A Tainted Beauty

‘Can’t?’ Suzy’s perfectly plucked eyebrows were elevated into two symmetrical black curves. ‘I’m afraid that I can. And I have. It’s a fait accompli. The contracts have been signed, exchanged and completed. I’m sorry, Lily—but I really had no alternative.’

‘But why? This house has been in my family for—’

‘Yes, I know it has,’ said Suzy tiredly. ‘For hundreds of years. So your father always told me. But that doesn’t really count for much in the cold, harsh light of day, does it? He didn’t leave me with any form of pension, Lily—’

‘He didn’t know he was going to die!’

‘And I really need the money,’ Suzy continued, still without any change of expression. ‘There’s no regular income coming in and I need something to live off.’

Lily pursed her trembling lips together, willing herself not to burst into angry howls of rage. She wanted to suggest that her stepmother find some sort of job—but knew that would be as pointless as suggesting that she stop kitting herself out in top-to-toe designer clothes.

‘But what about me?’ she questioned. ‘And more importantly—what about Jonny?’

Suzy’s smile became tight. ‘You’re very welcome to stay over at my London house sometimes—you know you are. But you also know how cramped it is.’

Yes, Lily knew. But her thoughts and her fears were not for herself, but for her brother. Her darling brother who had already been through so much in his sixteen years. ‘Jonny can’t possibly live at the place in London,’ she said, trying to imagine the gangling teenager let loose on all the ghastly spindly antiques which Suzy loved to keep in her metropolitan home.

Suzy fingered the diamond pendant which hung from a fine golden chain at her throat. ‘There certainly isn’t room for him

and his enormous shoes littering up my sweet little mews house, that’s for sure—which is why I’ve arranged for you to carry on living here.’

Lily blinked as a feeling of hope quelled her momentary terror. ‘Here?’ she echoed. ‘You mean in the house?’

‘No, not in the house,’ said Suzy hastily. ‘I can’t see the new owner tolerating that! But I’ve had a word with Fiona Weston—’

‘You’ve spoken to my boss?’ asked Lily in confusion, because Fiona owned Crumpets!—the tearooms for which Lily had baked cakes and waitressed ever since she’d left school. Fiona was middle-aged and matronly and, to Lily’s certain knowledge, she and her stepmother had never exchanged two words more meaningful than ‘Happy Christmas’. ‘To say what, exactly?’

Suzy shrugged. ‘I explained the situation to her. I told her that I’ve been forced to sell the house and that it’s left you with an accommodation problem—’

‘That’s one way of putting it, I suppose,’ said Lily, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice.

‘And she’s perfectly willing to let you and Jonny have the flat above the tearoom—so you won’t even have that far to go to work. It’s been empty for ages—it’s almost as if it’s been waiting for you! So how’s that for a solution?’

Lily stared at her stepmother, scarcely able to believe that she could come up with such an awful scenario and consider it a good idea. Yes, the flat had been empty for ages—but there was a good reason why. Nobody wanted to live right next door to the local pub—especially since it had undergone a refurbishment and acquired an all-day licence. The last royal wedding had inspired a feeling of ‘community spirit’—which basically meant that there was now round-the-clock drinking by the locals—and a deafening din of noise, which carried on late into the night.

Lily couldn’t think of anything worse than finishing one of her shifts and then making her way up the scruffy staircase to the two-roomed apartment above. Yet what choice did she have? She was hardly in a position to flounce off and make some kind of life for herself somewhere else. She had Jonny to think of. Jonny who relied on her to provide some kind of warm base. To give him the security he so desperately wanted and the home he really needed.

‘So what do you think?’ prompted Suzy.

Lily thought this was yet another example of how life could kick you in the teeth. But what was the point of saying words which would only fall on deaf ears? ‘I’ll go and see Fiona later,’ she said.

‘Good.’

Her head still spinning from the bombshell which had been dropped, Lily found herself wondering whether she would see much of Suzy after this—or whether her stepmother would want to cut ties completely. And wouldn’t that be best, in the circumstances? Her father had been the glue which had held the precarious relationship together and now that he wasn’t here any more… ‘Why didn’t you tell me, Suzy?’ she questioned suddenly.

Suzy’s manicured fingers nervously touched the diamond pendant once more. ‘Tell you what?’

‘That you’d decided to sell. If I’d known about it before, then maybe I could have mentally prepared myself. Worked out some different kind of fate for myself, rather than having it presented to me like this. Why spring it on me like this?’

Looking uncomfortable, Suzy wriggled her shoulders. ‘That wasn’t my doing. One of the conditions of sale was that I kept the identity of the buyer secret.’

‘How bizarre. But presumably I’m allowed to know who it is now?’

‘Well, not really.’ Suzy’s thumb moved rapidly over the glittering surface of the diamond. ‘It’s not for me to disclose anything.’

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ said Lily, her frayed nerves making her voice shake with unaccustomed anger. ‘Is there really any reason…?’ But her words tailed off as she heard the approaching throb of a powerful car and saw Suzy begin to swallow nervously. ‘What is it?’

‘He’s here,’ whispered her stepmother.