There were several things I’d let my sister talk me into during my life that I’d come to regret.
I remember being fifteen and nervous for a date with my crush at the beach with some friends. She insisted a bikini would fit me, even though I didn’t think it covered my boobs. I was right; it popped out right in front of him after a wave caught me, and I could never look him in the eye again.
When we were eight, she insisted we wouldn’t get caught sneaking into the greenhouse and stealing all the strawberries. Spoiler alert: we got caught.
At sixteen, she was adamant Mum wouldn’t know if we told her we were staying at a friend’s house but were actually camping and getting drunk in a random field. Unsurprisingly, Mum found out, and we were in big trouble.
And that was only a few of the situations she’d gotten me into.
She didn’t have the best track record, which was why I was seriously wondering why I’d agreed to this hair-brained scheme.
Thankfully, Alex was a lot more pragmatic than I was. I tended to be a bit of a dreamer with my head above the clouds—hard to avoid when you had fictional people talking to you in your head—while he was very down-to-Earth, always two feet on the ground.
Once Gabi and Eva had left us alone to talk and I’d explained what was going on with the hotel, Alex had pointed out that it would be largely easy to fake a relationship. We didn’t really go anywhere together, and it wasn’t like we were in London where the paps hung out trying to catch a glimpse of people. There were no events either of us had to attend, and if the media made it to Whitborough, they wouldn’t even get close to the actual house because the estate was so vast.
We were just going to have to get his mum to play along for us. She knew we weren’t seeing each other because she, you know, lived in the same house, so we were going to need her on board for this.
As far as Elizabeth was concerned, though, we were simply letting the media believe what they wanted to believe, and we were neither denying nor confirming it.
If my parents didn’t want to tell me about the financial issues with the hotel, there wasn’t a chance they’d want anyone else to know. Especially not their friends.
I still wasn’t happy about this, but I didn’t appear to have a choice. If it bought some time for my parents, then it was a small sacrifice, really.
Besides, it wasn’t like I knew anyone outside of the cross-stitching club. They would be easy to convince since Millie had already talked me into the admitting I’d snog him thing, so I wasn’t worried about them.
Either way, the drive from Bath to Whitborough was spent largely with Alex talking me down and us figuring out how this was going to work and laying ground rules.
Under no circumstances was Olympia to be brought into it. If there was a chance we’d be seen with her, we couldn’t be together. It was a slim chance anyway, because aside from the aquarium, we’d never been out as a group, but it was worth saying.
At least he’d always protected her privacy and the papers couldn’t print photos of her face. They had to be blurred out, so at least there was that.
Also, she couldn’t be a part of it, because kids sucked at lying.
Especially Olympia.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever be happy about the situation, but it wasn’t as bad as I could be, and I was grateful for that at least.
“Papa!” Olympia came running through the house in her wellington boots, leaving a huge trail of wet, muddy footprints on the wooden floor behind her. She launched herself at Alex, and he didn’t even have time to put down our cases before she had her arms wrapped tightly around his waist.
“Oomph!” He let go of the cases and enveloped her in a huge hug. “Hey, princess. Have you been good for Granny?”
“I’m always good!” She leaned back and grinned up at him. “Did you get me anything?”
“Something for your birthday.” He tapped her on the nose. “And no, I’m not telling you what it is. It’s only two months away.”
“Aw. I wanted to know.”
I laughed, and she turned to look at me, her face lighting up.
“You came back!” She rushed from Alex to me and hugged me just as tightly.
“Of course I came back.” I bent down, still laughing, and wrapped her in a hug. “I have to teach you for another four weeks, silly!”
“Really?” She turned to Alex.
He glanced at me, fighting a chuckle. “I did say the whole summer, Oly. Did you forget that?”
“I thought summer was over and I could go back to school now!”
“No. Four weeks left of the summer break, I’m afraid.”
“But Addy stays the whole summer?”
“Yes, Addy stays the whole summer.”
She looked at me. Happiness shone in her eyes, and a warm wave of affection washed through me when I looked at her.
Gosh, she was just the sweetest child in the world.
“Can I read my book today?” Olympia paused. “Please?”
“You want to read your book?” I asked, my eyebrows raising. “Really?”
“Yes! I couldn’t find it. I drew a picture of fairies for the library and wanted my book but I didn’t know where it was!”
“Sweetie, you can read your book whenever you like.” Oh, my heart. “All you had to do was ask Granny to call your daddy and I’d have said where it was.”
“Oh.” It was such a tiny, small “oh,” like she really hadn’t thought about that. “Can I have it now?”
