’
Tears rose in Maggie’s eyes. She did her best to blink them away but one escaped, splashing onto the highly-patterned carpet.
‘She was happy here,’ Maggie said.
‘Aye,’ Hamish said, ‘until Euan dropped his bomb.’
‘And I messed things up good and proper,’ Alastair said.
Maggie walked into the room and sank down onto the bed and Kirsty and Catriona joined her, all three of them the picture of sorrow.
‘I know it’s stupid of me but I really thought she might stay here,’ Maggie said in a little voice.
‘She didn’t even say goodbye,’ Kirsty said.
‘I’ve just remembered something,’ Isla said. ‘Mr Forsyth popped around this afternoon and left a package for Connie.’
‘What sort of package?’ Maggie asked.
‘I left it in the sitting room,’ Isla said.
Maggie got up off the bed. ‘Can we see it?’
Everyone left the room and returned downstairs.
‘Mikey!’ Maggie screamed as she saw him standing in the hallway.
‘What’s going on?’ he said. ‘I went to the village hall and nobody was there.’
‘Connie’s gone,’ Maggie cried, and they all entered the tiny sitting room together.
Isla put a lamp on and picked up the small padded envelope Mr Forsyth had left.
‘I shouldn’t really open it,’ Isla said.
‘Och, get it open, woman! We forged her autograph so we can open her post,’ Angus said.
‘What is it?’ Mikey asked Maggie, a hand on her shoulder.
‘Mr Forysth left it for Connie,’ Maggie said. ‘It might be some sort of clue to tell us where she is.’
Isla sighed and opened the envelope, her hand diving inside and retrieving a fat silver key.
‘What’s that?’ Sandy asked.
‘A key, you dope!’ Angus said.
The Runaway Actress Page 29
