Fairytale Beginnings (17 page)

‘Hi, Liv, sorry to keep you waiting.’ Cameron said as she squeezed past him into the kitchen.

‘It’s no problem, I had some work to do anyway, so it’s no hassle. And it was nice sitting out there in the sunshine to do it. This place though, Cam! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry for you. It’s a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?’

‘Do you know what, it’s starting to grow on me.’

‘Really? I can see that with your wonderful imagination it would be a great place to write, but you’re not thinking about staying here, are you? It would cost millions to repair and after Eva bled you dry you’re hardly in a position to be paying out for all this stuff.’

‘I don’t know, I’m thinking about it.’ He had to tell her about Milly so it wasn’t such a shock when they met, but suddenly it was too late for that. Milly walked into the kitchen wearing her knee length shorts and a bright pink sparkly T-shirt with nothing on her feet. She looked cute and adorable.

Olivia, to her credit, barely batted an eye, although she was used to the influx of women that seemed to flock round him, and the ones she had met the morning after he’d spent the night with them.

Milly looked awkward and nervous and he wanted to say something that would make her laugh. ‘This is my wife, Milly.’

Milly blushed so she was the same shade of pink as her T-shirt. He didn’t know who looked more shocked by his statement; Milly, because he had just presented the fake marriage the night before as something real, or Olivia, who he’d last seen just before coming to the castle when he swore he was never going near a woman again. He looked between the two of them. His money was on Olivia.

Milly looked absolutely mortified and he regretted having done anything to upset her.

Olivia recovered first, rearranging her features into an expression of complete professionalism. ‘You’re married? Well congratulations, I’m really happy for you.’

‘Nah, not really, we were just involved in some play last night and we got married in that. We were just joking about our honeymoon.’

Olivia laughed with relief. ‘You had me going there. So you two are …’

Cameron held out a hand for Milly and she took it. He pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead. He wasn’t sure which word to use to best describe his relationship with Milly. Girlfriend, lover, business associate. None of those were particularly good. He settled on one that was safest.

‘She’s my friend.’

Milly looked up at him in confusion and he pressed a sweet kiss to her lips so Olivia would be in no doubt as to what kind of friend she was.

Olivia smiled. She had seen it all before, but somehow he wanted to tell her that Milly was different.

‘I’ll just get my bags and perhaps you can show me to my room.’

Cameron gave a vague nod but he was looking at Milly who was still blushing furiously.

Olivia stepped outside and Milly pulled out of his arms. ‘Why did you do that?’

‘What?’ Cameron said, smiling at her outrage.

‘Introduce me as your wife and then make it very clear we’re together.’

‘We are together and how would you like me to introduce you?’

‘As Milly from Castle Heritage.’

‘You wanted to retain your professional image. I can hardly introduce you as the person from Castle Heritage that I’m now sleeping with and maintain any of your integrity.’

‘You didn’t have to mention that we’re sleeping together at all.’

He stepped closer to her, all humour now gone. ‘You might be ashamed that you slept with some scruffy writer with no qualifications, but I’m not ashamed of you. If I want to kiss you or touch you or take you to bed and make love to you until you shout out my name, I will. I’m not going to hide it from her.’

Olivia walked through the back door dragging a small suitcase behind her.

‘Cameron, if you could show me to my room?’

He stared at Milly for a moment and then turned towards the door that joined the corridor with the other staff quarters.

He opened it and pointed to Olivia. ‘The last room on the right hand side. The bed is made up for you.’

If he was any sort of gentleman he would carry her bags down for her, but whilst his tentative relationship with Milly was teetering on shaky legs, he needed to right things with her first.

Olivia shuffled past him into the corridor and he closed the door behind her. He turned back to face Milly.

