Twice Upon a Time (31 page)

‘I told them you’re a great friend that I met in Positano, a painter of royal portraits. I told them that they are lucky to meet you,’ she said firmly, and Cinda’s heart swelled with affection for her friend.

‘You know, regardless of the stuff that happened with Gus, I’m really glad I met you, Alex.’ It was the first time she had mentioned Gus’s name, and it felt like she had just jumped a huge hurdle. Maybe one day she could look back on her time with Gus and smile – not just yet, but saying his name without breaking into sobs was a good start.

Cinda dressed for the lunch according to Jonas’s instruction over Skype.

‘Those thick tights with the knee socks, and the short black skirt. Did you get the jumper I sent you?’

Cinda pulled it on over her head and touched the soft cashmere of the cropped jumper. It was navy with small red poppies, cute as well as stylish. She showed Jonas the outfit.

‘It’s perfect for you – classy, but still arty,’ said Jonas, taking a sip of his tea.

‘How’s Gideon?’ she asked.

‘He’s amazing, it’s all amazing,’ he said dreamily.

‘Are you going to keep working with him?’ asked Cinda. Jonas had always wanted his own label, and she hoped he wasn’t giving up too much for his new relationship with Gideon.

‘Actually, Petra has offered to back me on a small diffusion line, and I can use Gideon’s studio as a base.’

‘That’s great!’ she said sitting down on the bed and adjusting her phone so she could still talk while she put on her socks and boots.

‘Hair up in a topknot and only red lipstick, no other make-up. With the pattern on the knit, you’ll look like a geisha if you wear too much else.’

Cinda did as he said, carefully putting the lipstick on and tying her hair up while they chatted. Then she showed Jonas the results.

‘Perfect,’ he said with a smile.

‘Thanks,’ she said, and they paused. An unspoken question hung between them.

‘I haven’t seen him. No-one has,’ he said finally.

Cinda swallowed a few times.

‘Is he with Perrette?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know. She hasn’t been in the papers, there haven’t even been rumours about the pregnancy in the social pages. I think the family came down with some serious threats to make sure nothing was released.’

‘I’m sure,’ said Cinda darkly. The queen would always have her way. ‘Hey, I have to go, I’ll call you later and let you know if I was eaten alive by socialites,’ she said.

‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken,’ Jonas called as she finished the call.

Cinda threw on her coat and picked up her handbag, slipping her sketchbook into it, along with a few pencils. If the lunch was a disaster, the she could at least excuse herself early and go and sketch somewhere.

She rode the bus to the restaurant and got off on a busy main street. Walking towards the address that Alex had given her, she felt nervous. She took a deep breath as she pushed open the door to the elegant restaurant.

The sounds of muted conversation and clinking glass and cutlery greeted her and she looked around for the table of girls that Alex had described.

They were impossible to miss, sitting by the window at the best table. Glossy, beautiful women in caramel and white. She felt completely wrong in her topknot and poppy-laden knit.

One of the women put a hand up and waved at her and she slipped through the tables towards them.

‘Hi,’ she said, wishing she could just leave. ‘I’m Cinda, Alex’s friend.’

‘Hello Cinda,’ said a brunette with a welcoming smile. ‘Come and sit next to me. I’m Margot, and this is Phoebe, Celia, Anna and Daisy.’

Cinda slipped into her seat, thankful to not be on display anymore.

She glanced at Margot, taking in her perfect pale pink manicure and delicately arched eyebrows. Cinda put her own hands into her lap, covering the short nails, thankful they were at least clean. She had scrubbed them raw that morning to remove the telltale smudges on them.

‘Alex speaks so warmly of you,’ said Margot in the same trans–atlantic accent that Gus had. Cinda felt her heart hurt just a little.

‘She’s great,’ replied Cinda, quashing the thought of Gus with a genuine smile.

Without Alex, none of this would have been bearable,
she thought.

‘And you’re from Sydney?’ asked Daisy. ‘I love Sydney – I went there for New Year’s Eve last year with Mary and Fred.’

