Hopelessly Devoted to Holden Finn (29 page)

‘What does your daughter think?’

Bonnie hurried back inside and shut the door again. Sod the common sense approach, this situation called for some creative thinking.

Bonnie paced the hallway, turning the problem over in her mind. But then a slow smile spread across her face as she pulled her phone from her handbag. With a bit of luck her neighbour, Tina, who was always game for an unusual situation, might just be up and dressed and willing to help.

‘Hello? Hi Tina… I’m sorry to phone you so early and this is rather a strange request but… you remember yesterday when Henri sort of got into a fight outside in the corridor? Yeah, I know… there’s a huge bunch of journalists outside our door and I need a distraction so that I can get to work. I’m sorry I can’t explain right now, but I promise to call round with a bottle of wine and fill you in later. Do you think you can spin them some sort of yarn to get them to come to your flat so I can nip out?’

Bonnie ended the call and put an ear against the door. She could just make out the sound of Tina’s front door opening, then her call out something about cups of tea and that she knew everything there was to know about Bonnie and the man who called yesterday and before you could say
gullible
there was a rumble of footsteps and it sounded as though they had all gone.

Bonnie cautiously opened the door. She looked out to see two journalists still looking uncertainly at Tina’s now closed front door. As soon as they saw Bonnie they made for her, shouting questions again.

Two of them
, Bonnie thought.
Now that’s odds I can cope with
. And she slammed the front door behind her and sprinted for the car, the two journalists in hot pursuit shouting questions and requests as they ran.

***

The next few days were possibly the most annoying and inconvenient of Bonnie’s life. Journalists hounded her at every turn, including while she was at Applejack’s (until Fred threatened them with a sweeping brush), at Jeanie’s house (until Jeanie threatened them with a sweeping brush) and at home (making Henri wish he knew where their sweeping brush was kept and forcing him to charge at them with a butter knife instead). The only place that Bonnie seemed able to get five minutes’ peace was on the toilet, and her visits had been getting longer and longer, something which made
Linda howl with laughter, just as she had when Bonnie had unfolded the whole sorry tale.

‘It’s not funny,’ Bonnie had snapped.

‘It is from where I’m standing,’ Linda replied. ‘It’s Bonnie Cartwright all over – never one to do things by halves.’

Bonnie had considered a reply, but eventually had to concede that there wasn’t one that would make things sound less ridiculous than they already were.

Not only that, but Applejack’s had suddenly become the trendy place for teenage girls to be seen – hordes of them crowding in, buying single apples or bananas while they stared at Bonnie, and then hanging around outside to stare some more through the windows. Strangely, Fred wasn’t quite so averse to this particular nuisance, probably something to do with the healthy increase in his daily profits. The omnipresent journalists had even, at one point, congregated outside Linda’s car, and followed her to the Bounty as she went on a solo sandwich run to spare Bonnie the awkwardness of trying to get out. The tongue lashing they got from Linda made sure that it didn’t happen again – an impressive array of swearwords and derogatory names that made even the hardiest of them blush.

It wasn’t until Holden himself released a statement denying any kind of relationship with Bonnie and explaining that he had got the impressive bruises on his face from a particularly clumsy round of golf, that things began to settle down and the interest gradually waned. Bonnie was happy to see that Holden had kept his promise not to press charges, and seemed to have given up any ideas of their having a relationship. But he had sent a text to thank her for her discretion, to say that he would never forget her, and hoped they could remain friends. This made her smile. At least someone other than Henri cared about her, because Max’s lack of texts over that week, considering that she was a high-profile woman named in the middle of a strange and messy love triangle, suggested that he had moved on. Either that or he was so disgusted by her behaviour that he couldn’t bring himself to contact her. Whatever his reasons, it looked like the end of the road for them.

On the other hand, Jeanie and Paige had both been so impressed by the idea of Bonnie dating a famous musician (no matter how many times Bonnie wearily reminded them that she hadn’t actually dated him at all) that they both secretly enjoyed the inconvenient press intrusion, and were almost disappointed when it stopped.

Fourteen

Bonnie had never been so relieved to see a weekend looming than she was when the
closed
sign was finally displayed in the door of Applejack’s that Saturday evening.

