by Anne Fraser
‘Married? Kids?’ His eyes dropped to the bare finger of her left hand. Elizabeth sucked in a breath.
‘I was married but it didn’t work out,’ she said evenly. This was exactly the kind of conversation she wanted to avoid.
‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be. It happens.’ She placed her plate to the side. ‘Isn’t it time for filming to start again?’
‘It’ll probably be closer to two-thirty before it gets under way. Our leading lady isn’t known for her timekeeping.’
When he smiled at her, his eyes creased, revealing faint laughter lines. She wondered if everything amused Kendrick.
‘In that case, I guess I’ll go along to the medical trailer. There might be someone who wants to see the doctor before filming starts.’
‘Do you know where it is? I could show you if you like.’
‘Philip took me there earlier. Anyway, don’t you have to be on set, getting blown up or something like that?’ she said, more sharply than she intended. The trouble was, and she didn’t know why, this man was getting under her skin, despite the fact she had just met him.
Kendrick looked baffled. He stood up, slapping the dust from his trousers.
‘Sorry, Lizzie. I hope I didn’t say anything to offend you.’
Elizabeth felt herself go cold with embarrassment. He was right. Despite his blatant interest and the way he looked at her, he’d been friendly and welcoming. He wasn’t to know that she was barely holding it together. That since Simon had left her, she’d erected a shield around herself. And then as Charlie had become sicker and sicker … A wall of pain slammed into her and she swallowed hard.
None of that excused her appalling manners. Kendrick wasn’t to blame for any of it.
‘I’m sorry, that was rude of me. I’m just a little …’ she struggled to find the right word ‘… out of sorts, that’s all.’
The ready grin flashed, but before he could say anything, a loud screeching noise made them both whirl round.
‘What in the name of …?’ Kendrick said.
Philip was using some sort of megaphone in an apparent attempt to summon the cast.
‘He needs to get that thing tuned.’
As they shared a smile, Elizabeth’s heart missed a beat. He had the devil in his bright blue eyes, she thought irrationally.
‘Have to go, I’m afraid,’ Kendrick said, sketching a salute. ‘We’re going to need you too. Philip has been putting off this scene until you got here.’
‘What kind of scene?’
‘I have to drive a car off a cliff.’ The matter-of-fact way he said it made it sound as if this was what most people did as a part of their daily routine.
‘Oh, really?’ she said with a lift of her eyebrow. He had to be winding her up again, but this time she wasn’t going to fall for it.
‘Don’t worry. I jump out of the car once it goes over the cliff. I’m not actually in it when it hits the ground. Or at least I hope I won’t be.’ He muttered the last few words.
‘Let me get this right,’ Elizabeth said. ‘You are in a car that goes over a cliff, but you jump out in mid-air? And how do you get back on the ground? Fly?’
‘It’s not as difficult as it sounds. They’ve removed the rear window. Once the car goes over, I climb out and sort of sky-dive to the ground. I’ll have a parachute.’
She still didn’t know whether to believe him. It sounded too fantastic.
But as the trucks, loaded up with cameras, cast and crew, including Elizabeth, rolled out into the desert coming to a stop at the top of a cliff, she realised that Kendrick hadn’t been teasing her.
Philip was hustling everyone to get into position. ‘We don’t have much time, folks,’ he said. ‘And I don’t want to do this more than once, so let’s get it right.’ He turned to Elizabeth. ‘You better check with Kendrick where he’d like you positioned, just in case he has a problem.’
Elizabeth nodded. This was why she was here and she needed to be prepared for anything. Heaving her medical kitbag over her shoulder, she searched around for Kendrick.
Given his height, it wasn’t difficult to spot him amongst the crowd of people. Although the set was buzzing with noise and activity, she could hear his distinctive voice coolly instructing his team above the clamour. As if he sensed her gaze, Kendrick looked over towards her. As their eyes locked, her pulse missed a beat. This was a man totally in control and completely in charge. What would it be like to have someone like him on your side? Someone to count on?