‘Oh, I love Mary and Fred,’ said Phoebe. ‘They have such darling children!’

Cinda raised her eyebrows just a little. Were they talking about Princess Mary of Denmark? She was afraid to ask, just in case it was true. Instead she sipped her water.

A phone rang and it took Cinda a moment to realise it was hers.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled as she pulled her bag onto her lap and searched through it to try and stop the persistent ring.

She slipped her wallet and sketchbook onto the table and found her phone. The call was a number that she didn’t recognise.

Switching it off, she put the phone back in her bag. She picked up her wallet and as she did, she saw her sketchbook in Margot’s hands.

‘These are amazing,’ said Margot, turning each page.

So many faces of Gus stared back.

‘Is that Ludo?’ asked Celia, peering over the table.

Cinda nodded.
What does it matter now
? she thought sadly.

There was a quick pencil sketch of Alex reading, one of Jonas and Gideon’s profiles, and so many of Gus. Just looking at them again made her want to put her head on the table and sob, but Margot paused at one of her studies for the portrait.

‘You did the picture of Ludo recently, didn’t you? Alex mentioned it,’ she said.

Cinda nodded, not trusting her voice.

‘That’s it. You have to come and meet my stepmother. She’s
awful
, but she has these cute little kids. She’s been talking about getting a portrait of them for
ever.
Promise you’ll come and see her?’ Margot’s hand was on Cinda’s arm.

‘Me too, I want a sketch for Mummy for Christmas,’ said Phoebe, taking out a gold-embossed diary and looking at Cinda. ‘What dates do you have available?’

‘Not before me,’ said Margot sternly. She turned back to Cinda. ‘Do you have any time?’

Cinda wanted to laugh. She had all the time in the world, and this would be perfect for stopping her from obsessing about Gus and Perrette.

‘Did you spend much time with the Sardinian royals?’ asked Phoebe as she thumbed through the sketchbook with Celia.

Then Margot gasped and clutched Cinda’s arm again. ‘You’re the girl in the photos from Ibiza with Ludo naked by the pool, aren’t you?’

Cinda blushed, and all the girls leant forward.

‘Are you having an affair with Ludo?’ Celia asked, her eyes shining.

‘No, no,’ answered Cinda honestly, blushing a little.

‘I heard he’s seeing Valentina from Spain,’ said Phoebe knowingly. ‘My friend from Sweden was with them in Africa.’

Cinda listened as they gossiped about Ludo and Valentina and she realised that it would make a lot of sense if there was someone else. But she didn’t feel anything for him anymore except friendly affection. She’d started to realise that Ludo was just like her mother, falling in and out of love as regularly as he changed his undies.

‘I like Val, she’s a lovely person,’ said Margot. ‘She’s a bit different to what Ludo usually likes.’

Cinda smiled vaguely. She had no idea what Margot meant, but if Ludo was in love, then she was happy for him. The only thing she wondered was why Ludo hadn’t mentioned it.

She tried to push the brothers out of her mind.
That part of my
life is over now
, she reminded herself, and she took out her diary.

‘Okay, let’s talk dates,’ she said efficiently.

This was her life now. Painting portraits of the beautiful people. She would never be one of them, but she could sure take their money.

After all, she was nothing if not a realist.

38

‘Valentina? I’m here in Spain,’ Ludo said as soon as the jet landed.

‘What? Why?’ she asked, her voice flustered and a little cross.

He frowned, his heart sinking a little. He wasn’t sure what he’d thought her reaction was going to be, but this wasn’t it.

‘I came to see about a horse,’ he lied. ‘I just thought perhaps since I was in the country I should say hello,’ he said casually.

Ludo hadn’t been able to get Valentina from his mind and, after the debacle with Gus and Cinda, he was determined not to let true love slip by without a decent shot at making it work.

Even if he hadn’t been desperate to see Valentina again, Ludo had needed to get away from what he’d come to call ‘the situation’. Gus had gone into hiding at Avignon and Perrette was ringing the queen every other minute to try and formulate a plan. To her credit, their mother was putting Gus’s feelings first for once.

