Hyde Park was just across the road and they walked up towards the Serpentine, mingling with late afternoon crowds taking advantage of the summer heat. Most had escaped offices and lay on the grass, ecstatically unbuttoned with shoes kicked off. Some ate ice-cream, some read books, some snogged with abandon.
‘I could fancy an ice-cream,’ said Jason.
‘We’ll go and find one then.’
Jenna felt light and happy to be back in London, suddenly loving all the people for not crowding round her or trying to follow her. People here were too wrapped up in their own lives to care about who was passing by. It was many years sin
ce she’d been able to take a simple walk in a park without at least one bodyguard. Perhaps Jason fulfilled that function, she thought. Actually, that could be an idea . . .
By the time they reached the Serpentine café, she was feeling jumpier and had noticed several people, mainly young teenagers, trailing in their wake. The little train of followers led in turn to more attention being paid from the deckchairs.
Her dream of a pleasant anonymous summer evening walk seemed to be over.
‘Jenna,’ called one of the teenagers, not aggressively, but loudly enough to be irritating.
Jason wheeled around, thunder-faced.
‘Are you a mate of hers?’ he said, and the threat in his voice was evident.
‘Jason, don’t. We don’t want negative publicity,’ she demurred, but his work was done. The teenager shook her head, lips trembling.
‘Leave ’er alone then,’ he growled.
The teenagers stopped following them, but Jenna felt that some damage limitation was in order. Seeing that they were all still lurking around by the edge of the lake, she bought them all ice lollies and handed them around, to their considerable excitement.
‘Sorry he was gruff,’ she said, ‘but we are trying to have a quiet walk by the lake.’
They seemed to understand and a couple of them apologised in turn. A third wanted to know when she would be back on Talent Team, but she just laughed and shook her head before walking away.
‘What did you do that for?’ sniped Jason, watching them mooch off with their lollies.
‘Good PR,’ she said. ‘Come on, let’s find somewhere shady and completely secluded and watch the boats on the lake.’
They took their ice-creams to a hedge and sat in front of it, as inconspicuous as they could be.
‘You must get that a lot,’ said Jason.
‘Yes.’
‘Doesn’t it do your head in?’
Jenna took a philosophical lick of her honey and stem ginger cone.
‘I’m used to it.’
‘How could you get used to it?’
She thought about it.
‘Actually, I’d forgotten what it was like,’ she confessed. ‘Perhaps it was naïve of me to think that this – a simple walk in the park – was possible. Back in LA, I never went anywhere unaccompanied. Always travelling by chauffeur-driven limo, flanked by my bodyguards on the way to meetings or parties or anything. Didn’t even go shopping unless the shops were closed to the public. It’s not the public you have to even worry about there – LA people are so used to seeing stars all over the place, they barely turn a hair. It’s the world press. The freelancers after something to sell to one of those woeful celeb mags.’
‘Like living in a bubble,’ said Jason.
‘It just seems normal after a while. It’s the ones with kids I really feel sorry for. Having to keep them hidden away in their walled mansions. I feel privileged – seriously, don’t laugh – that I grew up on the estate and I could ride my bike wherever I wanted and get into fights behind the shops. Better that than what these kids have to call a childhood.’
‘Is that why you and Deano never . . .?’
She licked around the base of the ice-cream scoop, considering how to put her answer.