Beauchamp Hall

by Danielle Steel

  Chapter Fourteen

  “What’s up with you?” Edward asked her with a grin the next morning at work. “You look like the cat that swallowed the canary. New guy?”

  “Better than that. New project. I met with the Havershams last night. I’m trying to help them compensate when the show wraps.” It was only days away. They had just been notified that the shooting schedule for the final episodes had been extended to get all the new scenes in. All days off had already been canceled and they were doing night shoots too. They were working as fast as they could.

  “And can you help them?” Edward was impressed by how resourceful she was. It was why she was such a good assistant too. She was full of energy and ideas.

  “I think so. We have some promising avenues to pursue. They’re fun to work with, and really nice people.” And as she said it, she had another idea. “I just thought of something. They’re going to start hosting weddings at the castle by the end of the year. What would you think about you and Grace getting married here? They’re going to do period weddings, with costumes for those who want them, but obviously, you could wear whatever you want. Do you think Grace would consider it as a wedding location?” He looked pensive for a moment and then at Winnie with a slow smile.

  “I love it. This show has meant so much to me. And the castle is exquisite. I think Grace would love it too, and so would her father. He knew the Havershams’ father and grandfather. He’s mentioned it to me several times. Let me ask her, and I’ll let you know.”

  He called her that afternoon and after he did, he smiled at Winnie. “Grace loved the idea. She wants to get married at Haversham Castle. In costume!”

  “Do you have your date yet?” She was so excited she could hardly stand it.

  “The Saturday before Christmas, if that works for you.”

  “You’re our first wedding customer, and we’re going to keep it that way. I love that you’ll be our first wedding, and you’ve been on the show.” And it would be fantastic publicity for them for future weddings.

  Winnie was so excited that she waited until she had a break in the late afternoon, and ran to the family entrance to the castle and rang the doorbell. Freddie opened it, he had just gotten back from a drive in his favorite Bugatti.

  “Is Beatrice here?” Winnie asked shyly, as she walked into the hallway and was surprised to see Freddie. She wasn’t as comfortable with him yet as she was with his sister. He was a little more daunting and flamboyant, and she didn’t know him as well. Beatrice appeared a minute later. “Edward Smith is going to get married here the Saturday before Christmas,” Winnie told both of them. “He’ll be our first wedding and every magazine will want to cover it.” She was ecstatic as she told them.

  “Fantastic!” Beatrice was beaming. “How many guests?”

  “I forgot to ask him. Do we have a limit?” The three of them looked at each other and decided they didn’t in his case. “I’ll ask him. And they want to do it in costume. I think he should probably keep his own, and I told him he’d be our first wedding.” The three of them laughed and talked as they walked into the kitchen, and Beatrice said she’d call the caterer and wedding baker she’d already contacted to announce their new business, and they were excited about it. Beatrice had the list of everyone she had to contact. And when Winnie asked Edward, he said they wanted between two hundred and three hundred guests. She promised him a “family rate” for being their first client, and a celebrity on top of it. He said Grace’s father would be delighted with the discount since he was as tight as a tick, and he had said repeatedly that he’d had some very good times at the castle in his youth. This would be one more, and great publicity for them.

  Beatrice and Winnie had decided to approach Michael Waterman that evening after they finished shooting to discuss the costumes with him, now that they had their first wedding booked. He looked startled to see them both waiting outside the room he used as an office. He was always impressed by Lady Beatrice, particularly since she had a title, and thought her a lovely-looking woman. He would have loved to ask her out but had never dared.

  “To what do I owe the honor, Lady Beatrice?” he asked her.

  “We have something we want to ask you,” Winnie said nervously. They outlined the project to him, and Beatrice added that they would be willing to pay for the costumes.

  “How many do you have in mind?” Beatrice glanced at Winnie before she answered, and decided to shoot for the moon.

  “As many bridal gowns as you’d be willing to sell or give us. And for the wedding guests, perhaps two hundred and fifty evening gowns and two hundred and fifty sets of tails.” They both knew that they had at least that many for extras and possibly more, since some of the weddings on the show had been huge.

  “Let me see what I can do,” he said. He had a lot on his plate now that the show was going to close.

  “We’d be grateful to buy as many as you can spare,” Beatrice said politely.

  “I can’t give them to you until we end the show,” he reminded her. But that wasn’t far off now.

  “That’s fine.” She and Winnie had already picked a room to outfit with racks for women’s costumes, and a second one for men’s. They had plenty of storage on the old servants’ floor.

  “Do you think he’ll do it?” Beatrice asked Winnie as they hurried away after the meeting, giggling like young girls. She had just learned a few days before that Beatrice was only a year older than she was at thirty-nine, and Freddie was forty-one. “But he acts twelve,” Beatrice said about her brother.

  True to his word, Freddie approached Rupert the next day. He said he hadn’t had time until then, and one of his horses had gone lame a few months before and he wanted to see the vet himself to discuss the horse’s progress. But with Edward Smith’s wedding date set, their project suddenly seemed very real. And he agreed with Beatrice, they needed a butler to add credibility and the right look and dignity to the house.

