The Lost Guide To Life And Love Part 9

'I meant to ask you,' I said, 'could you make a scarf for my mum? She'd love one-especially if she knew it was made up here.'

'Yes, of course, no problem,' said Becca. 'Any particular colours?'

'Well, she wears a lot of black-lots and lots of black, so I guess that would have to be the base, or it would just be a waste of time, she wouldn't wear it. But if you could make all the embroidery and embellishments as bright and cheerful as possible? That would be good. And tell you what...' I dug deep down into the pocket of my jacket. 'Could you manage to work this bit of ribbon into it somewhere for me?'

I handed Becca the piece of cherry-red velvet I'd found on the tree. She turned it over in her hand and, just like I had done, stroked it. 'Lovely colour,' she said. 'Wonderful texture. Is that all you've got?'

'Yes, I just found it up on the moor and it seems too pretty to waste.'

Becca put the ribbon carefully into her big knitting bag under the counter and went back to looking at pictures of footballers.

I couldn't say anything about that because I went straight to the computer and, before I did anything else, I Googled Clayton Silver. It was all there, the story of his life in different interviews, the single mother, the rough estate, the bunking off school. There was a nice piece about when he got his GCSE results. He looked so proud and so young. It was when he was at his first club and he still had a terrible haircut, before he'd got that gloss that being rich and famous gives you. There was an approving comment piece by one of those smug middle-cla.s.s lady columnists, saying what a great example it was when people like Clayton Silver made education cool. Far better than any government initiative. But she was right. I felt sort of proud of him too.

Dimly, I heard the beep of a mobile phone in the bar and could hear Becca talking. Her voice sounded surprised and then breathy with excitement, until finally I heard her say, 'Well, yes, fine, seven then. See you there,' as if she were restraining a whoop of delight.

She came rushing round the corner to me and gabbled, 'That was Alessandro. There's a big football charity dinner in Newcastle tonight. He and some other players are flying up. He wants me to go with him! Tonight! Newcastle! He's just rung. He's sending a car! Oh, I can't believe it.'

She was standing there, her eyes shining with excitement, still clutching her phone and the cloth with which she'd been wiping the tables. With that, my phone rang too.

'h.e.l.lo, Miss Freshface. What you doing this evening...?'

The bright lights of the hotel reflected on the Tyne and the ma.s.sive single arch of the Millennium Bridge gleamed silver as Becca and I peered out from the huge four-by-four with its tinted windows as it edged its way through the crowds of revellers on the quayside. If it was like that midweek, what must it be like on a Friday night? Our driver-a taciturn c.o.c.kney called Tony who'd barely said a word since he'd picked us up-stopped the car right in front of the entrance and leapt out to open the door for us. Some of the waiting crowd stared in our direction.

'They must think we're someone important,' giggled Becca, as she sashayed into the hotel entrance with great aplomb.

I had not wanted to go to this dinner. Not at all. Mainly because Clayton Silver was so d.a.m.n sure that I would. Yes, I know that I'd had a very pleasant lunch with him, but that was different, a one-off. He couldn't think that I would come running every time he snapped his fingers or dangled the chance of a free meal in front of me.

I did not need free meals. I did not need famous footballers. Most of all, I did not need Clayton Silver and his ridiculous self-a.s.surance. I wasn't some silly little groupie or wannabe-WAG, dazzled by him. I had my own life, thank you. And I told him all that. Quite firmly. He just laughed.

'Miss Tilly, this is for charity. You'd be keeping me company and helping me support a really good cause. And I know you're just too nice not to do that. So I'll send a car. It will be at the pub at seven. You want to help a charity, don't you?' And he was still laughing as he ended the call, not giving me time to refuse.

So here I was, arriving at a glitzy Newcastle hotel to join him for an evening. What could I be thinking of ?

As soon as I told Becca that Clayton had invited me, she took it as a done deal that we were going together.

