Diamond Star Girl

by Judy May

  I had to dodge Lizzy, but managed to sneak into the cottage without being seen. Stephen was standing waiting.

  He gave me a reluctant-looking smile, and said,

  ‘Wow, Lemony, only you could have worked out that message. I couldn’t come to your trailer because I’m finding it hard to dodge Nick and we can’t risk being overheard.’

  ‘I don’t have long, they could need me on set any moment.’

  Stephen still seemed sort of distant, but at least he was talking to me.

  ‘OK, here it is,’ he said quickly, ‘I’ve figured out why people might be looking for the necklace. I escaped for long enough this morning to go through some things in my father’s office, sorting out papers and oddments in the hope that the necklace might be lodged between a thesaurus and a six-month old sandwich––’

  Just then we heard Lizzy and Ro in the distance shouting, ‘Lemony!’ so we had to push the speed button.

  ‘In short, I found a blackmail letter to my father saying that they would steal the necklace and The Grange would fall to the ground, unless he deposited this huge amount of money in a Swiss bank account.’

  ‘Right, two questions,’ (by now we could hear them send Bonnie up to the attic room to look for me). ‘One, how would your Dad get that kind of money on a lecturer’s salary? Two, why didn’t your Dad take the note to the police?’

  By now we were both talking as fast as machine guns.

  ‘One, a little more searching and I discovered a solicitor’s letter about an inheritance from two years ago from an aunt of my mother’s. Two, you know what he’s like, it would have been gone from his mind the moment a new theory for the preservation of ceramic artifacts arrived in.’

  Just then Ro opened the cottage door, rolled her eyes and dragged me away telling her walkie-talkie, ‘Lemony on the move.’ Stephen smiled at me and then seemed to catch himself and frowned and looked away quickly just as I disappeared back outside.

  Although we are now on another break Miss Higgins and Lizzy insist I stay right here in the trailer. I also have to say four more words in the next scene – ‘Oh yes, quite well’, when someone asks if we are well and Antonia’s character is too taken aback to answer. I wish that instead I could be in the Professor’s office hunting for the necklace or in the library working out the best place to hide tonight. Mr Flynn is on his way to make me say my line two million times. Being a film star sucks.

  STILL LATER

  Finally we wrapped around nine pm. Stephen was helping Nick to guide the cars out and pick up rubbish and again that seemed odd. I can now get changed in my trailer and Wendy takes care of my costume. Giving her that additional work didn’t feel good so I hung everything up carefully and left her a thank-you note, although I was absolutely straining to flee and plan the stake-out with the others.

  All significant talk had to wait a while also, as Miss Higgins had the buffet for the Grangers ready in the kitchen. The eight of us were talking about everything that’s happened in the last couple of weeks. I caught Stephen’s eye and he seemed to be thinking what I was thinking about how the others, Gussy, Alex, Alice and Lorna, didn’t know the half of what had been going on around here. Just as happened earlier he grinned at me, but then looked embarrassed and didn’t glance my way again.

  Already people are getting excited about the wrap party, the big final ‘well done and goodbye’ party they have when they finish shooting. It’s scheduled for a week after we finish as the rest of the crew will be filming on the quayside for a few days after leaving here. Alice was getting frazzled and saying she couldn’t possibly go because she has nothing good to wear, so Lorna suggested that all us girls go on a shopping trip and spend some of our wages on new outfits. Might be a plan. You could tell that all this banter was driving Stephen and Paul a bit nuts and they skipped off just before the cocoa arrived. Ro gave me the same, ‘Stay!’ look she gives the dogs and I got that it would look too obvious if we fled at the same time. I knocked back the scalding cocoa and did the fakest yawn to ever come from a so-called actor’s mouth. I then announced that I’d take myself off upstairs, adding that I thought we were all looking a bit tired.

  Miss Higgins was pleased that I was going to bed early, and told Lorna that she should follow my example. If poor Miss Higgins had any idea….

  DAY TWENTY-NINE

  Ro and I stayed fully dressed under the covers and crept out soon after Lorna stopped talking about how much she doesn’t fancy Alex (enough of a favourite theme to cause doubt) and Alice finally stopped fretting about what she’d wear to the wrap party. I counted to sixty in my head and knew that neither of them could be silent for a whole minute if still awake.

  Paul and Stephen were already in the library and had set up three kinds of camp. One was a blanket under the large writing desk. The desk was covered as always with a table-cloth that reached the ground so Ro and I could happily hide in there without being seen. Stephen was to be behind the curtain beside the giant urn on a bar stool brought in from the billiards room, and insisted he’d be happier sitting up all night than lying down. Paul decided to camp out below the stairs in case they planned to enter or exit that way, and had some cushions hidden in the space under there.

  Ro ordered me to sleep for the first hour saying she’d wake me if anything happened. In the end she decided to let me sleep on and it was three-and-a-half hours later when she shook me awake with her hand over my mouth in case I spoke.

  I got it! There were others in the library!

  My heart began to beat even faster than that time I had to play ‘We Are Happy Horses, Happy, Happy Horses’ at the violin recital at the age of eight and hadn’t practised.

