by Holly Martin
‘Of course it was her, the photos came from her phone.’
‘Which has been in here almost the whole time she’s been here.’
He rounded the table towards her and she moved away, keeping the table between them.
‘You’ve hated her from the second you met her. She tried to tell me and I just didn’t believe her.’
‘No, she wasn’t good for you. I was only trying to protect you but I would never do something like this.’
‘Why would she still be here, knowing the story would be published today? Why would she do this to me when she loves me? Why would she ruin her reputation when it was so important to her? Why would she make up a complete pack of lies about our relationship?’
‘To make it sound more interesting.’
‘Why would she need to make it sound more interesting? It was fucking perfect and you screwed it up.’
‘She was a money grabbing whore, why can’t you see that?’
Olivia’s phone lit up with a new call, and Cameron looked at the caller ID to see Maxwell’s name flashing next to a photo of Olivia and Maxwell, the CEO of Palace Hotels. It was quite obvious from the photo that they were a couple.
Suddenly everything made sense, her desperation for him to sign with Palace Hotels, trying to find dirt on Extravagance and Milly, he had been so blind.
‘You’re sleeping with the CEO of Palace Hotels, that’s a bit of a conflict of interest there wouldn’t you say, Liv?’ He glanced down at the table and spotted the contract with Palace Hotels. He recognised the logo at the top. ‘This was what you were trying to get me to sign yesterday, when I had banged my head. I could have been seriously brain damaged and the only thing you cared about was this. The only money grabbing whore is you.’
Cameron threw the newspaper across the room in a rage. He moved round the table towards her and she turned and ran, immediately tripping over Milly’s shoes that were left lying in the kitchen. Everything happened in slow motion as she grabbed the handle of the saucepan filled with cold baked beans to stop herself from falling, the beans flew through the air, she hit the floor and the beans landed with a splat on top of her head. Gregory leapt up from his position by the stove and proceeded to lick the baked beans from her face as they slowly dripped down her cheeks.
‘No, get off me, get him off me,’ Olivia sobbed.
He crouched down next to her, ignoring Gregory’s ministrations. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. ‘You’re fired. Get out of my home right now and I never want to see you again.’
He stood up.
‘You’re firing me? After everything I have done for you?’ Olivia cried.
‘You’ve done nothing for me. No, wait, I tell a lie, the one good thing you did for me was put me in touch with one of the best fucking lawyers in the country. If there is any possible way I can stick criminal charges on you for this, I will. Slander, libel. There’s also the little case of using private photos without permission, fraud maybe, for acting in Milly’s name. I think you’re looking at some serious time in prison for this.’
He didn’t need any further confirmation that Olivia had been the one that had betrayed him but the fact that she went as white as a sheet when he was talking about prison was the final cherry on the cake.
‘Get out now. I swear if you’re still here when I get back you’re going to see me really angry.’
He grabbed his car keys and stormed out, leaving her crying on the kitchen floor as Gregory continued to lick her clean. Cameron only hoped the beast would eat her after he had licked all the beans off her, though he severely doubted that Gregory would enjoy the taste of Olivia’s bitterness.
He was surprised to see Dick still sitting patiently in front of the house, but he guessed that the car hadn’t started when Milly had tried to leave earlier or even the day before when the ambulance had left without her. She couldn’t have got that far in the last fifteen or twenty minutes. He ran round to the garage, jumped in his car and tore out of the gates, determined to put this right. He only hoped she would listen to him.
Milly stared at the phone in her hand in shock. She’d just been fired. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.
Gladys had fed her up with cake and mugs of tea. Milly had been ranting and screaming at her about Cameron when Castle Heritage had suddenly phoned. She hadn’t really heard the words they’d said although she certainly got the gist. She didn’t even have anything she could say to defend herself as although she hadn’t sold her story to the papers and the bizarre sexual antics weren’t true, her relationship with a client was and she knew they were totally justified in sacking her, especially as she had stayed at the castle the week before her holiday on company time purely because she had wanted to stay with Cameron.
The phone rang again and she saw Belinda’s name flashing on the screen. Shame and guilt ripped through her. Belinda would be so disappointed.
Thankfully Gladys had left to give her some space when Castle Heritage rang, and she was still banging around in the kitchen now, making cakes or other such delights.
Milly answered the phone.
‘Hi Belinda,’ Milly said, her voice was choked.
‘Milly, I’ve just seen this awful business in the papers. Are you ok?’
‘I didn’t sell my story, none of that stuff is true.’
‘Of course it isn’t. I know you better than that.’
‘I’m so sorry, I’ve let you down again.’
‘How have you let me down?’
‘Because I let my heart rule my head again.’
She stared at her knees, surprised to see scratches on them, probably from being in the cave the day before. Had that really only been twenty-four hours earlier, when the only thing she was wishing for was for Cameron to be alive. Now all she wished was that she had never met the man in the first place.
‘Honey, your heart should always rule your head. Trust in your heart, it knows you a lot better than your head does. I love you so much and all I want is for you to be happy. Don’t shy away from love just because you’ve been hurt in the past. Embrace it and all its wonderful, glorious and horrible moments. I never ever want you to miss out on being in love because you let your head decide rather than your heart.’
