An Affair To Remember: A Ludlow Hall Christmas (8 page)

The day from hell started like any other.

Elena skipped into her office, on top of the world.

Her heart was singing and her system was buzzing on a cocktail of love and hot sex.

Who needed food?

Christmas cheer was everywhere a person looked.

The weather, for once, was being kind with a light frost and no new falls of snow forecast for four days, which meant the roads were clear. The snow gritters had spread sand and salt on the car parks and the paths.

The reception staff were on top of their game.

Elena beamed benevolently on them and they, especially little Jenny, beamed right back at her.

The four year old Ferranti twins, Luca and Sophia stood holding Nico's hands as they stared with eyes like saucers at the tree.

The twenty foot Christmas tree in the grand foyer of the entrance to Ludlow Hall was decorated in creams and gold twinkling in thousands of ivory lights. The whole place smelled of Christmas with vast clear vases crammed with fresh oranges with cloves pressed into the peel. Christmas music warbled through the sound system, background noise to the ring of phones, the chatter of people, couples, families, all coming together to celebrate the holiday in style. The guests munched on hot mince pies, brandy and coffee.

The first inkling that Elena received that all was not well, was when two uniformed police officers were escorted by Marc Atelier and his team into Nico's office. The bellboys, the reception staff all looked at each other and shrugged. Maybe someone had been caught stealing from a car or even the rooms. It was very rare that a thief would take the chance to venture into Ludlow Hall because the word had gone out that Nico Ferranti took no prisoners. But it was Christmas time with rich pickings, so maybe the temptation had been too much and someone had decided to chance their arm.

Elena didn't think any more of it and instructed her team to, "Look sharp."

Fifteen minutes later she took a call from Alexander Ludlow telling her her presence was required in Nico's office. The summons was unexpected because reception was incredibly busy with new arrivals. Elena passed the baton to her number two. Everyone knew the police were still in Nico's office, so the speculative looks she received were unwelcome. Even little Jenny looked pale when Elena moved past her to enter the suite of rooms that protected the inner sanctum of Nico Ferranti's office.

Elena's heart beat a little faster as she knocked the door, heard the clipped, "Enter."

She opened the door.

Nico sat behind his desk, his face like a thundercloud preparing to drop hail on a lovely day. Alexander Ludlow was sitting on a long sofa next to Nico's PA, Julie, who had a pad and a pen in her hand.

The two policemen, she recognised Chief Inspector Andy Bradshaw, were standing next to two members of the security team and Marc. A Marc who didn't meet her eye. And for the first time alarm bells rang loud and clear in Elena's brain.

"Sit," Nico said, indicating a slim chair with no arms in front of his desk.

Elena's hands were suddenly clammy and a trickle of cold sweat slid relentlessly down her spine. Mind racing, wondering what the hell was the matter, and what it had to do with her, Elena blinked into Nico's face.

"Perhaps you would care to explain this?"

Nico pushed a file towards her.

Elena's brow creased as she picked up the file with hands that weren't quite steady.

Over the next ten minutes, ice pooled in her gut as she read message after message sent to someone called Tabitha Crew (Elena had never heard of the woman) with varying degrees of personal information on the Ferranti's. Everything from what sort of treatments Bronte and her friends had at the spa, to who the couple met for dinner, with whom they had coffee, who they were close to, plus other little drips of information on Alexander and Rosie Ludlow, too.

A trembling hand brushed hair back from her face. Elena couldn't believe what she was reading. But the worst thing about it all was that every single message had been sent from
her
office computer on dates and times when
she
had been on duty.

The room spun as something like panic rose into her throat, buzzed in her ears.

No one spoke.

And the silence was deafening.

The silence was terrifying.

Elena shook her head.

She lifted her face to look Nico right in the eye.

"I would never, ever, do such a thing. Ever. I've never seen theses before. They're disgusting."

Nico didn't flinch, didn't blink.

"Very well. Perhaps you will be happy to help the police with their enquiries, be prepared to answer a few questions?"

