‘I think that’s plenty, don’t you?’ Violet sat back and picked up her file again. ‘After all, it’s obviously still four more people than you have,’ she added, not looking up.
Tom didn’t have an answer to that one, either.
* * *
It was going to take them forever to wade through all of Rose’s files. Violet bit back a sigh—Tom would only have a sigh-related question waiting for her. Maybe ask her if she was frustrated by her sister’s departure or, worse, in love with her new brother-in-law. She had a feeling it was only a matter of time before someone noticed that Rose had married the man who’d been squiring her twin around for the last few years and jumped to the obvious—but erroneous—conclusion that there was a really juicy story there. She’d place money on it being Tom, and before the week was out.
Sneaking a glance at him across the desk, Violet considered the way he’d evaded his own question about who to trust in this world. On the one hand, she’d been surprised to find someone whose list was shorter than her own. But then, given his profession, perhaps that wasn’t so surprising. He had to know that everyone had their price, when the story—or tape—was good enough.
Still, she’d have expected him to have someone. A trusty sidekick best friend, perhaps. Or a loyal, long-suffering girlfriend. Not everyone was lucky enough to have a built-in best friend from the day they were born, like she and Rose had been, but she’d have thought he’d have found at least one person to trust over the last few decades.
Strangest of all was the feeling she’d got, watching him dodge the question. The odd sensation that in that moment they’d both looked past a mask neither of them usually lifted, and seen something they never intended the other to see. Had he really seen her fear, her mistrust in a way that even her family couldn’t quite grasp? Or had she imagined that strangely searching look?
And what about him? Had she truly recognised another person who understood that the truth was a private thing, that who a person was deep down didn’t always need to be shared? At the least she knew he didn’t trust people any more than she did.
Was he lonely? Or did he like being alone? Did it make it easier for him to do his job, not worrying about friends or family who might be disappointed in him, or disapprove of the stories he chose to tell?
Or had he had someone once and betrayed them for a story, like Nick had done to her?
Shaking her head, Violet looked back down at the file in her hand. She was projecting now. Whatever Tom’s history was, and whomever he chose not to share it with, she was pretty sure it had nothing in common with hers.
Violet added the file in her hand to the ‘album promo’ pile and was just reaching for the next one when her phone buzzed in her back pocket. Standing to fish it out, she checked the name on the screen.
‘It’s Rose,’ she said, her finger hovering over ‘answer’. ‘I’ll go take it in the other room.’
‘See if you can find out where she’s hidden all the bands’ contracts while you’re at it,’ Tom said. ‘And the notes on the riders. They’d be really useful around now.’
Violet nodded and escaped into the sitting room next door to talk to her sister. She really didn’t want an unreliable audience when she was talking to one of her four people.
‘Hey, where are you?’ Violet shut the door carefully behind her, just in case Tom got it into his head to eavesdrop. ‘Is it glorious and sunny and beautiful?’
‘All of the above,’ Rose said with a laugh. ‘I have to admit, Will has outdone himself. But you’ll have to wait and see the photos when we get back. I want to see who guesses where we’ve been first.’
‘Meanie.’ Violet pouted but, since her sister couldn’t see her, the effect was rather wasted. ‘Are you happy, though?’
‘Very,’ Rose promised, her tone suddenly serious. ‘Really, Vi...I’m so much happier than I thought I could be. Ever.’
Violet’s heart ached at the truth in her sister’s words. ‘I’m so, so happy for you,’ she said as sincerely as she could. But even as she spoke, she rubbed the space between her breasts, just over her heart, and wished that she could find such happiness.
‘What about you?’ Rose asked. ‘How are things there?’
That, Violet knew, was her cue to tell her sister light-hearted stories about everything that had happened in the less than twenty-four hours since she’d left. Only problem was, she was struggling to think of any.
‘Um, fine. Nothing much to report, really. Mum and Dad stayed up super-late with the guys, and Dad headed off for his shift at the centre today looking half dead, even after a couple of coffees. Mum still hadn’t surfaced last time I checked.’
‘So, the usual,’ Rose summarised.
‘Pretty much, yeah.’
‘How about Tom? Did you find him okay at the airport?’
‘Yeah, eventually.’ Violet bit the inside of her cheek. She really, really wanted to point out that Rose had given her the wrong flight times. But if she did she’d have to explain what happened next. She was just trying to think of a way to fudge the subject when Rose spoke again.
‘Hel—lo. What happened? Tell me immediately.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ Violet lied.
‘Yes, you do. That was your “I’m mad at you but don’t know how to tell you” voice. Twin here, remember?’
‘Okay, fine. You gave me the wrong flight times! He ended up calling and demanding to know where I was, so I rushed all the way over to Heathrow in my bridesmaid’s dress and heels then humiliated myself in front of everyone in the coffee shop.’ Violet finally took a breath and relaxed once the words were out. Not telling Rose stuff took far more energy than just telling her everything.
‘Will just forwarded you his email with the flights on,’ Rose said mildly. ‘If they were wrong, it was his own stupid fault. Now, humiliated yourself how, exactly?’
Maybe it would have been worth holding back that part, though.
‘His fault? Fantastic. So it was all over nothing in the end, anyway.’ Violet sighed. ‘I was so determined to make a good impression—to make him like us so he’d write nice things about us. But after his call and the traffic, I was kind of flustered. And it had been a really, really long day.’ A long, loved-up, excruciating sort of day for the one single girl in a family of people madly in love with their spouses.
‘Oh, God, what did you do?’ Rose asked with the sort of dismayed expectation that came from having been witness to every single one of Violet’s screw-ups for the past twenty-seven years.
‘He thought I was you!’ Violet said. Rose knew how much she hated that. And after the day she’d had...well, some sort of blow-up was inevitable.
‘Tell me you didn’t berate that poor man in public for not being able to tell apart identical twins he’s barely met.’
‘Of course not! In fact, I played along for a moment or two, but he figured it out pretty quickly.’ Violet swallowed at the memory. She hated this bit, but Rose was going to hate it even more. ‘He said he recognised my facial expression. From the video.’ No need to say which one.
Silence on the other end. But only while Rose caught her breath, Violet imagined.
‘I will fly home right now and beat him up if you want.’ Rose swore, quite impressively. Violet recognised a few words they hadn’t learnt at boarding school. ‘I can’t believe I thought he seemed like a good guy! I thought we could trust him with this interview, with Dad. But now...I’ll call Dad. Get him to send him back to whichever rock he crawled out from under.’
Warmth filled Violet’s chest at her sister’s unqualified support. But part of her couldn’t help but feel a little responsible too.
‘In fairness, he was severely sleep deprived and over-caffeinated at the time,’ she said. ‘And he didn’t really say it in an offensive manner. Well, as far as you can remind someone of the biggest mistake of their life without meaning to offend them.’
‘It wasn’t your fault,’ Rose sa
id automatically, just as she had every time it had been mentioned for the last eight years. ‘You trusted him. And you had no idea he was filming you—let alone that he’d put it out on the internet. Do not blame yourself for the actions of Nefarious Nick.’
‘Anyway, I don’t think Tom meant to cause offence. And I might have overreacted a little bit.’
‘Overreacted?’ Violet was pretty sure she could hear Rose wincing. ‘What did you do?’
‘Announced to the whole coffee shop that yes, I was the Huntingdon-Cross Sex Tape Twin and if they had any questions they should ask Tom, since he’d clearly watched it plenty of times.’