Page 1 of Shy Innocent In The Spotlight

CHAPTER ONE

ELSPETHSTAREDATher twin sister in heart-stopping, skin-prickling, I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-hearing alarm. ‘You want me to do what?’

Elodie rolled her eyes as if it were a competitive sport she was trying to win a gold medal in. ‘It’s not like you’ve never been a bridesmaid before. This will be—’

‘The one and only time I was a bridesmaid, the bride didn’t show up,’ Elspeth said with a speaking look. ‘Or have you completely erased jilting Lincoln Lancaster from your memory?’

Elodie gave a dismissive wave of her hand. ‘Oh, that was years and years ago. Everyone’s forgotten about that now.’ She leaned forward on the sofa with a beseeching puppy-dog look in her blue eyes. ‘So, will you do it? Will you stand in for me, just for the wedding rehearsal, in the Highlands of Scotland? You’ve always said you’d like to see where our ancestors came from. I’ll be back in time for the wedding and we’ll do a quick switch and you can leave by a back door and no one will ever know a thing.’

‘But why can’t you be there yourself? What’s so important that you can’t be there for your friend the whole weekend?’

‘Sabine is not actually a close friend as such,’ Elodie said with a side note of cynicism in her tone. ‘I know for a fact I’ve only been invited to be her bridesmaid because of my fame as a lingerie model. She likes to surround herself with influencer types and apparently she sees me as one. I’ve only met her a handful of times, which is why you and I switching places will work so well.’

Elspeth cast her gaze over her twin’s beautifully made-up face, her professionally styled hair and perfectly manicured hands. They might be identical twins but they lived in entirely different worlds. Elodie’s world was exotic and expansive and exciting. Elspeth’s world was small and secure and safe...well, as safe as anyone could be who lived with a life-threatening peanut allergy. Elspeth wanted to help her sister, they were close and had always had each other’s back, but they hadn’t switched places since they were kids. But a society wedding was a big deal. She wasn’t great at mingling, hated small talk and was painfully shy when out of her natural environment.

But then, the chance to visit Scotland, the birthplace of their ancestors, was tempting—especially without her overprotective mother tagging along as she did the last time Elspeth tried to have a weekend away. Talk about embarrassing.

But...

Her life to date had been a series of ‘buts’ and ‘what ifs’. She had missed out on so many activities her peers took for granted. Her world had shrunk while her sister’s had expanded. Their mother’s fear for Elspeth’s survival since infancy had become pathological. But, to be fair, there had been a few horrendous moments during her childhood and adolescence when she had accidentally come into contact with peanuts. Her first proper date being particularly notable. One kiss and she had to be rushed to hospital in a sirens-screaming, lights-flashing ambulance. Not fun. Travelling anywhere outside her safety zone was fraught with potential danger. What if she ran out of EpiPens or couldn’t get to a hospital in time? What if she made a complete and utter fool of herself? ‘I don’t know...’

Elodie bounced off the sofa and placed her hands on her hips, her expression etched in stern lines of reproof only an older sister by ten minutes could pull off. ‘See? You always do that.’

Elspeth looked at her in puzzlement. ‘Do what?’

‘You limit yourself. You say no when deep down you really want to say yes.’ Elodie ran a hand through her long curly mane of red-gold hair. ‘You do it because of Mum always being so overprotective of you. But you need to get out more, Els. You have to prove to Mum you can do stuff on your own and this is a perfect chance to do it. You have no life other than working at the library. You haven’t been on a date since you were eighteen, for God’s sake. And apart from work, you spend most of your time alone. Don’t you want to see how the other half lives for a change? Have some fun? Be daring and spontaneous?’

Elspeth knew there was an element of truth in her twin’s observation—a truth she had been avoiding facing for quite some time. Her world was small, too small, and lately she had been feeling the walls of her tiny world closing in on her even more. But that didn’t mean stepping into her twin’s sky-high party-girl shoes for twenty-four hours in the Highlands of Scotland was a wise or sensible thing to do. ‘But you haven’t answered my question. What’s so important that you can’t be at the wedding rehearsal yourself? Why the need for the crazy subterfuge?’

