A Dream Come True by Cindy Jefferies Page A

coldly. “Trying to live up to your father’s reputation by being clever isn’t going to take you far. I wanted a simple article about how thrilled you were to meet the Lowthers and instead, amongst the good stuff, you’ve given me your opinion on why they are splitting up, and all of it, so far as I can see, is totally fabricated.” She glared at Ellie. “As if I didn’t have enough to do without nurse-maiding a child who thinks she’s an investigative reporter!”
    Ellie scanned the page hastily. She was almost in tears. “But this isn’t what I wrote! I loved Pop, and Lolly. I did ask why Lolly wanted to become a student, but—”
    Francesca wasn’t interested in Ellie’s protests. “Unfortunately, as we have enough of a crisis on our hands with losing Joe’s shoot, we’re going to have to use this in some way. If Piano wasn’t still working on the pet article I’d hand it straight to her and send you home, but I can’t do that. I don’t want Carlotta to handle it either. In spite of what she thinks, editing isn’t her strong point.”
    Francesca was looking through Ellie as she reckoned up her options. Then she focused on her again. “The stupid thing is that the actual writing shows a lot of promise.” The way Francesca spoke it didn’t exactly sound like a compliment, more a comment made in total frustration, but Ellie felt a small leap of comfort at her words.
    Francesca pushed the other sheet of paper in Ellie’s direction. “So anyway. I’ve marked up the article. Go and start putting things right. As soon as Piano has finished she can take over and make sure it’s fit to be seen.”
    A commotion at the front desk made them both turn round. A man with a trolley was backing in through the door. Carlotta was remonstrating with him, but he waved a bit of paper at her.
    â€œYou wanted this water!” he shouted before swerving to get past her. “It’s your usual order.”
    â€œNo, we didn’t,” yelled Piano, joining in. “We cancelled because you never deliver on time.”
    â€œOh for goodness’ sake,” muttered Francesca. “Do I have to do everything myself?” She left Ellie and strode angrily towards the man with the trolley.
    Ellie was aware of the commotion, but she didn’t turn to look – she was desperate to see what had gone wrong with her article. How on earth could Francesca have misread it so badly? The answer jumped out at her as soon as she began to read the printout more carefully.
    â€œSomeone has altered it!”
    The first sentence was in her own words, but as Ellie scanned down the page she could see that a few references to the Lowthers had been changed, so the tone of the article was subtly different from the way she had written it. It was amazing what damage a few changed words could do. Pop was cold and distant to her sister, which wasn’t true at all. In the article, Ellie had referred with amusement to arguments the twins had told her they’d had while at school, but someone had taken out the added information that, although Pop laughingly admitted she could be argumentative, both girls had told Ellie that they never fell out for long. The bit Ellie had put in about them obviously being very fond of each other, and being totally on each other’s wavelength, had vanished.
    When it came to Lolly, Ellie almost burst into tears. She had been such a warm, lovely person, and to Ellie it had seemed obvious that she had a real vocation for medicine, but now the article suggested that she was going to university almost to spite her twin sister. Ellie felt like sobbing. She put her head in her hands and stared at the red pen marks scribbled over the words some unknown person had inserted instead of hers. Then she looked up through her fingers at the continuing argument at the door. Francesca was dealing with the