‘Well, it shouldn’t be. I’m a grown man. I will see whoever I want to see, and that’s exactly what I told my mother. Again.’

‘But you did tell her that you’re not actually seeing me?’

‘Whether the report was true didn’t really come into the conversation from what I recall.’

‘I would have thought that would have been the first thing you told her the moment she spoke to you.’

‘Yeah. You would have thought so, wouldn’t you? But she does like to go off on her rants and it’s really so much effort to disagree or even try to put your point across until she’s run out of steam.’

‘But you told her then? Once you got a word in?’

‘Not really.’

I put my hands on my hips. ‘What do you mean, not really? It’s a yes or no answer. There’s no grey area. You either told her or you didn’t tell her.’

‘In that case then, no, I didn’t tell her. What does it matter what she thinks, anyway? At least she knows you’re not my landlady now.’

I threw a look at him across my shoulder as I reached to get something. He gave me a shrug in reply.

‘On the other hand, Edward is both thrilled for me and hopes I’m happy but is also disgusted at me for stealing you from him.’

‘For goodness’ sake. You’re both as bad as one another. Can you come and get this off the shelf for me? I can’t reach.’

Jack crossed to where I was standing and reached the tin from the cupboard above me easily, handing it to me gently.

‘Thank you.’

‘My pleasure, dear one. Is there anything else that I can do for you?’

‘Yes. You can wipe that smirk off your face and stop being such a pain.’

‘I don’t know how you can say such harsh words to the hero coming in to sweep you off your feet.’

‘I’ll sweep you off your bloody feet in a minute if you don’t get out from under mine.’

He gave me a formal bow and backed out of the room, chuckling as he did so. I carried on preparing the dinner, still frustrated and upset about the intrusion to my privacy but found, since Jack had walked in, I was unable to work myself into quite the same level of lather that I had been doing. Another perspective and the distraction of company seem to have lessened the initial shock and impact of seeing the newspaper article.

14

When Jack came down for dinner later that night, he approached me, this time more seriously.

‘I do understand, you know. I know you like your privacy and that you had a hard time when you first became more of a well-known name as people dug into your past and made news out of your pain. I’m not making light of that. I just don’t want you to be so hurt this time around. To try and make you see that this is just gossip and tomorrow someone else will be flavour of the month to talk about.’