Elodie lowered her hands from her hips and sat back on the sofa opposite Elspeth. She clasped her hands between her bent knees, her eyes sparkling with barely contained excitement. ‘Because I have a top-secret meeting in London about possible financial backing for my own designs. You know how desperately I want to launch my own label? Well, this could be my big chance to do it.’ Her expression suddenly became as sombre as an undercover operative talking to a fellow agent. ‘My only chance to do it. But I don’t want to compromise my current contract if word got out that I was thinking of leaving. I want the finances done and dusted before I hand in my resignation.’

Elspeth could understand her twin’s desire to leave the world of lingerie modelling behind. She, personally, as an introvert, could not think of anything more terrifying than strutting down a catwalk in just knickers and a bra or a bikini. But her extroverted twin had up until recently seemingly enjoyed the limelight, lapping up the fame and regular travel to exotic locations for photo shoots. When Elodie uploaded a new bikini on her Instagram account, the sales went through the stratosphere. Elspeth, on the other hand, didn’t have any social-media platforms, nor did she have any bikinis. She was a one-piece, keep-her-life-private type of girl.

Would it hurt to step out of her comfort zone for twenty-four hours? To switch places with her twin just long enough to see what life was like on the other side? It wasn’t as if she were going on a photo shoot for her twin. It wasn’t even for the actual wedding, just the rehearsal. ‘Is there anyone else you know who’s going to the wedding? I mean, more intimately than the bride?’

Elodie reached for her drink on the coffee table, her eyes not quite meeting Elspeth’s. ‘One or two casual acquaintances maybe.’

Elspeth sat up a little straighter in her seat, a chill running down her spine as if a blast of cold wind had blown through the window straight off the top of the Cairngorms. ‘But what if someone realises it’s not you?’

‘How will anyone know it’s not me?’ Elodie asked. ‘You were the one who insisted I never mention I had an identical twin when I started modelling. The most I’ve ever said in an interview is I have a younger sister, but I didn’t say how much younger. Your privacy will remain intact because everyone will think it’s me, not you. And because you’re not on social media, and you were home-schooled, there are no photos of us together, no one is likely to make the connection. Our secret will be safe. Trust me.’

‘But what about your wedding?’ Elspeth said. ‘Some photos of the wedding party were leaked online, remember? And everyone at the wedding had a go at me because they thought I must have known you were going to pull the plug on Lincoln. I’m sure I was referred to as your twin in at least a couple of press releases.’

Elodie chewed at her lower lip for a brief moment, her smooth brow furrowing slightly. But then her expression went back to its I’ve-got-this-covered mode. ‘That was so early in my career, no one will remember it. Lincoln was far more famous than me back then.’

‘But that’s exactly my point. What if someone did a little research? Once online, always online, remember?’

‘You’re worrying too much.’

Elspeth had good reasons for not wanting any media exposure as a result of her sister’s career. Elodie had always played on her looks, always loved being the centre of attention, always loved working the room. Elspeth had done the opposite—always downplaying her physical assets so as to avoid the attention her twin craved. Elspeth could not bear the thought of dozens of paparazzi chasing her down the street, thrusting numerous camera lenses in her face, potentially mistaking her for her twin. Could not bear the thought of her private life being made fodder for gossip magazines.

Could not bear to be compared to her vivacious twin and found lacking.

Elspeth wasn’t charming and vivacious, she wasn’t a social butterfly, she was a moth.

But...the prospect of twenty-four hours pretending to be her twin did trigger a strange sense of excitement in her blood. It was a chance to step out of her cocoon of cotton wool. The cocoon their mother had wrapped her in since her first anaphylactic reaction as a two-year-old. She wasn’t two any more. She was twenty-eight and tired of being mollycoddled by her mum. Moving into her own flat a month ago had been the first step towards greater autonomy. Maybe this would be another chance to prove to her mother she could move about in the world without putting herself in mortal danger.

‘Okay...’ Elspeth mentally crossed her fingers. ‘Let’s do it.’

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