Ted’s irises were so pale they looked almost supernatural. She felt them boring into her. ‘We rearranged this meeting to suither,’ he said sharply.
‘I’m sorry, it couldn’t be helped,’ she blurted. ‘I’m sure we’ll get along if we try.’
He twitched the smallest smile as if amused. ‘I thought we could take a drive,’ he said. ‘I’m squeezing you in between meetings.’
‘Of course,’ she said, as if it was something she did all the time.
As the car glided along, Liv couldn’t feel any bumps on the road. The car made a soothing shushing sound, and the cream leather seats were so soft she wanted to stroke them. When she side-glanced at Ted, she couldn’t imagine him and Essie ever eating breakfast together or reading or kissing. He seemed a very manicured choice for the author.
‘So, you’re writing an article about the publishing industry?’ he prompted.
‘Um, yes,’ she stumbled a little. ‘I understand no one knows it like you do.’ She thought her flattery might please him, but he gazed out of the window as if bored.
Ted tapped the gold sovereign ring on his middle finger against the glass. ‘Have you seen all the bloody buildings going up around here?’ he said wearily. ‘The entire city is a construction site. There are too many new flats, too many cars on the roads and even too many books these days. Or do I sound like an old man?’
‘Is there such a thing as too many books?’ Liv said.
‘Possibly so. Did you know 180,000 books are published in the UK alone each year?How can debut authors hope to have their work seen?’
Liv nodded. ‘The average person reads a book a month,’ she said. ‘I’m more of a one-a-week person. It’s a bit of an addiction.’
He twitched an eyebrow. ‘And your favourite writer?’
She couldn’t lie. ‘Essie Starling.’
‘Ah,’ he said, his face not giving anything away. ‘I see.’
As they continued their drive around the outskirts of the city, Ted began to open up, telling Liv about his worries for the closure of libraries and bookshops, and the rise of reading on smartphones and iPads. He was an interesting man, speaking for fifteen minutes before he halted and stared at her. ‘Don’t you want to write any of this down?’ he said.
Liv was so in awe of him she’d forgotten she was supposed to be conducting an interview. Her heart tripped, and she fumbled in her bag. Her fingers ran over a lipstick and a packet of chewing gum before she realized she’d left her pad and pen in her other bag. She only calmed a little when she felt the striped tie. ‘Please carry on,’ she said firmly. ‘I have a very good memory.’
He studied her for too long, his eyes glinting. The tendons in his neck stretched like latex. ‘You’re not actually a journalist, are you?’ he snapped. ‘I’ve met enough of them in my time to realize that.’
Liv’s throat tightened. She felt like she’d tripped at the top of a steep hill and was trying to keep her footing. ‘I… um…’
‘Please don’t insult me by lying. Or shall I stop the car right here?’
Liv glanced out of the window and had no idea where she was. There was wasteland on one side and a brewery on the other. She began to gabble against her own will, unable to keep her words inside.‘I’m not fromSheenmagazine and wanted to reach you before Chloe Anderton did, so I hijacked her meeting,’ she said. ‘I’m Liv Green and I work as a cleaner and assistant for Essie. I’m not writing an article but wanted to speak to you about her.’ She gripped her seat, expecting the car to screech to a halt, and for her body to launch forwards.
Ted’s top lip curved to display creamy fangs. Liv thought he was going to call for his driver to stop.
Instead, he threw back his head and laughed. ‘That is the craziest story I’ve heard in a long time. You should write a book. Essie’s cleaner, rearranging a meeting I had set up with a journalist, because she wants to talk to me about my ex-wife? You’ve certainly got some chutzpah. I wondered why you asked to be picked up from Essie’s block.’ He focused his gaze on her. ‘What do you want from me?’
‘A couple of things,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. ‘Chloe fromSheenis writing an article about Essie. She’s digging around and I’m trying to protect Essie’s best interests. She won’t want her private life laid bare to the world.’
Ted nodded. ‘Hmm, you’re right. Essie will hate that. I can certainly put out a message to the Lioncorp team, asking them not to collaborate on anything. And the other thing?’
Liv gulped. This was it. The moment Ted flung open the car door while they were still moving, and she rolled out into the middle of the road and oncoming traffic. Why couldn’t she have come up with a different plan? ‘Essie is brilliant. I love her books and I’ve worked for her for three years, and yet I feel like I don’t know her at all. What drives her? Why should she shut herself away?’ she said. ‘I’d love to know how you and she met.’
Ted’s jaw hinged. ‘That’s another thing she won’t like,’ he said.Surprisingly, his eyes sparkled impishly. ‘After your bizarre little story, I suppose I should tell you mine.’
His thoughts drifted away, taking him to a different place and time. ‘I was at a party, some stuffy affair in the grounds of a country house.’ He circled a finger. ‘Women in ball gowns, men in bow ties, all talking about who’s hot and who’s not in the publishing world. And do you know where I first saw Essie?’ He raised a bemused eyebrow.
Liv shook her head.
‘She was sitting at the edge of a duck pond with her feet dangling in the water. Her dress was scrunched up around her thighs. One of my colleagues was most perturbed about the tone she was setting and asked me to speak to her. I carried my glass over and asked what she was doing. She looked up at me with those grey eyes of hers and said,My feet are hot and the water’s cool.’ Ted laughed.
That’s so very Essie, Liv thought.
