Part 30 (2/2)

'I make the appointments,' Melissa said.

Gwen was too keyed up to stop and argue about it. She opened Cam's door. 'Is now a good time?'

Cam stood up when he saw her. 'Um. Yes. It's fine.'

'I'm sorry,' Melissa said over Gwen's shoulder. 'I tried to stop her.'

'It's fine. Thank you.'

Gwen sat on the edge of the desk and then stood up again quickly. 'Sorry, I forgot.'

But Cam wasn't looking cross. He was looking slightly stunned. 'That's okay,' he said, 'it's a comfy desk. You look different.'

Gwen reached up and felt the back of her neck. 'I got a haircut.'

'It's different.'

'You called.' Gwen smoothed down the skirt of her dress, the material settling silkily around her hips. 'I wasn't sure if you meant to come down right away or later.'

'Now's good,' Cam said.

'I think I just made an enemy out there.' Gwen nodded to the door, behind which she imagined Melissa was fas.h.i.+oning weaponry from the stationery supplies.

'Oh, don't worry; she's a bit over-zealous sometimes,' Cam said, still staring.

Gwen nodded. 'So, where's the fire? I'm not being sued again, am I?'

'No. But there is something I need to tell you about.' Cam seemed to be finding it difficult to talk to her face; his gaze kept ranging lower to the dipping neckline of her dress.

'Okay.' Gwen smiled at him encouragingly. If she'd known it would have this effect on him, she'd have put on a frock ages ago.

'An article in the Guardian.' He took a deep breath. 'I'll sue them for defamation if you like.'

'Hang on. What article?'

Cam opened the weekend edition and slid it across the desk. Gwen scanned the text, trying to ignore the photograph of Stephen Knight as a slightly spotty kid scowling for his school picture.

'It's in the magazine bit. I don't think anyone from around here is going to read it. I wouldn't even have seen it if-' He broke off.

'Your mother gave it to you,' Gwen said. 'She's determined, gotta give her that.'

'She's just being protective. She's worried about anything that might reflect badly on the firm. It's common knowledge that we're acquainted.'

'Acquainted?' Gwen repeated.

'I didn't mean it like that,' Cam said. 'I just mean that's the bit that's public knowledge. There's nothing wrong with keeping your private life private. Speaking of which ... Did you speak to this journalist?'

'No,' Gwen said, furious that he felt the need to ask. 'Surely you know this is the last thing I want?'

Cam shrugged. 'Publicity can be good. For your business. And I don't know what other services you provide ...' He trailed off when he saw her expression. 'Sorry. So you didn't, then?'

Gwen ignored him and concentrated on scanning the article. She finished and sank into the nearest chair. 'I feel sick.'

'No one round here will have even read this.'

'It says Pendleford in the headline; I think they will.'

'Yeah, but most of the people around here don't read the nationals.'

Gwen wanted to be comforted by Cam's intellectual sn.o.bbery, but she'd met enough of the locals not to be convinced. 'We're in Wilts.h.i.+re, not on Mars. Plenty of people commute to London, for crying out loud.' Gwen felt another lurch in her stomach. 'Oh, Christ; everyone is going read it.'

'So what?' Cam said. 'You haven't done anything wrong. And I bet there's loads of stuff in there that isn't even true. Let me send them a scary letter, get them to print a retraction.'

Gwen shook her head. 'It's pretty accurate, actually.'

Cam looked sceptical. 'What, about the witchcraft bit? That's clearly nonsense.'

'People did accuse me and my family. That's all it says and that definitely happened.'

'Well, they're clearly crazy. No one with any sense will give that credence.'

'You don't understand. People will think the worst, anyway. No smoke without fire and all that b.o.l.l.o.c.ks. It was like that last time. This is just going to stir it all up.'

'What happened?' Cam's forehead creased. 'Did you know the kid? He was at your school?'

'I didn't hurt him. I didn't even know him. Some kids came forward at the time and said I was secretly in love with him, saying I was a crazy rejected girl. I didn't put a spell on him or hypnotise him into killing himself or any of that. But I did use the Finding when he went missing. That's how I knew where his body was. I didn't push him in the river-'

'Of course you didn't,' Cam said, shocked.

'But I did use magic a or whatever you want to call it a to find him. I just didn't know I was going to be finding his body. I thought I might be able to help.' Gwen realised she was crying.

Cam came out from behind his desk and wrapped his arms around her. 'I'm sorry. I didn't know this was going to upset you.'

Gwen sniffed. 'I never talked about it at the time. I was too frightened to speak to you about it.'

'Wait.' Cam pulled back to look at her face. 'You were frightened of me?' He looked horrified.

'Not of you. Of your reaction.' She pulled a face. 'I thought it would be the same as your mother's is now.'

'She's just being protective of me. Well, the firm. She's obsessed with how many clients we have. We've lost a few recently and she thinks it's to do with a loss of confidence. You can't really blame her for worrying. The firm means everything to her.'

'But this is nothing to do with the firm.'

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