---

Given the state of Brian, he clearly wasn’t there on a photography assignment for Flair. He beamed at Jenny, whilst also looking over her shoulder at the other three; Lucy must have run out of friends to set him up with and he was about to start on hers. Unsteady on his feet, it took him a moment or two to make it over to them, while Jenny tried in vain to head him off before the others had a chance to speak to him. What was he doing here?

‘Well, this is a nice surprise, seeing you.’ He had the faintest slur to his voice. Brian was a regular drinker so, if he was drunk, he must have had quite a bit. ‘I didn’t think you were back out in social circulation yet.’

Jenny glanced around her quickly, looking for an escape route. There was no way she wanted him talking to the others. If he worked out who they were, her cover would be well and truly blown. She could push him towards the bar but it was packed three-deep with people. Maybe she could take up smoking and jostle him outside onto the pavement? She searched for a group of sleazy-looking men who would likely be his friends. Why weren’t they looking for him? ‘I’m not, it’s just a night away from…’ She tried to move him away from the girls, or at least give him a look which signified Say nothing. But who was she kidding? Most men didn’t do non-verbal signals sober, let alone drunk. When she used that look on Dan he always said, ‘Are you okay? Have you got something in your eye?’

‘Jenny’s trying to say that we’ve all got a night off from our babies,’ interrupted Naomi. She seemed to have got over her upset pretty quickly and was smiling flirtatiously at Brian. Gail was also giving Jenny an ‘introduce us now’ look. He did scrub up well, although right then he was looking more than a little worse for wear.

‘Babies?’ A light went on behind his slightly sozzled eyes. ‘Oh, it’s you!’ He started pointing at them with delight. Bugger.

Antonia looked bemused. ‘Who does this deranged man think we are? And who the devil is he?’

‘Just one of the photographers from the magazine. I don’t know him all that well,’ Jenny said behind the back of her hand. ‘He’s not the sort of person I’d want to introduce you to. I’ll get rid of him.’ Grabbing hold of his arm, she leaned in and raised her voice. ‘Brian, come with me to the bar. Let me buy you a drink.’

Brian was still pointing, moving his finger across the three of them as if he were deciding which one to pick. ‘You’re the Spice Mums!’ he hooted, clearly enjoying himself. Alcohol had a lot to answer for.

Jenny felt the colour drain from her face. Shit. Shit. Shit. This was not the way it was supposed to be. If she ever did tell them, it was going to be nonchalantly. She would make it sound like a good thing. Yes, I have been writing about you on a public blog for the last few months and I would like to carry on doing so in a magazine. Fun, eh? But with the recent news of an unplanned pregnancy, Geoff’s affair with the nanny and Gail’s imminent announcement, this probably wasn’t the best time to reveal that Jenny had been publishing their private conversations on the world wide web.

Antonia continued to stare at him with distaste. ‘What the hell is he talking about?’

Jenny’s finger was midway to her temple where she was about to rotate it and suggest that Brian was slightly unhinged – ‘All those flashbulbs, messes with the grey matter’ – when she realised that it was pointless. She’d always known she would have to tell them sometime. She might as well get it over with. With any luck, sandwiching her announcement between Naomi’s and Gail’s might mean it got forgotten, anyway. Maybe. Or maybe not.

She sighed and faced them. ‘I have something I have been meaning to tell you all.’

Brian definitely wasn’t getting the vibe. ‘You HAVE to be Posh!’ He beamed at Antonia. He waved his hand up and down. ‘The accent, the clothes. Got to be.’ He looked at Naomi, then Gail, then back to Naomi, before settling on Gail. ‘Scary. Definitely.’

Gail no longer looked interested in being introduced. Looking at Jenny, she said: ‘I think you’d better speak quickly before Laddo here gets a swift kick somewhere soft.’

This didn’t perturb Brian at all. ‘See! Scary! I was right!’ he crowed, before peering at Naomi. ‘Which means you must be—’

‘Brian! Stop! For the love of… just stop!’ Jenny put her hands on his shoulders and turned him around to face a small group of men who had finally materialised and seemed to know him. ‘The boys need you back now. I’ll see you soon.’ As he tottered back to his friends, she turned to face the girls. ‘Maybe we should sit down.’

