Chapter 12
Daniel Lofthouse looked across the crowded newsroom at
his star reporter…not that Helen had done much twinkling in the months since
she had finished the Nikki Wade story. In fact, she had been downright
miserable. Her report had been top-notch and her scoop about Wade’s release had
put her on the journalistic map but she didn’t seem to care about these things
anymore. Obviously there was more to this story than met the eye but Helen
wasn’t letting on. She brushed aside his concerned queries about her welfare,
telling him there was nothing wrong with her. “Hey, Helen!” he called to her,
waving his hand and motioning her to his office.
“What is it?” she asked disinterestedly as she
entered.
“Job for you,” he informed her. “New author…her book
is storming up the best-seller charts. She’s giving a first interview and asked
for you.”
“Why me?” she demanded curiously.
He shrugged. “Saw the Wade story and liked your
style.”
Helen stiffened at the sound of Nikki’s name. It had
been almost six months since she had last seen her and she was still missing
her like hell! She had lost count of the number of times she’d woken up during
the night in a cold sweat, haunted by dreams of Nikki and the blonde and
beautiful wing governor. “OK, then. When and where?”
“Tomorrow…two-thirty…Regent Hotel. Ask for Louise
Morrison at reception.”
“I’ll be there,” she said woodenly. “Anything else?”
“Not unless you want to tell me what’s wrong with
you,” he replied, concern in his voice.
“I’ve told you, Lofty,” she muttered irritably. “I’m
fine. Now, if that’s all I’ll go and see if I can dig up any background
information on this ‘Louise Morrison’.”
“I don’t think you’ll find anything,” he replied with
a frown. “Pretty hush-hush as far as I can make out.”
“I’ll go and get a copy of the book then.”
“No need.” He reached into his desk drawer and brought
out a book. “Be my guest,” he said as he handed it to her.
“Don’t tell me you actually went out and bought this?”
she sneered, as she took the book from him.
“Do I look that stupid?” he retorted. “It was a
complimentary copy.”
Helen turned the book over in her hand and frowned as
she read the title: ‘The Proud Rebel by Louise Morrison’. That was the title of
the manuscript in Nikki’s drawer! She walked out of Lofty’s office without
another word and went back to her desk where she eagerly opened the book. The
first few paragraphs confirmed the book and manuscript were one and the same.
Could it be that Nikki Wade was the mysterious ‘Louise Morrison’? She picked up
her bag and jacket and hurried from the newsroom.
Nikki walked into the dining room of the Regent Hotel
and, as she glanced around, spied Karen sitting at a table in the corner.
“May I help you, madam?” a smiling waiter enquired
politely.
“I’m meeting someone, thanks,” Nikki replied. “She’s
over there.” As she reached Karen’s table the woman stood up to greet her and
the two women hugged. “Glad you could make it, Karen. It’s really good to see
you.”
“It’s good to see you too, Nikki,” Karen agreed, with
a smile.
“So, come on then, tell me all your news,” Nikki
demanded when they were seated. “Still having morning sickness?”
She nodded. “But not as bad. Phil’s been really great.
He’s like a changed man.” She reached across the table and covered Nikki’s hand
with her own. “I owe it all to you. If you hadn’t made me see that my marriage
was worth fighting for then I don’t know what would have happened.”
Nikki turned her hand over and took Karen’s hand in a
firm grip. “Maybe you would have been with me,” she teased.
“Somehow I think your affections lie in another
direction,” she laughed as she removed her hand from Nikki’s. “Have you
contacted Helen yet?”
“I’m seeing her tomorrow. I’m giving my first
interview as ‘Louise Morrison’ and since I promised Helen an exclusive, let’s
see if that’s all she’s interested in,” she replied bitterly.
Karen looked at her sympathetically. “Do you honestly
think she only saw you as a story?”
“What else can I think?” she asked dismally. “She got
her scoop and then took off without a word. She even lied to Monica and told
her she was coming to pick me up from Larkhall.” She picked up a menu. “Come
on, let’s order.”
“Well, since you’re a best-selling author,” Karen gave
her a teasing smile. “I think I’ll have the most expensive thing on the menu.”
“For you, dear,” Nikki mocked. “Nothing but the best.”
For the next few minutes, they laughed together, poring over the menu and
making their choices, whilst blissfully unaware they were being watched by
jealous eyes.
“Could I have my bill, please?” Helen asked a passing
waiter. She had gone to the Regent Hotel hoping to catch a glimpse of Nikki and
her heart had almost stopped when she’d seen her enter the dining room but
Nikki’s eyes had been drawn to the other side of the room. She’d watched the
exchanges between the two women, the way they had greeted each other so
affectionately and she could almost have wept with jealousy when they held hands!
She paid her bill and as she walked out of the hotel
made up her mind. She would do the interview tomorrow. It was an exclusive and
she was still a journalist but after that she would close the book on her
feelings for Nikki Wade!
