Jenna

 

I’ve kept Katie up to date on everything since I first kissed Elliott in the kitchen. How could I not? She’s sworn to secrecy, of course, but she’d never hurt me anyway. She admits she’s green with envy, but she says, “Just as well I love you. Tell me everything.” So I do, leaving out the bed parts. Some things are too private to share.

When I travel to Paris with Elliott, it’s so close to London Katie wants to meet me there, just for a day or two when I’m not too busy. She hops over from London, and she’s here. Elliott got her a room in the same hotel as us, so it’s easier for us to get together. It feels like a million years since I saw her.

“Look at you,” she says, when I first see her in reception. “You look different.”

And I guess I do, because I picked up a few things. I don’t want to look dowdy with Elliott being around actresses all day, and maybe there’s a pep in my step because I feel on top of the world too.

“It must be living in luxury that does it,” Katie says. “I loved having a limo pick me up at Charles de Gaulle. Did you organize that, as well as the room?”

“Elliott did that. He wants you to enjoy yourself.”

“I’m going to love him as much as you do at this rate.”

I laugh. Katie loves all kinds of celebrities already.

“And this little lady is such a cutie,” she says. Sophie beams back at her and holds tightly onto my hand.

“What do you want to do?” I ask Katie. “Do you just want to go to the Jardin de Luxembourg for a walk and then somewhere for lunch?” She and I did all the tourist spots on a break here a couple of years ago, and catching up is much more important than standing in line to see all those things again. By the time we get there, Sophie is fast asleep in her stroller, and it’s cold so we make for a cafe.

“How’s Elliott?” Katie asks after she has filled me in on all the news from home.

“He’s good. You’ll see him later. I’ll take you over to the set after lunch. He wants to meet you, and he says he’ll introduce you to all the rest of the cast, too.”

“Wow! That’s fantastic.” Katie beams. “You’ve met all of them already?”

“Yeah, just briefly. They keep themselves to themselves mostly in their big trailers, but they said hello.”

“This is surreal. I’m so jealous. One moment you’re off to be nanny to some businessman and the next you’re meeting stars at celebrity parties.”

“Not quite that glamorous, but I know what you mean. I keep having to pinch myself, but it’s not really that. It’s Elliott. I think I’m falling for him, hard.”

“You think? I know. I can tell when you talk about him on the phone. And now I see how you get that dreamy look on your face when you talk about him. It’s the same one you used to get when we were thirteen, talking about the kind of weddings we wanted to have.”

I laugh. “I’m sure nothing is further from Elliott’s mind than white dresses and bouquets.”

“Maybe, but it seems like this is something special. Not like all that stuff they write about the stars and their nannies. You wouldn’t stay with him if he was like that, would you?”

“I guess not. What do they say, anyway?”

“There was an article last week from Ruth somebody. She was so full of herself. I guess it didn’t reach Paris.”

“Ruth? His last nanny was called Ruth.”

“No!” Katie colors. “It’s probably not her. Anyway, it was nothing.” She looks uneasy. There’s something I need to know about this.

“Why? What did the article say?”

“It doesn’t matter. Not much. Forget I mentioned it.”

“You’ve got to tell me, Katie. Don’t leave me hanging like this.”

Katie hesitates, but I scowl at her. She knows I won’t give up until she tells me now. “Ruth said that a nanny is like a personal possession, like the star thinks he owns you. She said when nannies say no to their celebrity employers—she didn’t name hers at all—they get fired. But there are a lot of girls called Ruth.”

“Girls called Ruth who are nannies to stars and get fired. He said she came onto him and when she got over the top he had to let her go.” My stomach feels like I swallowed a brick.

“It might not be her, Jenna.”

“But I have to know what they are saying in the papers. She’s probably saying it to get back at him. Once you get to know him, you’ll know he’s not like that.” I have to calm down. Why would I believe deranged Ruth, who is not even supposed to be talking about anything that happened when she was employed? Why would I believe her against Elliott, who I know, who I think is a good man? He’s not a predatory star. I’m pretty sure of it. But I don’t like the seed of suspicion that this has planted in my mind.

“How can I read the article? Where was it?”

“Usual gutter press. The National Clarion.”

“Of course. It’s just the kind of thing they would print, whether it’s true or not. Why let the truth get in the way of selling papers? I know how it will go. It will be nothing that can get anyone sued. All sly hints. I hate that Elliott is so vulnerable to gossip. He says you have to have a thick skin in this business and that most of the stuff that’s printed isn’t true—even the happy stuff about couples in love when they’re on the verge of splitting up.”

I get out my iPad.

“There’s probably nothing online,” Katie says. “It was last week sometime.”

But there is. I find the article. I didn’t much care for Ruth before, even if I felt a bit sorry for her. But now I hate her on sight. And then I spot the sidebar of the website. There’s a picture of me on the beach, with a black bar across my chest. “Oh, my god!” When I click on it to read the article, my blood runs cold.

“I’m so sorry, Jenna. I wish I’d never mentioned it.” Katie says. “I didn’t know they published anything else. That paper was just lying around when I got on the train a few days ago so I flicked through it and saw Ruth’s article. You weren’t in the paper at all.”