  Rupert laughed at him when he asked him. “Are you serious? You expect me to act all la-di-da and be a butler?”

  “Winnie Farmington, our new partner, said you’re worried about what will happen after the show ends, and you’ll have to sell the food truck,” Freddie reminded him.

  “True,” Rupert said pensively.

  “We’re going to do murder weekends, and weddings, and better tours than we’ve been doing till now. Bea thinks we need a butler to impress the guests.”

  “She’s probably right. My grandfather was in service at the castle. He was a footman. My father thought it was a step up to own his own business and be a chimney sweep. I never thought I’d be in service.”

  “You wouldn’t be. We’re talking about a Hollywood-style butler to impress people, open the door, and parade around in white tie and tails, not a real one to polish the silver.” Rupert laughed at what he said. They had always liked each other as boys and gotten into mischief together, despite the social gap between them, which hadn’t mattered to either of them, although it had to their parents.

  “I’ll be lucky to get a job once the show is gone,” Rupert said ruefully. “You’re on, mate. A Hollywood butler it is. When do I start?”

  “As soon as you can sell the truck, or whenever you want to. The show will be leaving very soon. They’re shooting the final episodes now at full speed. And it’ll take them a couple of weeks to move out all the equipment.”

  “It sounds like fun. Give me until they’ve all left, so I can catch the last of the wave and feed the crew, and then I’ll sell the truck. I should be free by the end of September.”

  “You’ve got it.” They shook hands on their agreement, enjoying the same complicity they’d had as children.

  Freddie texted Winnie and his sister on the way back to the castle. “Ladies, we will have a butler before September ends.” His name was Rupert Tilton, and they were going to call him “Tilton,�
� in proper form, when guests were present.

  * * *

  —

  Winnie had been so busy working for Edward, meeting with Beatrice, coming up with new ideas, and making lists that she had hardly had time to see Nigel. And he was working day and night on the final episodes. He showed up late one night after a night shoot and looked exhausted. She could already feel the distance between them.

  Things had been hectic on the set, and everyone was worried about their futures, calling agents and producers they knew, and unions for the crew.

  “How’s it going for you?” he asked her as he lay down on her couch. It was almost midnight and he had just finished work.

  “It’s been crazy,” she said, smiling at him. “I’m starting a wedding business with the Havershams.” It was the simplest way to explain it.

  “What do they need you for? They’ve already got the castle.” He looked surprised.

  “It was my idea. Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the obvious.” She mentioned her idea of having video screens in some of the rooms on the tour, with film clips of the show, as a kind of museum tour. She asked him who he thought she should speak to on the set for technical advice of what to buy. He told her who to see on the video team, and then he told her that he’d been busy too. They hadn’t spent a night together all week. And at least he hadn’t asked her about Freddie again, or Edward.

  “I’ve had an offer to work on a show that shoots in Ireland, and another that spends a lot of time on location in Italy. The food would be better in Italy, but Ireland would be easier. I speak the language, and I lived there for a year. I’ll probably do it, Winnie. I’ll have to live in Dublin. Any chance you’d come with me?” He knew the answer before he asked her. It was obvious since she was starting the wedding business and all the rest. And they’d been drifting apart inexorably, and neither of them was trying to stop it. They knew they couldn’t.

  “I can’t leave them stranded. We’re just getting started,” Winnie said quietly. But they both knew she wouldn’t have gone with him anyway, their relationship had gone flat in the last month or two. His jealous fits had cooled her feelings for him, and she’d have nothing to do in Dublin if she went with him.

  “I figured you wouldn’t,” he said sadly. “We’re kind of done, aren’t we?” She hesitated and then nodded. “I told you it was like that. It’s like a family while the show lasts, and when it’s over, everyone goes their separate ways. I’ll be lucky if you remember my name a year from now.” He looked sad as he said it and she touched his hand. His obsessive jealousy had ruined it for her, not the end of the show. But she didn’t say it to him.

  “Don’t be silly. I’ve loved being with you, but I can’t see how it would work for the long run. Sooner or later I’ll go back to Michigan. Your life is here. I can’t see myself in Dublin now. And I want to stick around Haversham for a while.” He nodded again. He understood, or thought he did. He didn’t ask to stay with her that night. They both knew it was over. Like a summer romance, autumn had come, sooner than expected. He kissed her one last time before he left. She watched him as he walked to his Jeep and he turned to look at her, as though to engrave her in his memory. She stood in the doorway and watched him as he drove away. They both knew their time had come and gone, and it was better that way.

  * * *

  —

  Michael gave them an answer about the costumes the next day. Decisions had to be made quickly now. He called Lady Beatrice to tell her, and she was stunned when he told her that she could have the five hundred extra costumes she’d requested as a gift. They were going to sell her the wedding gowns for the equivalent of five hundred dollars each. There were five of them that had been prominently featured in the show. She was welcome to choose any of the other costumes for considerably less. He was doing it as a gesture to thank her for how gracious she and her brother had been for the past six years. He told her to make an appointment with the costumer, and they could collect them as soon as they wrapped the show. She was breathless when she called Winnie to tell her.