She spent the remainder of the day and most of the
night reading the novel. If Nikki had written it, it was one of her best works.
She’d always had a foible about reading the last page of a book about half way
through it and as she scanned the page she realised the ending had been
changed. In the original manuscript, one of the characters had died but in this
new version the two women ‘lived happily ever after’. She smiled wryly to
herself. Maybe it only happened in books.
Her heart was pounding as she rode the lift to ‘Louise
Morrison’s’ floor. Outside the room, she took a deep breath before knocking.
She almost turned-tail and fled but before she could move the door was opened
to reveal an unsmiling Nikki.
“Been a long time, Helen,” she said coldly. “Come in.”
Helen brushed passed her, taking in the odours of
toothpaste and shower gel and just a hint of perfume. “How have you been,
Nikki?”
Nikki closed the door and turned to face her. “Oh, you
know,” she replied, non-committally. “Take a seat.”
Helen sank down into an armchair and waited until
Nikki was seated before speaking. “Am I right in thinking you’re ‘Louise
Morrison’?” she asked softly
“I thought you weren’t surprised to see me.” She gave
a faint smile. “Yes, I am. ‘Louise Morrison’ was my maternal grandmother’s maiden
name. I wanted people to buy the book on its own merits and not because it was
written by the infamous ‘Nikki Wade’. That’s why there’s been so much secrecy
about it. Can I get you a drink or anything?”
“I’m fine, thanks.” She took a notebook out of her
handbag. “Do you want me to ask you questions or do you just want to talk?”
Nikki jumped up, snatched the notebook from her and
flung it across the room. “I don’t want to do either!” she exclaimed then her
voice softened. “I want to do this and I have done ever since you walked into
the room.” She bent down and pressed her mouth against Helen’s.
“Please don’t,” Helen murmured as she turned her head
away.
“So, I was right!” Nikki retorted. “I was just a story
to you.” She went and picked up the notebook then walked back and handed it to
her. “Let’s just get this interview over with!”
“Nikki, you weren’t just a story to me,” Helen
protested.
“Get on with the interview, Helen, or I’ll call ‘time’
on it now,” she warned sternly.
“Sod the interview!” Helen snapped. “How could you
think you were just a story to me? Didn’t I tell you how I felt about you?”
“You were a bloody good actress, I’ll give you that,”
Nikki replied bitterly.
“I wasn’t acting but you couldn’t wait to get back to
your wing governor, could you?” she said accusingly.
“I haven’t…”
“Don’t try and deny it, Nikki,” she interrupted
angrily. “I saw you together yesterday.”
“You were here?” Nikki asked incredulously.
“I wanted to see you but I got more than I bargained
for,” she retorted. “I saw you holding hands.”
“Oh, Helen.” She laughed. “Karen and I…we flirt. We
always have done and we probably always will but that’s all it is. Maybe…just
maybe…if we both hadn’t loved other people there might have been something
between us but she’s happy with her husband and
she’s having a baby. When you saw us yesterday, we were just having lunch
together. She’s visiting family up here and we used it as an opportunity to
meet up.”
Helen looked at her, relief showing on her face. “Why
did you change the ending?” she asked suddenly.
Nikki frowned. “Ending?” she echoed, then her face
cleared and she smiled. “I thought that if I made it a happy ending some of it
might rub off and the same thing would happen to us.” She held out her hand.
“Has it?”
Helen slipped her hand into Nikki’s. “I hope so,” she
said softly as she rose and moved into Nikki’s embrace.
“Helen?” Nikki whispered against her ear.
“Hmm?” Helen let out a long sigh as she felt Nikki’s
warm breath against her face.
“Didn’t you come here to interview me?”
Helen opened her eyes and smiled at her. “Not
complaining are you? Anyway I do all my best work lying down.”
“You can say that again.” Came the grinning response.
“Go on then, if you must. Tell me what you’ve been
doing since you got out of Larkhall,” she commanded but before Nikki could say
anything she pulled her head down and started kissing her.
“Working and missing you like hell,” she replied, when
she was at last able to speak. “And not necessarily in that order.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Why did you take off like you did? You told Monica
you were going to pick me up when I got out,” she said accusingly. “And we
never saw you again.”
Helen glared at her. “I was waiting outside and I saw
you come out but you started snogging the face off your wing governor then you
drove off with her!”
Nikki laughed out loud. “I wish you’d call her
‘Karen’. I wasn’t snogging the face off her, we were saying ‘goodbye’ and she
only took me to the station.”
“How was I supposed to know?” she demanded sullenly,
then added with a great deal of satisfaction. “Anyway, I came home and cursed
you every mile of the way.”
“Thought my ears were burning,” Nikki quipped.
“I wanted to call Monica but I was always afraid you
would answer the phone,” she admitted. “How is she?”
“She’s fine.”