‘He’s too young to be a father,’ she had lamented to Ludo when she heard of Perrette’s news from Gus.

Ludo hadn’t said anything. What could he say? Gus should have been more careful. Ludo may have been the irresponsible one in the family, but, in that area at least, he was always careful.

‘What sort of horse?’ Valentina’s suspicious voice came down the phone.

Ludo bit his lip at the sound of her voice, remembering their hot nights together in Africa. She was unlike any girl he had met, with her devil-may-care attitude towards her own safety and deep compassion towards the villagers they were helping through the charity.

She had a quality that he’d never seen in anyone before and she made him want to be a better person. She made him want to grow up and show her he was responsible, able to be the person she needed.

‘An Andalusian, for jumping,’ he said, thinking quickly.

The truth was he hadn’t ridden a horse in years, but he knew Valentina was a keen rider.

‘Which stables are you going to see?’ she asked.

‘My secretary set me up with some breeders she read about,’ he said vaguely as he climbed down the steps of the plane and into the wintery sunshine.

‘They won’t be any good,’ said Valentina firmly. ‘Come and see me, I will set you up with the people who breed horses for Olympians.’

Ludo did a little happy dance as he got into his car.

‘Where are you staying?’ she asked.

‘I don’t know yet,’ said Ludo. There was a pause, and he realised how presumptuous he sounded. ‘I will organise something though,’ he added.

‘No, no, come here. Mother and Father would like to see you again,’ she said, her voice giving nothing away.

‘You sure?’ he asked, his heart beating faster.

‘I’m sure,’ she sighed and hung up the phone.

The car drove to the castle on the outskirts of Madrid and the iron gates swung open as the official car approached. They pulled up outside the small but steely palace and the front door opened.

Valentina stepped outside in a warm jacket and jeans. He thought she had never looked lovelier.

‘Hey,’ she called in her lilting accent and Ludo wanted to kiss her right then and there, but at that moment her father walked out to join her.

‘Prince Ludovic, welcome,’ said the king.

‘Your Majesty,’ said Ludo, with a reverential bow. The king had always scared him a little when he had seen him at the odd royal wedding or funeral over the years. A large man with huge hands and a booming voice, he always reminded Ludo of the giant from
Jack and the Beanstalk
.

He kissed Valentina on each cheek chastely, lingering only long enough to remember the scent of her perfume.

‘Come inside,’ said Valentina.

‘I’m just heading to the capital to meet Valentina’s mother,’ said the king. ‘But I hope you will stay a few days. Valentina will give you names of the best horse breeders in Spain.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Ludo and he shook the man’s hand warmly.

Ludo’s bags were taken inside and sent up to his rooms. In the hallway, Valentina shrugged off her coat and then led the way to a sitting room.

‘Coffee, tea, something to eat perhaps?’ she asked, gesturing for him to sit on the comfortable sofa.

‘Coffee would be great, thank you,’ said Ludo, wondering why she made him so nervous.

He sat down while Valentina quietly asked a servant for coffee, then closed the door once the servant had left. He felt his stomach flipping.
Now or never
, he thought. He turned to speak, but before he knew it, Valentina was on his lap, her mouth on his, her hands in his hair.

‘There is no horse, is there, Ludo?’ she whispered in his ear and he smiled.

‘I came for you,’ he said.

‘Are you calling me a horse?’ she asked huskily.

‘Now’s not the time to make a joke about riding you, is it?’ he asked, one eyebrow raised.

She started to laugh as she unbuttoned his shirt.

‘What are you doing?’ he asked, shocked at her daring.

‘It’s my house, I can do what I like with my lover,’ said Valentina as her mouth met his.

But Ludo pushed her gently away and sat up. ‘That’s why I’m here, Valentina. I don’t want to just be your lover. I want to be with you properly. I love you.’

There
, he thought,
I’ve said it.