Almost immediately, Elizabeth shook the thought away. Where had that come from? She didn’t really know anything about Kendrick. There was no way she was ever going to go down that road again. He was just a man, a work colleague.
She threaded her way amongst the crowd until she was standing in front of him.
‘Where’s the best place for me to wait in case I’m needed?’ she asked.
He gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Lizzie, if this goes wrong, no doctor is going to patch me up.’ His voice grew serious. ‘Not that anything will go wrong. But with a stunt like this, other factors come into play, so we have to be prepared for anything. We’re cordoning off a safe area at the foot of the cliffs. Watch out for falling debris when the car falls to the ground—that’s the biggest risk to the crew.’
‘Okay.’ The words ‘Good luck’ hovered on her lips, but she bit them back. Somehow she didn’t think Kendrick would need it. Instead she made her way over to the base of the cliff and behind a toughened plexiglass screen. He’d certainly thought of everything.
From the bottom, the cliff looked even higher. Kendrick was right. If he didn’t manage to get out of the falling car in time, or if his parachute failed, she doubted she’d be able to do much to help him. There was a very real possibility he could be killed. Her blood ran cold. But he was a professional. This was what he was trained to do.
After a tense hour and a half they were ready. The car rolled over the lip of the cliff and into space. An explosion splintered the sky, sending sparks of dazzling yellow and orange outwards and sizzling towards the canyon floor. A collective gasp went up from the onlookers, but still the cameras kept on rolling. After what seemed like an eternity, but could only have been a second or two, a figure clambered out of the rear window and launched itself away from the falling car. Elizabeth couldn’t have pulled her eyes away even if she’d wanted to. There were a few heart-stopping seconds as the figure fell, hurtling towards the ground, and there was no sign of Kendrick’s parachute opening. Elizabeth tensed, positive that the sound of the car crashing to the ground was going to be followed by the thud of his body. Only when his parachute whooshed open did she realise she’d been holding her breath. Kendrick landed lightly on his feet, several metres away from the burning wreck and only a short distance from her.
He sketched a bow as everyone applauded.
Relieved that for this scene at least her services hadn’t been needed, Elizabeth crossed over to Kendrick, who was divesting himself of his parachute.
‘Are you okay?’ she asked.
He turned glinting eyes on her. She could tell that he’d got a kick out of what he’d just done.
‘Perfect,’ he said.
‘That was crazy,’ she said. ‘I don’t know why you let Philip talk you into doing it. No film is worth dying for.’
His eyes narrowed and he frowned at her. ‘Relax, Doc,’ he said.
Although his tone was light, there was an undercurrent of steel in his words. ‘I have no intention of getting myself—or anyone else on my team—killed. We spend a lot of time discussing and planning the stunts beforehand to eliminate as much risk as possible. Then we deal with what’s left. It’s what stuntmen and women do. If you don’t like it, perhaps this isn’t the job for you.’
He looked over the top of her head. ‘Hey, Josh, Immy. What d’you think? Did Philip get the shot he needed?’
He walked away, leaving Elizabeth feeling dismissed.
Who was he to
tell her what job did or didn’t suit her? But she had to admit he was right. Her job wasn’t to worry about Kendrick or to tell the film producers what they could or couldn’t do. Her job was to keep them alive long enough to get them to hospital should anything happen.
Filming over for the day, Elizabeth knew that this was the time that the cast and crew would be most likely to look for her should they require a medical opinion. She took a ride on the first truck heading back to the camp and, sure enough, she was kept busy until dinnertime, seeing members of the crew who had sore throats or sunburn. Nothing too serious and nothing that required more than some painkillers or advice.
When she was certain there were no more patients, she locked up. If anyone needed her out of hours, they knew where to find her.
She let herself back into her trailer and picked up the photo from the bedside table.
Charlie was staring into the camera, a small smile on her face. It had been taken just before she’d lost control of her neck muscles, but even then they had been deteriorating, giving her a lopsided look. But to Elizabeth her daughter looked beautiful.
