It didn’t take long to settle Alessandra, who was tired after the journey. Marella, who had travelled with them, offered to babysit while Leo and Eliza went out for a meal.
‘Are you sure this is wise?’ Eliza asked as Leo closed his phone after booking a table at a restaurant.
‘We need to eat, don’t we?’
‘Yes, but surely a meal in our suite would be perfectly fine?’ She fiddled with the chain around her neck with agitated fingers. ‘What’s the point in deliberately entering the fray? They’ll just hound us all over again.’
He gave her an ironic lift of his brow. ‘You were the one who said I shouldn’t hide Alessandra away.’
‘We’re not talking about Alessandra,’ she said stiffly. ‘We’re talking about me, about my reputation. People are going to get hurt by all that stuff they’re saying about me.’
‘I take it you mean your fiancé?’ His eyes were hard as stone as they held hers.
Eliza still hadn’t had either the time or the privacy to call Samantha. Any moment now she expected her phone to ring, with Samantha asking her what the hell was going on. It was making her nervy and jumpy. A headache was pounding at her temples and a pit of nausea was corroding the lining of her stomach like flesh-eating acid. ‘I don’t like being called your mistress.’
‘It’s the truth, isn’t it?’
‘Not for much longer.’ She scooped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. ‘Let’s get this over with. I want to get back as quickly as possible and go to bed.’
He gave her a smouldering look as he held the door open for her. ‘I couldn’t have put it better myself.’
They were halfway through dinner at an exclusive restaurant in Mayfair when Eliza’s phone audibly vibrated from inside her bag. She had set it to silent but hadn’t thought to turn off the vibration and illumination component. She tried to ignore it, hoping that Leo hadn’t heard, but the glow every time it vibrated was visible through the top of her bag.
‘Aren’t you going to answer it?’ he asked.
‘Um…it can wait.’ She picked up her glass of wine and took a little sip to settle her nerves.
The phone vibrated again.
‘Sounds like someone really wants to talk to you,’ he said.
Eliza knew it was pathetic of her to keep putting off the inevitable. It was a lifetime habit of hers to procrastinate, hoping that things would go away or be resolved on their own, but it was only prolonging the agony. Wasn’t that why she was in this mess? She should have been honest right from the word go with Ewan. She shouldn’t have waited for months and months without saying anything, letting him believe everything was fine when it wasn’t. Hadn’t she learned her lesson by now? She had to face things, not hide from them. ‘Um…will you excuse me?’ She rose to her feet. ‘I won’t be long.’
There was no one in the lipstick lounge adjacent to the restroom, so Eliza sat on a chintz-covered chair and pressed Samantha’s number. ‘Hi, it’s me.’
‘Oh, darling,’ Samantha said with an audible sigh of relief. ‘I’m so glad you called back so quickly. I’m bringing Ewan up to London to see the specialist tomorrow. You know how we’ve been on that waiting list for months and months? Well, there’s been a sudden cancellation. I know you’re probably tied up with your little nanny job, but I was hoping since you’re back in London for a couple of days that you could come with me. Do you think you could get an hour or two off? You know how hard I find managing him all by myself. I called the agency and asked for a respite carer to come with me but there’s no one available at such short notice. I was just hoping you could come with us. I know it’s a lot to ask.’
Eliza felt her insides twist into cripplingly tight knots of guilt. How could she say no? She knew it wasn’t the physical support with Ewan that Samantha was after. She knew how much hope Samantha had invested in seeing this particular specialist. She also knew Samantha was going to be completely shattered when the specialist gave her the same prognosis every other specialist she had taken Ewan to had done.
How could she let her face that all by herself?
Leo would be tied up with his work most of the day as well as his meeting with the bursar so it shouldn’t cause too much of a problem. Marella probably wouldn’t mind giving her a couple of hours. She needn’t even ask Leo’s permission. He would probably say no in any case. He would probably assume she was going against his orders and sneaking in a passionate session with her fiancé.