Summer at the Star and Sixpence by Holly Hepburn Page B

‘Thanks,’ she said, handing the glass back to her sister. ‘I think I’m going to need another.’
    Sighing, she wiggled her toes and risked a glance at Joss. ‘How has it been here? Okay?’
    He stopped walking to scowl at her, tight-lipped and furious. ‘Fine. But maybe next time you decide to take off without so much as goodbye, don’t do it on the busiest day of the
year.’
    ‘Joss!’ Nessie exclaimed, crossing the pub with a second vodka and tonic. ‘That’s enough.’
    Sam ran a tired hand over her face. ‘No, he’s got a right to be angry. You both do. I let you down and I’m sorry.’ She looked at Joss and took a deep breath. ‘But I
promise there was a good reason for it, although you’re not going to like what it is.’
    Joss’s face darkened. She pointed at the seats beside her. ‘You should both probably sit down.’
    For a moment, she thought he would refuse, but then he seemed to realise how unreasonable he was being and sat down. Nessie looked grave as she perched on the edge of another chair. ‘Is it
as bad as you expected?’
    Sam sighed. ‘Worse. But before I get into that, I owe Joss an explanation.’ She cleared her throat, suddenly nervous all over again. She’d rehearsed this moment many times in
the car on her drive back from London but now she came to deliver the speech she’d decided on, she was certain it would only make him more furious. ‘There’s something I’ve
never told you, the reason I came to the Star and Sixpence with Nessie last December.’
    Joss went still, his gaze wary. ‘Go on.’
    ‘It happened before I met you, a stupid one-night stand that blew up in my face and cost me my job and my career. I thought it was done with, all in the past, until a few weeks ago when I
got a phone call from the man I’d spent the night with.’
    ‘Nick Borrowdale,’ Joss said, his tone grim.
    ‘No,’ Sam said, trying not to sound impatient. ‘Of course it wasn’t Nick. It was . . . someone else, a man with important friends. Someone with a lot to lose if the night
we’d spent together ever got out. I thought that meant he’d work as hard as me to make sure that didn’t happen. I found out today I was wrong.’
    Slowly, she explained. Nessie’s mouth fell open when she heard Will’s name and Sam’s explanation of who he was. Joss’s face grew more and more closed. By the time
she’d finished, he looked angrier than Sam had ever seen him.
    ‘Did you manage to stop the story going to press?’ Nessie asked.
    Sam shook her head. ‘We couldn’t. It’ll be headline news tomorrow. Everyone is going to know the sordid details.’
    ‘I knew there was something going on,’ Joss exploded. ‘Why didn’t you tell me the truth when I asked? Why did you lie and say you were stressed about the wedding
preparations?’
    Sam hung her head. She didn’t know how to answer because he was right – she should have told him. ‘I suppose I was hoping I wouldn’t have to explain anything. Things have
been better here than I ever dreamed possible and I guess I just stuck my head in the sand and hoped Will Pargeter would go away.’
    ‘But who leaked the story?’ Nessie asked. ‘Was it his wife?’
    ‘That’s the worst part,’ Sam said, fighting to keep her voice steady. ‘Will and Myles leaked it in exchange for the chance to paint Will as a repenting husband, someone
who made a mistake and is willing to apologise for it. Nick suggested we try—’
    She stopped talking, suddenly aware of what she’d been about to say. It was too late, though; Joss had heard Nick’s name.
    ‘
He
was there?’ he said incredulously. ‘You couldn’t tell me or your sister what was going on but Nick bloody Borrowdale knew everything?’
    Sam shook her head. ‘It wasn’t like that. Nick’s one of my closest friends; he’s known about Will from the beginning. I went to meet with his PR advisor today, to get her
take on things. In fact, he was the one who tipped me