Page 64 of The Cottage in the Highlands

Once small talk had been exchanged, I began by asking her about her skincare brand.

Lulu enthused about her brand, Stardust, and was about to extoll the virtues of its eco-packaging when I slid a measured side-eye to Kerry. This was her cue.

I noticed her fingers gripping her notebook as though she were about to tear it into shreds. “Ms Stark,” she smiled, swallowing. “Sorry to interrupt but I wanted to raise something with you.”

From the deep recesses of one corner, her agent Seth Gordon’s long, thin face emerged and flickered. He had been so quiet, so obscured, we hadn’t realised he was lurking there.

I gave an impromptu start.

“We have been led to believe,” faltered Kerry, “that the Stardust range has been…” Her voice struggled to maintain its level of authority.

I nodded my head at her in an encouraging fashion.

She carried on. “That your skincare range has been cutting some ethical corners, as it were.”

Lulu’s round, open face was stunned. “Sorry? Like what? Where has this come from?”

Seth Gordon strode out of the shadows like a Machiavellian villain in his slim-cut navy suit. “Ms Stark would be more than happy to discuss any questions about her skincare brand on another occasion. This isn’t the time or the place.”

“Oh, but I think it is,” I explained with a winning smile. “We’ve been led to believe that a number of the products you are launching will be sold for inflated prices. There’s also concern that the eco-friendly packaging isn’t as sustainable as you’re claiming…”

“This interview is over,” barked Seth Gordon, looming over Kerry and me. “This is completely unacceptable. You’ve come in here to speak to Lulu under false pretences.”

“Hang on,” said Lulu, at risk of giving herself a crick in the neck as she stared from her agent to me and then to Kerry. “What the hell is going on here? Do you have any evidence of this? Can I see it?”

Kerry dipped into her bucket bag to produce a collection of information she had been sent from a member of Lulu’s team, but Seth Gordon was too quick. He fired out a bony hand and grabbed it.

“Hey!”

His cool ice-blue gaze swept over the information he clutched in his hand. “This is all bollocks! All cooked up by a former employee of Lulu’s team.”

He gave Lulu a crocodile smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “You remember that strange girl we employed eighteen months ago? Simone Wales? I bet it’s her that’s been bleating a pack of lies to the press.”

He let out a dramatic snort. “I knew from day one she couldn’t be trusted, but Lulu is a little naïve and trusting when it comes to people. She always has been.”

“Can I see it, Seth?” pressed Lulu, ignoring the gentle verbal dig from her agent and craning her neck from her chair.

But Seth swept the papers into his other hand. “No need for you to bother yourself with all this, Lulu. I’ll deal with it.”

He stalked past Kerry and me and yanked the press room door open. “Thank you for coming, ladies.”

“But they only just got here,” blustered Lulu.

“They can ask you anything else about your work/life balance over the phone,” declared Seth with a shark-like grin. “We can schedule another conversation over the phone or on Zoom.”

He leant in to Lulu. “And don’t forget, you have that Radio 4 interview for Women’s Hour to pre-record today.”

Kerry and I swapped knowing, irritated looks and before we knew what was happening, we’d been bundled out of the door and were standing on the other side of it.

It slammed shut behind us.

“Lulu Stark is being manipulated,” I hissed to Kerry as we made our way back to my car. “By that slimy creep. She doesn’t have a clue what’s going on.”

Kerry turned around and squinted up at the heavy stone-built theatre glittering in the November light. “So, what do you suggest we do now?”

“You go back to your contact and see what else you and they can come up with. And I can do a bit of digging on our friendly, neighbourhood Seth Gordon, if that would help.”

“Oh, that would be brilliant,” she breathed. “Thanks.”