"With respect," the reporter sneered, "it's us who should be calling the police. You've assaulted me and you're about to commit criminal damage. Why don't we all go inside and act like reasonable people?"

Josh looked at him with contempt. "One problem: you aren't a reasonable person. You're a sniveling little tosser."

"I realize this may come as a shock, Mr. Standring, but-"

"How the hell do you know my name?"

"Actually, I told them."

Lucy glanced over to the gate to see Sara heading down the path. The expression on Josh's face switched from anger to disbelief.

"Josh, come inside and let me talk to you," said Lucy, reaching out a hand to touch his arm but he flinched away.

"Oh dear. Lovers' tiff already? You still don't know who Lucy is, do you?"

"Who she is? What the hell are you talking about, Sara?"

Carmody smiled. "Miss Pentire kindly alerted us to the fact that Lucy's living down here. We're doing a follow-up now her ex, Nick Laurentis, is so successful and we thought it was a nice little twist that she's ended up with you."

"And we thought it was in your interest to know exactly who she is, of course," added Sara.

Lucy stood up straight, trying to ignore the sick feeling in her stomach. "Actually, it's in nobody's interest for any of you to be here. It's no one's business but mine and Josh's," she said.

Sara pouted sweetly. "You and Josh. Oh, how sweet."

"Lucy..." said Josh, shooting Sara a look of anger and disbelief, "what's going on here? Who the hell's this Nick? What are they talking about?"

"Lucy's famous, didn't you know? Or should I say notorious. She's a national celebrity, you see. It's been in all the papers, especially the cheap ones. She's the woman whose gorgeous and rather famous boyfriend asked her to marry him live on TV. But obviously he wasn't good enough for her and Lucy turned him down. Rather bluntly, allegedly. She does a good job of humiliating her men in public, don't you, Lucy?"

Lucy could see that Josh was fighting a battle between defending her and trying to take in Sara's words. With gut-wrenching loyalty, he stuck up for her.

"I don't know what's the matter with you or what you're talking about. You people are nutters and Sara, I'm sorry for what happened between us, but this won't make any difference."

He tried to take Lucy's hand but she stepped away.

"Josh, it's no good. They're telling the truth."

Carmody took a step closer, careful to avoid Tally's teeth. "Miss Gibson was Nick Laurentis's girlfriend until he asked her to marry him on Hot Shots. Poor bloke looked a right twat when she said no. Afterward, she disappeared down here."

There was a silence as Josh held Lucy's eyes, looking at her with an intensity that almost scared her.

"You're making it up, mate, and if you don't bugger off, I'm going to throw you over the hedge," he snarled at Carmody.

"It's true, I'm afraid, Josh," said Sara sympathetically. She held out a crumpled cutting to him.

As Josh stared at the newspaper, the confusion on his face was painful to see. It gave Lucy a feeling of sickening light-headedness.

"It was Gideon who told you, wasn't it?" she said to Sara, avoiding Josh's eyes. "He thought he recognized me at the party when he was drunk."

Sara laughed. "Oh no, it wasn't Gideon. It was dear old Mrs. Sennen, as a matter of fact. She didn't mean to cause you trouble, of course, she thinks the world of you, just like Josh did. I saw her in Porthstow the other day coming out of the doctor's. She'd been reading an old copy of Chat and thought the girl in the gossip pages looked just like you, apart from the hair, that is. By the way, I preferred the mousy look."

"I don't care what you think."

"But you very much care what Josh thinks."

Carmody was frantically scribbling away. "You've done pretty well for yourself considering your family background, Mr. Standring. Have you heard from your brother lately? Is it true you both have criminal records?"

Josh took a step toward him, eyes blazing. "Yes, and I'm just about to add to mine, dickhead." He screwed the newspaper into a ball, threw it away, and lunged forward. There was another flash.

"Always carry a spare," said the photographer, shooting off pictures.

Sara cackled in delight. "A leopard never changes his spots, does he, Josh? You're just a thug at heart."

"You're sick," said Lucy.

Josh flipped a thumb in the direction of the gate. "Right. I'm giving you ten seconds to leave. That includes you, Sara."

Sara feigned hurt. "Josh, I'm sorry you're upset, but I had to do it for your sake. I had to tell you who she really was. I couldn't have you deceived like this. You do understand, don't you?"

"I'll never understand you, Sara."

Then he turned to Lucy, his eyes full, not of the anger and shock she'd expected, but sadness. "I'm going in the house before I do something I'll regret and I'd appreciate it if you'd come inside and tell me what's going on."

He clicked his fingers and Tally ran after him, leaving Lucy on the path.

Carmody shrugged his shoulders. "Come on, we're wasting our time here now. We've got the pics and we can try and unearth some locals to give us a comment. With what we've got from Miss Pentire, we've more than enough to make a page lead. That is, unless you want to give us an exclusive, Lucy. There'll be a few bob in it and Miss Pentire says you could do with the money. Haven't you been working as a cleaner?"

"Better than a parasite scumbag."

"Suit yourself, sweetheart. Let's go."

"Josh will never forgive you for the way you've lied and deceived him," spat Sara as Lucy made for the half-open door of the farmhouse.

