Buch lesen: «The Bridesmaid's Secret»

CHAPTER ONE

‘OF COURSE Bella will be your bridesmaid. Why on earth wouldn’t she?’

Annis shuffled sample wedding invitations uneasily. ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ she said vaguely. ‘She’s only been in New York a couple of months. Maybe she’d prefer to settle in properly before making a major trip back to London.’

‘Sure,’ said Bella’s mother. ‘That’s why she didn’t come back at Christmas. But your wedding. That’s different. She’s been waiting to be your bridesmaid all her life.’

Annis smiled reluctantly. ‘You’re right there. Bella was born to wear flowers in her hair.’

Instinctively they both looked at the photograph on the bookcase. It was a black and white studio portrait, all cheekbones and soulful eyes. So it missed the gold in Bella’s hair or the forget-me-not blue of those eyes. But what it caught completely was the fun. The eyes sparkled. There was a naughty tilt to the head. You could tell that, in spite of her solemn pose and the dramatic lighting, laughter was on the point of breaking through. This was a girl who thought life was a party and who wasn’t going to sit still much longer while it went on without her.

Lynda Carew smiled on her absent daughter. ‘Yes, she still loves dressing up, doesn’t she?’

‘Hey, we can’t call it dressing up any more. Now she’s working for Elegance Magazine, she’s a high-fashion babe.’

Lynda suppressed a sigh. ‘She’s certainly found herself the ideal job. I just wish she hadn’t had to go so far away to get it.’

Annis had a feeling that the miles between the Carews’ London home and Elegance Magazine’s Manhattan office was a good part of the reason that Bella had so surprisingly applied for the job in the first place. She did not say so. What was a feeling, after all? Just a faint impression, based on a couple of things Bella had said months ago, which Annis had paid no attention to at the time. Coupled with the things she had not said when Annis had announced that she was marrying Kosta Vitale.

And then that abrupt departure for the US.

But, on the other hand, Bella always did things on the spur of the moment. Miss Spontaneous, that was what her stepfather called her. And she had always been a globe-trotter.

The wedding preparations list forgotten, Annis tapped her teeth with her pen. Heck, maybe it was nothing. Feelings had never been her strong point. It was Bella who understood why people did things, not Annis, the intellectual stepsister she called Brain Box.

‘Annis—’

She looked up. Lynda was watching her narrowly. Annis blinked. She loved and respected her stepmother but it was still sometimes a bit of a shock to bump into one of her moments of shrewdness.

‘Is there something I should know?’ Lynda asked quietly.

It was a question Annis had dreaded for weeks. Partly because she did not know the answer. Partly because sometimes—in the early morning when Kosta was still sleeping and she was awake and dreamily content in his arms—she half wondered if her happiness had somehow been bought at Bella’s expense. She did not quite see how that could have happened. But there was something—

‘No,’ she said now uncertainly.

Lynda was not a dragon but when something was important she did not give up easily.

‘Is something wrong with Bella?’

‘I—’

‘Tell me, Annis.’

Annis looked again at the photograph.

Bella looked back, all suppressed mischief. Her bare shoulders caught the light. Her mouth was not only trying not to laugh, it had a sensual curve which would raise the blood pressure of any man under ninety. A diamond teardrop, a twenty-first birthday present from her doting stepfather, nestled seductively against her neck under a feathery fall of hair.

Of course there was nothing wrong with Bella. She was blonde, gorgeous and twenty-four. She had a job most people only dreamed about. She was living in the most exciting city in the world. She could have any man she wanted. What could possibly be wrong with Bella?

‘No,’ said Annis, convinced at last. ‘Bella’s wonderful.’

She gave Lynda a brilliant smile.

Her stepmother did not respond for a moment.

‘Bella would tell you anything,’ she said, almost to herself. ‘But would you tell me?’

‘If I thought there was something really wrong with Bella I would,’ Annis assured her. ‘But I don’t. Honestly. I’m probably just getting myself stewed up about the wedding. You know what I’m like about performing in front of a lot of people.’

Lynda hesitated. But Annis was certain now and it had its effect. Eventually her stepmother nodded, satisfied.

‘All the more reason for Bella to be a bridesmaid,’ she said practically. ‘You know she gets you out of stage fright.’

