Chapter 15

Henry led Veronica Butler and Wayne Harris through and introduced them to Samantha and Ian.

"Please sit down," said Samantha with a smile.

They all did so.

"How would you like to do this?" Henry asked Mrs Butler.

"Do you think Wayne could just take a couple of photos of you and then he can get away?"

"Fine. All yours, Mr Harris."

He took several of them: sitting on the sofa, standing side by side and the same but looking at each other. Henry then saw him out.

"Now it's your turn," he smiled at Mrs Butler.

She smiled back. "I know you're pretty choked off with all the attention you've been getting. I hope that that won't influence our chat now. I know from Mr Frobisher that the whole purpose of it is to clear the air and get us hacks off your backs."

Samantha and Henry nodded.

"Please may I call you by your first names and you call me Veronica. It's all so less stiff and formal."

Samantha and Henry nodded again but this time with a smile.

"I know you've been married before, Samantha, so your new love for each other really must have been pretty recent." She paused expectantly.

Samantha glanced at Henry and then replied, "Yes, although we've always been very close as brother and sister."

"So it didn't suddenly happen but crept up on you?"

"Yes and no. Some friends of us asked to go out one evening." She grinned at Henry. "We think they were match-making because they had a partner for each of us. It was fun and we all danced with each other but Henry and I kept coming back to each other. We've done it since we were teenagers. We laughed about it when we got home and suddenly realised that we preferred being with each other to anyone else. That was it. Three weeks ago."

"What was your parents' reaction?"

"Delighted. They'd seen it coming for years."

"So your getting married must have been a surprise."

"Probably but they never let on."

"Was it a surprise to you, Henry?"

"Yes and no. As Samantha says we have always been close and I missed her when I was in Iraq and then again when she went off to the States but it did come as a surprise to realise that we were actually in love and really had been for years."

"So there was no physical affection before that?"

They both looked at each other questioningly and then shook their heads.

"We both used to hug and kiss each other hello and goodbye but I don't remember ever kissing you goodnight or anything, Sams, do you?"

Samantha chuckled. "No. You'd probably have got a kick on the shins for being cheeky."

That made Veronica laugh too. "I must say I find it difficult to believe all the same. Surely, Henry, you realised that Samantha was a beautiful girl."

"Yes, I did but I wasn't physically or sexually attracted. She was just my dearest sister and my best friend. It must seem odd to anyone else but I think it's probably the same with most real brothers and sisters however close they are. I mean, have you got a brother?"

"Yes."

"Did you ever feel anything sexual about him?"

"No, never."

"Was he the same about you?"

"I think so." She grinned. "I'll have to ask him."

Henry smiled back. "Do you see what I'm getting at? It wasn't until we realised that we loved each other so much that we never wanted to be apart that sex became part of our relationship."

"But now it's an important part."

Henry looked at Samantha. Neither said a word or made a gesture.

"Not vital by any means. It's certainly fun and I suppose it's a physical consummation of our love so to that extent it's important."

"Neither of us would want to give it up," added Samantha, "but I'm quite sure that if we had to it wouldn't affect our love for each other. We just need to be with each other to feel whole."

It looked as though Veronica believed them because she smiled and nodded without a hint scepticism.

"Going back to your recent epiphany then, it seems to me then that that tweet from your ex was a lie."

Samantha and Henry looked at Ian.

"Yes, it was a lie and it didn't come from her husband," he said.

That focussed Veronica. This was news.

"It didn't come from her husband?" she echoed.

"No. It came from a source in England."

"Do you know who?"

"Yes but at the moment, as we intend to sue for slander, I can't tell you. In fact, I've probably been too open with you. May I ask you to reveal nothing more than the fact that we know for certain that Samantha's former husband had no hand in it? The reason that we called this meeting was to make sure that he does not get harried by the press in the States."

Veronica looked sharply at him. Gone for a moment was the pleasant, interested and sympathetic woman. She revealed her self to be the hardened hack she was. She quickly shook it off.

"Ouch!" she said. "You offer me a scoop and then deny it to me."

Ian smiled. "Yes," he said, "but I'm prepared to do a deal with you."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I'll tell you all we know and will give you advance warning of the court cases..."

"Cases?"

"Yes." He had really hooked her. It was a question of whether he could land her.

"There'll be the slander hearing: what else?"

Ian held his lips closed between thumb and forefinger.

She stared at him in silence. Ian let it drag out.

At length, he said, "If you do say anything you may prejudice the results. I shall be struck off and your paper will almost certainly be held in contempt of court and prejudicing the course of justice. Purely as an aside, it could also result in a nasty piece of work getting off scot free."

"I must ask my editor."

"No, Veronica. He won't have given his word and he may prise the story out of you despite you having given your word to me. I want you to keep it a secret. If you do so and you attend the court cases you will have your scoop and you will rise even higher in the estimate of your editor; quite considerably, I'd have thought."

Again there was a long silence. Veronica was unable to hold Ian's eyes and her own began to flicker with the speed that her mind was working.

"I think we all need a drink while Veronica thinks this one through," said Henry. "What can I get you, Veronica?"

"Er ... um, thank you, Henry. A tonic water, please."

"No gin?" he smiled encouragingly. "I'll make sure it's weak. Just enough gin to take the edge off the tonic."

Veronica smiled back. "All right but, please, very weak."

"It shall be. Same again everyone else?"

Ian and Samantha nodded. "I'll come and give you a hand, sweets."

"What's Ian up to?" she whispered in the kitchen.

"Trying to get her completely on our side, I guess."