Marj fastened her raincoat against the chilly morning. Summer had gone so quickly, she thought as she made her way to the newsagent’s. She would read the papers over a latte then head back to the flat. Honestly, those girls. Lucy had sounded so worried on the phone, fearful no doubt about the article in the paper. Marj wasn’t in the least concerned what anyone thought of her or her family after reading it. If their judgement was to be clouded by such nonsense then they were not worth knowing in the first place.
What did concern her was that someone clearly had it in for Lucy and that would not do. Fergal had paced up and down the living room when she showed him the paper, cursing the press, the reporters and the world in general.
He had wanted to join her in London, to make sure the girls were OK but she had persuaded him to stay in Scotland to work on a big new contract he’d landed near home in Arbroath. Marj had something on her mind and had been meaning to visit her daughters soon anyway.
Marj looked at her Raymond Weil watch, a fiftieth-birthday present from her girls. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet. It was so early, but her sleeper had arrived at 7 a.m. at King’s Cross. No wonder she’d surprised the girls.
‘What –?’
Marj stopped suddenly in front of a news stall. Was that…? It was. Lucy – on the front page of the Daily News.
Max’s paper.
Marj lifted a copy. ‘Hartley’s Ex Dates Kirk Kelner’ screamed the front page, above separate headshots of Lucy and the actor.
‘Hey, lady, you gonna pay for that?’
Marj wasn’t aware that she was walking off with the paper. ‘Sorry,’ she told the man absent-mindedly, and rummaged in her purse for coins.
Thumbing to the inside pages, Marj took in the words:
LUCY COPS OFF WITH KELNER
Just weeks after her split with Britain’s most eligible bachelor, the Earl of Balmyle, Lucy Summers has struck gold again, with Hollywood heart-throb Kirk Kelner.
We can reveal the ambitious blonde enjoyed a cosy date with Kelner, 39, who is worth an estimated £500 million.
A source said: ‘There was instant chemistry between Kirk and Lucy. Kirk has a reputation as a ladies’ man but he’s put that behind him – Lucy could be the one.’
Lucy recently split with Hartley, the Earl of Balmyle, amid rumours of a falling-out after she tipped off a photographer to follow them while holidaying in Scotland.
But the fashion writer seems to have landed on her feet again after cosying up with Kirk during a private party at trendy London club the Met Bar.
Marj was struggling to compute the fact that the story in front of her was about Lucy. Her Lucy? She was still reading the details when she arrived back at the flat.