Public Property (21 page)

‘
Diana Farrington at
ten.
Miles Blake at
eleven thirty
and Jonathan Sanders at
one.’

‘
Right, well postpone Diana
.
D
o you think you could see Miles? I’ll
make it for
one.’

‘
No problem
. Freya, are you sure
everything’s
OK?
’

‘
I’m fine,
honestly
.
I’ll see you later
.’

She ended the call and put the phone down on the countertop. One shaky breath later and she felt like passing out.
It was starting all over again.

Fif
teen

‘
I don’t want to wait
.’

It was
almost one and she was travelling to Carlton with Nicholas.
That morning, after the news about her father and the hate mail,
she
had walked into
Mayleaf
, bought a hair
colour
and spent the rest of the time dying it dark brown.

‘
Jeez! Will you look at
this traffic? What is going on?’
He pulled into the queue of cars waiting to go the same way.

‘
Nick, I don’t want to wait to get married
.’ She put her hand on his leg, trying to get his attention.

‘
What
d
’
you
mean?
’
He turned to look at her.

‘Twenty second of December
, it’s too
far away
.
I don’t want to wait that long
.’

‘
Are you kidding me? It’s next month!
’

‘
I know
,
but it’s the
end
of next month and what’s the point of waiting? I mean we love each other
,
right? And we don’t need anyone else there really
.
A
nd if we just went off and did it without telling anyone then the press wouldn’t be hassling
us
and we
’
d have the quiet wedding we want
.’ The words flew out of her mouth at top speed.

‘
But yesterday you really wanted to get married on Corfu
.
Y
ou were excited about that and I don’t believe you really want to have your special day without Emma there
.’

‘
I just want to marry you and you said it
didn’t matter how we did it. You said it was the commitment that’s
important and I agree
.’

‘
This is just a reaction to the newspaper article. Freya, I know it’s got to you and I understand why
,
but it
will
be alright
,
you know. Primarily
,
your father is a businessman
and I really don’t believe
he would let a news feature, as pathetic and pointless as that one, stir him up
.’

‘
It isn’t anything to do with the article
.
I
t really isn’t. I love you
,
Nick
.
I just want to get married
.
D
on’t you want to do it? We could just go off somewhere and get married and spend our honeymoon driving round the country on the Harley
. We could
stay
at cheap motels, drink
beer and eat
junk food
,’
she suggested.

It was sounding good and she had kept the desperation out of her voice.

‘
We can still spend our honeymoon doing that if that’s what you want
.’

‘
Why don’t we just get a flight to Vegas on Friday night and just do it
?’

‘
Because I don’t believe that
’
s what you want. What abo
ut the dress you were planning?’

‘
I’ve got plenty of dresses
.
W
ell, maybe one or two
.’

‘
Freya, come on, this isn’t right. I want our wedding day to be something we remember for years and years to come. I like the idea of going back to Corfu
.’

‘Yes, me too.
I really did. But do you know what? The weather forecast is horrendous. They’re talking snow and thunder storms.
The works.’

‘I don’t believe you.’

She
let out a
sigh and turned to look out of the passenger window.

‘December twenty second
isn’t that far away you know. Why don’t I make some calls today and see if I can arrange a few things. Maybe you could speak to Emma and let her know we’ll be seeing her soon
.’

‘
Ye
a
h, OK
.’

There was no enthusiasm in her voice at all. Everything felt bleak now that newspaper article was in the public domain.

‘
Look
,
I promised I would sort things out with the newspaper and your father
.
T
rust me
,
Freya,
I won’t let him hurt you again
.’

‘
It isn’t
me
I’m worried about
.’

‘
Well, I can look after myself and I have Roger.
But i
f it’s Emma you’re worried about
,
I can arrange someone to be with her and
Yi
annis
.
B
ut
I really think it’s jumping the gun. Besides, if we really thought your father was going to start hurting people
,
I
’
d want to be talking to the police about it
.’

‘
Could you arrange it so she wouldn’t know?
’

‘
Freya
,
are you serious about this? You really think your father would try to h
urt Emma?’

‘
Yes, I keep telling you
.
Y
ou have no idea what he
’
s capable of
.’

‘
I just think that
,
given the situation between you
,
he can’t really make an issue about you telling someone he i
sn’t coming to our wedding,’ Nicholas said.

‘
Perhaps I should invite him
.’

That thought made her more alert. That might be a
way to get out of all this. She would contact him. She would invite him to the wedding. He might not come. If he did come, she wouldn’t have to spend any time with him. And then it would be over. Her duty would be done and public opinion would be settled.

‘
What?!
That wasn’t a serious comment was
it?
’

‘
Well
,
it would be a sure fire way to settle things down. It would make the media think there
was
no feud and whoever sold this story to
The Gazette
was
n’t
a credible source
.
In that case, maybe
we should have a huge weddi
ng and
get as much publicity as possible
.’

‘
Freya! Stop this right now. For one
,
that isn’t the wedding we want and
secondly
,
if you think I
’
m going to have your father at our wedding
,
then
maybe
you
’
re marrying the wrong man
.’ He focused back on the traffic.

‘
I don’t want him at our wedding and for what it’s
worth I wish he really
was
dead.
B
ut I
’
m just trying to think of ways to stop this in its tracks. Because y
ou know what the press are like.
T
hey will pick and dig and ferret around and they w
on’t
stop
.’

The tears were there again.
Filling up her eyes, giving her clouded vision.

‘
Freya, you have to trust me.
I will sort this out.
But until I do
,
w
ould you
really
like me to get someone to keep an eye on Emma and
Yiannis
?
’

‘
Yes, I really would
.’

‘
Then I
’
ll arrange
it
. I
’l
l get someone over there today and I
’
ll make sure all the security systems at the villa are checked. OK?
’
he
asked her.

She
nodded.

‘
Now, I don’t want you worrying anymore about that damn newspaper article. What I do want you worrying about is wedding dresses, invitations and catering in Corfu
.’

She
nodded again and smiled, wiping her eyes with her hands.

‘
By the way
,
’
he said
pull
ing
the car away as traffic began to move.
‘
I love your hair that
colour
.’

W
hen they arrived at Exposure there
was a hoard
of photographers outside the gate. They started to shout and take pictures as soon as they set eyes on the Ferrari
.
Once
through the gates and
inside the car park
,
Freya
noticed
Jonathan’s car was already there.

‘Well, I suppose the press pack would be here. I expect I’m all over CNN.’ She let out a heavy sigh.

‘
Just ignore them or say
no comment
.
T
here isn’t much they can do with that
.’

‘
Apart from thinking I
’
m a moody cow
.’

‘
Which they should
already know by now
.’

‘
Hey!
’ She hit his arm playfully.

‘
Listen, I’ve got to go
.
I’m late for my meeting and you know what Sandra
’
s like about schedules
.’

‘
Sure, you go
.
P
ick me up about
five?’

‘Five
it is. Hey
,
do you fancy going down
town tonight? Playing a little
roulette? Visiting a few bars?’

‘
Stopping at the
all-y
ou
-c
an
-e
at for
twenty dollars
restaurant?
’

‘
Naturally
.’

‘
That sounds great
. Oh bugger, where’s my handbag?’
She looked around the
footwell
.

‘
Did you have it when you left home?
’

‘
I don’t know, maybe not
.
I was in such a hurry I probably left it there. Don’t worry
,
it just has my mobile in it and I
’
m sure I can do without that for a day
. W
ell perhaps not, but I’ll deal with it. You
go,
I don’t want to make you later than you already are
.’