Elizabeth started to unpack. On top of her clothes was Charlie’s favourite soft toy, the ear lightly chewed and missing an eye. A crushing pain squeezed Elizabeth’s chest as memories rushed back. Her daughter’s little face looking up at her with incomprehension that Mummy wasn’t able to help, the feel of her child’s tiny frame in her arms as Charlie lost more and more weight. The last time she had held Charlie, knowing that she was slipping away and there was nothing, nothing anyone could do and that no amount of love or denial could stop her from dying. And then later the small white casket being lowered into the ground, the disbelief that she would have to live out the rest of her life without her daughter.
Elizabeth brought the soft toy to her face and inhaled the still lingering scent of her daughter.
In the weeks following Charlie’s funeral Elizabeth had been almost unable to function. She’d wandered around the small house, alone and aching to touch her child. Just once more.
The nights were the worst. She’d find herself curled up in her daughter’s bed, soaking the pillow with her tears. But eventually she’d known she had to do something. When she’d seen this job advertised it had seemed perfect. No chance of coming into contact with children, a limited contract that would give her breathing space to decide what to do with the rest of her life, and an environment where people knew nothing of her past and were unlikely to be interested.
As soon as she’d been offered the job and accepted, she’d put her terraced cottage on the market. With a bit of luck it would be sold before she had finished here. With Charlie gone, Elizabeth couldn’t bear to live in the home that had once held such happiness. She didn’t know if she could even ever set foot inside it again.
Her throat ached as she remembered sitting on the floor of Charlie’s bedroom, tears pouring down her face as she’d packed away Charlie’s clothes and toys. She hadn’t been able to pack away the soft toy. Together with the photo, it was all she had brought with her to remind her of her darling daughter. Not that she needed anything to remind her of Charlie. Every second of Charlie’s too-short life was burned into her soul. She kissed the photo one more time before replacing it on her bedside table.
Although so far her day had been mostly straightforward and the work nothing compared to caring for a severely disabled child twenty-four hours a day, Elizabeth was tired. But for once it was a nice tiredness. She had been able to forget for a few hours. The thought sent another shot of pain through her. Not that she wanted to or could forget her baby. Despite Charlie’s disabilities Elizabeth would have given everything she had to have her daughter back.
But that wasn’t to be. She had somehow to make some sort of life for herself, even if at the moment she didn’t know what that could be.
CHAPTER TWO
THE weather over the next couple of days continued to be hot. The nights were thankfully cooler but still Elizabeth found it difficult to sleep. When she did it was to dream of Charlie.
She was getting to know some the cast and crew. Everyone was friendly and good company. Somehow she was always aware of Kendrick even when she wasn’t in attendance for one of his stunts. Often she’d see him walking around the set, joking with the cast and crew or occasionally outside his trailer, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Whenever she walked past him, he seemed to know she was there, even with his hat tipped forward, covering his eyes.
Kendrick wasn’t the only stuntperson on set. There was Imogen, who doubled up for Tara, the female star of the film, and Josh, an older man who helped Kendrick with some of the stunts. Gossip on the set had it that Josh had been a rally driver before getting into stunt work and he took the lead in most of the stunts involving high-speed chases. Elizabeth was sure that there was an element of competition between him and Kendrick. As far as she could see, they were always trying to outdo each other in terms of who could do the most difficult stunt.
Most of the filming took place during the day, although Philip had warned her that some of it took place in the evenings, depending on the light.
One morning, Sunny came to see her before filming began.
‘I haven’t been feeling so good over the last couple of days. I don’t know if it’s the heat, but I feel as if I have a temperature.’
‘Any other symptoms?’ Elizabeth asked, taking in the young woman’s pallor.
Sunny shook her head. ‘Nothing specific. Just as if I’m coming down with flu. And I can’t afford to be ill. We’re already running behind schedule. If we don’t catch up, Philip is going to insist on filming over the weekend and I want to get home to see my kids.’
Grief, Sunny had children? She didn’t look old enough.
