Sins of Sarah (25 page)

'Reminds me of Grace,' Seth said reflectively to Nick as Sarah took a drink.

'Grace who?' asked Sarah, interested.

"There was only ever one Grace in this area, honey!' Seth told her. 'And don't you ever cut that hair!' It blew gently in the breeze, looking good, but irritating Sarah. To everyone's amusement, she tied it back with a serviette in desperation, until they had finished eating. Lobster, she decided, could become her favourite meal.

Nick and Seth talked business all through the meal, and got up to continue in the saloon afterwards.

'Come and join us, Sarah?' Vito invited, indicating the loungers laid out under the awning where the girls were already spread out. But Nick moved swiftly. He knew what Vito had in mind. Not so long ago he would have happily joined him in taking the girls to a cabin for a pleasant afternoon, now the thought revolted him.

'I don't share, Vito - not any more - and neither does Sarah.' He took her arm. 'Come into the cool, darling. Give Seth something to distract him while I argue money with him.' So Sarah lay on the sofa in the opulent saloon, reading fashion magazines while they talked, grateful that Nick had noticed.

By the time they had finished, and they went back on deck for tea, everyone except Miriam and Rex, the American actor, had disappeared. 'Siesta!' Miriam said smiling at Seth, who laughed knowingly.

'Saved from a fate worse than death.' He winked at Sarah.

'Oh, I'd have made one too many,' Sarah told him innocently.

'That's never worried Vito!' Nick remarked. 'Not since I've known him! I think two at a time is his speciality!' Sarah stared at him for a moment, then wisely left it alone. It was all beyond her. Even Nick seemed different, and rather frightening in this elite company. They were amongst the top people in their field, and all of them respected him for his expertise – even Seth bowed to his demands, she had discovered. Nick was as comfortable with them all as he was in Charles's aristocratic world, but she was still curious about his remarks concerning Vito.

'How do you know Vito likes two at a time?' she finally had to ask as he drove back to the hotel.

Nick laughed. 'Your nosey questions will get you into real trouble one of these days! Because I've helped him to try it, Miss, that's why!'

'I bet Diana wasn't there.' Sarah was shocked rigid and trying to cover it up.

'I don't ask for trouble, and it was a few years ago.' He smiled at her effort to appear cool. 'Don't worry, I told you, and Vito. I don't share, not now. You belong to me, and me alone.'

'Oh, yeah?'

'Quite definitely! Now what would you like to do this evening? Gamble at the casino, or go up to that Inn in the hills to eat?'

'The Inn, I'm starving! I can wear jeans and eat snails in garlic butter.'

'I give up1 OK then, I suppose as it's a holiday we might as well both reek of garlic as it's the only time we can.'

* * *

Arriving back at Heathrow on Wednesday afternoon, Sarah walked into a barrage of pressmen, screaming questions at her. Bewildered she looked frantically for Bill, and smiled with relief as he shouldered his way towards her.

Big and burly, he elbowed the photographers away and took her bags, hustling her out of the terminal. He'd left the car on a yellow line deliberately, so he could whisk her away fast.

'What the hell was that all about?' she demanded, panic-stricken as he swung into the chaotic traffic of the airport one-way system.

'Have you not read the papers for a few days?' he asked, and passed her a couple. 'Try the Unicorn. The boss is going to love it!' Sarah opened the paper and stared in horror. 'SEXY SARAH STEPS out!' screamed the banner headline on the inside page, above pictures of her with Charles coming back from New York, and, more worryingly, with Nick. The large picture had been taken on set, presumably during a hot lunch-break, when she had discarded her dress, and they were laughing together as he bent close to her. It looked exactly what it had been, an intimate moment in a fraught day, and she wondered how they had achieved it when Nick had been so adamant that the Press were not to be allowed any-where near them.

To crown it all they had added in a still of her lying naked in the hay kissing James. Luckily it was a close-up, which must have been taken from the film stock, as it had been processed after the scene in the stable. There followed a great deal of lurid prose, insinuating that she had ditched her boyfriend in favour of a variety of older men. Someone on the unit had been at work.

