to call her all day. And she wasn’t even sure that she wanted him to. One moment he was calling himself her boyfriend, as if it was obvious, an agreed thing between them. (Just to remember him saying it made her shiver, half excited, half dreading all the implications for the future.) The next moment, he was ordering her about and being scathing about the quality of their housekeeping. She hadn’t liked him very much this morning. For the first time she had felt that he wasn’t on her side and it had been a shock, especially after their closeness of the night before. It was very confusing.
‘I don’t want another complicated relationship,’ she said now, half to herself.
Lottie laughed merrily. ‘Show me a relationship that isn’t complicated, Bel. You’ll get used to it.’
But the next day she brought home a copy of Royal Watchers Magazine and a fistful of printouts of online gossip pieces. Lottie threw them on to the coffee table dramatically.
They showed various photographs of Richard coming out of a nightclub with his arm round a tanned beauty. In spite of the chill of the November night, the woman’s most substantial item of clothing was her earrings, Bella noted.
‘The bastard’s got a bimbo,’ Lottie spat.
Bella picked up the longest article and read it quickly.
‘This was last night,’ she said slowly. ‘That explains why he didn’t call.’
‘I see he found another bow tie,’ snarled Lottie. She kicked the end of the sofa, then rubbed her foot. ‘I wonder if he left that one behind, too.’
Bella winced. ‘The Honourable Chloe Lenane,’ she read. ‘That was the women he told me about. He said she was like another sister.’
Lottie sniffed. ‘Yeah, OK, he probably played with her in the nursery. The woman’s an aristocrat with an A-level in advanced flower arranging. But that sure doesn’t look like a sister to me.’
Bella studied the photographs. The blonde mane was expensively streaked; also artfully tangled to look as if the woman had only just got out of bed and it wouldn’t take much to persuade her to get back into it. Maybe it was the way the flashing cameras had caught her, maybe it was the heavy black eyeliner, or, just maybe, the Honourable Chloe was as high as a kite. In spite of her fixed smile, she seemed dazed and bewildered, clinging on to Richard’s black-clad arm like a life belt.
Richard himself was quite unreadable. He appeared comfortable with his arm round Chloe but he was neither waving to the cameras nor murmuring intimately into her ear.
‘She doesn’t look his type,’ Bella said involuntarily. He said he was my boyfriend.
‘You think not? She’s got a pulse.’
‘Why are you so angry, Lottie? I thought you liked him.’
‘So did I. How wrong can you be? The rat.’
Bella swallowed. ‘What have you heard? Have you any reason to think they’re an item?’
Lottie flung herself down on the sofa, her arms extended along the cushions. ‘Honestly, Bel, I haven’t a clue. Our tame celeb watcher at work says that the smart money has been on him marrying her all along. The families have known each other for ever.’
‘Who marries someone because the families get along? Get real, Lottie.’
‘Yes, but even Royalty Watchers has her on the list of Top Ten possibles. Number eight, I think.’
‘Oh.’
Lottie looked wretched suddenly. ‘I’m really sorry, Bel. I didn’t know before or I’d have warned you. He seemed a nice guy. I thought you could trust him.’
To her own surprise, Bella heard herself say, ‘I think he is.’
Lottie stared at her in amazement.
‘This photo doesn’t have to mean anything. He told me once that he was public property. If he goes out with friends, he’s bound to be photographed with one woman or another, isn’t he? If I don’t want that to happen, I ought to be ready to go out with him myself. In public.’
Lottie shook her red head in despair. ‘Hey, I’m all for giving the man the benefit of the doubt. But that’s going too far!’
Bella said slowly, ‘You can only go with your gut, right? My gut says he’s always been straight with me.’
Lottie gave up. ‘Heaven help you, Bella Greenwood, you’re in love with the man.’
10
‘Breaking Up, Making Up’ – Girl About Town
Bella spent a restless night. The scary thing was that she was almost certain that Lottie was right. It came as a nasty shock.
She hadn’t been in love with anyone since the actor who played Romeo when she went to Stratford with a