Page 24 of The Only Way Is Up

Daisy stared at him, her mouth hanging open. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, but it wasn’t this.

‘Your hair is more blonde,’ he continued, lost in memories, ‘but otherwise you could have been twins. You’re nothing like her personality-wise, obviously, but when we were together, people used to mistake her for you all the time. It was a running joke.’

He looked up at Daisy and smiled sadly. ‘Once she even signed an autograph for somebody. They looked so happy to meet you and she didn’t want to burst their bubble. God, it’s so strange to be telling you this.’ He rubbed his hand across his stubbly jaw, then raked it through his hair.

‘Wow,’ Daisy was nonplussed. ‘I, um . . . wow.’ She thought about the vicar’s comments about her presence being tricky for some at the school, and then Will saying it’s such a headfuck you being here, must be a nightmare for our headmaster. People here weren’t being weird because she was famous – or infamous, after The Incident – it was because she was the spitting image of Tom’s ex. Awkward.

‘So, when I saw you in the village that day, and then at Justin’s house,’ Tom put his glass down, pressing his thumbs into his eye sockets, before looking bleakly at Daisy again, ‘well, everything that happened came flooding back. It was like Tessa was there, but wasn’t, and it messed with my head. Obviously, that wasn’t your fault. It was a shitty thing to do. I’m so sorry.’ He looked up at Daisy so sadly, she had a sudden urge to crawl into his lap and snog his face off. Probably not a great time, all things considered.

‘It’s OK,’ Daisy shrugged. ‘You’ve explained now. It’s a little weird knowing I have a doppelganger, but let’s forget it. How’s Justin? I haven’t seen him about recently.’

‘I apologised to him too,’ Tom admitted. ‘He never met Tessa, so he had no idea why I was being such a dick. He was considerably less nice about it than you.’

‘I think he’s got a lot on his plate,’ Daisy remarked wryly. ‘None of it adequately seasoned.’ Tom laughed and it felt like a shock to see him properly relax. He was dazzlingly good-looking. She felt her insides start to liquefy.

‘I also need to apologise about driving through that puddle.’ Tom looked shamefaced. ‘I’m really sorry I made you so wet.’

Daisy snorted with laughter, prompting Tom to slop his tea down his jumper. ‘Oh God,’ he laughed. ‘I’m so bad at this.’

‘I’ll tell you what,’ Daisy said softly. ‘Let’s pretend the soaking and the dinner never happened. Shall we start again?’ She stood up and held out her hand across the table. ‘Hi, I’m Daisy Crawford. I’m a disgraced TV presenter.’

Tom smiled gratefully and stood up to join her, his hand feeling warm and strong around hers. ‘Hi, I’m Tom Clark. I’m headmaster of a third-rate independent school.’

Daisy beamed as Tom started to laugh again. Maybe the world wasn’t so bleak, after all.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

On Saturday morning, Daisy lit the wood burner and settled on the sofa with her laptop, ready for a call that Katie had requested. Katie didn’t bother with pleasantries, which suggested she had important stuff on her mind.

‘Two things. First, I haven’t heard back from Benny, so either he’s cooking up some dastardly plan, or more likely Christian is licking his wounds and hasn’t told him yet. I’ll give him until Monday, then I’ll give him a kicking.’

‘Benny or Christian?’

‘Benny, but I’m happy to put a Doc Marten up Christian’s arse too.’

‘Thanks,’ laughed Daisy. ‘What’s the other thing?’

‘Check your emails, I’ve just sent you a link.’

‘Hang on, I’ll open it now.’ Daisy clicked onto her emails and saw the new arrival from Katie. The link took her to a tabloid website. ‘ “Game, Set but No Match?” ’ Daisy read aloud. ‘ “Christian parties in London while Daisy hangs out with handsome Head in heavenly hideaway.” I mean, you have to admire the alliteration.’

‘Read the rest later,’ Katie instructed. ‘It’s just gossip and speculation. They’ve heard a few rumours about Christian but can’t corroborate. I’m actually more interested in the story about you and the headmaster. Somebody down there is talking to the press. Any ideas who?’

‘Could be any number of people,’ Daisy sighed, tucking her legs up on the sofa. ‘But there’s nothing to tell. I had dinner with Tom at another house in the village when I first moved down here, then he came over on Monday when he found me having a meltdown. I popped over to his house later that evening to ask him not to blab to the papers, but we just had a cup of tea and a chat for half an hour. Anyone could have seen us if they were passing by.’ Her mind turned first to Justin, who was the most obvious candidate since he lived next door; then to Stella, who certainly had ample form. Or of course it could be Tom himself. The thought made her itch, so she pushed it to one side.

‘I believe you, although I also wouldn’t blame you,’ laughed Katie. ‘There’s a picture of him later in the article, they call him “Tragic Tom”. He’s pretty hot, even by my standards.’

‘I can neither confirm nor deny,’ replied Daisy with a smile. ‘Why Tragic Tom? What’s tragic about him?’

‘Didn’t he tell you?’ asked Katie. ‘The whole thing with his wife, a few years ago?’

‘Yeah,’ said Daisy. ‘She left him.’

Katie was silent for a moment. ‘No, that’s not it. She was in a road accident. She didn’t leave him, Daisy. She’s dead.’

After the call Daisy sat in silence on the sofa for a while, trying to process what Katie had told her. Tom had never specifically said that Tessa had left him, but he definitely hadn’t mentioned that she was dead.

With nervous hands, Daisy searched ‘Tessa Clark Shipton Combe’ online and found the report of the inquest. Tessa had been shopping alone in Cheltenham on a September Saturday three years ago when she was run over by a van at a junction. The inquest recorded a verdict of accident; by all accounts Tessa had stepped out into the road on a red light. The van had come round the corner and hadn’t seen Tessa because the view of the junction was blocked by a road maintenance truck. The van had hit her head on, causing devastating head injuries. No blame was attributed to the driver, who was unhurt, although he’d received extensive treatment for PTSD by the time of the inquest. Tessa was thirty-four and fourteen weeks pregnant at the time.