Marc didn't say a single word.

She couldn't look at him.

"I am happy to help the police and you, Nico, in any way I can."

Police Inspector Andy Kershaw moved into her line of vision.

Nico rose and Andy took his place behind the desk.

Andy told her in a cold voice that she could come down to the police station to have a formal statement taken, or she could make her formal statement right here and now in front of witnesses.

He read her legal rights under the law, anything she said would be used in evidence against her. She had the right to have a legal representative with her.

She waived that right.

She knew it was stupid.

But she was innocent.

Elena lifted her chin, and so it began.

Three endless hours later, Elena's head was banging and her eyes were hard and dry.

But it was the hard rock of solid ice in her heart that kept her going.

Not once did she falter.

Not once did her evidence deviate from anything but the truth.

And not once did the man she loved say one word in her defence.

Not once.

Her hand was perfectly steady now when she read through her statement and signed it.

"You can go now, Miss. Kennedy. There are further investigations taking place. Please leave your personal cell phone with my sergeant and your personal laptop."

"The laptop is at home, the cottage." She lifted her purse, took out her keys and tossed them on the desk. "Feel free to go through the house, take anything you need."

She wouldn't be going back to the cottage.

Ever.

All Elena could think was that she'd gone from having everything to having nothing.

The sense of injustice was so overwhelming, the anger that burned bright and burned hot in her belly, all of it, almost floored her. But no one would ever guess just by looking at her that her world had ended.

She wouldn't give them the fucking satisfaction.

How dare they sit there in judgement of her?

Nico Ferranti hadn't once taken his eyes from her.

She knew his reputation, the man made a bad enemy.

Well, wake up and smell the roses, pal, because Elena Margaret Mary Kennedy made an even worse enemy. And as for Marc Atelier? Well he could fuck off, too. So much for the love of his life. Yeah right. As soon as bad times happened, he'd lined up against her. Oh, they might have email
evidence
. But Elena wasn't stupid. They'd have a hell of a time proving
she
was the person who sent those emails. Everyone used her office during the working day. The office was a hub. Anyone could have used her email. Her mind now flew over the people who had access. The list wasn't a particularly long one. But she'd put good money on it that none of them, not one, would do something like this.

Yeah right.

The truth was the truth, one of the people she worked with every single day, people she admired, people she respected, one of them had set her up.

Fucking coward.

The police were leaving, the security team, too.

Now there was only Nico, Julie and a beyond furious Elena in the room.

"You are suspended with immediate effect on full pay until we get to the bottom of this, Miss Kennedy."

Miss Kennedy?

When the hell had Nico ever called her Miss Kennedy.

Julie rose, placed a hand on her shoulder and pressed.

"I'll get your coat and your things, you can go out the French doors to your car."

Saving her the walk of shame?

The small act of kindness by Julie almost broke Elena, but she rose to her feet.

Her car keys were attached to her house keys.

Elena slipped her car keys from the keychain and dropped the keys onto Nico's desk.

The pride of a long line of Celts who'd fought injustice through generations now hardened her heart, her head.

Her chin jerked high as she looked down her nose at Nico Ferranti, a man she'd trusted, a man she'd admired.

"Eventually, you will realise that you've made a big mistake today, Nico. I'm innocent. Before I was marched in here a full investigation should have taken place to ascertain exactly who had access to my computer on those days."

He opened his mouth to respond, but Elena held up her hand.

"There is nothing you can say to me either now or in the future when you learn the truth, that will make up for the harm you have done to me this day. Nothing. I can promise you one thing, however. I will never, ever, set foot inside this building again. Loyalty is not a one way street, Mr. Ferranti, it flows both ways. Please have my belongings forwarded to my father's address. I will only correspond with you via my lawyers."

Julie returned with her coat and Elena thanked her politely as she shrugged it on and buttoned it right up to the neck. It almost felt as if she was putting on armour to ready herself for the battle ahead. And by God she was going to give the whole rotten lot of them a battle they'd never forget.