Helena! And she had been good friends with Peter at one time. She knew then that they had to be the source, and her fury boiled to the surface. 'I'll kill him this time!' she swore as Bill finally reached her flat, to find the doorway swarming with reporters. 'Haven't you bastards got anything better to do?' she yelled at them as Bill escorted her inside and the doorman closed the door on them.

To her total relief, George was in her flat waiting for her. With a thankful sigh, Sarah fell into his arms and Bill left her a little more cheerfully.

'We'll go straight home,' he announced. 'For a day or two anyway. You can't stay here. I've packed a bag for you. Leave those.'

'I'll just make a couple of phone calls,' Sarah said quickly, and went into the bedroom to call Oscar.

'Don't worry,' he told her blithely. 'They'll be after someone else tomorrow. Just stay out of sight for a day or two and learn that Secret Agent script. Rehearsals start on Monday. There's no time to worry about the Unicorn. He clearly didn't know the rumours about her and Nick were true, and she didn't enlighten him. Nick's phone was unavailable, and as he was driving back to England he was totally out of touch any other way. Unhappily, she followed George out of the back entrance of the flats to his car.

'So what have you been up to?' he demanded. 'And where have you been? Filming finished a week ago.' Sarah didn't lie to George, at least not completely.

'I went to Monte Carlo with Nick, to meet a producer for a new film, and the rest of it is my business, George!' Gaily she changed the subject as she told him about Seth's dinner party guests and the day on the yacht, which amused him nearly all the way to Guildford. That gossip helped with Maggie too, since she was a very straight lady, and none too thrilled at having her sister-in-law spread in a naked embrace across a newspaper.

'Wait till you see the film, Maggie,' sighed Sarah. 'There'll be a damn sight more of me than that on display!' She produced the pretty dresses she had bought for their daughter Becky in New York and Monte Carlo, which appeased Maggie slightly, then settled down to an evening of playing with Becky and keeping the peace.

* * *

Nick went straight to his office from Dover and got in just after Jane arrived. Having driven overnight, with just a couple of hours' snatched sleep, he was not in the best of moods, and Jane wisely kept quiet and made coffee while he changed and shaved.

'Diana's not going to like this,' she warned him then, as she put the coffee in front of him along with the newspaper cuttings. 'And neither are you!' She was right.

His language was fairly ripe when he had read them. They were getting at him through Sarah, he could see that, and he was furious.

'If we'd known where you were, it would have helped.' Jane rebuked. 'David and Julia did their best, but we couldn't find you or Sarah - or James come to that. They wanted shots of the nude scenes, but obviously we said no.'

'That's the last thing those beggars are getting!' Nick roared, and picked up the phone. 'Sandy, get me Max Moreton!'

'Nicholas, dear, how nice to hear from you,' Max oozed down the phone. 'We've been looking for you for days. Where were you?' Nick ignored the false pleasantries.

'What the hell are you trying to do to Sarah Campbell?'

'Your little girlfriend?'

'Max, let's get one thing straight - she is not my girlfriend. When that photograph was taken we were on the set surrounded by dozens of people, which you conveniently don't show.'

'Oh, just a little journalistic licence old boy,' Max said, and laughed. 'You should know that by now! It was unfortunate, though, that we didn't get pictures in the garden at Hastings Court that night.' Nick went white.

'What the hell are you talking about?'

'A couple of months ago? Surely you remember. Nick?' Max chuckled. 'One of my lads watched you. . . how can I put it delicately? . . . getting your leg over the lovely Miss Campbell? Dear me, Nicholas, what would all those little boys and girls think about their heroine then?'

'Print that and I'll sue you for every penny!' Nick gasped furiously. It was two against one and he knew it. If they'd had any proof they would have published weeks ago.

'I won't print anything - yet,' Max said. 'But I'll get you in the end. Grey,' he warned. 'This is just for starters. It's only a pity that pretty little girl will have to go down with you!' To come from the bliss of France into this was about all Nick needed, and his promised weekend at home with Charlotte was going to be hell! He sat for long frantic minutes as his predicament sank in, and then he wearily reached for the phone again, to find Sarah.