'But I don't want to go!' I said. 'I don't want to be one of Clayton Silver's groupies!'

'But it might be fun,' said Becca, 'and if you don't go, I don't want to go by myself. And-'

'Oh, all right,' I said, finally, with bad grace, feeling as if I were back in primary school and being pressurised by my best friend. 'But I haven't got anything to wear. I've only got work clothes and jeans. I wasn't expecting to be going to fancy dinners.'

'We can sort that. Easy! I'll help you.'

I couldn't let her down. I was only going to keep her company, right?

I nearly changed my mind again. We had spent most of the afternoon getting ready. I'd abandoned work. Becca had rung one of the other barmaids to cover her shift, though as Becca was gabbling hopelessly on the phone, I'm sure Jan had no idea why. Probably thought Becca had finally flipped. I'd had to dash down to the little shop that sold Becca's scarves to buy myself a dress and shoes. Amazingly, the dress was easy to find-a very simple silk shift in a deep, dark green that looked quite ordinary on the hanger but surprisingly good on me. I couldn't believe my luck. That ran out with the shoes: in the tiny shop I had been given the choice of precisely two pairs in my size-and I thought longingly of all the shoes I had back in London-but they would have to do, I thought as I keyed in my credit card PIN. No time for anything better. Clayton might call me Miss Freshface, but I don't think he'd be too impressed if I'd landed here in my hiking boots.

So here we were. One of the doormen had already moved very politely to greet us and block our path. We gave our names, both of us suddenly panicking that we might be turned away, that it was all a joke. I hoped not, because Becca was so excited. At least this time, I'd brought phone, money and a credit card with me. I might get stood up but I wasn't going to be stranded.

The bouncer glanced at his clipboard, bowed slightly and waved us in. The doors opened and another flunkey ushered us up a grand curved staircase. As we made our way carefully-especially me in my new shoes-up the stairs, I wondered what we would do when we got to the top. Along the balcony I could see a gathering of men in dinner jackets and lots of glamorous-looking women. They gazed down at us for a second then, clearly deciding we were of no interest, looked away again.

Suddenly, there, at the top of the stairs, grinning, were Clayton and Alessandro, both of them looking elegant in dinner jackets and startlingly white shirts. 'Good evening, ladies,' said Clayton, bowing elaborately, kissing me, then Becca. Alessandro bowed and kissed us both too. 'Tony called to say he'd delivered you.'

Yeah, like a parcel.

Clayton stepped back for a moment and looked me up and down. 'Wow, you scrub up well,' he grinned. I glared at him.

'I'm only here to keep Becca company,' I said, stiffly.

'Well,' replied Clayton with a very serious face, 'that's extremely kind of you. I hope you won't suffer too much. I'll do my best to try and make it bearable.' With that, he pa.s.sed me a gla.s.s of champagne from the tray of a hovering waiter and led me to the banqueting room.

The evening was in aid of a cancer charity. The wife of Ted Blake, a local footballer, had died when only thirty years old, leaving him a widower with three young children. After a year out of the game he had returned as a successful player, then manager, brought up his children and raised millions for research into the illness that had killed his wife. Now, ten years on, he was on the verge of marrying again and this was possibly his final grand fundraising event. He was mingling with the guests, working the crowd, shaking hands, greeting people, laughing. 'I'm warning you all, I hope you've got your wallets and chequebooks handy because tonight you're going to need them!'

The crowd was full of footballers' faces that I vaguely knew, and a lot of older faces that I recognised from television, though it was harder to recognise them in real life and posh clothes, and they all looked smaller than they did on television. There was a scattering of stunning girls too. Tanned and toned in designer dresses and shoes so high I'm amazed they could walk in them. I felt suddenly very drab in my hurriedly bought outfit. Clayton caught me looking enviously as one girl with a sheet of long blonde hair and a tiny sequinned dress sashayed past in heels at least five inches high. He grinned. 'Can't see her walking along no moors in those,' he whispered.

