Twice Upon a Time (14 page)

‘Shit,’ she muttered, and looked up see to a familiar face on the other side of Omar.

‘Hey, I know you,’ said Cinda, genuinely pleased. ‘Alex, right?’

‘Oh hi! How are you?’ said Alex with a warm smile. ‘How’s Ludo treating you?’

‘Oh he’s great,’ said Cinda, but she was distracted by the stain on her dress. ‘Do you know where the bathroom, is so I can sponge this off?’ she whispered, knowing she could trust Alex not to think badly of her.

Alex shook her pretty head, her hair piled up in a perfectly coiffured French roll. ‘Just buy something at the boutique,’ she said, gesturing to the row of shops near the beach.

Cinda stood up and grabbed her small straw bag. ‘Jonas? Come with me to the boutique?’ she asked, but Jonas was deep in conversation with Petra.

‘I’ll come with you,’ Alex said, getting up.

‘Okay,’ she said, staring crossly at Jonas, who was totally oblivious.

‘It’s Cinda, isn’t it?’ asked Alex, as she linked arms with Cinda.

‘Yeah, short for Lucinda.’

They walked down the steps towards the shops.

Alex was wearing a yellow-and-gold bikini and yellow wedge shoes with wooden soles that clapped noisily when she walked.

They passed by some private booths that were covered in white sailcloth to protect the inhabitants from the sun. In one, a large, almost obese man sat at a table playing backgammon against another man, whose bare chest was covered in hair.

Surrounding the men were several girls, all of varying shapes, but with two things in common: their bikinis were tiny, their bodies glorious.

Cinda slowed and stared for a moment, and then felt Alex pull her along by the arm.

‘Don’t stare at the table whores,’ she whispered with a knowing look.

‘What the hell are table whores?’ she asked, letting Alex hustle her along.

‘The girls looking for a rich guy,’ said Alex.

‘Are they like prostitutes?’ asked Cinda, glancing backwards.

‘No, more like girls looking for a rich boyfriend for the summer. Or, if they’re lucky, a rich husband for a few years.’ Alex pushed open the door to a boutique.

‘Is there such thing as a boy version?’ she asked in a hushed voice, now surrounded by a rainbow of coloured bikinis and floaty caftans and sarongs.

‘Yeah, but they’re greasy and usually from the old Eastern Bloc.’

‘Is that where Petra’s from?’

Alex laughed. ‘Yes, but her father owns most of the country, so it doesn’t apply to her.’

Alex held up a wisp of silver fabric. ‘What about this?’ she asked Cinda, who shook her head.

Settling on a pretty eyelet lace dress with a zipped front, Cinda put it on over her bikini and stuffed her stained cotton sundress into her straw bag.

‘It’s good, but you should wear high heels with it,’ said Alex, holding up a white wedge heel.

Cinda shook her head, instead picking up some pretty beaded bracelets from a bowl on the counter.

‘How much are these?’ she asked the woman at the counter.

‘They are free,’ she said in her lilting Spanish accent. ‘We put them in the bags when people make purchases.’

‘Can I have one?’ Cinda asked, searching through the bowl for the prettiest colours.

‘Take as many as you like,’ said the woman, nonplussed, as Cinda piled her arm with them.

‘Nobody wears them here,’ said Alex, picking up a yellow one and putting it on her wrist.

‘More fool them,’ said Cinda. ‘The colours are gorgeous.’

Alex picked up a few more and put them on her arm, and then tried on a pair of Prada sunglasses that were on display.

‘I’ll take these,’ she said to the woman. ‘Put them on my tab?’

The woman nodded and Alex signed a slip of paper with the practised signature of a girl who was born to shop.

‘And you how will you pay?’ she asked Cinda.

‘I’ll pay cash,’ she said, pulling out her worn leather wallet and carefully counting out the Euros.

‘You could just put it on Ludo’s tab,’ said Alex, eyeing Cinda and the way she carefully handled her money.

Cinda laughed and looked Alex in the eyes. ‘I can pay for myself. My dad may not own most of Australia, but I ain’t no table whore.’

Alex laughed and nudged her in the ribs. ‘I like you. I like you a lot.’

15

The music was blaring as Jonas danced by the pool with a hot French guy called Emile.

Ludo and Cinda were dancing nearby, both pretty drunk, while Alex and Petra were surrounded by guys, all desperate to have their moment with the gorgeous rich girls.

Jonas wondered if he was actually dreaming.

His whole life he had known he was different, special – and now finally life had caught up and delivered him to where he belonged.

He watched Cinda dancing with Ludo, and for a moment he wished he was her, swaying with Sardinian royalty. He felt the French guy’s arms close around him and he swayed with the music and French boy’s hips. He smiled to himself. Actually, no, he was happy right where he was.

A few minutes passed and he heard some yelling. Looking up, he saw Ludo on the diving board, naked.

‘You’re the one, Lucinda Bloom,’ Ludo yelled, doing some weightlifting poses to the crowd below.

Jonas saw movement out of the corner of his eye as a few security guards from the club moved through the crowd, trying to stop mobile phones being held up for shots of the prince taking a nude flying leap into the water below.

As Ludo emerged, Jonas saw Cinda standing by the side of the pool, smiling in her embarrassed way. Jonas could only imagine how much Cinda would hate that type of attention. Ludo reached up to take her hand and then he pulled her in with him, her scream competing with the track that was playing.

And then it was all on. Everyone nearby jumped into the pool and Jonas looked at Emile, who smiled cheekily and jumped in.

What the hell
, thought Jonas as he pulled off his polo shirt.
When in Ibiza
. . .

