Hidden Read online

  Hidden

  Barbara Taylor Bradford

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Keep Reading – Treacherous

  About the Author

  Also by Barbara Taylor Bradford

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  One

  Claire dressed in a hurry. If she was late there would be questions, and she couldn’t risk that today.

  She pulled on black leggings, a black cashmere turtleneck jumper and tall, butter-soft boots. She had the sort of body that was easy to dress: tall, lean, flexible. She looped a scarf around her neck and secured it with a vintage brooch. A chunky bracelet, gold earrings and a basic black uniform was turned into something special and uniquely hers.

  It was a gift, she knew, this different way of seeing fashion; one that had propelled her from sales assistant to head of the famous personal shopping department at Gilda, the most exclusive store in New York. It was said that she dressed everyone from the First Lady to Lady Gaga, but Claire would never confirm that.

  She was a woman who knew how to keep secrets.

  Claire examined her reflection in the mirror. Her skin was still flawless at forty-two. The wide-set sea-blue eyes were steady as she studied herself. She knew, from hard experience, that the reddish tint spreading over half her face would soon turn a bluish purple, then green, and finally a sickly yellowish brown.

  With grim determination, and a skilled hand, Claire set to work trying to cover the still tender bruises. A mixture of yellow and white cover-up first, the green, colour-correcting primer, then a coating of foundation, thick but subtle. She rarely wore makeup of any sort, and if the coverage was too obvious, a friend would notice. She added a bit of carefully placed blusher, and a bright lipstick to focus the attention. As an afterthought, she pulled out a pair of oversized sunglasses with pink lenses from the drawer, and put them on. People wore sunglasses inside all the time.

  You don’t, she reminded herself, and reluctantly removed the glasses, shook her mane of rich auburn hair loose from its clip and inspected her handiwork.

  A sob caught in her throat. This time her skill had failed her. The carefully covered bruises looked like what they were – battle scars. She hit speed-dial on her mobile.

  ‘It’s just a slight fever,’ she told Sasha, praying that her friend wouldn’t sense that she was lying. ‘I’m going to crawl into bed and watch reruns of Downton Abbey.’

  ‘Sounds decadent! Maybe I’ll stop by after lunch and join you?’

  ‘No!’ Claire did her best to sound lighthearted. ‘I’m a germ factory. Toxic.’

  ‘If you recall, I have the immune system of a dinosaur!’ Sasha laughed. ‘I haven’t been sick since your daughter shared her chicken pox with me fourteen years ago.’

  Claire couldn’t help smiling. Sasha always had that effect on her, even in the worst of times. They had been best friends since meeting on the train in 1992. Twenty years ago. Then they had been young brides filled with hope and excitement, and dreams of happily ever after.

  Soon there were four of them who met every weekday on the 8:27 Westport to Grand Central express train. Julia and Paulina got on the train in Fairfield, and saved the four-seater in the third carriage back. Claire and Sasha got on in Westport, with coffee and croissants. On that train to Manhattan the four of them had shared their lives: the triumphs as well as the struggles to balance the careers they loved with family life. More recently, they admitted their mixed feelings now that the children they practically raised together had left for college. Most discussed their marital troubles.

  Not Claire.

  Her husband, Mark, had long held important positions in the US government. Currently he was special advisor to the President on Middle Eastern affairs. Even a whiff of scandal would wreck everything he had spent his life working towards.

  At least that’s what he was always telling Claire.

  So she kept her problems to herself, except where Sasha was concerned. You just couldn’t lie to Sasha. The other women, too, sensed something was amiss in the seemingly perfect marriage of Claire and Mark Saunders. They said nothing out of love for their friend, but they worried.

  ‘May I remind you, Sasha, that the dinosaurs are extinct? Go to lunch. Tell Julia and Paulie I’ll be there next Saturday without fail.’ She tried to keep her voice light. ‘Same time, same place.’

