Diamonds Forever (32 page)

Linda shook her head.

‘My son, the celeb,' she said. ‘I'll never get used to it.'

‘What about being lady of the manor?' said Kayley. ‘Are you used to that yet?'

‘Well, it's just a bit of silliness, isn't it?' said Linda. ‘It's not legal or anything. But you'll have to come round to my new place, Kay. Lovely little bungalow on that new estate, not far from your dad. Gorgeous, it is. There's one of them islands in the kitchen, dead posh.'

‘Where is Dad, anyway?' said Kayley vaguely.

‘Oh, you know what he's like. Smoking out the back, as usual.'

Kayley laughed.

‘Right. I should've guessed.'

The official photographer hurried along the path towards them.

‘What about a picture of the happy couple on the porch?' he suggested. ‘A new life together, and a new venture. Doesn't the school open next week?'

‘That's right,' said Deano. ‘But we'll wait for the photos, if that's all right with you. We're not all here yet.'

Kayley and Deano hadn't been wrong in their conjecture about the reason for Jason and Jenna's lateness to the reception.

They sat in the back of the wedding car, surrounded by clamouring and the flashing of bulbs while Bob, their chauffeur, yelled out of the top of the window at them to get out of his way.

‘Do you know what, Bob?' said Jenna, leaning forwards. ‘It's all right. We'll walk the rest of the way.'

‘What?' spluttered Bob, but Jenna was already opening the door, dislodging a couple of hangers-on from their billets.

‘What's going on, Jen?' Jason scrambled after her.

She emerged, a pristine white swan amidst a pack of snappers in crumpled summer cotton. As if blinded, they all stepped back for her, giving her space to move among them, though the click-click-click mounted to a frenzied pitch.

When she and Jason stood in the centre of a rumbustious circle, her name being called from all directions, she held up her bouquet of calla lilies in a call for silence.

Miraculously, it fell.

‘Thank you all so much for joining us on our special day,' she said in ringing tones. ‘It really means so much to me and my husband.'

She turned and gave Jason a little smile, which he returned, taking her hand and running his finger over the band of gold he found on it.

‘So,' she continued, ‘perhaps it's appropriate, on a wedding day, that we should have a little exchange of gifts. As my gift to you, I will pose for you, here with my new spouse, for the next five minutes. Take as many shots as you like. We'll kiss, we'll gaze into each other's eyes, we'll do all the cheesy classics and more. And in return, your gift to us will be to leave us alone until after the honeymoon. Do we have a deal?'

There was general laughter, and some jokey questioning as to exactly how far the happy couple were prepared to go in their posing.

‘Hey,' said Jason. ‘Didn't you see enough of her last year?'

The notorious Facebook shot had passed into legend, but it didn't seem to have harmed Jenna's public image – if anything, it had rather enhanced it, especially as it had such a feel-good love story to go along with it.

More laughter, then a final question.

‘How do you feel about the Harville verdict?'

‘Brilliant,' said Jenna, hoping that her voice had drowned out Jason's less press-friendly, ‘Fucking great!'

‘Justice has been done at last,' she elaborated. ‘Though, as it's sheer good luck that nobody died as a result of his actions, I'd have been happier with life. But twenty years is a long time. I just hope he's feeling remorse, though he never seemed the type.'

‘What would you have given him, Jason?' called another voice.

‘D'you want me to show you?' growled Jason.

‘No more questions,' said Jenna hastily. ‘Let the papping commence!'

She and Jason entwined in a passionate, full-scale snog while the bulbs flashed and popped all around them. But it could have been a thunderstorm or a blizzard for all Jenna cared. When she and her man were connected so closely, nothing else could encroach on what they made each other feel.

They ran through a selection of corny poses, heads on shoulders, foreheads together, Jenna held up in the air, until the five minutes had passed.

‘Here – catch!' she shouted, flinging her bouquet into the crowd and using the uproar thus created to run, holding Jason's hand, up the rest of the street to Harville Hall.

‘Do you think they'll stick to the deal?' panted Jason, as the security guards opened the gate.

