Page 63 of Escape to the Country

Megan and Annie looked at each other before staring back at her.

‘What are you talking about?’ said Megan. ‘You weren’t a call girl or something like that, were you?’

‘What? No!’ said Eleanor. ‘I still worked in the media but instead of working at theMoney Chronicle, I was a journalist on a celebrity magazine.’ She picked up a piece of bubble wrap that they had been using and played with it, avoiding eye contact with them both.

The silence stretched out between them all. Eleanor automatically scratched her neck as she waited for them to respond.

‘But you were always going on about all that financial stuff,’ said Megan, looking confused.

‘It started off as some silly lie and then I just didn’t know how to stop it,’ said Eleanor. ‘I should have told you before now.’

‘How many years have you been lying to us?’ asked Megan.

‘Eight,’ muttered Eleanor.

‘Eight!’ Annie was boggle-eyed. ‘The whole time you were in London? Why didn’t you say something?’

Finally, Eleanor looked up at them. ‘Because I didn’t want to let you down. You thought I had this amazing career, but I didn’t. You two are the ones that have made it. Not me. I’m a failure.’ She bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears.

‘You’re not a failure if you managed to keep a job in London for that long,’ said Annie, shaking her head.

‘So which magazine was it?’ asked Megan.

‘Hot Gossip!’ Eleanor told her with a heavy sigh.

Megan’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Blimey. I thought you were going to sayElleor something fancy like that, especially with your designer outfits. And you used to do what for them?’

Eleanor took a deep breath. ‘I used to get the latest scoop on whichever celebrity was behaving badly. Not very nice work, I admit, snooping around. You see…’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Annie, suddenly springing back into life. ‘Is this why you’ve been coming up to the hall all the time? To get a, what was it, a scoop on Tom?’

Megan turned to look at Eleanor, equally aghast. ‘Oh my god! Is it?’

Eleanor shook her head. ‘No! I didn’t even know he was staying here, did I?’

Annie’s eyes filled with tears. ‘I thought you came back here to see us!’

‘I did!’

But Annie was too upset and carried on. ‘I thought it was so nice that you wanted to make up for all that time you’ve missed with us. But we were just a story, weren’t we?’

‘No! It’s not like that!’ said Eleanor. ‘Look, I messed up. I know that.’

‘Are you going to write a story about Tom?’ asked Annie, glaring at her. ‘Because let me tell you something, he’s a good guy. He doesn’t need any more of those paparazzi lies.’

Eleanor was shaking her head so hard she thought it might fall off her shoulders. ‘No. There’s no story. I wouldn’t do that now.’

‘What do you meannow?’ said Megan, frowning. ‘Does that mean you had thought about writing a story about him?’

‘No, of course not,’ said Eleanor, gulping.

‘I don’t know if I can believe you any more,’ said Annie.

They both looked so horrified at her that, with a sob, Eleanor grabbed her handbag and ran out of the back door. She saw the bicycle but ignored it. She couldn’t take it now. Not after the way her friends had looked at her. So she walked down the long driveway, the tears streaming down her face.

She had been struggling by herself for so long that she had forgotten to look after her friends as well. Her lies had become more and more tangled and now the truth was just one big mess. There had been the possibility that she could still write a story about Tom. But she knew now that she could never do that. Regardless of the fact that it would get her back to London, she knew it was wrong. And her friends would hate her even more.

In that moment she knew that losing her job was nothing compared to the pain she felt that she had lost her dearest friends forever.