Page 98 of Under Your Spell

‘Theo Eliott’s secret marriage,’ I read aloud. ‘What is this?’

‘Just keep reading,’ Theo looks pained.

‘Oh my God,’ I scroll down. ‘This is madness.’ There are two photos in the online post, both taken on the beach in Northumberland. In the first Theo and I are deep in conversation at the edge of the water, in the second we’re walking away from the camera hand in hand. I know exactly when this was, another of our private moments, splashed around for people to see.

‘ “I saw him with her a few weeks ago,” ’ I read aloud. ‘ “He introduced Clementine as his wife. They seemed really in love.” ’

Theo shifts uncomfortably.

‘This is that girl who stopped us on the beach!’ I exclaim. ‘She doesn’t mention that you also told her you weren’t Theo Eliott in the first place. Jesus.’

‘Yeah, unfortunately it’s been picked up by a couple of websites.’ Theo scrubs his face with his hands. ‘I don’t think it will be a big deal; this is like the third time they reckon I’ve got married in secret.’

‘A secret bigamist? Where do you keep all your secret wives?’ I ask.

‘In the attic,’ Theo smiles wanly, and when I smile back it’s the first time I feel a moment of calm in the storm.

‘I don’t understand how they found out about Ripp so quickly, though,’ Theo frowns. ‘It’s not like you ever introduced yourself to anyone as Clementine Harris. There’s not really anything online that links the two of you.’

‘I told your sister and your mum,’ I say slowly, ‘in the spa, but they’d never…’

Theo shakes his head. ‘No way, never.’ He thinks about it for a moment. ‘Wasn’t Cara there too?’

‘Yes, she was.’ I feel sick. ‘Do you really think that she’d do this? She’s Lisa’s best friend.’

‘No.’ Theo sighs, runs a hand through his hair. ‘I mean, I don’t think so anyway, but I absolutely believe she’d blab about your dad to anyone who’d listen.’

Yes. I think. I could see that.

‘What’s the other thing?’ I ask.

‘What?’

‘You said there were a couple of developments. So, first of all we’ve been married off…’

‘Mazel tov,’ Petty puts in from the phone where I’d almost forgotten about our audience.

‘What’s the other thing?’ I ask again, ignoring this.

That tell-tale tic of his jaw means I know he’s upset. ‘It’s…’ He trails off, takes a steadying breath. His hand clenches at his side. His tone becomes clipped, business-like. ‘It would seem that one of the more industrious journalists has dug into your past… with Sam.’

‘Sam?’ And there it is, the final tug of the rug from under my feet.

Theo nods, and even his nod is angry – a sharp jerk of his chin. ‘A couple of the photos from when you were seventeen have resurfaced.’ I start, and the pain that I see in Theo’s face then is horrible. ‘It looks like Sam’s done an interview – or made some on-the-record comments at least.’

‘An interview?’ I say blankly. ‘About me?’

‘I don’t know the details yet,’ Theo says, his voice ice. ‘But I have people working on it.’

‘That piece of shit,’ Ava’s voice comes from the phone.

‘No arguments here.’ Theo turns to look at her on the screen. ‘I’m about to jump on a conference call with my lawyers, and I wondered if you’d join, Ava?’

I don’t hear Ava’s response, too distracted by the wave of grief and anger and fear that swamps me. It’s like what I felt at Granny Mac’s house, but worse. It’s not just a memory of what happened then; it’s like it’s all happening again now – like every bit of that pain and insecurity has come back as strong as it ever was. I’m flattened by it.

‘He’s pissed off about the phone call,’ I say hollowly. ‘He’ll want to get back at me. He’ll say things…’

‘Hey.’ Theo crouches down by the side of me, takes my face in his hands so I’m looking at him. I focus on those honey-gold flecked eyes. ‘You didn’t do anything wrong here. And he’s not going to say anything to anyone, okay? I’m going to take care of it.’