---

‘So, let me get this straight,’ Gail spoke slowly. ‘You’ve been meeting up with us, letting us feel that we can trust you, and then writing about all our private conversations.’ She tapped her fingernails on the side of the fresh glass of wine that Jenny had bought.

‘No, no,’ said Jenny, hurriedly. ‘Not the private ones, just the stuff we talk about when we’re together as a group. General stuff. And no one knows who you are – I’ve given you all pseudonyms to protect your identities.’

‘Yes, we heard,’ said Antonia, dryly. ‘The Spice Mums. How nice.’

‘I just used the names. It seemed to… fit.’ Jenny mumbled the last part and looked down. When she raised her eyes, they met Gail’s angry-looking ones.

‘And I’m scary, am I?’

Jenny almost squeaked. ‘No, not scary, just…’ She flailed around for an appropriate word. ‘Firm?’

Gail harrumphed and crossed her arms.

‘I think I’ve found it.’ Naomi was thumbing her mobile phone screen. She read aloud from one of the earlier posts. ‘As her baby feeds more often than a giant panda, Sporty’s milk ducts must be working twenty-four-hour shifts….’ She looked up at Jenny. ‘Is that me?’ She sounded hurt.

‘I know it sounds bad.’ Jenny winced. ‘But I had to make it funny. It needed to be entertaining and humorous. Because I needed to get as many readers as possible, I changed things a bit, exaggerated things you did or said. Made them sound more outlandish. You’ve got to understand, this is my job.’

‘That’s what Jeremy Kyle probably says to the contestants on that awful programme, right before he makes them look like human freaks in front of the entire nation.’ Gail still looked annoyed.

‘Are you even legally allowed to do this without our permission?’ Antonia asked. Jenny swallowed. Surely Antonia wouldn’t try to sue her? Dan had warned her about writing about a lawyer’s wife.

‘There’s a disclaimer, and I haven’t used any real names. It’s not even really about you. You just give me ideas for topics.’ This wasn’t going well.

Naomi read aloud from her screen. ‘At Posh’s house the other day, we were looking at each other’s babies, trying to see who they looked like.’ She looked up, accusingly. ‘That actually happened.’

Antonia looked a little bit sick. ‘What exactly did you write about that?’

Naomi passed her mobile over. ‘It’s all here. Read it for yourself.’

As Antonia read, Gail took over the interrogation. ‘So, all this time, you’ve been merely grooming us? I know we haven’t been friends long but, really, you felt no loyalty at all?’

Jenny was a gnat’s winkle away from asking Gail how she had the audacity to talk about loyalty, but instead she took a deep breath and started again. ‘That’s the point I’ve been trying to make. At the beginning, I only joined the group for material for a column, but now—’ she looked at them ‘—now I have begun to be fond of you all. I was going to tell you all about it this weekend. I was just waiting for the right time.’

Antonia waved Naomi’s mobile at Gail. ‘Do you want to take a look?’ Gail took it and flicked quickly through the screen. ‘To be honest, it’s not that bad.’

‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell y—’

Antonia held up a finger and cut Jenny off. ‘That’s not to say I don’t think you should have told us.’

‘I agree.’ Gail passed the mobile back to Naomi. ‘But there’s nothing incriminating in there.’ She looked levelly at Jenny. ‘And I’m assuming there won’t be.’

Jenny shook her head vehemently, not wanting to be cut off again if she opened her mouth.

‘But I sound like a nutcase!’ said Naomi. ‘It sounds like you hate me, Jenny.’

‘No, no! I admit, your character is hugely exaggerated – I actually based a lot of it on another mum I met.’ She prayed silently that Naomi wouldn’t ask her who. ‘Sporty is actually nothing like you now.’ In a lot of ways, that was true. Naomi didn’t irritate her half as often these days. Not now Jenny knew her better.

Gail sighed. ‘I think I’m done. Shall we just go back? We still need to find Ruth.’

‘Yes,’ said Antonia. ‘I think I’ve had enough revelations for one evening, too.’

Whilst sighing with relief that she hadn’t been tarred and feathered, Antonia’s words struck a new fear into Jenny. In terms of revelations, Antonia was unknowingly heading for a rather gigantic one.