Page 49 of The Only Way Is Up

Daisy laughed and lifted her arm, pinching a flap of skin under her armpit that definitely hadn’t been there a few years ago. ‘I used to be a plum,’ she said glumly, ‘but I think it’s all prune from now on.’

‘You won an award though,’ said Ruby happily. ‘For best prune on TV. I know we haven’t talked about it because of everything else that happened that night, but I’m really proud of you.’

Daisy put her arm around Ruby and pulled her head onto her shoulder again, so her daughter couldn’t see her cry. She hadn’t realised how much she’d needed to hear somebody say that. ‘Thanks, Rubes. That means a lot.’

They sat in silence for another minute, the steam from the water rising around their heads. Daisy felt her eyes closing; they should get off to bed soon.

‘Do you think I’ll ever be able to think about that night without cringing?’ Daisy asked.

Ruby considered the question seriously. ‘Honestly, Mum? I doubt it.’

Daisy laughed, realising for the first time that she didn’t care any more.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Tom sat on the sofa in front of the fire, Henry asleep next to him with his jaw hanging open and his pink tongue lolling out of one side. He sipped his coffee, which tasted as bitter as his cold, widowed, miserable heart. He’d been stalking Daisy online all weekend, wanting reassurance that she was fine and happy and not lying at the bottom of some crevasse. Served him right for being nosy, because instead he found photos of her and Christian sharing an intimate beer in the mountains, then laughing together as Christian fell over in the snow.

He scrolled back to the top and read the story again. The headline alone made him feel nauseous:

SNOW In Love – Daisy and Christian Snuggle Up on the Slopes.

Why had she lied to him? He’d asked her outright at Justin’s Pig in a Blanket – ‘Is your fiancé going?’ ‘No, he’s not.’ That was just three days ago, and nothing in her WhatsApps since had mentioned anything about Christian being there. In fact, she’d explicitly said she was skiing alone yesterday.

He kept reading, every line feeling like a gut punch.

Smashing all those rumours that their surprise engagement was about to double fault after THAT tumble at the NTAs, 39-year-old TV treasure Daisy Crawford and her 33-year-old tennis toyboy Christian Walker were smitten in mittens as they enjoyed a pre-Christmas cosy ski trip for two in an exclusive Austrian mountain resort. But it was tennis ace Christian falling head over heels this time, as queen of the slopes Daisy provided hands-on support for the snowsports novice.

Underneath were half a dozen pictures, each with a caption explaining exactly what was happening in case you were so extraordinarily stupid you needed someone to spell it out – Here’s Daisy laughing with Christian . . . Here’s Daisy helping Christian up from the snow, because he has fallen over . . . Look at them laughing, ha ha! Honestly, what was the readership age for this shit?

He paused again at a further sub-heading halfway down and rubbed his hands across his tired face. ‘Home Alone for the Heartbreak Headmaster’.

Meanwhile back in the UK, Daisy’s hunky headmaster is rumoured to be nursing a broken heart after developing a close relationship with the TV star. According to a source close to the couple, they’ve shared a kiss or two in his cosy Cotswold kitchen at £14,000-a-year Shipton House School, but now he’s home alone while Daisy frolics in the snow with fit fiancé Christian.

The paragraph was accompanied by a picture of him from the school website. It had been taken four years ago, after Tessa had suggested shunning boring, formal portraits in favour of more casual shots of the staff in their classrooms, perching on desks or leaning against colourful bookshelves. She thought it made the school look more like a family and less like an institution. So the picture was of Tom in an open-necked plaid shirt, his hair a little ruffled and untidy, crouching down in front of the fireplace in his office with his arms around Henry. It was supposed to look candid and homely, but Tessa had said he’d looked like a model on the cover of Country Life.

The comment about kissing in his kitchen made him uneasy – how would anyone know? Obviously, he hadn’t told anyone, which suggested that Daisy had. But who? And why?

Tom scrolled down a bit further and briefly dived into the readers’ comments. The first three were ‘I’ve never heard of her, I don’t even have a TV’ – why bother commenting then? – ‘She’s only famous for getting her minge out in public, what a talentless whore’ – charming – and ‘If my headmaster had been that shaggable I’d have stayed on for sixth form’. Tom closed his laptop, feeling grubby and confused. Whichever way he looked at it, Daisy was trouble – the school governors were hardly going to be happy with this kind of attention, and she definitely hadn’t been honest with him. She was obviously very much still with Christian. There was no head-or-heart argument to grapple with here – right now they were both in agreement, telling him to stay well away from Daisy Crawford.

The last thing Tom wanted was to be around people, but his day was full. Stella had offered him brunch at Willow Cottage yesterday, when he’d bumped into her while he was walking Henry. Tom had accepted happily, because the run-up to Christmas always made him feel lonely. He’d also arranged to meet Gerald later; Tom had got the impression he wanted his help with something.

‘Tom,’ said Stella, pulling him into the cottage by way of a crushing hug. ‘I’m so glad you came.’ Her tone was breathless and grave, like war had just been declared on the wireless. She pressed her hand to her chest, as if clutching imaginary pearls.

‘All right, mate.’ Justin wandered out of the kitchen. Miriam was also there, warming her socks in front of the wood burner, giving him her best concerned tilted-head vicar face. Henry immediately bagged his favourite spot on the sofa, then looked outraged when he realised that Miriam wasn’t Daisy.

‘You’ve seen the news, then,’ said Justin, never one to hold back.

‘Just call me the Heartbreak Headmaster,’ replied Tom with a forced smile. ‘Although I regret to inform you that none of it is true.’

‘See, I told you he’d think it was funny,’ said Stella, clearly relieved. ‘Such nonsense. Did YOU know Christian was going skiing, Tom?’

‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘I asked Daisy in passing on Friday and she definitely said he wasn’t.’ He shrugged casually, avoiding Justin’s beady-eyed stare.

‘See?’ said Stella. ‘I asked her the same, so it wasn’t just me. I can’t think why she would lie about it.’

‘Maybe he just turned up, like an early Christmas present,’ said Justin. Tom rallied briefly at this thought, but what kind of man gatecrashed a holiday? You’d have to be a special kind of arsehole.

‘I wonder if reporters will come to Shipton Combe,’ said Miriam, breathless with excitement.