‘Listening to my heart has just cost me my job.’
‘Nonsense. I will speak to Nicholas about this, don’t you worry. We go way back.’
‘That’s ok. I deserve to be sacked,’ Milly said, sadly.
‘What utter rubbish! You work damn hard at that job and you have done for several years. He was only saying to me the other week what a breath of fresh air you were and how much he loved having you work there. He’s a proud man and he won’t like that Castle Heritage has been dragged into this mess but he will calm down in a day or two. I will speak with him.’
‘Maybe it’s time for a change. Maybe I’ll lecture in historical architecture instead. I think I might really like that.’
‘You would be wonderful at that, you have such passion for what you do.’
Milly sighed. Where she worked hardly seemed important anymore. Her heart was in tatters. The numb anger was starting to fade and the acute pain was finally catching up with her.
‘Tell me about Cameron,’ Belinda said, softly.
‘I love him with everything I have.’
‘Then you fight for him.’
‘He hates me and I hate him a little bit right now for believing that I would do that.’
‘It must have been a shock for him. The pain you’re feeling right now because he jumped to the wrong conclusion is the same pain he felt when he thought you had betrayed him. You are a kind, sweet, generous soul. When he apologises, be generous with him.’
‘He’s not going to apologise.’
‘He will. I’m staring at this photo of you two now. The man is completely in love with you. He’ll come to his senses. Now where are you?’
‘I’m still in the village near the castle. Dick refused to work aga
in so I was just going to call a taxi.’
‘I’ll send Jamie to come and collect you. It might be an hour or two but then you both can come round for dinner tonight and if you want, you can stay a few days.’
Milly smiled. ‘I’d really like that, thank you.’
‘I’ll see you tonight, my beautiful girl.’
Belinda hung up and Milly smiled at the unconditional love her aunt had for her.
Milly said goodbye to Gladys and decided to wait on the green for Jamie, she needed some space.
She stepped out the front door and walked down onto the road just as Cameron came tearing out the castle gates in his car. He looked furious. He saw her and the car screeched to a halt a few metres away. He got out the car and ran towards her. He looked like he wanted to kill someone, preferably her. She turned and ran across the green away from him.
‘Milly wait, I need to talk to you,’ he yelled.
‘Get away from me.’
‘Milly, stop!’
She looked back to see how close he was, he reached out a hand to grab her and suddenly her world turned upside down. Ice cold water soaked her from head to toe as she fell head first into the village pond.
She quickly surfaced, coughing and spluttering and looked up at Cameron standing on the bank with nothing but concern in his eyes.
‘Are you ok?’ He offered out a hand to help her but she stepped back, stubbornly refusing to take it. He clearly wasn’t going to kill her but right then he was the last person she wanted to see.
‘Come back to the castle with me, we need to talk.’
Milly folded her arms across her chest. ‘I don’t want to talk to you.’
Cameron sighed. ‘I’ll come to you, then.’
He slid into the pond in front of her and she almost laughed as he winced at the cold.
‘It was Olivia, she must have stolen the pictures from your phone and sold your story to the paper.’
‘No shit, Sherlock. I could have told you that had you not thrown me out. How could you have even thought it was me?’
‘I didn’t read it.’
‘You didn’t have to. You were so quick to believe it was me. You asked me to trust you but you never trusted me, not for one minute.’
‘I’m sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking. Put it down to complete exhaustion or the bang on the head. I’m so sorry. Let me make it up to you.’
She turned away from him and sloshed towards the bank. ‘It’s never going to work between us.’
‘Why are you so keen to throw what we have away?’
‘Oh don’t put this on me, you threw away what we had all by yourself.’
She tried to heave herself out onto the bank but it was too slippery and she fell back in. She tried again, hating that Cameron was watching her. Why couldn’t she leave him with some excellent witty put down and her head held high? Instead she was soaked to the skin, pond weed clinging to her hair and trying to scramble out of a pond in the most ungraceful manner possible. She was sure she heard Cameron stifle a laugh as she tried her best to get some kind of handhold on the side of the bank.
‘Here let me help you,’ Cameron said, his hands going to her waist. She elbowed him in the stomach to get him to let go of her and he leapt back with a groan of pain.
She turned back with concern, she hadn’t hit him that hard.
‘Not the ribs, please Milly. I badly bruised them when I fell. Punch me in the face if you want, but not the ribs.’
‘I’m sorry.’ She scowled. How was she now apologising to him? She had done nothing wrong. He had betrayed her by believing she could do something as underhand as selling her story to the paper and then he had kicked her out.
‘Don’t be. I deserve it.’
She shook her head and looked away from the wet shirt that was clinging to his body. Was lust the only thing they had between them? But it hadn’t been for her. It hurt how much she had fallen for him. Her heart felt painfully full and she knew she would never stop loving him. But he couldn’t trust her, there was no way back from this. Tears coursed down her cheeks and there was nothing she could do to stop them.