  The thieves seemed to be searching for the necklace in utter silence, only the slight sounds of rubber soles on wood and carpet gave them away. I realised that my leg was tingling and going numb and didn’t want that to happen in case we had to chase the intruders anytime soon. As carefully as possible I shifted my weight, but my foot caught the edge of the table cloth and moved it a couple of inches – enough to dislodge a pen from the desktop which rolled to the ground, the slight sound breaking through the night. At that same moment Stephen stepped out from behind the curtain and confronted whoever was there. I could hear them rushing for the door as Ro and I scrambled out from our burrow. Ro managed to grab the ankles of one of them who crashed down onto the rug, while Stephen and I grabbed at the other person just as a sleepy-eyed Paul rushed in the door. He locked the door behind himself and Stephen yelled at me to secure the windows.

  I could clearly see that it was the blonde lady from that night in the courtyard and the actor who played Mr Rollins. They immediately started to try to talk their way out of it, acting all friendly and surprised, saying they were afraid that someone was going to try and steal the necklace so they came in to protect it. Next they said that The Professor told them they could use the library whenever they wanted. Then they tried offering us money. Not often finding ourselves in this position of capturing thieves and never having discussed this part of the plan, we honestly didn’t know what to do next so we let them talk on for a couple of minutes until there was a heavy knocking at the library door and the night-time security guards from the set appeared along with The Professor.

  It seems he’d been working late in his office, heard the noise and called the police. Quite a surprising move for The Professor who you would expect to wander in, shuffle about looking for a book before offering the thieves a mint and leaving again.

  It only took a few minutes for the police to arrive and arrest them, all done without waking anyone else in the house. The taking of statements in the library took an hour longer, but eventually it was just us and the Professor sitting in the large leather armchairs, with Ro and Paul cross-legged on the sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace.

  The first thing Ro said was, ‘Good thing the Mr Rollins character isn’t needed for any more scenes,’ and we all laughed at how much of a film-pro she’d become.r />
  I didn’t manage to get back to sleep, unlike Ro who hadn’t slept at all and was out for the count. Once I saw it was five-thirty and the sun was coming up I decided to get showered and dressed for the day and go outside. Something told me that Stephen would be up too, and sure enough I found him sitting on his rock. For a while we sat there in silence looking at all the colours growing brighter as the sun inched higher. Finally Stephen spoke. I guessed he wasn’t so angry with me any more.

  ‘You know, Lemony, I’m really annoyed with my father. I thought all along that we were just financially scraping by because it takes so many people to keep such a large house going. I thought the reason he’d chosen to let the film be shot here was to pay some bills with the rental fee, and all the time he’s had this enormous inheritance.’

  Most would think that finding out you had a wealthy parent might be cause for celebration, but I understood his anger.

  ‘Is this about you having to work night and day to keep your scholarship?’

  ‘Perhaps,’ he acknowledged.

  ‘Well it seems to me that your dad played a blinder on that one. Stephen, you are more knowledgeable on more subjects than any teenager I’ve ever met, and you have better study habits than anyone else in your school. If you hadn’t had to work so hard I bet you’d have been bored with the partying soon enough.’

  ‘True,’ he visibly warmed to the idea, ‘and as things are now I should be able to choose to go to any university in the world. Maybe he did know what he was doing.’

  ‘I think there’s more to your dad than any of us could guess at.’

  If anyone had told me a month ago that I would want Nick Collins to go away so I could keep talking with Stephen Brown I would have set them up with some kind of specialist appointment. But it happened just then when Nick walked across to the orchard and said, ‘Sorry to butt in on the geek convention, but we have work to do before Bob gets here.’

  ‘You mean you have work to do,’ I corrected.

  ‘Well, Stevey here is responsible for making sure my work is up to the production department’s exacting high standards and the only way that’s going to happen is if he does it with me.’

  ‘Or for you,’ Stephen muttered.

  It doesn’t make sense, why would Stephen be in charge of whether or not Nick does a good job? That would be like Sophie being in charge of whether I know my lines. And they were off, leaving me here to write this. Better go get some breakfast and reassure Miss Higgins I’m alive.

  LATER

  Today has been another great day on set and I managed to stop yawning for long enough to say my line. No one seems to have heard about the actor and the blonde woman being arrested and I’d say that it might stay that way. I can’t help wondering what happened to the necklace, though.

  STILL LATER

  If I ever do win an Oscar it will only be when they start giving them out for being the biggest IDIOT in the world!

  It now all makes sense, why Stephen was being friendly to me and then being all distant. I have never wished so much that I could turn back time, or transform into someone else entirely, or disappear, or get to live on a different planet. Any of those, I’d happily take any of those.

  I was sitting with Alice, reassuring her that no one thinks she’s over-emotional and handing her the twenty-seventh Kleenex of the hour, when Owen came over to where we were sitting on these chairs in the courtyard and suddenly she was more interested in hearing him say that she’s perfect as she is. Which is fair enough. I went in the side door that most of the film people don’t know about, and saw Stephen on the furthest couch in the darkened empty sitting room and it seemed the perfect opportunity to find out what the deal was with Nick.