  Claire finished the call quickly. She drifted into the long gallery that ran the length of the house, and put a match to one of the fires that Mr Atkins, the caretaker, kept laid in each of the home’s five fireplaces.

  It was a large room; the house had been designed by a famous architect and all the rooms were airy and spacious and flooded with light. Claire had decorated the graceful space so that there were cosy corners for one or two, as well as ample space for the grand receptions that were part of Mark’s job.

  She curled up next to the crackling fire and studied the vases of roses that seemed to occupy every surface in the large room. So many roses. Too many roses, as always yellow and pink. The doorbell began to ring over and over, pulling her out of her dark thoughts. More roses, she thought, heading for the hall. She was limping a bit now from the falls she had taken last night. She pulled the door open, but instead of the delivery man from Petals there stood Sasha.

  Sasha was as petite and blonde as Claire was tall and exotic. She was one of the few female producers working on television commercials. In that world many men had mistaken her Barbie-Doll prettiness for softness or, worse, lack of intelligence. Few made that mistake twice.

  ‘Chicken soup from Gold’s Deli,’ Sasha announced, waving a shopping bag as she marched inside. ‘Better than Lemsip!’

  Claire stood frozen in the doorway.

  ‘Where are we with Downton?’ Sasha’s words trailed off as she entered the gallery and saw the flowers: vase after vase after vase.

  Claire still hadn’t moved.

  ‘Dear God.’ The words came out in a whisper. ‘So many.’

  Sasha turned back to her friend, fearing what she would see but knowing. ‘It must have been bad this time.’ Sasha tenderly examined her friend’s damaged face. ‘Very bad. Oh, Claire.’

  ‘I told you not to come.’ Claire fought back tears. She hurried past Sasha and into the gallery, trying to escape the worry she saw on her friend’s face.

  ‘Work again? He still wants you to give up your job, your career?’ Sasha didn’t wait for an answer.

  ‘He worries about me commuting,’ Claire murmured.

  Sasha was following her. ‘Are you limping? Claire, you’re limping!’

  ‘It’s nothing. It was a small thing.’

  ‘A small thing? You look like you’ve been through World War Three! What is wrong with him?’

  Claire started to defend him, but stopped herself. She knew she was lying to Sasha – and to herself. ‘You can’t tell anyone. Please …’

  ‘Shhhhh.’ The words were muffled
as Sasha sat on the arm of the chair and put her arms around her friend, stroking her hair with tenderness. ‘It’s okay. It’s going to be okay.’

  They were both weeping now.

  ‘We have to find a way to stop him, Claire. We must. It’s getting worse. Each time, it’s worse.’

  ‘It’s just this Middle East thing he’s working on for the President! Things are out of control over there—’

  Sasha cut her off, fighting to hide her frustration. ‘It’s not the Middle East, Claire! It’s him! Mark is the one who is out of control. And if we don’t find a way to stop him, one of these days he’s going to kill you!’

  Two

  Dusk had its own strange colour in Connecticut during those first days of spring. After the grey winter, a pink haze began to steal over the gardens, promising better things ahead.

  The two women sat side by side, trays on laps, watching the light show through the windows of the conservatory, which Claire had turned into a study. A vase, stuffed with two dozen pink and yellow roses, sat on the table that held a flat-screen television.

  Claire used the remote to switch off the set. ‘Now that was really good,’ she sighed.

  ‘Which?’ Sasha asked. ‘Gold’s chicken soup or Lady Edith from Downton Abbey getting what was coming to her for gossiping about her sister?’

  ‘Both.’ Claire reached for her friend’s hand. ‘Thank you for staying with me.’

  ‘If you’d allow it, I’d stand guard over you with a shotgun until Mark leaves for Cairo.’

  Claire looked out of the windows at the fading sunlight, desperate to change the subject. ‘Today is Deborah’s birthday. Twenty-one. Can you believe it?’