‘Please don’t cry.’ He moved tentatively towards her and cupped her face, stroking the tears away. ‘I’m really sorry. I love you so much. When I left the hospital this morning all I wanted was to come back here and tell you that I loved you. I hated that you sat in the cave with me yesterday telling me how much you loved me and I never said it back. I was so groggy and dizzy but as all that wore off in the hospital last night, I realised that I never said it back to you and it killed me. I should have said it days ago when I knew. I’ve only been in love once before and I was betrayed so I was scared about falling in love only to have my heart broken again. So to see the story in the paper, I couldn’t bear to see it happening all over again.’
Her heart was thundering against her chest. He loved her.
He leaned his forehead against hers and sighed. He waded to the bank and climbed out with ease then turned and held out his hand for her. She took it readily. He loved her. There was a tiny slither of hope filling her heart now too. Could they work through his issues of trust? Could they really have that perfect happy ending that she had dreamed of for so long?
Without relinquishing his hold on her hand, he led her over to the giant oak in the middle of the green. He leaned her against the wide trunk which he had rescued her from just a few days before. The gentle sea breeze fluttered the leaves above them and Milly looked up, wondering how many couples in love had said their wedding vows under the boughs of this great tree. How many of them grew old and grey with their loved one and how many had returned a few months or years later to announce their divorce? Was there really such a thing as a happy ever after?
‘When you said yesterday about Castle Heritage taking the castle on and I said I didn’t want to change it, it was because of you, because you love it here, you love the silly turrets and the blue roofs. Because you love it, I love it now, too. I’m signing with Jamie tomorrow because he wants to keep it exactly as it is.’
Milly smiled.
‘I know you got scared too,’ Cameron said and she lowered her eyes from the leaves to stare into his soft brown ones. ‘You got freaked out about being my soul mate, about putting your trust in me for a perfect happy ending. And you’re right, I can’t give you that.’
She swallowed down the pain. ‘You can’t?’
He shook his head. ‘It’s never going to be perfect. No relationship is. Disney always end the films on the couple getting married with big inane grins on their faces. They never show what happens after. We will argue and fight over the silliest things. You’ll get annoyed with me when I’m writing and I’ll get grumpy when you have to leave for work for several days. My farts smell bad, especially when I’ve eaten mushrooms. If I’ve drunk a lot of red wine, I’ll snore like a pig. I’ll get annoyed with tripping over your shoes all the time and the clothes that you leave strewn all over the bedroom. When we have our baby, we will be tired and we’ll cry from exhaustion and we’ll get it wrong and argue some more. You’ll want to call the baby Rapunzel or Pocahontas and I’ll argue with you because I like more traditional names like Mildred or Emma or Belinda or Rose. You’ll badger me to be in the Summer Solstice play every year and I’ll argue against it but then end up doing it anyway because I love you and I’ll want to do anything to keep you happy even if that means waving my willy around in front of the villagers. You’ll probably want to paint the castle bright pink and I’ll grumble and moan about it as I buy the cans of paint and go up the ladder to paint it.’
Milly giggled. ‘You make it sound so romantic.’
‘But we will have hot sex every night.’
‘Still not romantic.’
‘And candle lit picnics on the beach under the stars.’
‘Getting better.’
‘But despite all our problems, I know we are supposed to be together, I know you are my soul mate.’
Milly opened her mouth to protest, but Cameron closed it gently with his fingers over her lips.
‘Not because of some silly family curse that’s been hanging over the castle for the last thousand years, not because you broke the stone heart or have the dragon tattoo or because of the cameo. I know we are soul mates because I can feel it in here, because I was drawn to you from the first moment that I saw you, not because you are beautiful, but because …’ he struggled to find the words and Milly decided to help him out.
‘Because it felt like we had known each our whole life. We weren’t getting to know each other, we were becoming reacquainted.’
‘Yes. Your tattoo about true love’s kiss. That’s how I feel about you. Before, I was sleeping but now with you I’m awake.’
Milly choked back the tears. ‘I feel like that too.’
‘Then come back with me to the castle and we can start our not so perfect life together.’
Milly stared at him and he leaned in to kiss her but she leapt back at the sound of a roar of a sports car. She watched Olivia drive out the village, her hair plastered to her head, and what looked like baked bean stains on her blouse. She didn’t even seem to see them.
Milly looked back at Cameron. What was she doing, could she forgive him so quickly? She glanced over his shoulder at Igor, loading Cameron’s car onto his tow truck.
‘Your car’s getting towed.’
‘I don’t care.’
Milly sighed, leaning her head against his chest. ‘I’m so tired. I’ve lost my job, I’m humiliated in the national press and I’ve cried more tears than I even knew I had in the last twenty-four hours.’
‘I’m tired too baby, but don’t make the same mistake that I did and make a decision on our future based on exhaustion and emotions. Come back to the castle, have a sleep, I’ll make you dinner and if you still want to leave, I’ll drive you home myself.’
She reached up and kissed him, just briefly on the lips. ‘I’ve already made my decision.’
Tears filled his eyes.
‘I don’t want that perfect future with you. I want the real one, the one that you just described.’