But I had nothing to prove. Whether Clayton really wanted me there or not didn't matter a fig. I might not have my favourite outfit on, but I looked perfectly respectable. It was another new experience, another small adventure. I could sit back and enjoy it.

I even managed to smile at one of the cameramen, several of whom were wandering round the room. The pictures they took immediately appeared on a huge screen above the stage. I appeared briefly, smiling, and not looking too bad. It made me smile even more. Clayton leant towards me and pointed at the camera and I could see it at the same time on the vast screen. It made it strangely unreal. Then the cameras cut to some of the glamorous girls who flashed enormous smiles and impressive cleavages.

We were being ushered to our table. My place card said merely, 'Guest of Clayton Silver,' and I wondered why he had asked me and not brought along one of his many London girlfriends. Still, I was here now, and I might as well make the most of it. On my other side I had Bert, a retired football manager, whom I also recognised from television. He was famous as being a bluff, no-nonsense northerner. His wife Joan was kind and motherly. She decided that Becca looked just like her granddaughter. 'Eeh, you're just like our Kim,' she kept saying, and treated her with kindly interest, and kept asking Alessandro if he was homesick.

Ted Blake stood up and welcomed us all, said that everyone there tonight had given their services for free. 'There'll be many opportunities for you to give money tonight,' he said, 'I hope you make the most of them.'

It was an amazing evening. Even before the first course we had a short set from a top girl band, the members of which then went round selling raffle tickets at a tenner each. The MC was a top-rated comedian who kept popping up with more jokes and cajoling us to spend, spend, spend. I went to buy a raffle ticket from one of the girls, but Clayton put his hand on mine as I reached for my bag. 'No you don't, girl, this is my treat,' he said, and peeled off 100 from the bundle of notes in his wallet and then put the raffle tickets on the table in front of me. I glared at him, picked up the tickets and plonked them right back in front of him. Then I waved the girl back, got out my purse and bought some tickets myself.

'I can do my own charity-giving, thank you,' I said to Clayton, who looked surprised but laughed.

Most of the time the conversation ranged across the table and centred on football, on players, league rankings, contentious refereeing decisions. But all the time, in between, almost protected by the surrounding noise, Clayton and I were having our own private conversation too.

'I'm glad you could come,' he said, as he took a sip of his Merlot. 'I know phones don't work where you're staying: it's like a Bermuda triangle up there, isn't it? I thought I wouldn't find you. But I'm glad I did.'

'I thought you'd have plenty of people you could ask,' I said, swallowing the suggestion that he might have given me a little more warning.

'Yeah, well, London girls don't travel too well. They need at least three days to get ready.'

I thought for a moment. It clearly meant I was not in the same cla.s.s as the girls I'd seen him with in the club. I didn't need it to be underlined.

'Well, you're wrong. I'm a London girl, born and bred.'

'No you're not,' he smiled. 'You belong on those moors, all clean and outdoorsy. Or in the pub eating sausages with grease on your chin.'

Instinctively I put my hand up to my chin and then laughed at myself and he kissed the top of my head. Patronizing smoothie.

But Joan, my grandmotherly neighbour, smiled approvingly. 'Nice to see the young ones at an event like this. Not many of them can be bothered. And it's such a good cause. Have you two been courting long, pet?' she asked as we set about our trio of salmon starter.

'Oh, we're not courting,' I laughed, loving the old-fashioned phrase. 'I only met him a week ago. Before this we've only had lunch together once. I hardly know him,' I said, keen to put some distance between us.

'Eeh, well, you look just right with each other,' she said, and I took the remark and turned it over and over in my mind, examining it like a present waiting to be opened. Or a bomb waiting to explode.

Between the first and the second course, a very distinguished doctor stood up and spoke briefly of how desperately they needed more money for research. Then the comedian came back and told us that the envelopes in front of us contained forms on which we could make donations. It was a new scheme, he said, to encourage people just to give an hour of their time, or an hour of their wages.