Cinda, meanwhile, was laughing as she climbed out of the pool, Ludo right behind her. Now that everyone else was swimming she didn’t feel so self-conscious. Her new dress stuck to her body and she felt a slight chill in the cooler night air.

‘We need towels,’ she said, gesturing at Ludo’s nudity and her own dripping dress. She headed over to the lounge where she and Ludo had spent most of the day.

Ludo was chuckling as he followed her, quite at ease in the nude. Admittedly most men would be at ease in the nude if they looked like Ludo.

But at the end of their lounge sat a man. Cinda hadn’t seen him around, and wondered if he’d just arrived at the party.

‘Hello,’ he said in a thick accent as they approached.

Cinda gave the man a small smile but said nothing, noting the way the man’s eyes moved up and down her body before turning to look at Ludo. She picked up a towel and wrapped it around herself, handing another one to Ludo.

‘How are you tonight, Your Highness?’ asked the man as Ludo beamed at him drunkenly.

The guy was making her feel decidedly uneasy. Cinda was quite drunk, but she felt herself starting to sober up with the tension.

‘Come on, Ludo. Let’s go and find Jonas,’ she said quietly.

‘Do you want to come to a little private party?’ asked the man. He lowered his voice. ‘I have some very fine Colombian cocaine.’

Ludo stepped forward. ‘That sounds like fun.’

Cinda was surprised. ‘I don’t feel well, Ludo,’ she said, and it was true. Things were starting to spin in that nasty way they did when Cinda drank too much.

The man stood up and looked Cinda in the eye. ‘Then go and lie down, and leave the men to party.’

Ludo looked at her and then at the man, clearly torn.

Cinda was still trying to think of what to do to get them out of the situation when she threw up all over the man’s Prada sneakers.

‘You fucking – ’ the guy spat, fury flashing across his face as he moved away to find a staff member. As he did, Cinda saw him grab a large camera bag from under the sunlounge. Cinda frowned as the realisation of what the guy must have been doing dawned on her.

Jonas was still in the pool when Cinda caught up with him, her mouth tasting foul. Ludo wandered behind her, in a relaxed and drunken daze.

‘We have to go,’ she said to Jonas quickly, kneeling at the edge of the pool.

‘No,’ he pleaded, looking at Emile and then back at Cinda.

‘Now.’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘I’ll tell you later,’ she said and she walked out of the club, pulling Ludo along with her and checking that Jonas was following them.

The car was waiting out the front, thank god. The driver started the engine as soon he saw them approaching. Cinda felt nervous, and although she didn’t know why, she knew they had to leave. That man had scared her, and Ludo’s lack of discretion and drunkenness was becoming stressful. She just wanted to be back at the villa, listening to Jonas and Gus chat, while she and Ludo kissed in the sunshine. She didn’t like this world at all.

‘Let’s go,’ she said to the driver. ‘Quickly, please.’

Ludo was slumped in the corner of the car, asleep or passed out, Cinda didn’t know which.

‘To the airport, and tell the pilot to have the plane ready for immediate take-off,’ she said. She heard the driver patch through her instructions to the airport crew.

Jonas looked at her and raised his eyebrows. ‘What the hell is going on?’ Cinda looked over at Ludo and then back at Jonas. ‘I think Ludo was about to walk into a set-up,’ she said softly, her mouth pursed. ‘A paparazzo, trying to get shots of him snorting cocaine.’

‘Bullshit!’

‘No, I’m pretty sure,’ she said, and she told Jonas about the man, and her conveniently throwing up on his shoes.

‘You always did have impeccable timing,’ said Jonas, shaking his head in disbelief.

Cinda swallowed, wishing she had a mint or something. She took Ludo’s hand. People were arseholes, she decided. Thank god she’d been there to pull him away.

She turned to check that the bodyguards were following in their car, fat lot of good they’d been.

‘Hey, I liked that Alex and Petra,’ said Jonas.

‘I didn’t really talk to Petra,’ said Cinda absentmindedly. ‘But Alex was lovely.’

Soon the car pulled into the airport and sped around to the waiting plane. Cinda got the goon squad to carry Ludo into the plane.

‘Why weren’t you there?’ she asked one of the men as they did up Ludo’s seat belt. ‘Inside the club?’

‘Because we were told to stay outside,’ said one of them. ‘His Highness has very specific requirements. Requirements that can make our job almost impossible at times.’ He looked Cinda directly in the eye.

The message was clear – Ludo was as much a danger to himself as others might be to him.

She nodded, sorry that she’d thought so badly of them. ‘It’s just, we were approached by a man who seemed very intent on giving Ludo drugs. Russian, maybe? He was very intimidating.’

The bodyguard looked at her with new interest. ‘What did he say?’

She told them what had happened and the men looked at each other knowingly.

‘How did you get rid of him?’ asked one of them.

Cinda settled into the deep leather seat and did up her own belt. ‘I threw up on his shoes,’ she admitted, knowing she was turning red.

The men laughed.

‘It was probably a blackmailing set-up,’ explained the guard.

‘It’s happened to other members of the Euro set. We’ve been worried something like this might happen. Lucky you were there.’

Cinda rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, me and my trusty belly.’

The men went to their seats down the end of the plane, talking quietly.

Jonas leant forward. ‘We really should have watched
Taken
again. This scene is intense.’

‘A little too intense for me,’ said Cinda, who suddenly felt very tired. She closed her eyes and slept fitfully until the plane landed back in Sardinia.

16

‘Get up,’ Gus’s voice rang loudly in Ludo’s ears.

His head was throbbing. He rolled over in bed. ‘Piss off,’ he groaned, wondering who had taken a shit in his mouth.

‘Get up, Ludovic,’ said a different voice. Ludo opened one eye to see his mother standing next to his bed.