Annis remembered adolescent drama groups, school concerts, sailing club votes of thanks. Two minutes before she was due to open her mouth, Annis would freeze. That was when Bella would ram a crown down over the brows of one of the peacock boys, or seize a triangle and dodge among the waiting players, refusing to give it back; once she had slid along the polished floor of the church hall on a tea tray and had brought the wrath of a phalanx of church wardens down on her head; once, memorably, she had nearly lost her dress when a shoelace strap had broken at a critical moment. Annis would dive to the rescue. By the time she’d rush out to do her bit on stage, she’d still have half her mind on Bella. None at all was left for her nerves.

‘Everyone used to think I was a brilliant speaker and Bella was a tearaway,’ she said now, remembering. ‘Nobody noticed that the two went together. No tearaway, no speaker—just a frozen jelly with lockjaw.’

Lynda laughed. ‘You’d better not get lockjaw at the altar. You get that daughter of mine back, you hear me? You need her.’

Annis did not deny it. She took a decision.

‘I’ll phone her now,’ she said with resolution.

The open-plan office was all limed wood and high-tech silver. No desks. Desks were not chic. The journalists used their laptop computers on tables that were minimalist swirls of wood. Some were shaped like commas, some like 1950’s kidney dressing tables. The chairs were somewhere between bar stools and chicken wire. There were lots of mirrors. Every single piece of furniture was on wheels.

‘Fluid. Dynamic. We like to keep everything loose,’ Rita Caruso, head of features and Bella’s boss, had said when she’d introduced her to the room. ‘The décor reminds us that the world is in constant flux.’

That had been in November. By Christmas, Bella had been masterminding office-chair races. The course had been three times from glass wall to glass wall ending with a dash round the three central columns and the prize had been an evening clubbing under Bella’s direction. Everyone agreed that anyone who went out with Bella was in for a unique experience. As in-house lawyer, Clyde, put it, she was never going to be the queen of cool but by thunder she knew her music. And she could dance. And her contact list was fantastic.

At five o’clock she was sitting at a particularly nasty dagger-shaped desk, trying to talk to a stylist in LA and make notes at the same time without sending all her other notes onto the floor. The silver room was supposed to be a paperless office as well. Background music thrummed through state-ofthe-art speakers that looked as if they could make it to the moon under their own steam.

Bella was conscious of pins and needles in her leg, a crick in her neck and fast-evaporating patience with the prima donna on the other side of the country. In fact she was concentrating so hard on not losing her temper that she did not really register the first call.

‘Hey, English! I’m talking to you.’

Bella looked round then. Behind her, Sally Kubitchek was waving her hands in the air. Bella put a hand over the little microphone suspended from its twenty-first-century Alice band round her head and mouthed a question.

‘Your sister,’ yelled Sally.

‘Ah.’ Bella brought LA back into the conversation. ‘Sorry Anton, something’s come up. I’ll have to call you back.’ In the teeth of his protests, she took off her headset and disconnected the cellular phone.

Sally sat in front of a discreet bank of lights. ‘Take it in Caruso’s room,’ she advised. ‘She’s at the Guggenheim interviewing this month’s millionaire. He gave them something amazing and they’re showing the press tonight. She won’t be back.’

‘Right. Thanks.’

Rita Caruso’s office had one of the few chairs that was both comfortable and immobile. They all used it when they could. Bella flung herself into its leather embrace as the telephone began to purr sycophantically.

She snatched it up. ‘Hi, Annie. How you doing?’

‘Hi, Bella Bug. I’m fine. You?’

‘I’m cool.’

‘How’s the job?’

Bella laughed. ‘I’m licking them into shape.’

‘What?’

‘Well, I’ve had a couple of brushes with the style police but, apart from that, everything’s fine.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yup. Caruso says I have a nasty British sense of humour. She likes that. It means I write good copy. I even get to have a crack at interviewing one of her millionaires if I’m a good girl. No, correct that. If I’m a malicious and witty girl.’

‘Wow.’ Annis was half amused, half shocked. ‘I’ll buy witty. But you were never malicious.’

‘I’m working on it,’ said Bella blithely.

