Page 115 of Love like the (Real) Reel Thing
It must have been some time after they’d got Afric back inside the castle, Jess thought, feeling a sudden buzzing in her head. Had he guessed that it was Robert who’d messed with the lock to the tunnel?
Emily put her hands on her hips as she turned back to Afric. “You can report me if you want, but you owe Jess a major apology.”
There was a long silence. This was it, Jess thought. She’d have to plead Emily’s case with Anthony. Maybe she could get her off on a warning.
Afric stroked Diva’s head. “I’d no idea that happened to you in the tunnel, Jess. You must have been freaking out.”
“A bit,” Jess admitted.
“Sorry.” Afric sighed. “That was a bitch.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Jess was feeling magnanimous now.
She flicked Emily a glance and, to her relief, Emily took the hint this time and left.
“Actually, if you want to make it up to me, just don’t report Emily. Please?”
Afric looked a bit hurt. “Of course I won’t report her! Emily’s cool. And I really am grateful for everything you did, Jess.” She sighed again and buried her face in Diva’s curly hair. “Come on, girl, let’s get you something to eat.”
As she left work, Jess wondered how easy it would be to completely avoid Robert until the end of the week.
She’d had a quiet word with Anthony about her suspicions but added that she couldn’t prove anything.
“We can see if he went into Afric’s suite at any stage. We have security cameras in all the corridors, Jess. They’re just disguised to look like part of the ceilings.”
“It still won’t prove that he actually did anything.”
“It’ll prove that he went into a guest’s room without permission,” Anthony had pointed out. “Which would be enough for us not to employ him again.”
Now, as she slipped out the front gate past a small handful of press, she realised there was no food in the house, and she didn’t want to risk running into Robert at The Tin Whistle.
She stopped at Ted’s store and, picking up a shopping basket, moved quickly through the aisles, throwing in a pre-prepared salad and a fish pie from the fridge, a bottle of wine and a large bar of chocolate.
As she headed up to pay, she braced herself for Ted’s comments but it was Sinéad behind the counter.
“How’s Jess?” she said.
“Fine, thanks, Sinéad.” Jess had felt a lot warmer towards Ted’s wife since she’d shown up at Emily’s housewarming and thrown herself into some impromptu hosting. “How are you?”
“Ah, no use complaining, sure who’d listen?” She scanned through the items and packed them into the string bag that Jess hastily pulled out of her handbag. “That everything?”
Jess nodded and took out her debit card to scan it.
“I heard you’ll be heading back up to Dublin at the end of the week,” Sinéad said.
Nothing got past this woman. Jess smiled brightly. “I just came down to help out while Linford’s event manager was away.”
Sinéad gave her a shrewd look. “Well, I’d say they appreciated you. I was glad to hear that fire alarm wasn’t the real thing.”
Jess wondered how much she knew. But she was probably just making conversation. She picked up her shopping bag. “Thanks, Sinéad.”
“You won’t be keeping in touch with Robert, will you?”
“It wouldn’t really suit either of us, no,” Jess said politely.
Sinéad nodded. “I feel a bit sorry for him, to be honest. It would have been fierce awkward for him working on that movie.”
Jess frowned. “Why?”
