Free Runaway Actress by Victoria Connelly Page B

and her face instantly froze.
    ‘Mortimer!’
    ‘What?’ Maggie said.
    ‘What are you doing with Mortimer?’
    Maggie turned and saw what Connie was looking at. ‘The teddy?’
    ‘Yes! What’s it doing here?’
    ‘I bought it online last year. The seller said you’d auctioned it for charity and they’d bought it.’
    Connie’s face now changed from pink to a frightening shade of red. ‘That’s a lie!’ she said, crossing the room and grabbing the stuffed toy from the shelf. ‘I never sold this bear. It’s a childhood toy and it went missing two years ago along with other personal items. I was suspicious of my housemaid and fired her. Things stopped going missing after that.’
    ‘Oh, Connie! I’m so sorry. I had no idea.’
    ‘Really?’
    ‘I’d never have bought it if I’d known. Or, rather, I’d have bought it to return to you.’
    Connie nodded her head vigorously but she didn’t look as if she believed Maggie. ‘Sure you’re not going to sell it on yourself ?’
    ‘What? No!’
    ‘God almighty!’ Connie exclaimed. ‘I’ve flown all this way to try and escape this sort of thing.’
    ‘But I didn’t know he’d been stolen.’
    Connie wasn’t listening. She’d made up her mind.
    ‘I can see now,’ she said, ‘that everyone’s the same. Everyone’s just out to get a piece of me.’
    ‘Connie!’ Maggie called in desperation as she left the room, teddy in hand, and thumped down the stairs. ‘Don’t go!
Please!
’
    But it was too late. Connie left the shop, slamming the door behind her.
    ‘Oh, dear!’ Maggie said. ‘That didn’t go quite like I’d imagined it would.’

Chapter Nine
    Connie marched back to the bed and breakfast, Mortimer clutched in her right hand. It had been the very last thing she’d expected to find in Lochnabrae – dear sweet Mortimer – the one remnant of a childhood that had lasted so brief a time.
    For a moment, she thought about how lonely her childhood had been. She’d hardly ever met any other children because she’d been working most of the time. In fact, the only other children she’d met had been other child actors and, when they hadn’t been acting, they’d been spending time with their tutors on the set, desperately trying to cram in schoolwork between takes. It had been a sad and strange time and Mortimer the bear had had more than his fair share of tears showered upon him.
    She looked down at the yellow face of the bear and sighed at the scuffed black eyes and the fraying ears. He wasn’t much of a bear, she thought, and she was bemused that anyone would seriously want to pay good money for him at an online auction but, then again, stranger things had happened. One of her actor friends had heard of a yoghurt pot that had been taken out of his trash can and sold. Fans were a bizarre breed.
    Reaching the bed and breakfast, Connie did her best to pull herself together. The last thing she wanted was to attract the attention of Isla. She couldn’t face that now so she opened and shut the front door as quietly as she could and was just about to make her way to her bedroom when a heavily-powdered face peered around the kitchen door.
    ‘Is that you, Connie dear? Can I get you anything?’
    ‘No, thank you. I’m just going up to my room. I have a bit of a headache.’
    ‘Oh, dear! Let me get you—’
    ‘No! Really. I don’t need anything. I just need some space, okay?’ Connie said, racing up the stairs and slamming her bedroom door. So much for sneaking in and acting normal, she thought, berating herself for her hot temper.
    Connie sat down on the end of the bed, her hands holding onto Mortimer as if her life depended on it. ‘What are we doing here, Morty? We don’t belong here, do we?’
    The worn glass eyes looked back up at her questioningly. And then she realised that
she’d
just stolen the poor bear. Whatever way she looked at it, Maggie had paid for Mortimer – whether it had been innocent or calculating – and Connie