“And Dominic? He took it very badly about his father.”
“So he bloody well ought!” Nikki exclaimed. “He wasn’t
totally innocent in all this. In fact, if he hadn’t…”
“I know,” Helen interrupted quickly. “Trisha would still
be alive. I’m sorry, it was thoughtless of me to mention him.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Nikki said kindly. “I thumped
him, fired him and then asked the new people if they would keep him on.”
“New people?” she looked at Nikki quizzically.
“I’ve sold my house. Too many bad memories and it
wasn’t the same without you there.”
“So, where are you living now?”
“Here, for the time being. I wanted to see how things
went with you before I decided where I wanted to live,” she admitted with a
grin. “No point moving up here if you didn’t want to know me.”
“You’d move up here, for me?” she asked incredulously.
“If you want me,” she replied bashfully.
“Oh, Nikki,” Helen murmured lovingly. “Of course I
want you. Surely you know that by now but you didn’t have to move. I just want
to be where you are.”
“Did you honestly feel comfortable living in that
house?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Truthfully? I think I
preferred your cabin in the woods.”
“Funny you should mention that.” Nikki’s eyes twinkled
merrily. “I didn’t sell them the cabin. I hoped that one day you and I could
spend a lazy weekend down there away from it all.”
“Dirty weekend, more like?” Helen murmured.
Nikki laughed. “If you insist. Now, Miss Stewart,
lying in bed with me all afternoon won’t increase your career prospects.”
“I know but it’s doing my constitution a power of
good,” she replied with a grin then, as Nikki frowned at her, continued, ”OK!
Let me get my pad.” She climbed out of bed and Nikki watched appreciatively as
she went into the other room. Just as she bent to retrieve her notebook, she
heard a noise outside the door and flew back into the bedroom.
“What’s wrong?” Nikki asked in surprise.
“There’s someone trying to get in!” she gabbled. She
grabbed hold of the covers to get back into bed but Nikki drew them tightly to
her. “Nikki, let me get in! It might be hotel staff. What are they going to
think if they see me standing here starkers!”
Nikki eyed her up and down. “Very nice!” she leered.
She again grabbed for the covers but Nikki blocked
her. “I’m warning you! If I get dressed, I won’t be taking my clothes off
again. Well, not today, anyway,” she finished feebly.
“Are you there, Nikki?” They heard a voice from the
other room.
“Oh, my God! It’s Monica!” Helen cried in horror. “Nikki,
you bitch!” Making one last desperate attempt at the covers, she dragged them
out of Nikki’s hands and dived into bed as Monica came into the bedroom.
Monica’s first sight as she came in, was of an unknown
female disappearing down the bed and Nikki convulsed with laughter. “Sorry, I
thought you were alone,” she apologised.
“It’s alright, Monica. Come in,” Nikki replied,
totally unabashed, then yelped as Helen thumped her on the hip. “I’ve got
someone here I think you know.”
Helen lowered the covers until only her eyes were
showing. “Hello, Monica,” she said softly.
Monica’s face was a picture. “Helen, is that you?”
“Unfortunately,” she replied cynically and the covers
were lowered fully to reveal her face, pink with embarrassment.
“Well, this is a turn up for the book,” Monica
murmured.
Nikki burst out laughing again. “Great choice of
words, Monica. She only came to interview me about the book but she dragged me
to bed instead!”
“Nikki!” Helen gasped.
“Don’t worry, Helen. I know what she’s like of old,” Monica said dryly. “But you must be doing
something right. This is the first time I’ve seen her so happy since she got
out of…got out of…well, came home.”
“You can say ‘prison’, Monica. There isn’t anything
Helen doesn’t know about me – not now, anyway,” Nikki replied with a teasing
grin at Helen, who glared at her and blushed furiously. “Will you order room
service for me, Monica?” she continued. “Sandwiches and coffee will do. I
suddenly feel very hungry.”
“I don’t believe you!” Helen exclaimed after Monica
had left the room. “All those innuendoes…you embarrassed her.”
“Of course I didn’t. She said herself, she knows me of
old. She should do, we’ve lived in the same house for over six years.” She ran
the backs of her fingers down Helen’s arm. “You won’t mind her living with us,
will you? She doesn’t have anyone else, apart from a sister she doesn’t get on
with.”
“Us?” Helen repeated, then laughed nervously. “I guess
I hadn’t thought that far ahead. What about my home…my job?”
“Hang onto them both if it makes you feel secure. I
just want us to be together,” she told her lovingly.
“What about your career?”
“Helen, I can write anywhere, so can you. You could go
freelance,” she suggested.
“I could,” Helen agreed. “Though I don’t suppose
Lofty, my editor, will be too pleased.”
“And it could be that I’ve got your first assignment,”
Nikki said mysteriously. Helen looked at her and frowned. “How do you fancy a
trip to HMP Larkhall?”