had her doubts, but she nodded. “I will. I just need to find the right time.”
“Don’t leave it too long.” He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “It was great to meet you.”
“You, too. Thanks for the drink and the advice.”
They said goodnight and Natalie returned to her car and drove home. As she inserted her key and swung the door open twenty minutes later, wondering if mum might loan her fifty quid, she froze. Wreaths of cigarette smoke drifted towards her from the sitting room, and the TV blared.
Her hand tightened on the doorknob. Ian smoked. She’d seen him before, having a quick, furtive cigarette standing at the back entrance to the store.
Oh, God – what if he’d got in her flat somehow?
No, that was ludicrous…
“Nat!” Dominic’s voice bellowed out from the lounge. “Is that you?”
Her relief quickly turned to fury as she dropped her handbag on a chair and rounded on him. “You scared the crap out of me, Dom! What are you doing here? And give me back your key!”
“All right, shit. Here.” He rummaged in his pockets and extracted the spare key from his wallet and handed it to her.
“I don’t suppose you could loan me fifty quid?” Nat asked him. “I’ll pay you back.” Just as soon as I borrow it from mum, that is…
“Yeah, sure.” He pulled a wad of cash out and peeled off three fifty-pound notes.
Natalie stared at him. “Dom, that’s a hundred and fifty quid! I only need fifty.”
He shrugged and handed it to her. “Keep it. I’ve plenty of dosh. I just got my first cheque from Maison Laroche. By the way,” he added as he put his wallet away, “where’ve you been? I thought you’d never get back.”
“Thanks,” she said as she tucked the money in her pocket. “Never mind me, what are you doing here?” She narrowed her eyes. “That better not be a spliff—”
“It’s not.” Dominic squashed out the cigarette. “He knows, Nat,” he said in a rush as he perched at one end of the sofa. “Klaus knows who I am.”
Natalie blinked. “What? But…no one knows who you are but me! And your family,” she amended. “How did he find out?”
“He’s got someone on retainer to dig stuff up. Insurance, he calls it,” Dominic said bitterly. “He knows everything, Nat – my real name, where I was born, all of it. He says he’ll go to the tabs if I don’t cooperate.”
“For heaven’s sake, Dom, being the son of an earl is nothing to be ashamed of—”
“It is when your fans think you’re a working-class kid from a council estate in Swindon,” he said flatly.
“True,” she admitted. She sank down on the sofa next to him. “What about your father? Does he know?”
Dominic shook his head. “If this comes out, he’ll disown me. He has nothing but contempt for my music career.” He scowled. “Not that I give a toss about inheriting the title. I don’t. I just…” He looked at her, his expression subdued. “I just wish he approved of me, at least a bit. You know?”
“Oh, Dominic,” Natalie said softly, “I’m sure he does. You’re his son, after all! He’s just…disappointed you didn’t follow his example.”
“Right.” Dominic let out a mirthless laugh. “Can you see me as lord of the manor, a glass of sherry in one hand and a dead pheasant in the other? I can’t do it, Nat. That’s my father’s thing. And me? I’m his biggest disappointment.”
Natalie patted his knee. “I’m sure you’re wrong.”
“I’m not.” He leaned forward and took her hand. “God, I miss you, Nat. We were good together, weren’t we?”
“No! We were a disaster.” She yanked her hand away. “You treated me like crap, and you cheated on me—”
“I was a berk,” he admitted. He grinned. “But you have to admit, the make-up sex was pretty spectacular.”
“Tea,” Natalie said hastily, and stood. “We need tea.”
In the kitchen she plugged in the kettle and plunked tea bags into two cups – Dominic’s with two sugars, lemon, no milk — and returned to the lounge.
“Now,” Natalie said as she handed him a mug, “tell me exactly what Klaus wants.”
Dominic sipped his tea and grimaced. “This could do with a shot of whiskey… He wants to know about a clothing line some bloke named Phillip’s designing for D&J.”
“What?” Natalie sputtered, outraged. “Klaus wants you to spy on Phillip Pryce?”
“Yeah. He wants to see his sketches, hear about any problems he’s having, stuff like that.” He frowned. “What’ll I tell him, Nat? If I don’t give him something, he’ll go to the tabloids with my secret, and my career is over.”
“Well, that’s easy enough,” Natalie said slowly. “We’ll give Klaus the information he wants – we’ll just make sure it’s the wrong information.”
It was after midnight when Dominic left. Too keyed up to sleep, Natalie made another cup of tea – chamomile this time – and curled up on the sofa. She remembered her first year at boarding school, when an older girl had bullied her. Alison took her pencil case one day, a packet of HobNobs the next. Natalie said nothing; she was too afraid.
The third time it happened, a prefect saw Alison yank Natalie’s amethyst pendant, a present from her father, from her neck and shove her hard in the back. She fell on the gravel and skinned her knees. Between sobs, Natalie told her story to the head, who expelled Alison and called Natalie’s father to inform him of the incident.
“Always face up to a bully, Nat,” he’d told her quietly but firmly. “If you give in, you give them power, and they’ll never stop bullying you.” Was he thinking of his own situation, his blackmail at the hands of Ian’s stepfather?
She bit her lip. In the end, her father hadn’t taken his own advice. The threats and the pressure from Ian’s stepfather must have overwhelmed him, until, unable to cope, he’d taken his life with an overdose of sleeping tablets.
Natalie set her cup of tea, gone cold, aside. She pressed her lips together in sudden determination. She refused to let Ian call the shots. Unlike her father, she intended to fight back.
She grabbed her mobile and scrolled until she found Ian’s number.
Alexa Clarkson was half asleep when Ian’s mobile buzzed late on Sunday night. She raised herself on one elbow and peered at the bedside clock. It was half past midnight. She listened, straining to hear, but there was nothing. Ian must’ve let the call go to voicemail.
