The Hidden Women - Kerry Barrett

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I’d said, feeling a tiny shiver of excitement mixed with fear. ‘I’m pregnant.’

      Greg had glanced at the plastic stick and then kissed me, his breath minty fresh.

      ‘I need to run,’ he’d simply said. ‘We’ll chat tonight.’

      And now we were chatting and it wasn’t going the way I’d thought it would.

      ‘I thought we were set,’ I said. ‘I thought we were a team.’

      ‘We are a team,’ Greg said. ‘You and me.’

      ‘You and me and our baby,’ I said.

      Greg winced. He tried to cover it up by pretending to cough, but I’d seen it.

      ‘I don’t want to have a baby, Helena,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, but that’s just how I feel.’

      I couldn’t speak.

      ‘There’s a clinic,’ Greg said. ‘Max at work told me about it. His girlfriend went there a while back. He gave me the card, hang on …’

      He dug about in his pocket while I let my fingers drift down to rest on my stomach.

      ‘I need some air,’ I said, ignoring his outstretched hand clutching a business card. ‘I’m going for a walk.’

      I grabbed my jacket from the arm of the sofa, and stumbled my way out of the front door.

      ‘H,’ Greg said. ‘Don’t be like this. It’s hormones; you’re not thinking straight.’

      I didn’t answer. I walked a little way down the road and then I sat at a bus stop and took my phone out.

      ‘Miranda?’ I said, when my sister answered. ‘I need your help. I’m having a baby and I think I’ve just left Greg.’

       Chapter 1

      Helena

      May 2018

      ‘Here?’ I said, staring at my boss Fliss in astonishment. ‘Jack Jones is coming here?’

      ‘Yes, here,’ she said, resting her hand on her computer keyboard as though to warn me I was about to lose her attention. ‘Apparently he’s very interested in social history and he wants to know how you work. It’s no biggie.’

      ‘But I’ve got a system,’ I said, knowing it was no good protesting when Fliss had decided something. ‘I don’t want him to mess it up.’

      ‘He’s not taking over, Helena, he just wants to know how you’re getting on.’ Fliss sounded impatient. ‘He’ll be here after lunch.’

      I forced a smile. ‘Fine,’ I said. ‘I’ll get some stuff together.’

      I wandered back to my desk feeling wrong-footed.

      ‘What’s with the face?’ asked my colleague Elly as I sat down. ‘Did Fliss tell you off?’

      I wiggled my mouse to wake up my screen. ‘No,’ I said gloomily. ‘She told me Jack bloody Jones is coming in this afternoon to see how I’m getting on with my research.’

      ‘Shut. Up,’ said Elly, spinning round in her chair to face me. ‘Shut. Up.’

      I blinked at her. Did she really mean me to be quiet?

      ‘Jack Jones is coming here? THE Jack Jones? We never get to meet the celebs,’ Elly was beginning to babble. ‘I’ve worked on this show for five years and I’ve never met one single person whose family history I’ve researched. Have you met anyone?’

      ‘No,’ I said. She was right. I’d not worked on Where Did You Come From? as long as Elly had, but I’d researched the family trees of lots of celebrities and not been so much as introduced to anyone.

      ‘And it’s Jack Jones?’ Elly went on. ‘Jack. Jones.’

      I nodded. ‘It’s an interesting one, actually. His great-grandfather was at the Somme …’

      I trailed off as Elly waved her hand to shush me.

      ‘He’s gorgeous,’ she said. ‘Properly handsome. And I’ve heard he’s going to be in that new superhero film soon so he’ll be a massive Hollywood star.’

      I nodded again. I knew who Jack Jones was of course – star of the latest Sunday night detective drama that was wowing audiences, and tipped for superstardom – and Elly was right, he was gorgeous. In any other circumstances I’d love to meet him. But I had a certain way of working, and a system, and a process, and I didn’t appreciate interference or anyone checking up on me, however handsome they were.

      ‘Will you come with me?’ I asked Elly. ‘To the meeting?’

      She gaped at me. ‘Seriously?’ she said. ‘The meeting with Jack Jones?’

      I couldn’t help laughing at her face. ‘Yes, the meeting with Jack Jones,’ I said. ‘I could do with the help.’

      Elly was getting up from her chair. She pulled on her coat and picked up her bag as I looked on in confusion.

      ‘Is that a no?’ I said.

      ‘It’s a yes,’ she threw back over her shoulder as she headed for the lift. ‘I’m going to buy a new top and get my hair blow-dried.’

      Chuckling to myself I turned back to my screen. We worked on more than one celebrity story at a time and I was currently tracking the maternal line of a breakfast TV presenter. I’d got right back to the early 1800s and I thought I might be able to go further if I was clever about it.

      I clicked on to the census web page I used, intending to get back to work, though I couldn’t concentrate on Sarah Sanderson properly with the news that Jack Jones was coming into the office weighing on my mind. I absolutely loved my job and I considered myself to be really lucky that I’d landed this role on Where Did You Come From? Social history may have been my passion but it wasn’t exactly well paid – so making the jump into television was brilliant for me – and I enjoyed the research as well as seeing the process of the show being made. My colleagues were lovely, and Fliss was very understanding when it came to having to rush off on time each evening to collect Dora from nursery, or working from home when she was ill.

      Spinning round in my chair, I surveyed my shelves of neat brown folders, each with the name of the celebrity written along the spine and arranged in alphabetical order. I ran my finger along them until I found J and pulled out the Jack Jones file. I’d found out quite a lot about his family already so I had things to tell him. But today I was supposed to be working on Sarah Sanderson’s family history. Giving up an afternoon to Jack Jones was going to throw everything out.

      I opened the folder and looked at the picture of him clipped to the front cover. I liked to have a photo of each person so I knew whose family I was researching – especially for those celebs I didn’t really know much about. It helped them become real for me, and then their families became real, too.

      Elly was right, Jack Jones was really handsome. He had glossy brown hair that was longish and curlyish and flopped over his forehead, and a smile with a hint of mischief. I felt a brief flicker of excitement. Though I wasn’t a massive fan of the whole celeb thing – I couldn’t name the Kardashians or the members of One Direction – I had really enjoyed the detective series that Jack had starred in. I wondered if it would be weird to discuss the cryptic ending with him and decided it would be a bit fangirl. Mind you, I thought, not as fangirl as Elly getting her hair done.

      I picked up my phone, smiling at the picture of Dora wearing my sunglasses on my home screen, and took a photo of Jack’s picture, then added it to my siblings’ group chat.

      ‘Guess who I’m meeting this afternoon …’ I typed.

      Almost straight

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