  Fearing that we’d be interrupted as usual I just launched straight in.

  ‘Stephen, I know you wouldn’t keep a secret from me. Not now after we have proven ourselves to be master co-investigators and defenders of justice. Tell me, why are you saving Nick Collins from getting fired again?’

  He seemed too tired to fight me on this one.

  ‘Because I got him his job back, and promised Julian and Mary-Ann that I’d be personally responsible for Nick carrying out his duties correctly.’

  ‘But why would you do a thing like that? I mean, you’ve never even been friends with Nick!’

  ‘Because I found your shopping list.’

  That one had me completely floored.

  ‘What do you mean you found my shopping list? I don’t even have a shopping list.’

  And then he produced a page from his back pocket, a sheet that seemed to be from this journal, and handed it to me to read.

  I almost sank to the floor with shame. It was the wish-list I’d written before we even got here. The one where I said I wanted to be a film star and Nick’s girlfriend and for Stephen to keep away from me and stop thinking we could ever be friends. No wonder he’s been avoiding me!

  ‘Oh my God, Stephen, I wrote this ages ago, right after Mum and Dad’s party.’

  ‘I found it in the library under a chair when I was looking for the necklace. I presumed you’d written it that day.’

  I realised it must have fallen out of the back of this when I threw it under the chair to run out to the cottage in the rain. Stephen looked so hurt as he showed it to me, and it made me feel way beyond awful.

  ‘No! I … Oh my God! It isn’t anything I want now, and I don’t even know if I really did then. I have no idea what I can say to make this right. I am so sorry. I say that a lot don’t I? I know I’ve blown my last chance with you a long time ago, but if you wouldn’t mind I’d still like to know what this has to do with helping Nick.’

  He explained that he decided that if I really wanted to be Nick’s girlfriend then he’d be a good friend and make that happen. It turns out that he was also the one to have a word with Julian and ask him if there were any lines or special extra parts coming up for a girl. I still can’t believe it. I was so awful to him and here he was doing everything to make my dreams come true. Even by staying away from me. I felt so dreadful that before I could say another word to him I ran off to the girls’ bathroom and I’ve been here writing and crying for the past two hours. A little while ago a note came under the door. It read:

  Dear Lady Lemony,

  Please, please don’t cry any more.

  Yours as always,

  Sir Stephen.

  Which of course made me feel a million times worse and cry even harder. How is it I keep messing everything up so badly? The worst of it is that now I’m terrified that Stephen will end up bringing Amber or Bonnie to the wrap party.

  I really need sleep. I really need lots of things. I can’t help thinking what a shame it is that we didn’t replace my brain with that deflated football while we had the chance.

  DAY THIRTY

  Nick is too afraid of not being invited to the wrap party to mess up, so he had to do a full day’s work all by himself today. It seems that Bob kept him busy because tomorrow is the big move to the quayside.

  It was really sad today, kind of like last day at science camp, swapping of contact details, photos, and promises to stay in touch. Antonia signed a lovely photo of the two of us, Julian said I was the best novice he’d ever worked with, and Caro gave me a box of biscuits and a huge hug. Ro gets to work with them next week too, so I’m sure I’ll hear loads of news.

  It’s too late to write much more as we had a party in the kitchens for us Grangers, the other teenage extras and our favourite friends from set, Wendy, Lizzie, Dipti, Bob, John, Caro and some of the older extras. Even The Professor came down to join us and when Hanna showed him how to dance I thought Stephen and Miss Higgins would never stop laughing. This has been the best summer of my life, even taking into account all the dreadful ways I’ve been messing up.

  DAY THIRTY-ONE

  This morning in the dining room (the last time all us Grangers will be eating breakfast together) there was a note with my name on slipped under my cup. It r
ead:

  Dear Lady Lemony,

  Given the recent news of your reported loss of interest in Mr Nicholas of Collins, I hereby wish to offer my services as companion ‘and more’ and escort you to the ball.

  Kindly reply in all haste.

  Yours ever hopefully,

  Sir Stephen of Great Patience.

  I quickly penned a reply and slid it across the table to him, glad that everyone else was too absorbed in their own conversations to notice.

  Dear Sir Stephen,

  I WOULD LOVE TO GO TO THE WRAP PARTY WITH YOU!!!

  Yours, really yours,

  Lady Lemony of the Thousand Mistakes.

  The guys were all called away after that to help with moving the props furniture from the ballroom, and after lounging around over endless cups of tea Lorna, Alice and I decided to go back to our bedroom, plan our party outfits and start to pack.

  I came across the hair-ornament that Wendy let me keep with the lilac piece of ribbon and feather that she’d added, and thought that if I took those off it would be wearable just with the metal and fake-jewels part. That way I could wear it at the party with my hair done the way that Dipti taught me. Only when Alice said, ‘You could wear it as a brooch too,’ did I suddenly see what I was holding! I ripped away the feather and the ribbon.