  ‘How could I forget? I’m her godmother.’ Sasha knew Claire so well, knew she needed a moment now, some space to think, so she didn’t press. But she was far from finished with the problem. ‘Have you spoken with our little musical genius yet?’ she asked.

  ‘She had classes all day, and then she and a friend have tickets to some big concert at the Albert Hall. I’ll call soon.’

  ‘What time is it in London?’

  ‘Four hours ahead. So I have time.’

  ‘Ah …’ Sasha moved so she could look at Claire. ‘I was just wondering. How would you handle it, if I told you someone was hurting Deborah?’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Claire exclaimed.

  Sasha fixed her with her laser-like gaze. ‘I don’t mean for real. What if someone was hurting her like Mark hurts you? What would you do?’

  ‘Don’t do this, Sasha. I don’t want to talk about it right now. Okay?’ Claire started to get out of the chair. ‘I just can’t.’

  ‘Don’t run away. We have to make a plan. Seriously Claire, we can’t do what we’ve been doing. We have to talk about this.’

  ‘Talk about what?’ The man’s voice was coming from the doorway. Neither woman moved.

  Mark Saunders didn’t so much walk as glide into a room, bringing with him a heady mixture of good looks, charm and a certain danger that made him impossible to ignore. At forty-four, he still had the boyish blond looks that women love.

  ‘Hello, darling.’ He leaned down to kiss Claire, who was trying desperately to control her trembling.

  ‘Good grief, you look as if someone shot your dog. What’s going on?’ There was a smile on his face, but he was on full alert, taking the measure of the mood in the room. That was what he did for a living.

  He turned his smile on Sasha. ‘You look beautiful, as always. How’s Jeff? How are the television ads? Still busy persuading the public to buy things they don’t need?’

  Sasha held his blue eyes but did not return the smile. ‘I do what I can.’ She sipped her wine, not taking her gaze off Mark. ‘And Jeff is fine. I’ll tell him you were asking about him.’

  Shooting her friend a pleading look, Claire was on her feet. ‘I thought you weren’t coming home till much later. I would have had dinner—’

  ‘Stop,’ he purred, putting an arm around her, the model of a devoted husband. ‘You’ll make Sasha think I keep you chained to the stove. So, Sasha, what is it you and Claire must talk about? I’m afraid I interrupted you two.’

  ‘Actually, you did,’ Sasha now returned his mega-smile with one of her own, equally charming and equally false. ‘I’m trying to persuade Claire to have this year’s Near and Far charity fund-raiser at Gilda, but the poor lamb is stuck in the past. She’s afraid people won’t want to drive home from the city late at night.’

  Sasha put her wine glass down, and took Claire’s as well, so Mark would not notice that her friend’s hand was trembling. ‘Mark, convince your wife that just because we live in Connecticut, we don’t need a passport to cross the border into New York City.’

  ‘I wouldn’t try to convince Claire of anything.’ The tension in his jaw began to fade. ‘She’s a woman who knows her own mind.’

  ‘Oh Mark, I know now why you’re the star of Washington. Always the diplomat! Claire’s a lucky girl.’ She kissed her friend on the cheek gingerly so as not to hurt the bruises. ‘And, for Heaven’s sake, watch where you’re walking from now on. Mark, tell her! She walked into the door of the closet this morning, and look what it did to her face.’ Sasha made sure that Mark looked at each and every mark on Claire’s beautiful face.

  ‘My dear, how did that happen?’ he asked, sounding puzzled.

  ‘You know Claire. She has her head in the clouds and doesn’t see the danger around her,’ Sasha replied, keeping her voice even.

  ‘You know I’m clumsy.’ Claire managed to make her voice sound normal. She didn’t dare show Sasha how grateful she was for this little performance.

  Mark put one of his perfectly manicured fingers on her cheek and traced the line of bruises. ‘This looks wicked. Poor girl. Sasha is right. You must take better care of yourself.’

  ‘I’ll be careful, I promise.’

  Sasha looked Claire in the eye. ‘I’m going to hold you to that promise.’