With the coast clear of reporters or silent, staring teenage stalkers, and pretty certain that whatever damage leaving Paige with Henri might cause, it couldn’t come close to what had already happened that week, Bonnie decided to grab half an hour with her mum before she headed home from work.

Jeanie stood with her hands on her hips, looking critically at a teetering pile of crockery on the kitchen table when Bonnie walked in.

‘What’s all this?’ Bonnie asked. ‘More clearing out?’

Jeanie nodded. ‘I wondered what you might need, so I thought you could go through it. What you want I’ll keep in the cupboards, the rest can go to that Salvation Army charity shop in town.’

Bonnie sighed. ‘You want me to do it now? I’m knackered.’

Jeanie raised her eyebrows. ‘I’m not surprised after the last few months of creeping around like some double agent. Here was I thinking you were lonely – turns out you’d got men stashed all over the place.’

‘Very funny, Mum.’ Bonnie took her coat off and hung it on the back of a chair. ‘I told you what happened with Holden.’

‘And you used to shout at me for
going groupie
, as you used to call it. I think you’ve trumped anything I got up to backstage.’

‘I didn’t do it deliberately. Who could ever have seen that situation coming?’

‘That’s true,’ Jeanie mused. ‘And I bet your photo is on a few teenage girls’ dartboards right now too.’

Bonnie smiled. It wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation; in fact, it seemed to be Jeanie’s favourite topic at the moment. But even Bonnie had to see the funny side of it all. And as Holden had replied to her text asking if he felt better without once mentioning that fact that he couldn’t remember dance moves or words to songs, she took it as a good sign that he was moving on to pastures new.

Bonnie grabbed the kettle and took it to the sink to fill when the house phone rang out in the hallway.

‘I’d better get that, I’m expecting Juan to call,’ Jeanie said, running a hand over her hair and flicking her dreadlocks into place as if he could somehow see her.

Bonnie shook her head with a wry smile. Humming to herself as she ran the tap, she wondered silently when her turn would come. Perhaps, the best thing for all of them would be a nice quiet end to the year and a well-earned breather.

Jeanie returned a few moments later and her expression was grim. ‘That was Paige,’ Jeanie said tensely. ‘She’s been ringing your mobile but you didn’t answer. You need to get home, right now.’

Bonnie felt the blood leave her face. She remembered guiltily that she had put her phone on silent for a bit of peace. ‘What is it?’

Jeanie was already heading for the hallway. ‘I’ll come with you,’ she called behind her, ‘I can tell you on the way.’

***

Paige was sitting on a chair twisting her fingers together, staring at a woman who sat on the sofa opposite. The woman looked to be in her early-to-mid-twenties, blonde, petite, and very pretty. She was cuddling a tiny baby who was sound asleep and wrapped in a thick, powder-blue fleece.

‘Mum!’ Paige wailed as she leapt up and threw her arms around Bonnie’s neck.

Bonnie gave her a fierce hug. She only had the barest of information supplied by Jeanie on the way over, but her daughter’s reaction told her that even she knew there was some truth in this new revelation.

‘Where’s your dad?’ Bonnie asked, gently prising Paige’s arms from her neck so she could look at her. Paige’s cheeks were tracked with tears and her eyes were puffy.

‘I don’t know,’ Paige said. She threw a glance at the woman, who had said nothing at all but simply stared at them, her look a mixture of fear and determination. Paige nodded her head at the stranger. ‘There was a knock at the door. I went to get it and
she
asked for Dad. As soon as he saw her, he started shouting that I shouldn’t have let her in. Then she told me that the baby…’ Paige’s breath hitched as she started to cry again, but she swallowed hard and continued, ‘is my dad’s. She kept asking Dad when he was going home. I told her that Dad
was
home, but she wouldn’t listen and just kept going on about it. Then Dad lost his temper and went into the bedroom.
He was in there a few minutes, and then he went out. He didn’t say a word about where he was going.’

Jeanie shot a look at Bonnie. ‘You think he’s done a runner?’

‘Would you go and check in the wardrobe?’

Jeanie nodded and left them. Bonnie looked again at the silent stranger. She didn’t have to ask; she already knew that the woman was telling the truth. Bonnie sat down next to her and peered at the baby.

‘How long has this been going on?’ she asked quietly.