Finally he located her in Guildford, and practically ordered her to stay where she was. He decided not to tell her about his conversation with Max. 'Oscar's right,' he comforted. 'Something else will distract them in a day or two, but it's a pity you can't tell them about the beating Peter gave you.' 'Why can't I?' she demanded.

'Because it will stir up a slanging match, and we can't afford that,' he sighed. 'They were right about one thing, though.' He was on his private line and there was no chance of being overheard. 'You're definitely one hell of a sexy lady!'

'Not frigid, then?'

'Certainly not frigid!' he laughed. 'And I'm going to hang onto you, never fear. Just keep your head down for a few days and refer any reporters to Jane or Julia in the office. I'm going to Oxford tonight, for the weekend, but I'll see you on Monday, I promise. Can you bear to eat in for a night or two?' The reminder that he was going home to Diana only added to her feeling of being let down with a bump, but she knew he was desperate to see Charlotte. Everything had been so perfect in France, and now suddenly reality was catching up with her.

For a day or so the reporters besieged George's home, and her, until she was on the point of hysteria as they dogged her footsteps everywhere she went. Then, as Oscar had predicted, a new scandal broke, and they all high-tailed it back to London.

CHAPTER 14

It was not easy going into rehearsals on Monday morning. At least the rehearsal block was in North Acton, and as Do or Dare did not rehearse Sarah was spared from bumping into Peter. Her problem became Patrick Lythgoe, the star of Secret Agent and a popular, somewhat conceited actor, whom she knew from way back at RADA. He greeted her with a leering 'Hi, sexy!' and it deteriorated from there.

Sarah could have tolerated him normally, but he was very jealous of her publicity, and lost no opportunity to let her know it.

They had a few days' rehearsal and a week's filming, followed by two days in the television studios. By me end of the first day's rehearsal Sarah wanted out. But she was an actress, and she prided herself on being professional, so she knew she had to grit her teeth and get on with it.

'We picked a real bum one in this job,' she sighed to Nick when he came to her flat on Monday evening for supper.

'It's a top series,' he encouraged. 'It got all the awards at BAFTA this year, and Patrick's a good actor.'

'He's the pits!' Sarah declared. 'The thought of doing a love scene with him is turning my stomach.'

'You were spoilt having James as a leading man,' he teased.

'I know I was!' Sarah shuddered. 'Patrick just doesn't seem to know about soap. His feet and armpits stink!'

'Maybe it was a bad day for him too,' he suggested. 'We all have those, and weekends too!' 'How was Diana?'

Nick shuddered. 'Not fun!' He smiled. 'Thank goodness the politicians took over your publicity.'

'For how long, I wonder?' He pulled her onto his lap. 'We'll just have to be very careful, and stay out of sight for a bit - even if I have to cook!'

'Is my cooking really that bad?' She sounded hurt.

'No, the chili was surprisingly good, after what you said about your cooking. It depends on what else is in your repertoire.'

'Not a lot,' she admitted ruefully. 'Damn Peter!'

'Best therapy I can think of,' he smiled, as they went to bed later. 'Roll on Portugal!'

'Three whole weeks to wait,' she sighed, but knowing she could come home to Nick in the evenings made up for her days with the less than fragrant Patrick.

Nick went off to recce his locations in Portugal for a few days, and Charles took the opportunity to invite her to his box at Covent Garden for a new production of Swan Lake, with a raved about French dancer Sarah was anxious to see. Lonely without Nick, she was delighted to see Charles, and appearing in public with him would be a great deal safer at the moment than appearing with Nick, she thought, so she accepted, and went happily.

Charles had also invited George and Maggie, to her surprise, having bumped into George at a City Livery dinner a few days before, and Liz and Rupert Saunders also joined the party. Sarah practically gave two fingers to those members of the audience who recognized her, and positively crowed when a few of the gossip columns mentioned the occasion in the papers a day or two later, much to Patrick's fury.