She stretched her legs. Her four-inch spike heels just about reached Rita Caruso’s desk. She was not a tall girl. But she was going to put her feet on the desk anyway. It was symbolic.

She stretched luxuriously and said, ‘So tell me about you. How’s the wedding?’

‘Growing,’ said Annis is a voice of deep gloom.

Bella grinned. ‘Told you it would. Quiet wedding isn’t in mother’s vocabulary.’

‘For you maybe.’

It was just as well Annis was on the other side of the Atlantic. Bella’s grin did not so much fade as freeze.

Fortunately Annis had no suspicion. ‘But I’m not even her daughter,’ she complained. ‘And I’m too tall for frills and veils. Weddings and I were made for separate universes. But will she listen?’

‘No,’ supplied Bella. ‘The wedding experience pervades every known universe as far as mother is concerned. Even if you bring a sick note, she’ll convince herself you want it really.’ She made a huge effort. Her voice didn’t sound too bad.

That was New York for you. It taught you to come back with a smart remark even if your heart was breaking. Let’s hear it for New York, she thought.

Annis did not detect anything wrong. ‘Too right.’ She hesitated. ‘Er—that’s what I was calling about actually.’

Bella’s hand was clammy on the receiver. Please don’t ask me to come to the wedding. Please, please, please, Annie. It was unashamed panic.

‘Oh?’

‘I need help.’

If Annis had hit her, she could not have winded her more comprehensively.

‘Don’t ask me,’ Bella said, when she got her breath back. She was desperate to keep it at the level of a joke. ‘I’ve never organised a wedding. If you don’t trust mother, try one of Kosta’s glam friends. There must be a wedding consultant in there somewhere.’

‘Probably,’ said Annis with the indifference of a woman so utterly sure that she was adored, she hardly noticed the predatory females who still circled round the fashionable architect who loved her. ‘But it’s not technical advice I want.’

Bella’s throat tightened. ‘Oh?’

‘I want my sister,’ said Annis baldly.

For a moment Bella literally could not speak. Everything inside her screamed No! Oh, this wasn’t fair. This really, really wasn’t fair.

‘Bella Bug? Are you there? Bella?’

‘Yes,’ Bella croaked. She cleared her throat. ‘I mean, yes, I’m here. Glitch on the line.’

‘Well?’

Bella floundered. She felt as if she was drowning.

‘Annie, do you know how hard I had to wheel and deal to get this job? American visas are like gold dust. If I go back, I’m not sure they’ll let me back in,’ she said, improvising desperately. ‘Not to work, anyway. I’m here on this six month exchange thing. This is the first proper career-type job I’ve ever had. I can’t afford to risk it.’

The silence was full of disappointment. Bella felt awful but she did not weaken. She could not afford that either. She could feel the tears on her face. She did not know when had she started crying.

This is stupid, she told herself savagely. She did not say anything at all to Annis.

‘Oh, well, if you can’t, you can’t,’ Annis said eventually. Her voice was muffled.

She was obviously hurt. Damn! thought Bella. Still, better hurt now than have her wedding day ruined by a sister weeping all over the man she was going to marry.

‘Look, I’ve got to go. There’s this guy I need to speak to today. I’ll call you and you can fill me in with the news then. Or email me. That’s what the Net is for,’ said Bella trying to be bracing. Even to her own ears she sounded horridly un-feeling.

‘Yes. Of course. I’ll call you.’

Annis rang off.

Bella put down the phone and blew her nose hard.

If only Annis had not looked after her from the moment Tony Carew had married Lynda. If only she had not taught Bella how to sail. If only she had not played with her and read to her and let her borrow her make-up. And then, later, if only she had not believed in her when everyone else thought Bella was a pretty airhead.

If only she had not fallen in love with the same man.

But she had. And Kosta Vitale, for all his smooth sophistication, had taken one look at Annis and had fallen right back. Clever, heartbreaking Kosta was undoubtedly right. Annis was a woman men fell in love with. Bella was the girl they took to parties.

But that didn’t mean the party girl couldn’t fall in love. She just shouldn’t expect anyone to take her seriously when she did. And she should get over it as fast as she could.

