A Perfect Paris Christmas - Mandy Baggot Page 0,67

very good when it came to leading people astray. Honestly, Keels, it was like an episode of Heist, without the Spanish subtitles.’

Now was the perfect time to tell Rach about Ethan. Rach had just told her all about her evening with Louis and now it was Keeley’s turn. Her solo walk following the mystery map had led her to a cosy dinner and trying to breathe in the essence of Paris. She took a breath and out came: ‘Well, strange things do seem to happen here.’

‘Like you being up at early o’clock. What are you doing awake at this time?’ Rach asked.

‘I’m… going for a run.’

‘You’re what?’ Rach turned to face her then, her skin still thick with wayward make-up, but now also red raw from all the attempts to take it off. ‘It’s a job to get you down the gym at the best of times and you hate the running machine.’

‘I don’t hate it,’ Keeley protested. ‘I just… like doing anything else a lot more. Besides, I’m not running at the gym, I’m going to run through the streets of Paris, taking in the sights and inhaling all the coffee smells.’ Straightaway she was back by the banks of the Seine, Ethan’s hands on her shoulders…

‘I thought you couldn’t smell much anymore.’

‘I can remember what coffee smells like. I’ll pretend.’

‘On your own? It’s not even light.’ Rach’s eyes went to their balcony doors and then her fingers were parting the curtains, revealing a few inches of barely light early morning. ‘I’m not sure you should be running on your own in the dark somewhere you don’t know. Lizzie would have a fit.’

Keeley sighed, turned on the tap again and began splashing water up and over her face. There was no doubt about it, Lizzie would definitely have a fit if she knew she was meeting up with a Frenchman she didn’t even know the surname of and had shared a handhold that was still giving her shivers every time she thought about it. But Rach was her best friend. She would totally get it. Why was she keeping this from her?

‘Get back to bed,’ Rach suggested. ‘Let’s have another hour of sleep, then we can get an early breakfast and ask Noel to take us somewhere. Silvie did say he was ours to call whenever we wanted.’ Rach threw the wipe down on the dressing table and clambered back under the covers. ‘How about Christmas shopping? I need to get gifts for my mum and my brother… and Roland if I want my plan to become his senior negotiator to pan out. If Jamie goes all out and buys him something from Sloane Street I’m screwed.’ Rach took a breath. ‘Or how about Notre Dame? I know we can’t go in it, but we can have a look at how the reconstruction is going.’

‘That sounds like a good idea,’ Keeley agreed, sweeping her hair back from her face and tying it into a ponytail. ‘After I’ve been for a run. I’ll only be an hour or so.’ And she still hadn’t mentioned she wasn’t going alone.

‘Ugh, really? You really want to run?’

‘I really want to run,’ Keeley answered.

‘Well… do you want me to come with you?’ Rach asked, eyes already closed, yawning as if she was going to drop back off to sleep again at any moment. ‘I will if you want me to. I don’t want your mum blaming me if you get kidnapped by an onion seller on a bicycle.’

‘Go to sleep, Rach,’ Keeley urged, checking her reflection in the mirror again. She definitely didn’t have time for a shower now.

‘OK, Paula Radcliffe, just don’t do an inappropriate piss and get arrested. And don’t get abducted. Text me if you’re going to be longer than an hour.’

‘Yes, Mum,’ Keeley replied.

Twenty-Nine

L’Hotel Paris Parfait, Tour Eiffel, Paris

Ethan checked his watch. What was he doing? When had he last run through the streets of Paris? He never really had the time. What he should be doing was preparing for this meeting with Silvie, Louis and Ferne’s solicitor this afternoon. He had received an email late last night with only the vaguest of details, but it had said enough to get him worried. Where exactly did he stand? Was there some loophole he had missed with regard to his part-ownership of Perfect Paris? Had his grief veiled the nuts and bolts of things he should have paid more attention to? Perhaps, while Louis was rushing back across the ocean to