'If I had a Premiership player's salary for an hour, I could live for a month,' he said. 'Instead we could help find a cure for cancer. So what are you waiting for? One hour, lads, come on. If you can't work it out, we're happy to do the sums for you!'

Clayton looked up at the picture of the young mother and her children. He pulled the envelope towards him. 'Guess I'd better put some money in the pot,' he said.

'Good for you!' I said.

'Yeah, I suspect you always do the right thing, Miss Tilly.'

'I wish!' I said. 'But you've got to try, haven't you?'

'Have you? Why?'

'Because, well,' I floundered, and thought of my mum and her endless talks about helping others...redressing inequalities...the privilege of generosity, etc, etc, etc. 'Well, it makes the world a nicer place, doesn't it?'

Clayton nodded and smiled. 'Yeah. It makes the world a nicer place. That's cool. I like that.'

He took his credit card from his wallet and filled in the form in the envelope. Before he replaced it and sealed the envelope, I leaned over to see how much. The figure filled in said 10,000.

'That's more than an hour's wage, even for you,' I said slowly. Even if he were showing off, he was certainly paying for the privilege. 'That will make the world quite a bit nicer, I think. And maybe let a few more children have their mothers around for longer.'

'I hope so,' said Clayton. He gazed at me for a moment, straight into my eyes, and it was as if the whole room vanished, the noise and the people, the comedian and his prattle, the waiters and waitresses, all faded out. For a moment I felt giddy, struggling, desperately trying to get my feet back on the ground. Then 'Hey Pete!' Clayton said to the footballer sitting opposite him. 'What d'you reckon to that young lad United played last night?' and the conversation returned, inevitably, to football.

On the other side of the table I could see that Alessandro and Becca were getting on very well, their heads, one so blonde, one so dark, bent together talking. Alessandro was busy with one of the heavy paper napkins, folding it this way and that until he had turned it into a rose, which he presented, with an extravagant bow, to Becca.

'That's beautiful!' she said, her face pink and happy as she took it. 'How do you know how to do that?'

'I worked with my uncle in his restaurant. I learnt to do this there,' he said, looking very pleased with himself and not at all like his fierce, determined image in the paper that morning.

'I shall give you real flowers,' he said, 'but for now, this is the only flower I have.'

Bert and Joan beamed approvingly. Not to be outdone, Clayton stretched out and picked one of the freesias from the table decoration and presented it to me.

'For you, Miss Tilly.'

'Oh, don't be daft,' I said, putting the dripping flower back in the vase. 'It'll only die. Let it stay in the vase where we can all enjoy it.'

As the meal went on, everything became more relaxed. People were wandering about the room. Many people stopped at our table to talk to Clayton. Other footballers came whooping up, giving high fives. A couple of people asked for his autograph, for their children. Clayton obliged cheerfully. It was getting warm. We seemed to have eaten and drunk so much already. The comedian announced that the auction would start in twenty minutes. A gay group, famous for singing outrageous lyrics, were doing a set in the foyer outside. A brigade of waiters and waitresses swept in to clear the tables.

Clayton took my hand. 'Let's get some fresh air,' he said, and led me out into the foyer, past the band and towards a gla.s.s-covered balcony that seemed to hang over the river. It was cooler there and blissfully quiet. Just us and the lights on the water.

'You were very generous with your donation in there,' I said.

'Yeah, well. Bad enough to grow up without a dad, even worse without a mum, even a mum like mine,' he said. 'And we all know I ain't earning the minimum wage,' he laughed.

'What will you do,' I blurted out, 'when you don't play football any more?'

'Hey, that's a big question, a very big question,' he said, gazing out at the water. 'Maybe do my coaching badges. Maybe television. Maybe just enjoy being rich. There's this man does my money for me. Tells me what do with it. 'Cept I keep buying wine with it. And pictures.'

'Pictures?'