Well, she was trying. She wasn’t doing too badly, either. Sometimes she didn’t think of Kosta for a whole hour at a time. Eventually she would get him out of her system altogether. But not if she had to go back to London and watch him walk down the aisle with Annis. Bella knew herself and she knew she was not up to that yet.

She had never told anyone else that she was in love. She had kept her secret well. She had wished them both all the luck in the world and had danced at their engagement party. But Kosta knew she was in love with him. And every time their eyes had met she’d known he knew, even though he’d said nothing. And her heart hurt all over again.

‘Love,’ said Bella aloud, furiously. ‘Who needs it?’

But she would get over it. Of course she would. As long as Annis and Kosta stayed in London and Bella stayed in New York and forgetfulness had time to work its magic.

‘Annis, I need you to come with me to New York,’ Gilbert de la Court said, without preamble.

Annis was sitting in his office, frowning over a flow chart. She looked up, startled.

‘What?’

He gave one of his rare smiles. ‘I need camouflage.’

At once she was wary. They had worked together for months and she knew his company inside out but she knew next to nothing about his private life.

But he was thirty-three and single. Good-looking, too, when you got past his complete disengagement from the everyday world. Besides, some women found that air of aloof preoccupation the ultimate sexual challenge. Who knew how many women he was juggling in the few hours he spent away from his computer? Now she came to think of it, just last week he had taken three days off. She was not going to get involved in any domestic battles he might have.

So she said firmly, ‘I do management consultancy. You want set-dressing, you go somewhere else.’

He considered that for a moment in silence. Then he said, ‘Someone’s trying to take over the company.’

His voice was so unemotional, for a moment Annis did not think she had heard him correctly.

He went on levelly, ‘That’s private. I don’t need to tell you that.’

‘No,’ she said, stunned. ‘Do you—I mean—who?’

‘An interesting question.’ Still no emotion.

Annis thought of the legal structure of the company. She had gone through it with a fine-tooth comb only three months ago.

‘They must have someone inside. One of the partners,’ she said, thinking aloud.

‘Quite.’

Her eyes flew to his face, remorseful. He had three partners, every one of them an old and trusted friend. If this thing was true, then it would be a betrayal of more than business ethics.

‘Oh, Gil, I’m so sorry,’ said Annis, distressed.

He gave a barely perceptible shrug.

‘I can deal with it. I just need to get to New York without arousing the insider’s suspicions. I thought—if I said it was part of your analysis of my job but you needed to get it done before your wedding, I would have a sound reason for bringing forward my usual April trip to now.’

‘Camouflage,’ Annis said, enlightened.

‘Yes. Will you do it?’

She hesitated. She had planned to stay in England until the wedding. There was so much to do.

But Bella was in New York. Annis was pretty sure that if she talked to Bella face to face she could get her to change her mind. Maybe even get her to be a bridesmaid. She had not told Lynda yet that Bella had turned her down. Maybe this trip was a golden opportunity.

‘Yes,’ she said with sudden decisiveness. ‘When?’

‘This evening.’

Annis gulped.

‘I’ve had Ellen book you a ticket,’ he said misunderstanding her reaction. ‘All you need is a passport and a toothbrush.’

‘And a briefcase if I’m to be any good as camouflage,’ said Annis tartly. She was recovering. ‘All right. But I’d better get moving.’

She went out to his secretary.

‘Ellen, have you really got an air ticket for me?’

His PA grinned. ‘And a car booked to take you back to London now and then on to Gatwick airport. And some dollar notes. And your hotel reservation in case you miss the flight. Thinks ahead, does Gil.’

She fished out a package from under her desk.

‘High-handed,’ said Annis, ruffled.

‘I know,’ said Ellen, sighing. ‘Wasted on a computer, isn’t he? Tall, dark and handsome and all he thinks about is Watifdotcom. Never even made it to the Christmas party.’

‘Shame,’ said Annis absently. She looked at her watch. ‘Get that car round and I’ll be going. I’ve got people to talk to if I’m going to be on the plane to New York tonight.’

But she was.

And the next morning, in spite of jet lag and Gil’s impassive disapproval, her first call was at the uptown offices of Elegance Magazine.

‘Annie?’ said Bella incredulously on the house phone when the receptionist called up to the office. ‘Annie? It’s truly you? You’re here?’

