The girl flushed, caught out. ‘I thought Mira would be fine with him. When she plays characters in films, she's always really brave, never scared of anything.'
‘You thought she'd pick Snowball up and bring him back to you, and then she'd talk to you about him, was that the plan?'
‘Maybe. Kind of.'
‘Another idea that wasn't so great.' Lily felt sorry for her. ‘Listen, how about getting the tattooist to trace the signature and put it somewhere else on your body? Would you at least have a think about it?'
The girl hung her head for a second then said, ‘Yeah, OK. I'll do that.'
‘And make sure Snowball doesn't escape again.'
‘He won't.'
It wasn't until Lily turned to make her way back to Eddie that she realised quite how many people were now taking photos of her. Flash-flash-flash went the lights, dazzling her for a moment until Eddie, grinning, reached for her hand.
‘You were like the SAS, throwing yourself at Mira's feet like that. Talk about impressive.'
‘I thought she was going to stamp on it and kill it.'
‘She nearly did.' His grin broadened. ‘You're a real mice-saver.'
‘Everyone's looking at me.' Lily was finding it an unsettling experience, being the object of so many people's attention. ‘Now I know what it's like for you,' she said ruefully.
‘D'you want the good news or the bad news?'
‘Both.'
‘You're probably going to be on the front pages of the tabloids tomorrow.'
Was that the good or the bad? Lily searched his face for clues. ‘And?'
‘When you did your SAS thing and launched yourself across the carpet, your dress flew right up at the back.'
Oh. Oh. Lily sighed. ‘Just my luck. Did everyone see my knickers?'
‘Not quite. You had about an inch to spare.' He grinned. ‘But it's a relief to know you were wearing some.'
Waaaahhh, just imagine …
‘Come on,' said Eddie, ‘don't worry about it. Mira wants to see you, and I'm sure all the journalists are going to be desperate for a word too.' He led her over to Mira. ‘Here she is, then.'
And indeed, here she was.
‘Hey, it's the scene-stealer,' exclaimed Mira Knowles.
‘Sorry.' Lily inwardly cursed her own Britishness.
Mira smiled her dazzling film-star smile – up close, her teeth were nothing short of astonishing – and said, ‘I'm kidding! You rescued me and I'm so grateful! My whole life I've been petrified of little scuttly things, and mice are, like, the scuttliest. You were so brave doing that, catching it in your hands.' She shuddered at the mere thought. ‘Urgh, so gross. Anyhow, thank you for saving me.'
‘No problem. I like mice.' Lily was still hyper-aware of the cameras upon her, the journalists attempting to attract her attention, people murmuring to each other, ‘Who is she?'
And other people replying, ‘Her name's Patsy Somebody-or-other.'
Whereupon other voices said, ‘No it's not, she's called Coral.'
‘Could we have some pictures of the three of you together?' In response to the photographers, the organiser was making squeeze-up gestures with her splayed hands. The next moment Lily found herself with Eddie on one side of her and Mira Knowles on the other. It was like being in a film-star sandwich. And Mira had her arm around her waist.
Somewhere over to the left, she heard a voice say, ‘Did we get the shot with her skirt flying up?'
And the reply: ‘Yup.'
Then a camera crew approached them and a reporter was saying, ‘Mira, how are you feeling after that close encounter?'
‘Grateful towards my rescuer! She's my new best friend!' As she said it, Mira clasped Lily's hand and gave it a best-friend squeeze. This probably wasn't the moment to tell her it was also the hand Snowball had done a panicky wee on.
‘Hey, Coral, turn this way!'
‘Patsy! Over here!'
The organiser gave her an odd look and said, ‘Which one are you?'
‘Neither,' said Eddie. ‘She's Lily.'
‘Oh, you're Lily,' Mira exclaimed, turning her headlight gaze on her. ‘I didn't realise! Eddie's told me all about you!'
Once the film was over, Mira said, ‘So, what are you two up to now?'
‘I was planning to take Lily out to dinner,' said Eddie. ‘I've booked a table at-'
‘Oh don't do that. No no no,' Mira protested, clutching Lily's hand again.
‘I'm hungry, though.' Lily was torn. ‘Aren't you hungry?'
‘Are you serious? Look at me.' Mira indicated her whippet-thin waist and hips. ‘I spend my whole life hungry. But we don't have to go out, do we? We're all at the same hotel, so why don't we have dinner in my suite?'
‘Well … ' Eddie wasn't sounding enthusiastic.
‘Oh please,' Mira begged. ‘My driver's waiting out back; he can take us there now. I'll die of boredom if you two don't keep me company. Come on,' she reiterated, intertwining Lily's fingers with her own. ‘Say yes! It'll be fun!'
Chapter 25
It was one o'clock in the morning, and Eddie Tessler was marvelling at the way the seduction he'd organised with such care had spectacularly failed to go according to plan.
The more time he'd spent with Lily the other week, the more he'd liked her. Everything about her, in fact. Her quirky character appealed to him; she was funny and bright; and with those huge brown eyes and that riot of curly golden hair she almost resembled a cartoon. She was also pretty but remarkably unvain, which was a draw. For the last couple of years he felt as if all he'd encountered was girls obsessed with how they looked, from their acrylic nails to their fake tans.
So when he'd called to invite her along to this evening's premiere, he'd have been lying if he'd said he wasn't interested in getting to know her better and moving their relationship to the next level. When a twenty-five-year-old girl still lived at home with the person who was effectively her mother, it created a certain dilemma. Bringing her up to London had been intended to overcome that problem. He'd envisaged a romantic dinner à deux, a deepening of the attraction between them, an even more romantic moonlight walk along the glittering banks of the Thames as they made their way back to the hotel, followed by maybe one last glass of champagne in the bar before they headed, hand in hand, up to either his room or hers …
What he hadn't counted on was having this carefully planned sequence of events banjaxed by an A-list actress with a low boredom threshold and a profound love of word games.
Worse, it was pretty much his own fault. When he and Mira had been over in LA last week promoting the US release of Catcher, he'd found himself telling her all about Lily. He'd also stressed how natural and unaffected she was and how utterly trustworthy she'd been, keeping the secret of his stay at Stanton Langley when so many others wouldn't have been able to resist giving it away.
This had been the particular draw for Mira, who'd been famous for so much longer than he had. To be reassured that you could allow yourself to relax completely in the company of someone and not worry that they might be indiscreet was a wonderful feeling, and once Lily had said to her, ‘Don't worry, I don't blab,' Mira's relief had been palpable.
Then Mira had mentioned her passion for Scrabble and that had been it, because it transpired that Lily loved Scrabble too. For the next two hours they'd all drunk whisky and gossiped and played a demon match narrowly won by Lily, who'd then gone on to introduce them to another game called Word Squares that had had Mira entranced. More whisky and laughter and boisterous debates ensued …
Undeniably it had been a great evening, but to say it hadn't been the kind Eddie had been looking forward to was something of an understatement.
‘Oh God, we've finished the whisky!' Lily was now pointing with disbelief at the empty bottle on the table.
‘It's fine, doesn't matter,' Mira assured her. ‘We can call room service and get some more,'
Lily shook her head a bit wildly, her ringlets bouncing around her shoulders like springs. ‘No no, we don't want more. I mean we've finished all that whisky. And I have to be up in five hours to go to work and I'm not even a whisky-drinking person … '
‘Well you should be.' Mira had long ago kicked off her shoes and changed out of her pearl-encrusted evening dress into a camisole top and shorts. ‘You drink it very well.'