Elena picked up her purse, her car keys and moved with Julie to the French doors. She was sneaking out like a thief in the night. And she'd never forgive the person who'd brought her down like this, or the rest of them for not trusting her, either.

But before she left, she turned to Nico and a white-faced Julie.

"Oh, and you can tell Marc Atelier that he's had his fun. It's finished."

Elena slammed the door behind her.

Head held high, she marched to her car.

Nico held up his hand as Julie went to speak, he picked up a pen, wrote on a note and handed it to her.

The room is bugged
.

Julie's eyes went wide before she nodded her head.

Then she scribbled on her pad.

What the hell is going on?

Nico shook his head.

"If you could arrange for Miss. Kennedy's belongings to be boxed and sent to her, please Julie?"

Her eyes held his before she nodded.

"Certainly, sir."

As Elena drove away from Ludlow Hall, dusk was falling fast and the temperature right along with it. She was numb. Knuckles white, her hands clung to the steering wheel of her red mini cooper. She couldn't feel her fingers, couldn't feel her feet.

After university, where she'd studied marketing and communications, and a lonely spell in London working for a multi-national finance company, the recession had struck and she'd headed back to the place she knew well. She'd always known she'd move back to the vibrant market town of Old Ludlow. The Kennedy's went back four generations. Elena wanted her future children, if she had any, to have a repeat of her rock solid and respectable childhood - making lifelong friends from kindergarten right through to college; knowing all the people from church; the town hall; the brownies; the guides; the skating club; the riding club; and everything that underpinned the whole, family.

And it was to family she headed now.

Not so long ago, she'd imagined moving back to town with her own family, with an adoring husband and a couple of kids. But life hadn't worked out like that. She'd never met the man who made her tingles tingle.

Until a week ago.

Just thinking about Marc brought a scorching lump to her throat.

When the ice in her heart threatened to melt, she growled like a she-wolf and it froze right back up again.

As Elena drove through the high street of Old Ludlow, she didn't see the Christmas lights in the shape of big stars strung high over the road. She didn't see trees, stripped of leaves, their branches strung with thousands of fairy lights. She didn't see the last minute shoppers, weighed down with gifts.

All she saw was home.

As she drove out of town and the car rose up the hill, she saw the Kennedy house, as it was known by the locals, sitting proud and alone backed by a pine forest and skirted at the front by her father's pride and joy, a smooth lawn, covered in snow. Her car climbed the private road, up, up until it levelled off to a large turning circle with a huge coniferous tree in the centre. Her brothers, as they did every year, had covered the tree in thousands of twinkling fairy lights. The house itself had been constructed in a red brick during the reign of Queen Victoria, three stories with may steep gables. The ground floor had rows of bay windows with white shutters. Someone had left the kitchen and porch lights on. Eyes swimming now, Elena rummaged around for the door key and realised it was still on the keychain she'd left in Nico's office at Ludlow Hall.

Damn it.

She sniffed as tears poured down her face.

But she would not be broken.

Next to the front door she saw the plant pot filled with happy pansies and remembered the secret hiding place for the spare key. That's if the key was still there because the men who lived in the house weren't known for putting things back where they belonged.

She climbed out of the car and was immediately slapped by an icy wind.

Freezing fingers tipped back the rock next to the flower pot and there was the key. She closed her eyes and thanked God. Her fingers were so cold it took two attempts to get the key in the lock and open the door. And immediately the warmth and smell of home took her in its loving arms and hugged her tight.

The sound of scrabbling paws on the oak floor and a loud woof had her brace herself against the door.

"Hey, baby."

And here he came, her darling boy, eighty pounds of unconditional love, a shaggy coat, a crazy tail and a loving tongue. His paws were on her shoulders as he yipped in doggy delight then he dropped and rolled to lay on his back dark eyes dancing, his pink tongue lolling just begging for his belly to be rubbed.

"Hello Czar, darling. Who's a good boy? Who's my bestest boy?"

