Page 36 of The Little Cottage by the Cornish Sea

I gasped as images of the manor appeared.

Every room, every corner of the garden! How had this happened?

And then I saw myself, in the selfie videos I’d taken for Baby one day.

I talked about my boss and my work and the manor and my life with him and all my other friends.

And in one of the videos, I was horrified to see that Piers, unbeknownst to me, was actually in the background at the end of the enormous garden eating a sandwich.

The image had been blown up and it was clearly him.

This is what Blade, AKA Kevin Sharpe, really looks like!

The captions rolled on as his music played in the background.

Let’s just hope he doesn’t watch my channel, hehe!

And then the captions stopped and my very own voice continued the commentary.

‘This is the perfect place to come and hide if you don’t want to be found!

If you look closely… you’ll just be able to glimpse the very reclusive specimen right…

there! I can’t zoom in anymore, I’m afraid, but I think he might be having his lunch.

We all know that he likes his privacy and I’ve been hoping for him to make an appearance.

Today is our lucky day! I just wanted you to know that from now on, I will share these gems with you… ’

I could hear my blood pumping through my temples, and I felt lile my heart about to explode.

These were the videos that I’d made for Baby. How, how, how had this video got online?

Piers ran a hand through his dark hair. I could see the hurt in his eyes and his drawn face.

He was silent, the muscles in his jaw twitching.

When he spoke, his voice was very low, almost inaudible.

‘All this time, I believed you. Your pretence of coming to Starry Cove as a single woman in difficulty was very clever, I have to say. You played on everyone’s kindness by betraying them.

The girls, the villagers. Even my nan. People like you, so hungry for their five minutes of fame, really have no shame. ’

‘Piers, no, you’ve got it all wrong. I didn’t do this—’

‘Please. To think I actually believed that you loved me. That you cared about anyone in this village. But now we know who you are. And if you as so much as mention my name online again, I’ll bury you so deep in lawsuits, you won’t know what hit you. So my suggestion is that you leave now.’

‘You can’t really believe that I would do this, Piers!’

‘I’ll be sending you your severance package. Justin will drive you back to Tulip Cottage now.’

I clutched my chest and wiped my teary eyes. This could not be happening! My very worst nightmare!

‘It’s more than fair, and it will see you and your baby through a few years. I’m not a monster. But you and I are over. Goodbye, Kate.’ I stared at him, numb, as he brushed past me.

Left with no other choice, I grabbed Trixie, holding her to my chest as she licked my tears. I climbed into the car where my bags had already been put in the back and I sat behind Justin who checked me in the mirror.

‘I’m sorry, Miss Kate. Are you all right?’

I sniffed to clear my foggy eyes and nose and gave him my best smile. ‘I am, Justin, thank you.’ I kissed Trixie on the head. From now on, it was just her and me until my baby was born.

‘Hang on, now, Miss, we’re going to have quite the ride. And you might want to put on your sunglasses.’

‘Sunglasses? But it’s rain— oh!’ I cried, scrambling to obey when the front gate opened and I caught sight of a maddened crowd of journalists and fans, all kept at bay by a cordon sanitaire of policemen and village folk.

The word was out. They had finally found Blade’s hideaway. And were now making sure that there was not going to be any more hiding. Only, once again, the blame had wrongly been put on me.

‘Hang on, Miss!’ Justin called as he veered to the side and took off at unexpected speed, only to see that the crowd didn’t end there. The entire road into the village was lined with fans waving little banners of the band’s logo. An entire population now knew where Piers lived.

I hung on to keep from being tossed to the other end of the back seat.

‘It’s pure hell out here,’ he said. ‘Pardon my French, Miss…’

‘You’re bloody right it is, Justin,’ I agreed as up ahead even more fans appeared. Some turned and began to run after us. ‘Can you lose them, Justin?’ I asked. I didn’t want them following me to the cottage.

‘Certainly, Miss. Hold on tight.’

My new life was in tatters, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

I’d have to start all over again someplace else, just like I knew I would.

Re-endure all the fear, all the heartache and uncertainty.

Only now, there was an extra burden on my heart.

I had lost Piers’ trust and his love. In my head, I began to write my apology letters to my nearest and dearest. Also, I had to let Tamsin know I was okay despite what had happened online.

Even if I was nowhere near okay. So I called her.

She picked up immediately and I could hear Jake bawling in the background. I pictured her lifting him up and bouncing him on her hip. Such a familiar scene I’d witnessed a thousand times, and I wished now more than ever that I could see it again.