‘In person. But I’ve got a meeting in a couple of hours. Could we have lunch?’

‘Sure. I’ll just grab my coat. Be down in five minutes.’

It was nearer ten. In that time Bella had the chance to recover from her first surprised delight. She kissed Annis warmly enough but her manner was wary.

Still, she took her by the arm and sped her along the slushy pavements to her favourite Italian restaurant.

‘Why didn’t you say you were coming when we spoke?’ said Bella when they were seated.

‘Didn’t know. I’m working for one of these do-it-now types. He sprang it on me.’

‘Doesn’t sound like you to let a man spring something on you.’

‘You don’t know Gil. He takes single-mindedness to a new plane.’

‘Hope it’s just single-mindedness about work,’ said Bella, trying to tease and, to her own ears, not quite managing it.

Annis didn’t hear anything wrong though. She smiled. ‘Like I said, you don’t know Gil. If he has any feelings, which I doubt, he archived them a long time ago.’

‘Sounds a pain.’

‘No,’ said Annis. ‘No, he’s not a pain. He’s demanding and stimulating and huge fun to work for. He’s just single-minded, like I said.’

‘Single-minded about what?’

‘His work. Computers,’ said Annis, conscious of client confidentiality.

‘Oh.’ Computers bored Bella to tears. ‘What we call a dweeb, over here.’

Annis gave a private smile, remembering Ellen. ‘His staff don’t think so.’

But Bella was not interested in Annis’s client. After they’d ordered, she passed her sister under a quick, critical inspection and was pleased.

‘You’re looking good, Brain Box.’

‘Kosta’s influence,’ said Annis ruefully. ‘He’s cleared out my wardrobe.’

‘And he’s obviously taking care of you,’ said Bella approvingly.

The pain almost went away when she remembered how happy Kosta Vitale made this dear, difficult sister of hers.

‘Yes. He certainly takes care of me.’

When Annis smiled, all the love she felt, all the love she received shone out of her, thought Bella.

‘Good.’

‘Bella—’ But the waiter arrived with their food and whatever Annis was going to say evaporated under a hail of condiments and bottled water and wine.

When he had gone, she said, ‘How are you, though? You look very smart. Beautiful as ever.’ The ‘but’ she did not say hung in the air.

Bella knew what she meant.

Only yesterday Bella had gone to the hair salon. Her blonde hair was sculpted into a shining helmet that hugged her elegant head, then feathered out over her shoulders. To the natural gold, Raul had added just a hint of streaking to give it depth and lightness, as he’d assured her. Her legs were still perfect and her figure enough to bring out any red-blooded man in a sweat of lust. But Bella knew, and Annis would see, that she was thinner than she had been. A lot thinner. Her shoulders looked as fragile as bird’s bones under the elegant little top. And the moment she stopped talking her face, reflected in the tall mirror behind Annis, was drawn.

‘I’m adjusting,’ she said carefully. ‘It can be a bit stressful.’

‘I can see that,’ said Annis, equally careful. ‘What’s your boss like?’

Bella’s face suddenly creased into its irresistible gamine grin. ‘Impressed. For the first time in her life, apparently.’

Annis grinned back. ‘Oh? You must have been writing like an angel.’

‘Nothing to do with me. It’s all down to you.’

‘Explain,’ said Annis, entertained.

‘Well Caruso never wanted this exchange thing. She doesn’t like trainees or foreigners and foreigners begin in New Jersey. But she just loves high-achievers. You and Dad have done it for me.’

‘Me?’ echoed Annis, genuinely taken aback.

‘The consultancy got a name check in the Wall Street Journal. Caruso saw it and asked me if that was my sister. So I said yes and basked in your reflected glory.’ Bella chuckled at Annis’s expression. ‘We don’t only read about fashion and film stars, you know. Caruso has a regular feature, millionaire of the month. Carry on the way you’re going, and I’ll get you a slot.’

‘Thank you,’ said Annis.

Bella laughed aloud.

‘No, I haven’t got the influence yet. But I’m getting there. Caruso has given me a piece to write about what it’s like starting out in New York. It’s called New In Town. It’s in the April edition. I’ll send you a copy.’