Czar was a German Shepherd which belonged to Liam and was an ex-police dog who'd been injured in the line of duty, stabbed, and medically retired from the force. Czar ruled the roost over the Kennedy clan.

Elena slumped to the floor, and since this was not normal behaviour for the youngest member of the Kennedy's, Czar dropped on his butt, cocked his head and looked at her as if to say, "What's the matter, darling?"

And Elena promptly burst into tears.

Well, Czar wasn't having that, not on his watch.

So he did his best to sit on her lap and lick the tears away.

By the time he was finished Elena was crying with laughter and crying with heartbreak and crying because she was so very glad to be home safe and sound.

And that was how retired Police sergeant Daniel Kennedy found his baby girl.

Elena lifted her head from Czar's fur, mascara running her down her cheeks.

Her chin wobbled.

"Hi, Daddy."

Three hours later, Elena was sprawled on a huge sofa in the family room, the focus of which was an enormous stone fireplace big enough to roast a cow. She was wrapped in a lambs’ wool blanket in a tartan designed and woven for the House Of Bruar in Scotland. Her eyes were so swollen from a crying jag that her father patted her head and told her not to worry because everything would look much better in the morning.

Since parts of the house were freezing, she was dressed in two pairs of ancient sweat pants and a variety of layers topped with one of her brother's sweatshirts. And she had three pairs of thick socks on her feet.

Daniel Kennedy had the colouring and the cheekbones of the black Irish. Meaning his hair, although going grey at the sides, was black as jet. As were his bushy brows. His eyes were a rich brown and his skin was olive, stretched tight across razor sharp cheekbones. He was six foot five inches in his bare feet, one hundred and eighty pounds and, in the words of the widow Mrs. Johnston who manned the farm shop, a fine figure of a man. Her dad placed a cup of hot chocolate in her hands, pressed his mouth to the top of her head and made himself comfortable in a fat chair.

"Liam and Adam are bringing pizza with all the trimmings, beer and wine, Ben and Jerry's Boston Cream Pie, and chocolate," he told her in a gruff voice. A voice he saved for the rare occasion when he found dealing with his baby girl when she was sad a little... overwhelming.

"Thanks, Dad," Elena said and sniffed pathetically. "I'm just finding the whole thing really... intense."

"Uh huh."

Her eyes meet her father's and all she could see was unconditional love and support.

Unconditional
.

And just like that her eyes pooled again.

Czar whined from the floor where he lay at her feet.

The dog hadn't left her side since she'd arrived, even when she'd had a nice hot bath he'd stood guard over her, just in case she was sucked down the drain with the bath water and he might need to jump in and save her. Crazy dog. The only thing he was scared of was the sound of water draining away after the bath plug was pulled.

The sound of cars roaring up the drive way had Czar leap to his feet and trot out the door, tail high, to repel all boarders. Of course he recognised the sound of the engines and the sound of banging doors, the loud male voices. In this house everyone yelled. It was the only way to get a word in.

Elena heard the sounds of home, the clatter of boots being dumped, someone wrestling the dog and then the sitting room door flew open.

"So, what the hell's happening with my baby sister?" Liam yelled as he walked through the door.

Dressed in jeans and a short-sleeved T-shirt, which used to be black but had been washed to many shades of grey, that showcased rock hard abs and amazing guns. It appeared her brothers were not like other mortals, because the Kennedy boys were immune to temperatures below freezing. Liam dumped four boxes of extra large pizza on the table and tossed a thick bundle of paper napkins on top. Adam followed right behind, dressed in a similar uniform, except his T-shirt told the world that he was sexy, baby, which was nothing but the truth. Adam placed an open bottle of Pinot Grigio, a wine glass and a pack of six beers on the coffee table.

They might drive her crazy at times, but Elena could not deny the men in her family were hawt. Every single one of her brothers had the Kennedy colouring, dark. Liam was a member of the regional police SWAT team. Adam was part of something else called the police Rapid Reaction Force. Basically both were good with guns. And like all the Kennedy men, they struggled to fight women off with tear gas and water cannon.

