Page 15 of Escape to the Country

Eleanor abruptly stopped texting and googled Sam Harris instead. She couldn’t believe it. How had she managed to forget what Annie’s fiancé did for a living? Of course, they hadn’t had a proper catch-up for ages which didn’t help. But she had only been thinking of his life at Willow Tree Hall and not his actual day job.

She stared down at the Google results in wonder. It turned out that Sam managed a whole load of famous bands, the most popular of all was Tommy King.

She looked up at her mum and broke into her first genuine smile that day.

This was it! This was her chance! She felt a lightning bolt of excitement surge through her. Who would have thought that there could be a story here in sleepy Cranley, after all? With a connection to so many music stars, surely she could dig something up, even here in the middle of the countryside?

The relief inside was immense. Perhaps she would discover such an amazing scoop that she would blaze a trail back to London, arriving in glory. She would even have scary Theresa begging her to come back.

In fact, all of the print press in London would be desperate to hire her if they found about her scoop. But finally it would be on her terms. With this one last story, she could leave the celebrity world far behind her once and for all and become a serious journalist.

Then nobody back home would ever need to know how close she had been to revealing her perfect life was a sham.