Page 57 of The Lost Story of Sofia Castello

56

PORTUGAL, 2000

Sofia falls silent, and I look back at the old newspaper clipping in my hand. ‘A STAR IS BOURNE!’ the headline reads, above a picture of the actor Lawrence Bourne.

‘Sir Lawrence Bourne is Trafalgar?’ I say, my voice barely audible.

Sofia nods.

‘But he’s one of the most popular actors in Britain – in the world! He’s considered a national treasure. I-I ghostwrote his autobiography.’

‘I know.’

I stare at her for a moment while the jigsaw pieces slowly begin to fall into place. ‘Is that why you hired me? Because you knew I’d written his book? Is that why you were keeping this a secret?’ I nod at the muddy box of clippings.

‘Yes,’ She looks down at her lap as if deeply ashamed.

‘But why?’ As the implications of this revelation dawn on me, I feel a creeping disappointment. I hadn’t been hired on my merits for this job at all. I’d just been used as an unwitting pawn, but why exactly? ‘What were you hoping would happen?’

‘I was hoping you might be able to give me some information,’ she says, still looking guilty. ‘About him and his life now and’ – her eyes dart around the room as she looks anywhere but at me – ‘possibly facilitate a meeting with him.’

‘You want to meet with him? But –but…’ My mind races. In all my dealings with Lawrence Bourne, he was nothing but kind and fun and full of enthusiasm. It dawns on me that Lawrence’s natural exuberance fits perfectly with Sofia’s descriptions of Trafalgar – apart from the cockney accent. The Lawrence I met spoke like a member of royalty. But surely he couldn’t have been a traitor to the Allies. He had a knighthood for God’s sake. ‘Are you absolutely certain that he betrayed the Allies to the Germans?’

Finally, Sofia makes eye contact with me. ‘Oh yes, absolutely.’

‘But how did he never get caught? Why did it never come out after the war?’

‘Why did it never come out about Edward and Mrs Simpson?’ she says flatly. ‘Or any of the other members of the British establishment who were in cahoots with the Germans? Once the war was over and the Allies were victorious, they all slunk back into the fold and it was all swept under the blanket, or whatever that saying is.’

‘Under the rug,’ I mutter.

‘Yes, exactly.’

We’re silent for a moment, and I look at more of the clippings. Most of the others are from Portuguese newspapers over the years, charting Lawrence’s stratospheric rise to fame as an actor. Then I spot a clipping about his first wedding back in the 1950s. And another from his second wedding in the 1970s. And then his third and final wedding in the 1990s. I think back to the day I’d interviewed him about his marriages, and I remember something he said when I asked why he thought he’d been married so many times.

‘All of the women I’ve married have been wonderful human beings, but they were never able to compete,’ he replied.

When I’d asked him if he was referring to his career, he shook his head. ‘With my first love,’ he’d said softly before telling me that that was strictly off the record, and I was not to put it in the book. And when I’d asked him what had happened with his first love, he’d instantly clammed up.

‘Whoa,’ I whisper, wondering if he’d been talking about Sofia.

‘What is it?’ Sofia asks.

‘Nothing.’ I can’t disclose what Lawrence said due to the NDA I signed when I was hired to write his book, but he might not have been referring to Sofia anyway – although the accounts she’s given about their time together were so full of passion and what seemed like love. What if his feelings for her had been genuine even if he was a traitor to his country?

‘I’m so sorry,’ Sofia says. ‘I hope you don’t think I’ve been using you.’

‘But you have!’ I exclaim.

‘That’s what Gabriel was worried about,’ Sofia remarks. ‘Right from the start, he felt it was unfair not to tell you.’

‘Oh.’ I’m momentarily stunned. So that’s what his note to Sofia had been about. He’d been trying to look out for me!

‘But I felt absolutely certain that you wouldn’t carry on if I told you,’ Sofia continues. ‘I thought you would fly into a rage and spit in my face and leave.’

I can’t help smiling at the melodrama.

‘And the deeper we got into the project, the more I began to panic,’ she says. ‘Especially when Gabriel started threatening to tell you. That’s why I hid the clippings. I was terrified you’d find them.’

‘But I was bound to find out eventually,’ I say.

But Sofia shakes her head. ‘No because I’d changed my mind. I decided to change the story I was going to tell you. To omit Trafalgar’s true identity.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I hadn’t counted on becoming so damned fond of you!’ she exclaims, and all the suspicion and hurt and disappointment I’d been feeling begins to fade. ‘When you started confiding in me about all you’d been through, with that dreadful bore of an ex-partner of yours and then about your fertility issues, well…’ She gives me a weak smile. ‘I’m not made of stone, you know. I do have a heart, despite any appearances to the contrary.’

‘How were you going to change your story?’ I ask. ‘Were you going to edit Trafalgar – or, rather, Lawrence – out entirely?’

She shakes her head. ‘No, it would be impossible for me to not include him, but I was going to hide his real identity and not mention him becoming a famous actor.’

There’s something about the seriousness of her tone that instantly makes me curious. ‘Why would it be impossible not to include him in the book?’

She visibly shudders. ‘Because he was responsible for my death.’

It feels as if the temperature in the room has suddenly dropped. ‘He’s the reason you pretended you’d died and went into hiding, you mean?’

‘No, I mean he was actually responsible for my death.’ She looks at me grimly. ‘As in, he made it happen. Sir Lawrence Bourne was the reason the plane I was supposed to be flying on was shot down.’