"Apparently, I sell intimate details of Nico's personal life to a trashy tabloid. I've been suspended from work. And I've given a statement to your illustrious leader, Chief Inspector Bradshaw," Elena told Liam. "Why don't you ask him what's happening?"

"Oooooooh, bitchy," Liam sang.

"Liam," Daniel warned.

Elena turned big eyes filled with pretend hurt on her father.

"Why did you give me brothers, Dad? Couldn't you have tried harder for girls? Just think, instead of Liam you might have had a Leona."

Daniel winked at her and smiled proudly.

Adam, who was the spitting image of their father, lifted Elena's feet, sat down and placed them on his lap. He turned twinkling dark eyes on her and rubbed her toes with his big strong fingers.

"You look like shit," he told her in a tone filled to the brim with brotherly solidarity. "Your face is all swollen and blotchy and your nose is red. Hasn't Andy phoned you?"

Gotta love brothers, they tell a girl just the way it is and never pretty up the truth.

"They took my cell phone and my laptop. Ergo, Einstein, I don't have any means of communication."

"Is that
my
sweatshirt you're wearing?" Liam demanded, his beer stalled half way to his mouth as he eyed her clothes.

"I'm in the middle of a nervous breakdown, pal. It was an emergency."

He pointed a finger. "Make sure I get it back washed and ironed."

"Dad," Adam said as he scrolled through his cell. "Did Andy call home?"

"You mean like, E.T?" Liam cackled, cracking himself up.

Liam was getting on her nerves.

And why wasn't he taking her situation seriously?

"Nope," her father said, a man of few words.

But one thing was bothering Elena now.

She was in the middle of a crisis.

A crisis of epic proportions.

So why weren't the men in her family treating her mental breakdown with the respect it deserved?

Adam was ignoring the way her foot was jabbing him in the ribs and instead listening with rapt attention to a message on his cell.

He tossed the phone on the table, grabbed a pizza box, opened the lid and offered Elena first dibs. His way of saying, 'Don't worry, darling.'

She chose a slice of pepperoni and then thanked Liam for plucking the mug of hot chocolate out of her hand and replacing it with a glass of wine. His response to her mumble of thanks was to rub his knuckles on her skull, which meant her brother loved her more than life.

She took a healthy gulp of wine, chewed on her pie and stared miserably into the fire.

How could a woman be on top of the world one minute and then dropped into the fires of hell the next minute?

Where on earth had it all gone wrong?

Elena sniffed as a single tear pooled and tipped over.

And she didn't notice three grown men staring at her with an
Aww
, look in their eyes.

Czar was one of those rare animals, a dog who didn't beg for food at the table. From his prone position in front of the fire, his ears twitched and then his head rose before he got to his feet and did his doggie trot, tail held high, as he moved out the room and down the corridor to the door.

His single woof coincided with the sound of a car door closing.

Probably her brother Joe. He was a doctor. A man who was good in a family emergency. And a man who could dispense drugs. Elena knew she could do with something to knock her out cold. Oblivion sounded like a great place to visit for a while.

The doorbell rang.

And in the way of families where everyone and their friends came and went without knocking or ringing the bell, they all went utterly still.

Daniel looked at Elena.

Elena looked at Adam.

Adam looked at Liam.

Nobody moved.

After an exaggerated eye roll, Liam put down his beer, his slice of pizza, and got up to answer the door.

The sound of male voices made Elena's ears prick.

Maybe it was the police?

But then she heard a voice she knew well tell Czar he was big beautiful beast.

Shitty shit shit.

Elena placed her wine, her pizza on the table and dived under the blankets with a panicked,

"Tell him I'm not here."

So she missed the way her father's brow flew into his hairline and the way Adam grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Sure, come on in," Liam said, to the person Elena did not want to see, as he entered the sitting room with the unwelcome guest. "She's right here on the sofa. What the hell are you doing under there, Elena? You've gotta visitor."