‘Why don’t you slip your blouse off while I check you over?’ Elizabeth suggested, picking up her stethoscope. ‘How many children do you have?’
‘Two.’ Sunny smiled wistfully. ‘Sam is eight and Trixie six. I had Sam when I was seventeen, before you ask.’ That made her twenty-five.
‘You must miss them.’
‘I used to bring them with me on a job and that worked fine until they started school. I could have employed a tutor to teach them on set, but I don’t think that’s fair, do you? Children need their friends and a routine, don’t you think? I want them to have a better start in life than I did.’
Elizabeth’s heart tightened as the never-far-away image of Charlie floated in front of her. What she would give to have had her daughter know what having friends felt like. It didn’t stop her sympathising with Sunny, though. It had to be tough for the young mother, working away from her children.
‘Philip has been good to me. He took me on as a gofer, now I’m his personal assistant. I kind of always hoped I’d be discovered one day, but I guess that’s not going to happen now.’
Sunny squinted up at Elizabeth as Elizabeth took her blood pressure. That seemed normal too.
‘Do you have children?’ Sunny asked.
Elizabeth turned away and sucked in a steadying breath.
‘No, it’s just me,’ she replied, picking up a couple of Vacutainers. It was just her—now. ‘I’d like to take some blood before we finish if that’s okay?’ Something seemed a little off, but Elizabeth couldn’t put her finger on it.
Sunny nodded. ‘It would be good if you could take it where no one can see the marks. Just in case …’ She gave a little smile. ‘I still haven’t given up hope they might use me in the film.’
‘I’ll try not to leave any, I promise.’
Elizabeth inserted the needle into the crook of Sunny’s arm and filled three vials to send to the lab. She didn’t think there was anything seriously wrong, but it wouldn’t hurt to be thorough.
‘I’m really looking forward to seeing the kids next weekend,’ Sunny was saying. ‘Hey, by the way, we’re going to be filming in the studio in Hollywood and Jack is having a party for the cast and crew. I know he was planning t
o invite you. Everyone else will be there. Even my kids.’
Elizabeth smiled. ‘I doubt he wants to invite me, he hardly knows me.’
‘Then it’s a good way for you to get to know him and the rest of us. He has a huge house on Mulholland Drive—you know, where a lot of Hollywood stars live. His parties have quite a reputation. Half of Hollywood would give their eye teeth to be invited.’
‘I’m not really a party animal,’ Elizabeth demurred. ‘I’m more the kind to go to bed with a good book.’
‘In LA?’ Sunny didn’t attempt to keep the incredulity from her voice. ‘You have to be kidding me. Didn’t you just tell me that you’re footloose and fancy-free?’ She nibbled on her bottom lip and studied Elizabeth through violet eyes. She might look innocent, almost naïve, but there was no mistaking the sharp intelligence behind the ditzy exterior. ‘Or have you just recently had your heart broken?’
She narrowed her eyes when Elizabeth took in a sharp intake of breath. ‘I’m right, aren’t I? In that case, you have to come. It’ll cheer you up, and who knows—you might meet someone else.’
That was so not going to happen. Never, ever would she give her heart to someone only to have it broken. The agony simply wasn’t worth it. She was finished with men, finished with love. All she wanted now was to find a measure of peace.
‘We’ll see,’ Elizabeth murmured, placing the blood samples into a specimen bag for one of the drivers to take to hospital. ‘Okay, I should have the results for you in a day or two. In the meantime, if anything changes, let me know straight away.’
As she was escorting Sunny out of her trailer, Kendrick sauntered up to them.
‘Hey, Kendrick, how’re you doing?’ Sunny greeted him warmly. ‘I’ve just been telling Elizabeth about Jack’s party, but she says she’s not coming.’
Kendrick eyed Elizabeth. ‘Maybe I can change her mind.’
Elizabeth shook her head. ‘It’s kind of Jack to think of me, but I’m not really the partying kind. I’m quite happy with my own company.’
‘I’ll leave you two to argue it out, but right now I could do with a lie down. I’m feeling yucky,’ Sunny said