‘I’ll buy it.’

‘No need to go that far. I know you never read anything but the financial press.’

‘I told you, Kosta’s educating me.’

Bella flinched. She could not help it. The name came out of nowhere and she was not ready for it.

Fortunately Annis was concentrating on her fettucini and did not notice.

‘I shall expect fan mail, then,’ said Bella after a minimal pause. Her amusement did not even sound forced, she congratulated herself.

‘Count on it.’ Annis stirred her pasta absently. ‘Bella, look, I don’t want to interfere with your job, of course I don’t, but my wedding—’

Bella braced herself. But Annis was talking more to herself than she was to Bella.

‘I don’t know what’s happening. You know that we wanted it to be really small, just immediate family and a couple of friends. But I keep bumping into people who tell me they’re coming, though I haven’t asked them and neither has Kosta. And we’re getting wedding presents from people I haven’t seen for twenty years.’ Her voice rose. ‘Lynda says everything’s fine, she’s got it all under control, but she doesn’t listen to me. I don’t know what to do.’ She looked up then, her face pinched. ‘When I said I need you, I wasn’t joking.’

Bella stared at her, horrified.

Suddenly she was swamped by memory. Annis was not the cool-suited businesswoman who’d impressed Rita Caruso any more. She was the Annis who had climbed up to get Bella out of the apple tree when she’d been stuck; the Annis who was scared of heights and clumsy with it, but who had still told Bella to stop crying and not look down; the Annis who had got her back on the ground and then had been violently and noisily sick. Anxious and determined and scared but still the Annis who did not give up just because she didn’t think she could do it.

How could Bella let her down?

Yet how could she not? Surely the best thing for Annis was for Bella to stay away from the man they were both in love with. Annis was going to marry him, after all. Only Bella could not say that she was in love with him, not ever, not out loud. Annis must never know.

‘Oh, Annie.’ She groaned.

‘I mean, if you can’t come over until the wedding, that’s fine. I can moan to you down the phone. Or email, like you said. Just as long as I know you’re part of it. That you’ll be there on the day.’

Bella felt as if she were being torn apart.

‘I don’t know,’ she said wretchedly. ‘It’s so damn complicated…’

‘Can we at least talk about it?’ said Annis.

‘We are talking.’

‘I mean properly. Without you looking at your watch every minute. This evening. What are you doing after work?’

Bella pulled a face. ‘Taking some honoured visitors on the town. I’m supposed to be the best in the department on the guided tour of the Big Apple.’

‘Oh.’ Annis was disappointed but not defeated. She fished in her shoulder bag and brought out a typed sheet. ‘Let’s see.’

She scanned it.

‘What is that?’ said Bella, recoiling.

‘My timetable. My client’s idea. When I told him I was coming to see you, he gave me the day’s itinerary, so I could catch up with him if I got delayed anywhere.’

Bella was revolted. ‘The dweeb,’ she said. ‘Could he also be a control freak by any chance?’

Her sister smiled. ‘He thinks ahead.’ She went back to the list. ‘Dinner, venture capitalists, blah blah blah. No, that won’t do. Hey, what about this? Hombre y Mujer Club, ten-thirty.’

‘If you try and talk at Hombre y Mujer you’ll get burst eardrums,’ said Bella.

‘We don’t have to talk there. Just meet. Then I could come back to your place and we could thrash this thing through.’

That gives me ten hours to find an excuse she’ll believe, thought Bella. Just great.

She said, ‘Fine. I’ll see you there. Now tell me all the gossip.’

And, recognising that she had won a battle, if not the war, Annis allowed herself to be diverted.

Bella kept the conversation light and away from weddings for the rest of lunch but she knew that the evening was going to be heavy. Everyone noticed how silent she was all afternoon. She still teased the post boy, and was merciless with Sally coming back from a fashion shoot with orange sequins on her cheekbones. But her heart wasn’t in it.

‘You in love, English?’ asked Sally, handing her a revised production schedule.

Bella pulled a face. ‘All the time.’

But Sally had a suspicion she wasn’t joking.

‘Doesn’t he like you taking the Japanese on the town tonight? They can get possessive these love-of-your-life types.’