Chapter 5

The following morning a waiter entering the other room of my suite with breakfast awakened Aileen and me. Shortly after that there was a knock at the bedroom and, after asking if we were decent, Stella's head appeared around it. She announced that we had less than two hours to get sorted before we were due at the function that she and I were supposed to attend.

Aileen and I showered together, with Stella calling out the time at regular intervals.

"Lay off, Stella, we'll make it on time," I called out to her after about her fifth time check.

"I just want to make sure that you two love birds don't get carried away again. You realise that you kept the people in the next suite awake all night, don't you?"

"Stella, you're in the next suite," I replied.

"Yeah, but Norman doesn't have your stamina, Duncan. He poor bugger needs to get some rest now and again." She laughed back at me.

"You've caught the bugger then?"

"Of course, we're in love!" Stella gave a false cough, and I felt sorry for poor old Norman. Well, for the future of his bank account anyway.

When Aileen and I came out of the shower we discovered that Aileen's luggage was lying on the bed. Stella explained that she'd arranged for Aileen's roommate to bring it over. "We can't have the press spotting Aileen in your hotel dressed in the same clothes she was wearing yesterday can we."

"But how did you know she'd be here this morning?"

"Well, it stood to reason really to anyone who saw you two together yesterday anyway. You'd either be here, at the Carpenters' or at Aileen's digs. As she's sharing a room I didn't think that was likely. And the Carpenters keep their place locked up like Fort Knox so the press couldn't get anything from there, so if you'd slept there it wouldn't matter. It's called watching your reputation, Duncan; it's what I charge all that money for. Now can we eat and get going?"

Aileen couldn't go with us because she had to rehearse for the show she and the rest of her troop was doing. Although it had been decided that she was quitting the troop she didn't feel that she could let her friends down at such short notice. So Stella and I went off to the function on our own.

"Where's Aileen Price this morning, Duncan?" A faceless reporter shouted as Stella and I exited the car at the end of yet another red carpet. God, I'd seen too many red carpets that week and would be glad when the damn film festival was over. Neither Stella nor I replied to the reporter's question anyway.

I think Stella and I were both surprised that the press had discovered who'd left Norman's party with me. Stella swore blind that she hadn't let out Aileen's identity to them, although she admitted tipping the press off that we were on our way to the shore the day before.

Later that afternoon after Stella and I had returned to the hotel, she burst into my suite carrying several British newspapers.

"Well, someone recognised Aileen pretty quickly. Listen to this?" Stella said then began reading snippets from one of the showbiz gossip columns.

"Author Duncan King has found his princess at last." She looked up at me and smiled. "Last evening author Duncan King was seen leaving a party aboard millionaire Norman Stanley's luxury yacht, with Aileen Price, the beautiful model who famously fell from grace because of her backstage tantrums. Aileen has apparently been at the festival all week, but for some inexplicable reason has been travelling incognito. Yesterday Price and the handsome author King tried to slip off of Stanley's yacht unseen early in the evening. They were hustled away to an unknown destination by their private security people." Stella looked at me and grinned. "Got that all arse about face, haven't they?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure how Helen and John will like that idea of being described as our bodyguards."

"I think providing they can't be recognised in these pictures they won't give a damn. I've met those two before and they like to remain incognito when they can. Nearly all of the papers say roughly the same thing. I wonder how they will explain away Aileen cavorting around on that stage this evening. Are you going to watch her, by the way?"

"I'd like to, yes, that's if I can get in without the press climbing all over me."

"We'll sort something out, but we'd better watch out for the paparazzi if you intend to bring her back here again tonight."

"I have no intention of bringing Aileen anywhere, Stella. Aileen goes where she wants to."

"Sorry, I didn't mean it to sound quite like that. But you know what I mean."

I was spotted in the audience that evening, and when Aileen and I left by the stage door, I think we got more attention from the press than the pop singer her little troop of four dancers had been supporting. I also got the feeling that the singer wasn't too enamoured that all four dancers were leaving with me and not going to the little party he had planned for later. We all went to a different party at John and Helen's chateau again.

The following day Stella and I flew back to the UK because I had pre-planned book signings to attend. Aileen and the girls had numerous more bookings in southern Europe so she couldn't come with me. The little sensation of Aileen and me being seen together in the south of France had unexpectedly resulted in a sudden rush of modelling bookings for Aileen as well.

She called me almost the moment they started coming in and asked me what she should do about them.

"What do you mean, what should you do?" I asked.

"Well, should I take the jobs on or not?"

"Darling, you're a model, aren't you? I have no intention of buggering up your career again. I'm happy with whatever you decide, but I should imagine that if you blow the buggers off now, then they might decide to forget about you again."

"So ... so you're telling me that you don't mind if I take them?"

"Aileen, if you don't take them, you will regret it for the rest of your life. Of course you should take anything that comes along. You can afford to be choosey when you're back on top again."

"Thanks, sweetheart, but I've turned down the offer from Hugh Hefner anyway."

"What!"

"Just kidding, I'll see you soon. Love you!"

I think I sat there for about ten minutes staring at the handset in my hand. Those two words "love you" - how I had missed hearing them for so long.

Aileen suddenly had modelling work coming at her from all directions and it was to be almost eight weeks before we were together again.

I didn't even hear her arrive at the cottage and I was even more surprised that she still had her key to the place. Lucky I hadn't had the locks changed, or it would have spoilt her surprise for me.

There I was, lost in my own little world, bashing away at my keyboard when Aileen snuck up behind me. I didn't even see her reflection in the monitor. The first I knew of her presence was when she began chewing on and breathing into my left ear.