‘Look, you’re on holiday for a week. We haven’t discussed what will happen after that week, whether you will continue to work here for a few days to complete your tests, but I won’t be allowed to kiss you or touch you during that time because you’ll be working. Or whether you will leave here with a casual wave and not a backward glance and I’ll never get to see you again. I don’t think either of us know where this is going and that’s what this week was supposed to be about, wasn’t it? Finding out whether it is just a sexual attraction or something deeper, something worth fighting for. So if I only have a week, I want to be able to kiss you and touch you whenever the mood arises. Yes, I wanted Olivia to know we are in a relationship because I’m not going to waste a single moment sneaking around and pretending we’re not and I wanted to protect your precious reputation by introducing you as my friend rather than the girl from Castle Heritage. I’m sorry if I got that wrong.’

Milly’s stance had softened during his speech and he hoped he’d had some effect.

‘Ok,’ she said, quietly.

‘Ok?’

She nodded, coming towards him, wrapping her arms round his back and leaning her head against his chest. ‘I’m sorry.’

He sighed with relief.

‘And I’m not ashamed of you, not for one second,’ she mumbled into his chest.

‘Ok.’

‘I’ve always just been Milly from Castle Heritage, it’s hard to be just Milly.’

‘The girl that I’ve … that I’m …’ He pulled her chin up to face him. ‘The girl that I’m sort of falling for is just Milly. Remember that.’

Milly stared at him with wide eyes. ‘You’re … falling for me?’

He held his thumb and finger about a centimetre apart. ‘Maybe a tiny bit.’

She giggled and pushed his thumb and finger further apart. ‘That’s better. We are husband and wife after all.’

He kissed her on the head just as Olivia walked back into the room.

He turned away from Milly and went to the fridge. ‘Do you two lovely girls want breakfast?’

Olivia sat down at the table opposite Milly. ‘I’ll just have a slice of toast, please.’

‘I’ll have a full English please, I’m starving,’ Milly said.

‘Me too. Two full English breakfasts coming up, sure you don’t want the full works, Liv?’

‘No thank you.’ Olivia smiled and then diverted her attention to Milly. ‘So, how long have you two known each other?’

Cameron smiled to see that Olivia was at least making an effort, even if she thought that Milly was another of his one night stands.

‘It feels like a lifetime,’ Milly said and Cameron smirked as he turned away to deal with breakfast.

‘And what is it you do?’ Olivia asked. She was so sweet sometimes. She somehow knew that Milly was feeling nervous and was trying to put her at ease. Although she had asked the one question that was going to be tricky to answer.

‘I … I’m a dendrochronologist.’

‘Oh, that sounds interesting, what’s that?’

‘Milly has been helping me with the castle,’ Cameron interrupted, watching the bacon sizzle in the pan. ‘You’ll have to read my story while you’re here, Liv, it’s going really well. The words have flowed much easier over the last few days.’

‘Yes, I’d love to. I’m sure it’s up to the normal high standards of your first series.’

That was a very diplomatic way of saying the second series was shit.

‘I’ve told him not to write anything crap, we don’t want a repeat of the utter rubbish that was the
Hidden Faces
series,’ Milly said and Cameron smiled to himself.

‘Cameron is a very gifted writer, every word he writes is pure gold,’ Olivia said, defensively.

‘It’s all right Liv, Milly knows I didn’t write it. Anyway, I’m taking a week’s holiday from it now, while Milly is here. I’ll feel a lot fresher when I go back to it.’

‘I don’t think you should let yourself get distracted,’ Olivia said. ‘You need to meet your deadline.’

‘My deadline isn’t until the beginning of August, I have plenty of time.’

The kettle boiled and he made three cups of tea and carried them to the table.

‘How did it go with Castle Heritage?’

Cameron thought about how to answer that for a moment. ‘It’s still ongoing.’

‘I thought they were coming out last week?’

‘They did, we need to wait for the test results.’

‘Did they seem keen?’

‘I don’t know. It’s tricky because a lot of the exterior is not part of the original building. But I have a really good offer from Extravagance.’

‘I thought you were going to go with Palace Hotels if Castle Heritage couldn’t help you?’

‘I never said that, I said I would consider it, but the offer from Extravagance is much better, plus I get to stay here too.’