'You know I didn't think I knew anything about art, but there's this Celia, she works with the man who looks after my money, she took me to a gallery and said I didn't have to know anything about art, just see if I liked anything.'

'And did you?'

'Yeah,' he said dreamily, 'yeah I did. I bought an Iolo John painting. Huge it is, just blue and white and green, but it sort of looks a bit like the sea, a bit like the sky. I don't know. Just a lot of clean s.p.a.ce. Like being in the air.'

I nodded. 'I saw some of his paintings at the Royal Academy last year. After all the installation-type pieces of blood and bottles and dead cows, you can actually get what he's on about. They're beautiful.'

'The money-man reckons it's a good investment. But I just like it on my wall.'

'I'm sure it's fantastic.'

'You can see it when you come round.'

I stayed very calm. 'Oh. I'm coming round, am I?'

'I hope so, Miss Tilly. It would be nice if you did.' And he leant forwards, took my face in his hands and kissed me. He smelt of wine and coffee and a wonderfully citrus cologne. I surfaced, blinking.

'Gosh,' I said. Clayton hooted with laughter.

'You are so not like any other woman I know,' he said. And kissed me again. Then took my hand and led me back into the banqueting suite where we were the last to return to our table. As we wriggled our way back into our seats, Becca grinned at me, and my grandmotherly neighbour smiled indulgently. The auction was about to start.

This was a serious event. The auctioneer-a sports presenter-could really do his stuff. He started with autographed football shirts which local businessmen paid up to 500 for, and was moving on through such delights as a hot-air balloon ride, a spa weekend, a week in a Tuscan farmhouse, the last going for 10,000.

'Lot Fifteen, a silver and amber necklace, specially designed and donated by top jeweller Theodore Bukala. "Rectangular silver links interspersed with polished amber in an unusual modern setting," it says here. "Striking and elegant with an intriguing contemporary simplicity." Who's going to start me off ? A thousand pounds anyone. Yes, to you sir...Fifteen hundred, anyone giving fifteen hundred?'

Becca and I looked on amazed as the bidding rose quickly to 10,000, then more slowly to 15,000. 'Any more?' asked the auctioneer. 'It really is a lovely piece, absolutely unique-and all for such a good cause. Any more?'

With that, Clayton casually lifted his menu card and the bidding was on again. It was between him and a player from Man United and Becca and I could barely dare to look as the bidding rose over 15,000, then 20,000, and finally up to 25,000. Then the other player's girlfriend must have decided that 25,000 was enough because I could see her put her hand on the man's arm and he shook his head at the auctioneer.

'Twenty-five thousand one hundred,' said the auctioneer. 'I think that's our final bid. Any more? Any more?' He looked round the room in the silence. 'Going, going...' And then brought the gavel down with a short sharp rap. 'Twenty-five thousand one hundred to Mr Clayton Silver.' And he moved on quickly to the hire of a small yacht currently moored in the Mediterranean.

Just as the bidding finished, a waiter appeared with a tray of brandies.

'I think we need those,' said Bert. 'Here, lad,' he said to Clayton, 'you'd better have a couple of these, the amount you've spent tonight.'

Clayton looked relaxed as he downed the brandy and a man appeared with a portable card payment machine. Clayton paid up and the man produced the box. The necklace was beautiful. As the man said, it was simple and elegant, the amber small, smooth and polished. It was absolutely beautiful.

'So that's twenty-five grand's worth, is it?' said Clayton. He lifted the necklace out of its presentation box.

He stood up, came behind me, and carefully fastened the necklace round my neck.

Joan clapped her hands in glee and excitement. 'And you've only known him a week, pet! Not bad going for a week!' she laughed.

I blushed bright red and looked round at Clayton. 'Oh no. I'm only trying it on,' I explained. 'It's not for me.'

'Yes it is,' said Clayton. 'Who else am I going to buy it for? Begging your pardon...' as he grinned at Joan.