‘He’s been living with me for a year,’ the woman replied in an even tone, Bonnie’s calm seeming to rub off on her. The accent wasn’t local, but it was British. Bonnie tried to place it, theories quickly forming in her head as she did so. ‘Where was this?’ Bonnie asked.

‘York.’

‘And he was with you until a few weeks ago?’

The woman nodded. So Henri had come straight from York back to Bonnie, not from France at all. It seemed like a reasonable guess.

‘Did he say anything about his life before he met you?’ Bonnie asked gently with no malice in her voice. ‘He’s much older than you, I’m guessing. Didn’t you wonder where he’d been all those years before? Did it occur to you that he might have children or a partner elsewhere?’

The woman shrugged. ‘He said he’d travelled a lot for his job. He said that he’d never settled long enough to start a family. But then he’d come to York to teach French and he moved into my flat because he had just started up and he was waiting for the clients to start coming.’

‘That’s when you got pregnant?’

As the two women spoke, Paige watched them miserably. Bonnie looked up and caught her eye. She tried to give her an encouraging smile. It had been a weird enough week for her daughter already, without this on top of everything. She had the feeling that Paige’s entire world was about to crash in on her. Paige would deal with it either by sinking without trace, or rising above it all stronger and better equipped to fight her way through the emotional minefield that adult life could be. Bonnie desperately hoped it would be the latter option.

Jeanie hurried back into the living room. ‘All his stuff has gone,’ she said grimly.

The young woman’s eyes filled with tears. Bonnie laid a hand on her arm. ‘He’s not worth it.’ The woman looked up and nodded, sniffing hard. ‘You want a cup of tea?’ Bonnie asked. The woman nodded uncertainly again. ‘Sorry,’ Bonnie said as Jeanie disappeared to put the kettle on, ‘I don’t know your name.’

‘Lauren,’ the woman replied as she cuddled the baby a little closer. ‘And this is Zach.’

‘Zach, that’s a great name,’ Bonnie said.

‘He’s eight weeks old now.’ Lauren gave Bonnie a proud if watery smile.

Bonnie paused for a moment, looking at the baby thoughtfully. ‘So that means he was only just born when Henri left you.’

Lauren’s eyes began to fill again. ‘He said he was going to visit his parents in France. He said I couldn’t go with him because his mum was ill and it wasn’t a good time to introduce me, but that he’d be back soon. When he didn’t come I was worried sick because I thought that something had happened to him, but I had no idea where his parents lived and the French authorities couldn’t tell me anything.’

It all sounded so familiar. And yet, Bonnie couldn’t help but be thankful that Henri had at least stuck around until Paige had been much older than Zach. She thought back to all the times over the years he had said he was going back to France on family visits. Just what
had
he been doing?

‘How did you find him?’ Bonnie asked, her curiosity piqued.

Lauren gave a wry smile. ‘You were all on telly. I saw Henri chasing off some reporters and they mentioned the town of Millrise on the report. Pretty much the first person I spoke to locally told me where you lived.’

‘I had no idea I was so famous,’ Bonnie smiled.

‘Well…’ Lauren began, suddenly a little shy, as if she was in awe of Bonnie, ‘it
was
Holden Finn.’

‘I suppose it was,’ Bonnie agreed.

From the corner of her eye, Bonnie noticed Paige slip away into the kitchen to join Jeanie. Bonnie guessed that the conversation was one she wasn’t quite sure how to deal with. She turned back to Lauren, satisfied that Jeanie would be able to say the right thing to make Paige feel better. ‘Have you travelled all the way from York today?’ she asked.

Lauren nodded. ‘I came by train. I probably should get back soon or I’ll miss the last one.’

‘Sorry… I don’t mean to criticise, but what did you think Henri would do when you got here?’

Lauren’s shoulders seemed to sag and she looked down at Zach, still sleeping soundly. ‘I don’t really know. I just wanted him to tell me what I did wrong.’

‘You did nothing wrong. It’s just Henri. He left me too, you know, and I didn’t know where he was for two years.’ She gazed down at the baby. ‘I suppose that’s one bit of the mystery solved anyway.’

Jeanie came back in, followed by Paige. They’d laid out tea things on a tray which Jeanie now carried.