‘Is this a bad time?’ I asked.

‘Sweetheart, are you joking? What on earth is going on? Are you okay?’

‘Not at all,’ I confessed. ‘Did you see the video?’

‘I saw it, yes. You never told me you were seeing a rockstar.’

‘You know I didn’t do it, right? The video, I mean.’

‘Of course not. Just like you didn’t steal any documents. This is Will’s work again.’ I sighed in relief. I knew she’d take my side. ‘But you have to defend yourself. Make a statement.’

‘Who would believe me? I must look like some kind of crazy celebrity stalker.’

Jake must have finally fallen asleep because she lowered her voice. ‘Tell the police now, Kate!’

‘No. They’d never believe me.’

‘But why not? Will has to pay for all his crimes!’ Tamsin insisted.

‘I don’t want anything to do with him anymore,’ I whispered, choking back a sob.

‘Okay, okay,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’

‘I’m okay, I promise.’

‘That’s what you’ve been repeating to me for months. Is it even true?’

‘It was. For quite a while. Piers thinks that I’ve betrayed his confidence and that I’m behind that stupid video.’

‘How do you think Will did it?’

I sighed in complete exhaustion. ‘It’s my fault. I changed phones and numbers so he couldn’t track me, but I kept my old account because there were a lot of family photos in there and I didn’t have the heart to delete it. He must have hacked into it somehow.’

‘Oh, Kate, I’m so sorry! Come home! I’ll come with you to the police and we’ll sort this mess out.’

‘No,’ I repeated. ‘I just can’t deal with it all right now.

’ And now, with Piers’s money and influence no longer available, I didn’t know who to turn to.

Surely Lee wouldn’t continue to work on my case after this, and I couldn’t afford my own lawyer.

I craned my neck as Tulip Cottage loomed ahead.

‘I have to go now, Tams. I’ll keep you posted. ’

‘Sweetie, take care. Call me.’

‘I will. Give my love to Jake and Mike. Talk soon.’

Justin brought my stuff in for me and squeezed my shoulder, something he’d never done before. ‘If you need me, Miss…’

‘Thank you, Justin. I appreciate it.’

‘Take care, Miss.’

‘You, too.’

I watched him drive off and turned into Tulip Cottage. It was like travelling through time to the day I’d arrived for the first time, when I was alone and afraid, wondering how I would manage. Back to square one. Alone. Again.

I dialled Emmie’s number just to let everyone know what was up.

‘Emmie…’ I croaked.

‘I know, it’s all over the news. You can’t come here; there are reporters everywhere!’

‘Emmie, I was framed. Again. My ex hacked into my Google account and put together that segment.’

‘What? Why?’ she asked.

I sighed heavily, drained to a pulp. ‘It’s a long, long story…’

‘We’re coming to Tulip Cottage,’ she said and hung up.

Emmie rounded up the rest of the cavalry, i.e. Nina, Nat, Faith and Rosie. It seemed that all they did was pick me up off the floor.

‘I don’t believe it!’ Nina said as I poured the girls a cup of tea.

‘Oh, believe it,’ I replied as I reached for Rosie’s mug. ‘Starry Cove is on every news network. Actually, every news network is all over Starry Cove. There are vans and media trailers everywhere! Nina, I’m so sorry. You must be worried about your own privacy!’

Nina nodded. ‘It’s okay, Kate. It’s not your fault.’

‘But how did this even happen?’ Rosie asked.

‘I’d made some videos of myself around Rosestones for my baby one day,’ I explained.

‘But I forgot that my Google account is connected to my cloud, so Will hacked into it and figured it out. Easy-peasy. I’m just lucky he doesn’t know which cottage I live in yet.

But he’ll find me, and it won’t be long before the police come knocking on my door.

I only hope the villagers won’t feed me to him after what happened to Piers.

Not only do they think I’m a thief; they also think I’ve betrayed Piers’s and everyone else’s confidence. ’

‘Nonsense. People here know who you are,’ Faith said as she reached for the sugar bowl. ‘This Will has to face the consequences of what he’s done He’s ruined your reputation, not to mention blown Piers’s cover.’

I shook my head as Trixie jumped up on my lap.

My little friend had been worried about me, judging by the way she never let me out of her sight.

I caressed her soft fur. ‘Guys, I don’t know what to say or do.

All I know is that if he finds out where I live, he’ll come down here himself, drag me back to London and sue me for full custody of my baby. ’

‘That’s not happening,’ Nat said.