‘They'd better, or I'm going to sue. I've given exclusive rights to cover the party to Greg. If anyone else tries on any of that zoom lens shit, I'm coming for them.'

‘Wouldn't like to be in their shoes,' said Jason, grinning as the gate clanged behind them. ‘Or yours, for that matter. Don't those kill your feet?'

He looked down at her stiletto slingbacks. Jenna had to admit, running in them had been a severe test of her ankle strength.

‘A bit,' she said.

‘Come on then. I'll carry you over the threshold.'

‘But we don't live here any more,' she said, giggling as he gathered her up into his arms and strode, to the applause of those onlookers who had gathered on the lawn with their champagne flutes, along the gravel path to the open front door.

‘It's still my ancestral home, though, yeah?' he said.

Kayley and Deano, waiting for them on the front porch, joined in the applause.

‘Where were you?' said Deano.

‘Bit of PR,' said Jenna, as Jason swept her over the threshold. ‘You know how it is. Work, work, work. Never ends.'

‘Fuck me,' said Jason, putting Jenna down and giving the newly refurbished Hall a good long once-over. ‘That's hard work, that is. What do you think of the place then?'

‘It's amazing, isn't it?' enthused Kayley. ‘I did loads of the shopping. Sorry, “sourcing”, they call it now, don't they? Basically posh shopping. What do you think?'

‘You've got a great eye,' said Jenna, who had been happy to take a back seat on the project and concentrate on getting Jason's career off to its optimally brilliant start. ‘Have you had the interiors mags in yet?'

‘No, first one's next week. I can't wait!'

‘Are you staying in Bledburn for a while longer, Deano?' she asked her ex-husband.

‘Yeah, I'm taking a leaf out of your book. A year off – kind of extended honeymoon, but with work. Me and Kayley'll see this place off the ground, then we'll go on a really long tour of Asian beach resorts. I think she's earned it.'

‘She has,' said Jenna.

‘Are
you
going on honeymoon?' asked Kayley.

‘Yes – a month touring the great art galleries of Europe. The Hermitage, the Uffizi, the Louvre … as many as we can cram in.'

‘How romantic,' said Kayley. ‘That sounds boss.'

‘I'm especially looking forward to the hotel beds,' said Jason into Jenna's ear, and she elbowed him.

‘Don't be rude,' she whispered.

‘Why not?'

‘Because you've got the rest of your life to be rude – can we just get through this wedding reception first?'

He behaved impeccably through the greeting line, the photographs, the meal, the speeches and the cutting of the cakes. Only when he placed a hand on her ivory satin thigh after the final toast did she start to exchange the perfect magazine-cover Jenna for the woman behind her.

‘There'll be dancing in about an hour,' she said. ‘Are you ready for the first dance?'

‘I don't know. What is it? Not one of Deano's, is it?'

She laughed.

‘No, but I bet his is. Isn't it just fantastic that he and Kayley got together? They make such a lovely couple.'

‘Yeah, well, he's not such a tosser as I used to think,' said Jason. ‘He's all right really. In his way.'

‘Kayley's brought him back to Earth. She's changed him, and now I like him all over again.'

‘Oi, don't be falling for him,' warned Jason. ‘You're a married woman, don't forget.'

‘I'll never forget,' she said, squeezing his hand. ‘Looks like the romantic atmosphere is working on some other people too.'

In one corner of the light, flower-filled room, Mia was hanging on every word spoken by a much-recovered and very spruce Ross. His haggard and drug-addled look was no more, though he had to walk with the aid of a stick.

Meanwhile, outside the French windows, Linda and Kayley's dad were taking a cigarette break at rather close quarters.

Jenna smiled to see them, and nudged Jason.

‘Your mum's found a new friend,' she said.

Jason smiled ruefully and shook his head.

‘I hope he knows what he's signing up for,' he said.

‘Aw, come on. She's calmed down a lot since I first met her. And she looks amazing after our spa weekend. She's a highly eligible bachelorette these days, you know.'

‘Yeah, if you don't mind, I'd rather not be thinking about my mum's sex life on my wedding day. Or any day. Anyway. I've got something to show you.'