‘You’re seriously thinking of staying here?’

‘The last few days have shown me what I’ve been missing. I’ve seen it in a new light.’

‘Have you signed anything, agreed to anything?’ Olivia asked.

‘No, not yet.’

He dished up the two breakfasts onto plates and the piece of toast too and carried them all over to the table.

‘Let me look into this Extravagance company first. I’ve not heard of them, let me do some digging.’

‘Go ahead,’ Milly said, over the rim of her mug, daring Olivia to find any dirt on her brother. Milly was acting defensive with Olivia and he didn’t know why. Olivia missed the underlying threat in Milly’s voice completely but for Cameron it was as if she had shouted it.

‘I just don’t think you should sign with a bunch of cowboys.’

Cameron placed a restraining hand on Milly’s shoulder before she could say anything.

‘I’m very impressed with Extravagance but some research on them wouldn’t hurt. And if Palace Hotels want to come back with a further offer, I’d definitely be open to it.’

He sat down next to Milly and gave her hand a squeeze under the table before he started eating his breakfast.

Milly didn’t take her eyes off Olivia as she started to eat hers.

Cameron sighed. This blissful week he had planned was not turning out as well as he had expected.

‘
I
need
to go down to the village for some things, Milly do you want to come?’ Cameron asked after breakfast.

‘I’ll come with you,’ Olivia said, practically shooting out of her seat.

Milly smiled sweetly at him. ‘I think I’ll stay here.’

‘Ok, well I’m having a rope ladder made, it’s supposed to be ready to collect today. So when I come back …’

‘Yes,’ Milly interrupted, her eyes lighting up. She immediately pulled her pink sparkly trainers on. ‘I’ll get a few things ready.’

He opened the door and let Olivia go ahead of him. There was a white Triumph TR2 on the drive, an old classic car. It obviously wasn’t Olivia’s as her car, a sporty black BMW, was parked next to it, so it had to belong to Milly. The villagers had been as good as their word.

‘Hey Milly, is this yours?’ Cameron called back into the kitchen.

Milly peered round the door and then threw herself at the car, leaning her head on the bonnet with her arms wide as if she was actually hugging it. Cameron couldn’t help the huge grin from spreading over his face.

‘Dick, they brought you back, are you ok?’

She was talking to the car, Cameron didn’t think he’d seen anything so adorable before.

‘You call your car Dick?’ Olivia asked.

‘Yes, well my brother called him that and it sort of stuck.’ Milly walked round the car, inspecting it from all angles.

‘Why would you call your car Dick?’

‘Because he looks like a whale shark.’ She gestured to the unusual inverted grill underneath the bonnet that did indeed look like a giant mouth with teeth. ‘You know, Moby Dick, the great white whale?’

Olivia laughed politely though he wasn’t sure she totally got the reference.

‘We’ll see you soon,’ Cameron said. He strode off down the drive, but realising that Olivia was struggling a bit in her heels on the gravel, he took her arm and guided her out the gates until they were on the smooth road outside.

‘Milly seems nice,’ Olivia said, though Cameron guessed that she was being diplomatic. ‘Where did you two meet?’

Cameron knew that Olivia had wanted to come with him so she could talk to him about Milly.

‘She’s a friend.’

‘How long has she been your friend?’

‘It feels like a thousand years. Please don’t worry about her.’

‘Of course I worry, you’re my friend and you don’t pick wisely when it comes to the girls you choose to sleep with. First Eva screwed you for every penny you had and the last three have sold their stories to the papers.’

Cameron winced at the memory. The girls had all seemed nice, out for a quick shag, nothing serious. Maybe they had got involved with him in the hope they’d get taken to nice restaurants or be given expensive gifts, but none of them had seemed like the type to sell their stories to the papers. It really did go to show that you couldn’t trust anyone. Olivia put a hand on his arm and he stopped to look at her. Her green eyes were soft with concern. He trusted Olivia, she was his friend and she only wanted the best for him.