  ‘So will I,’ Mark said, kissing the bruises ever so gently. ‘Not to worry, Sasha, I will take care of your friend.’

  Sasha had to hurry from the room, because she was very close to punching Mark in the face, just as he had done to Claire.

  Three

  Claire knew Mark was watching: checking her mood, searching her eyes for secrets, judging each sentence that passed her lips.

  He had taken his time with the dinner she had hurriedly prepared after Sasha left. ‘Are you sure you won’t have another glass of wine? It’s really excellent.’

  ‘I don’t think so, Mark.’

  But he was already pouring. She dutifully thanked him and took a tiny sip. ‘What time do you leave for Egypt tomorrow?’

  ‘Early. You know, if you weren’t married to that job of yours, you could come with me. See the world.’

  Claire managed a small laugh. ‘See the inside of a hotel room, you mean. You work night and day on these trips.’

  ‘And what do you do when I’m away?’

  Claire knew she needed to be careful. She was silent.

  ‘Do you think you spend too much time with that gang of yours?’ he asked.

  ‘Mark, they are my friends; that’s all.’

  ‘You see them every day on the train. You’d think that would be enough. But then Saturday too. The unmissable Saturday lunches. What on earth do you find to talk about?’

  ‘You know. The kids, work.’

  ‘Do you tell them about me? What a monster I am?’

  ‘Of course I don’t.’

  ‘The roses look nice. Do you like them?’

  It was all Claire could do to keep from screaming. ‘Very much,’ she answered quietly, holding herself still.

  ‘I’m sorry about last night. I feel terrible. But it’s almost as if you enjoy pushing my buttons.’ He stared at her intently.

  Claire remained stock still, looking back at him, trying to keep her face blank. ‘If you had any idea how much pressure I’m under, how
important my work is to the country, maybe you wouldn’t push me. Do you think I like hurting you?’

  ‘No. I don’t think that.’ Carefully, very carefully Claire pushed her chair back, keeping her tone light. ‘Are you about finished with dinner? It’s late in London, and I want to reach Deborah before she goes to bed.’

  ‘You know college kids. It’s her birthday. She’ll be up all night drinking shots with her friends.’

  ‘Mark, she won’t. She has to play for the college tomorrow, and she’ll want to be in top form. It’s the Royal Academy of Music, for heaven’s sake.’

  ‘Plenty of musicians party. Can’t she have a little fun?’ He turned his boyish grin on Claire. ‘You’re only twenty-one once.’

  ‘You’re right, of course.’ Her smile was cautious. His love for Deborah always touched her and maybe he really was just being sweet tonight. She needed to stop expecting another explosion. She so wanted to believe it wouldn’t happen again. ‘I suppose just because our daughter is studying to be a concert pianist doesn’t mean she can’t be a good-looking party animal like her father.’

  ‘Was he?’ Mark was staring into his wine, swirling it around and around, staring into the glass.

  ‘Oh, you still are quite the party boy.’ She took another sip. The wine was calming her. ‘Good looking, too.’ She touched his hand.

  ‘I was talking about her real father.’

  He smiled at her again, but this time a chill began climbing her spine. She carefully removed her hand from his, knowing she must tread carefully now, and not contradict him. Mark was at his most dangerous when he was being charming. ‘You are the only father she has ever known,’ Claire finally said.

  ‘You didn’t answer my question,’ he shot back, his voice suddenly hard.

  Claire got up and started clearing the table.

  Mark continued to study his wine. ‘I know nothing about your great love. Was he tall? Skinny? Fat? Did he like music? Is that where Deborah’s talent comes from?’

  Claire took the dishes into the kitchen without a word, trying to push back her emotions.

  Mark followed her.

  ‘All I know about Deborah’s long-gone daddy is that he walked out on you before she was born. And never looked back. So I don’t understand why his memory is so sacred that you refuse to speak of him, won’t even tell me his name. Or maybe it’s because he’s not really gone.’