Summer at the Star and Sixpence by Holly Hepburn Read Free Book Online Page A

as much without
it.’
    ‘And yet we set so much store by it,’ Ruby said. ‘JoJo and Jamie are spending a small fortune on this wedding. Then there’s you and Owen, both hiding behind your old
marriage certificates instead of taking a chance and embracing love.’
    Nessie felt her mouth drop open. That hardly seemed fair – Owen did right to honour his wife’s memory, and Nessie’s separation from Patrick was less than a year old. Neither of
them were exactly hiding. And yet . . .
    ‘You think I should get a divorce,’ she said baldly.
    ‘It would be a start,’ Ruby replied. ‘Not because you need to – you’re a free woman, after all – but because of what it represents. You’d have a clean
slate, a fresh start. It might make Owen feel better about giving up the memory of Eliza too.’
    ‘What if he’s not ready?’ Nessie asked.
    ‘Then do it for you,’ Ruby urged. ‘Look at your own future. Reclaim who you are.’
    In a strange way it made sense, Nessie was surprised to discover. She
was
in a sort of limbo at the moment, neither married nor single. It would be liberating to cut her ties with
Patrick, not because she wanted to forget him but because Ruby had a point; a fresh start was exactly what she needed. Hadn’t that been what coming to the Star and Sixpence had been all
about?
    Impulsively, she reached out and wrapped her arms around the older woman. ‘You’re so right,’ she said, breathing in the scent of Chanel No. 5 mingled with gin. ‘Thanks,
Ruby, I could kiss you.’
    Ruby laughed. ‘That’s what Richard Burton used to say, every time I told him to get his arse back to Elizabeth.’

Chapter Six
    Sam waited until she was out of Little Monkham, on a trip to stock up on luxury towels and bed linen for the guest rooms, to call Will. The car park at John Lewis seemed as
good a place as any.
    ‘It’s me,’ she said when he answered.
    ‘Sam,’ he said, sounding far too pleased to hear her voice. ‘How are you?’
    She exhaled sharply. ‘Never mind how I am. What do you want?’
    There was a pause. ‘I need to see you.’
    A wave of disbelief washed over Sam. Was that what this was about after all this time – his refusal to accept that she didn’t want him? ‘Why?’
    ‘Marina knows about you. About us.’
    Sam closed her eyes. ‘How?’
    ‘Does it matter?’
    ‘Of course it matters,’ she snapped.
    ‘Someone told her,’ he sighed. ‘A friend of a friend, someone who used to work at Brightman and Burgess.’
    Myles’ voice echoed in Sam’s head:
tongues are wagging . . .
She leaned her head against the steering wheel. ‘What is she going to do?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Will said. ‘We should meet up, work out a strategy.’
    She snorted. ‘That’s the last thing we should do. She’s probably having you watched.’
    ‘Myles is talking about breaking the story first, before Marina can.’
    Sam’s eyes widened. ‘Myles?’
    ‘Of course,’ Will said. ‘He’s the one who tipped me off.’
    He hadn’t warned her, Sam thought bitterly, but it was hardly a surprise. Myles made it perfectly clear where his loyalties lay when he’d told her to leave. ‘And gave you this
number, I suppose.’
    ‘No, I had to call in a few favours to get this, and to find out where you’d disappeared to. How on earth did you end up running a pub?’
    Her mouth dropped open. ‘All those silent calls . . . they were you?’
    ‘At first I just wanted to hear your voice. I – I still think about that night, Sam. I don’t want you to think you’re one of many.’ He took a deep, shaky-sounding
breath. ‘Marina was so wrapped up in the baby, I was lonely. And there you were, fascinating and funny and irresistible. I’m a good man, Sam, I didn’t mean for any of this to
happen.’
    ‘Oh please,’ she snarled. ‘You weren’t wearing your wedding ring, Will. Who does that unless they’re out on the pull? And don’t even get me started about what
happened in the