Alex extracted her from me with a low laugh. “Okay, let’s make a deal. Why don’t you give me and Adelaide ten minutes to get in and settle after our drive, and then she will get you your book?”
Olympia looked down at her feet and scuffed her boot along the floor. “I suppose.”
“And in the meantime, you will take off your boots and put them in the mudroom, then you will ask either Miss Edwards or Boris to help you get a mop and bucket, so you might clear up the mess you’ve left behind.”
She slowly turned her head to look behind her at the trail of muddy footprints. “Oopsie.”
“Oopsie indeed,” Alex said slowly, straightening up. “Ah, Claire, we were just talking about you.”
Claire, one of the three housekeepers, paused with an armful of sheets in her hand. “Sir?”
“Olympia forgot to remove her boots and has left quite a mess along the floor.”
Claire’s head slowly turned as her gaze followed the mess. “Ah. I see. Let me pop these sheets in the cupboard, and I’ll clean it up.”
“No, please. If you wouldn’t mind helping her with a bucket and a mop, I’ll be down in a moment to supervise her cleaning it up.”
A small smile tugged at Claire’s lips. “I don’t mind helping her, sir.”
“I’ll only be a few minutes,” he assured her, then tapped Oly on the shoulder. “Go and remove your boots, please.”
Olympia took them off there and then, then raced through the hall to the back mudroom, dropped them off, and appeared back in record time.
Claire smiled. “Come on, then, Olympia. You can help me put these away, and then we’ll get to clearing up your mess.”
“Yes, Miss Edwards.” Olympia followed after her. “Do you want me to carry some of those for you?”
“Oh, no, thank you. These are clean and your hands are not.”
Olympia giggled, and that was all we heard as they disappeared down the hall.
I couldn’t help but grin after them. “I love that you do that,” I told Alex as we grabbed our stuff to go to our rooms.
“I’ve got it,” he said, taking my suitcase. “Do what?”
“Make her clean it up. It would be so easy to just let Claire do it.”
“Absolutely not. I know she won’t be able to do it all herself, and she’ll never get it to Claire’s standard, so she’ll go over it again later today.” He chuckled. “But Oly knows she needs to take her boots off in the mudroom, and she didn’t, so she has to clean up her mess.”
“My mum did that with us, too.”
“She lives an exceptionally privileged life here, but that doesn’t mean she’s going to grow up expecting everyone to do everything for her. If she makes a mess, she has to clean it up. I can cook and clean, after all.”
“You just don’t have to.”
Alex dropped his head back, laughing, and set my suitcase outside my bedroom door. “Exactly. But neither do you right now.”
“Point well made,” I acquiesced, wrapping my arms around my waist. “Um, thank you for this weekend. All things considered, it was a lot of fun.”
His blue eyes twinkled with amusement. “Thank you for saving me from Charlotte’s band of merry bachelorettes.”
“Anytime, good sir.” I pushed my bedroom door open. “And thank you for carrying my case up.”
He tipped an invisible hat. “I’m going to drop this off and take Olympia for a treat at Maggie’s when she’s cleaned up. Would you like me to bring you anything back?”
“Those eclairs were nice. I can give you the money for them.”
“Absolutely not.” He winked and turned away. “See you later.”
I watched as he walked down the hall and turned away, rolling his case along the floor after him. Slowly, I let out a deep breath and leaned against the doorframe, then closed my eyes.
I was not going to make another four weeks.
Someone cleared their throat from behind me, and I jerked around to look at them.
“Elizabeth.” I pressed my hand against my chest. “You startled me.”
“Sorry about that, dear. Were you taking a nap standing up?” Her eyebrows shot up in question.
“No. Just… decompressing after a busy night.” I smiled at her. “How was your time with Olympia?”
“As insane as one would expect when a child has infinite energy.” Her eyes twinkled, belying the weariness in her voice. “And that didn’t change when I saw this.” She held out a newspaper that was folded lengthways.
“I don’t—I don’t need to… look at that,” I admitted warily. “They printed that fast.”
“Hmm.” She tucked the paper against her body, and I grimaced when I saw the photo of me and Alexander.
Not because it was a bad one.
It wasn’t. Not by any means. As far as paparazzi photos went, it was rather good, actually.
I just didn’t want to be the one who had to have this conversation with her.
“Twenty minutes,” Elizabeth said. “That should be enough time for you to handle your dirty laundry and meet me in the library for a pot of tea, don’t you think?”
I nodded. “Absolutely. I will see you there.”
Bollocks.