Miranda's Big Mistake - Jill Mansell [126]
As she gazed at the TV, Miranda marvelled at the great outpouring of clichйs. Miles Harper's family and friends, naturally, were devastated. The whole country, intoned the especially clichй-prone newsreader on the lunchtime news, was devastated. Most of all, though, he gravely informed a nation in mourning, Miles's girlfriend was… utterly devastated.
`We now cross, live, to the scene of yesterday's tragic accident,' the newsreader announced. `Where Daisy Schofield, actress girlfriend of Miles Harper, has arrived to lay a wreath. Dermot, over to you.'
`Well, Michael, as you can see, Daisy Schofield is having to be helped out of her limousine. She's clearly distraught… clutching a magnificent wreath of pale-yellow lilies… a fragile figure dressed all in black. I must say, Michael, your heart goes out to her at this dreadful, dreadful time.'
`Shall I turn it off?' Chloe said anxiously.
Miranda shook her head. She wanted to see it all. Everything.
`… Barely able to stand, she is supported on either side by professional minders. Daisy, Daisy, we have a live link to the studio, I wonder if you feel up to saying a few words.' The on-the-spot reporter shoved a microphone under Daisy's nose. `Maybe you could tell us how you're feeling right now.'
As asinine questions went, this one pretty much took the biscuit.
Miranda wondered how the man would react if Daisy whipped off her sunglasses, flashed him a big smile and said, `Oh, not too bad, quite chirpy actually - and black does suit me, don't you think?'
Anyhow, that wasn't going to happen. The state of Daisy's eyes behind the opaque dark glasses was anybody's guess, but her mouth trembled with grief. Clutching the yellow lilies to her chest, she turned to the reporter and whispered brokenly, `I loved him so much, and he loved me. We were going to be married… he asked me on Friday night to marry him… We were so happy… Oh, this is like some terrible nightmare.' Daisy's voice rose to an anguished wail. `I can't believe he's gone. My life is over, over!' Shaking her head in desperation, she went on, `I feel so guilty, because he was hurrying back to London to see me. Oh God, I can't bear it!' Sinking to her knees, Daisy buried her face in the lilies and broke down completely, heaving great gut-wrenching sobs and pounding the ground with her clenched fists.
Cringing at the spectacle, itching to turn it off, Chloe indignantly said, `She's lying, it's all an act. Miles was coming back to see you.'
`He might not have been.' Miranda kept her gaze fixed on the screen. `She might not be lying. Maybe Miles was only stringing me along, pretending to have finished with her.'
`But you heard her on the phone,' Chloe protested. `You told me she was yelling at him on the extension, calling him a bastard.'
`Someone was calling him a bastard. It could have been anyone, screaming at the top of their voice like that.' Miranda didn't know what to believe any more. She watched Daisy Schofield, on the TV, being helped to her feet. One of the burly minders had passed her a lace handkerchief and Daisy was dabbing under her dark glasses, muttering feverishly, `He was mine, all mine.'
Chloe's head jerked up. She'd definitely heard that line before. What's more, the voice was the same too.
`She rang here! On Saturday afternoon. I thought it was someone warning me to keep away from Fenn!'
`Warn you? Why would anyone do that?' Despite everything, Miranda was momentarily diverted. `You're pregnant.'
`I know.' Chloe felt incredibly stupid. `It just didn't occur to me that they might have been trying to scare off the wrong person.'
`So for now, we leave Daisy Schofield to grieve in peace at the scene of her fiancй's tragic demise. This is Dermot Hegarty, handing back to you, Michael, in the studio.'
`Dermot, thank you.'
`Yes, Dermot. Thank you,' said Miranda, switching off the TV at last.
`So he did finish with Daisy.' As Chloe consoled her with a hug, the phone began to ring.
`It's me.' Bruce sounded aggrieved. `I can't run this bloody shop single-handed, you