  “We’ll have five wedding gowns to offer brides!” Gowns well-known actresses had worn, which gave them even more cachet. Winnie told Edward about it that afternoon, in case Grace wanted to wear one of them, and he thought she might, since she loved the show too. But he had another gown in mind for her.

  Beatrice and Winnie spent an evening setting up racks for the costumes in two of the old maids’ rooms in the attic, and a separate room just for wedding gowns, and the accessories that the producers were giving them too.

  “Should we set up a fitting room?” Winnie asked her.

  “I think we should recarpet my mother’s old dressing room. It’s very elegant and has mirrors everywhere, and would make a perfect fitting room for our brides.” The two women smiled at each other. Everything was falling into place, and had since the beginning. The fates had been smiling on them since Winnie’s dream. “I don’t know how to thank you. You turned a disaster into a miracle for us.” Just as Beauchamp Hall had six years before by coming at just the right time.

  “I’m loving it too,” Winnie said. “I’ve never enjoyed anything so much in my life.” It was the best job she’d ever had. And it had all happened because she’d had the courage to leave Michigan, come to see the making of the show she loved, and follow her dream. In spite of what had happened with Rob and Barb and her job, it had turned out to be the best year of her life, even though the show was ending. They had found a way to keep it alive, for the people who had been so devoted to it, and for themselves.

  “I found a source for the Beauchamp Hall souvenir china, by the way,” Beatrice told her. “The show has a licensing agreement on it, but we can buy it from them at a discounted rate.”

  “Is it very expensive?” Winnie looked concerned. She was going to commit some of her savings to their project. At least they would be saving a lot on costumes. She was prepared to put in some of what her mother had left her. And Marje had just rented her house in Beecher, which was additional income too. Every penny mattered, although it was not a very costly business to start. They had so much of what they needed on hand.

  “It’s not too bad,” Beatrice said about the china, “and I think it will sell like crazy.” Winnie agreed with her, which was why she had suggested it in their initial plan. Beatrice had hired a nice woman for the gift shop, Bridget Donahue, who was thrilled with the job, and a bright young girl, Lucy, as their assistant. She had done a year at university, was working as a maid at Mrs. Flannagan’s B and B, wanted to better herself, and was willing to do whatever they needed. Lucy was starting in two weeks. They weren’t opening the gift shop until December when they were fully up and running, so Bridget could start a week before to organize their inventory.

  “The guy who handles the video equipment on the show is coming over tomorrow, by the way, to give us advice and tell us what we need,” Winnie said, and Beatrice nodded as Freddie walked in. They had just come down from the attic and setting up the racks, and he’d been in the stables with his horses, which he was keeping now, hoping their business would be a success. He could always sell them later if he had to. He hoped not.

  “What are you two tittering about?” he asked them. It was easy to see how well the two women got along. Beatrice was the closest friend Winnie had made in a long time. It was nice having a woman to talk to again. She had missed Barb.

  “We were agreeing on how ridiculous you are,” his sister teased him.

  “We need another man around here,” he complained. “Thank God Rupert will be here soon. I don’t know what I was thinking, starting a business with two women. You’re always ganging up on me.”

  “Sorry, Your Lordship.” Beatrice grinned at him.

  “You may call me Your Majesty,” he said haughtily to his sister. “Where are we on the reality show?” he asked Winnie seriously.

  �
��Edward is talking to someone he knows in London. He says they’re all pretty rough, but it’s a sure moneymaker. People like the scandalous stuff better, so we may have to come up with some sexy angle for them. Or maybe your titles will be enough,” she said hopefully.

  “Maybe we’ll have to include your flock of girlfriends,” Beatrice said seriously.

  “Or your illegitimate children,” he tossed back at her.

  “I don’t have any, just for your information,” she told Winnie again.

  “She’s a virgin,” he added, and Beatrice took a swat at him with the notepad that never left her hand.

  “Seriously, though,” Beatrice said pensively, “maybe they do expect us to have lovers on the show or a boyfriend or girlfriend. We’re not a very interesting lot.” Even Freddie hadn’t had a girlfriend in months. There was no one local he was interested in.

  “I don’t have one at the moment,” Freddie said practically, “but I can start auditioning if you want. All for the good of the cause, of course.”

  “What happened to the last one? The girl from Brazil?” Beatrice asked, surprised.

  “She ran off with a race car driver and is living with him in Monte Carlo. We could tell the producers we’re a ménage à trois. That might be interesting.”

  “Maybe they won’t care about our sex lives,” Beatrice said hopefully. “I haven’t had a serious man in my life in years.”

  “It’s your own damn fault,” her brother reproached her. “The village has been teeming with actors and movie stars for six years, you could have made some effort to pick one up, or a few of them.”

  “They’re all spoken for, or gay, or cheaters,” Winnie corrected him. “To be honest, most of them would rather have you,” she said, looking at Freddie. “The one I work for is terrific, but he’s been with the same woman for thirteen years and he’s faithful to her.”