Lucy looked at her with genuine pity. "Maybe you're right, but I know for certain he'll never forgive you."

Chapter 31.

As she walked into the kitchen, Josh was leaning against the sink with his back to her. When he turned round, she could see he was struggling to contain his emotions. She didn't know what they were yet; she didn't even dare guess.

"Do you want me to go first?" she tried when she could bear the silence no longer.

"Some kind of explanation would help."

"You're angry with me and I don't blame you."

He shook his head. "No. You're wrong, Lucy. I'm not angry with you. I'm angry with those parasites out there. I'm angry with... I think you know who."

"But you're hurt. Confused. Disappointed."

"I didn't say any of those things." He scraped back a chair from the table. "Sit down."

"I'd rather stand."

"Sit down," he ordered, gripping the back of the chair so hard, his knuckles whitened.

She thought she may as well sit down because her legs were slightly shaky. Josh positioned himself opposite her, folding his arms. "Right. Now, I want to hear how much, if any, of this tale I just heard is true."

How much? Who could say where the truth had begun. The more she thought about how to start, the more ridiculous, bizarre, and just plain stupid the whole story sounded.

"It's true what they said about... the TV and Nick," she faltered. "He did ask me to marry him. It was on that reality TV show called Hot Shots. Maybe you've heard of it."

"I don't watch TV."

Lucy sighed. "I know, and that made things easier..."

"Easier?"

"Not easier," she said hastily. "That was the wrong word to choose. I only meant that the fact that you obviously don't take too much notice of the telly and newspapers, meant that you didn't know who I was when I first arrived and then Fiona made things worse by saying I was a stressed-out City exec and..."

He leaned an elbow on the table, rubbing his chin as if he couldn't take it in. "Carry on."

"When Nick asked me to marry him and I said no, I suddenly became public enemy number one. The newspapers waited outside my door, they hid at my mum's house, they followed me to work. You can't imagine what it was like. Nick wouldn't speak to me, everyone hated me, so we thought the best thing to do was to get away for a while."

"We? Who the hell's we?"

"Fiona and me."

He shook his head. "I might have known."

"It's not her fault. She was only trying to help and Josh-have you any idea what it's like to be-well, notorious?"

"No, Lucy, as a matter of fact, I don't. Why don't you tell me?"

She was hurt by his sarcasm but bit back the urge to mention it. "Can you imagine what it was like to be laughed at on websites and in trashy magazines? To have muck raked up about your family by people who have never met you..."

"I think I'm going to find out, aren't I?"

Lucy thought of Carmody's face as he grinned and asked Josh about his past. "Yes. There'll probably be some stuff in the papers about you. I'm truly sorry. I never thought things would get this far but once I'd started telling you stories, I just couldn't stop. At first I only wanted to hide away and spend some time as Lucy again, not as 'that bitch off the telly.' I kept meaning to tell you the truth but I just got deeper and deeper in."

"What about this guy you jilted? This Nick?"

"He isn't speaking to me anymore."

"I can't think why."

"Don't you dare judge me, Josh. Not like the rest of them. You don't know what it was like."

"The bloke must have been pretty sure of himself to have asked you in front of thousands of people."

"Millions, actually. Ten point six million."

He turned his head and looked away in disbelief, but Lucy wasn't quite sure whether he couldn't believe the numbers involved or what had happened between them.

"Can I ask you something else?"

"Yes."

"And get an honest answer?"

"That's cruel."

"Not cruel. I'm just confused. Why did you turn this guy down? Did you even love him?"

She took a deep breath. "Because I wasn't sure. Because I didn't know him and I wasn't sure why he'd asked then. Because I'm deluded enough to think getting married ought to be forever and not a smart career move."

Josh said nothing. He didn't seem impressed by her romanticism and she hardly blamed him.

"So let me get this straight. Just for turning this guy down, you were hounded out of your flat and your job and ended up running down here."

"I didn't have to leave but it seemed like a good idea at the time, and then I genuinely wanted to stay."

"So you didn't work for a merchant bank in the City?"

"No."

"Jesus. So, what did you actually do?"

"I did work in London. I was a very junior marketing assistant with a law firm. So you see, I really do fetch the sandwiches and water the plants."

She smiled gently in the hope that he might smile too, but it wasn't to be. He just looked tired and sad. Any chance that he might understand or forgive her seemed to be ebbing away. She stayed silent until she couldn't bear it anymore, then said, "I think we could both do with some time to ourselves. Do you mind if I go home?"

"I'll come over with you. Those bastards might still be about."

"No, I'm fine."

"I said I'd walk with you."

Having shut the door on the downcast Tally, Josh led the way across the dark farmyard. The beam of his flashlight wavered over a broken flower pot and the discarded newspaper showing Lucy in full flight on her doorstep.

When they reached the cottage he walked in first, ignored her protests, and turned on all the lights upstairs and down. Then he checked the garden before he was satisfied no one was hanging around. When he'd finished, Lucy was standing in the sitting room, unable to move. She felt ready to cry at any moment but bit her lip, determined not to shed a tear in front of Josh. She suspected that any tears of hers might seem part of the act to Josh. If he only knew how real her misery felt. How much she regretted not being straight with him from the start...