‘Really?' Jenna's skin goose-pimpled at the low, seductive tone his voice had taken on.

‘Yeah. You know I've been coming over here every day for the last couple of weeks?'

‘Helping out with the interior design,' said Jenna. ‘Yes.'

‘I want you to see something. Come upstairs.'

‘Upstairs?' Confused but intrigued, she rose from her chair, her silk column dress rippling down her legs as she did so, and followed Jason into the hall.

‘I thought it was all classrooms and music studios up there now?' she said, ascending the staircase in his wake. ‘No more bedrooms. If that's what's on your mind.'

‘I know that,' he said. ‘I want you to see the art studio.'

‘Ah, I had a feeling you'd have a hand in that,' she said, stepping up her pace as they wound towards the attic storey.

At the top of the stairs, Jenna stood open-mouthed, looking around at the transformation. Everything was glass and light and bright whiteness where it had been shut up and shuttered and cobwebbed before.

‘This is stunning,' she said. ‘But where …?'

‘This isn't what I wanted to show you,' said Jason. ‘Good, though, isn't it? I want you to see this.'

He ran with her along the length of the studio to a door at the end. Ah, now
this
– this was
the
attic room.

He flung open the door and she saw the old space, though much better lit now by a skylight in the ceiling, with its wonderful original frescoes.

At once she was thrown back to the day she first found the place; the surprise of seeing these intricate, detailed artworks covering half the walls. Then the even stronger surprise of finding an unexpected lodger asleep on the floor …

But there was an extra work to look at, a wall that had been blank when she had last seen it.

‘Oh God, Jason,' she said, plucking at his cuff. ‘Is that …?'

It was a full-length portrait of the two of them, naked but entwined in such a manner as to conceal anything really explicit. Their bodies were surrounded by tiny little scenes, all depicting something of significance to them, from a tableau of Deano on stage in a far corner, to a curled-up Bowyer at their feet. In other places, a crowd of protestors at the pit, Harville Hall on fire and some smiling kids on skateboards by the estate shops were part of the fascinating and highly detailed texture of the piece.

‘It's about us. About everything that made us and everything that brought us together,' he said. ‘And the way I've painted us puts us together forever. Nothing can break that apart. I wanted to show that … because …'

But his voice had tailed off, broken with emotion, and Jenna had shut him up with a passionate kiss anyway, her arms flung around him.

‘It's beautiful,' she said. ‘Nobody ever had a better wedding present.'

‘Nobody ever had a better wedding,' he whispered back. ‘Or a better wife.'

‘But … is this room … going to be in use?'

‘Yeah,' he said, stroking her cheek. ‘It's going to be the art students' coffee room. Lucky bastards, eh, getting to look at us every day?'

Jenna snorted with laughter.

‘Oh God. So the next generation of talented Bledburnians are going to go through life with this image seared on their brains?'

‘Dead right they are.'

‘Well,' said Jenna philosophically, ‘I daresay they've all seen a lot more of me on the internet.'

‘True,' said Jason. ‘But nobody gets to see it in the flesh, except me. Those poor saps are going to have to look at this, day after day, and know that they can never get any closer to you.'

‘I've already picked my artistic genius,' said Jenna.

Jason kissed her bare shoulder, then the side of her neck above her glittering necklace. He slid a hand to the back of her waist and began to lower it over her slinky silken rear.

‘Jason,' whispered Jenna, her heart bumping.

‘Do you remember?' he whispered back. ‘Finding me in here?'

‘I'll never, ever forget it,' she said. ‘I had the shock of my life.'

‘But you didn't call the police. Imagine if you had. Everything would've been so different.'

‘Don't. I don't want to think about that.'

‘Neither do I. But I want to think about how my life has changed since that day. And I want to apologise as well.'

‘Apologise?'

‘For all the times I acted like a dick with a chip on my shoulder. It's like, when you've been down all your life, it takes a while to believe anyone would really have faith in you.'

‘I know,' said Jenna softly. ‘But I wasn't perfect either. All that stuff trying to change you and make you socially acceptable. It must have hurt you.'