Strange Allure

by Susan Lewis

  Chapter 7

  AVRIL’S VOICE SHRIEKED excitedly down the phone. ‘Are you sitting down for this?’ she demanded. ‘Are you sitting down?’

  Carla winked at Sonya who was at her own desk, watching Carla on the phone. ‘Yes, I’m sitting down,’ Carla replied.

  ‘OK, get ready, because this is like the biggest deal since Disney signed Mickey that we’ve got here. Guess who’s agreed to direct the next series?’

  Carla blinked in confusion. This wasn’t something they’d properly discussed, and now Avril was telling her she actually had someone lined up to do it. ‘Who?’ she said warily.

  Avril gave a little crow of delight before making the triumphant declaration, ‘John Rossmore! OK, OK, I know what you’re going to say …’

  ‘He’s an actor!’

  ‘I knew you were going to say that. But he’s big time!’ Avril reminded her. ‘And he wants to get into directing.’

  ‘On There and Beyond?’ Carla cried with an incredulous laugh.

  ‘I’m serious,’ Avril assured her. ‘He looked at a couple of tapes from the first series last night, and he really wants to do it.’

  Carla was staring at Sonya.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Sonya whispered.

  ‘But how do we know he can direct?’ Carla demanded.

  ‘Of course he can direct. He’s done enough TV, for God’s sake.’

  ‘As an actor,’ Carla reminded her coolly.

  ‘They’re making the changeover all the time in Hollywood.’

  ‘This isn’t Hollywood.’

  ‘No it’s Hicksville. Now come on, get a grip. This is an amazing piece of news that’s going to make headlines in all the papers, which is something you could do with right now.’

  ‘Aren’t you forgetting one important point?’ Carla said. ‘There’s no way in the world I can raise enough money to cover the kind of fee John Rossmore would want.’

  Sonya choked on her coffee. ‘John Rossmore?’ she gasped.

  ‘Wrong!’ Avril declared. ‘I’ve already talked it over with him, and he’ll do it for whatever you can pay him. Come on, Carla. You’ve got a great product. Why else do you think someone like Jed Forsyth did it for a couple of biscuits and a pat on the head? You’ve got action, romance, period, location, thriller, comedy, and an absolute sweetheart of an executive producer …’

  ‘But he’s not a director,’ Carla pointed out obstinately.

  ‘So what? Neither was Chrissie, and you let her direct.’

  ‘Yes, but she was also a partner in the company and she didn’t come with his reputation. Everyone knows what a nightmare John Rossmore is to work with.’

  ‘Listen, if he can get us the kind of publicity I know he can, think how much easier it’s going to be raising finance for the next series.’

  ‘And just what kind of publicity is he planning to do for the first series, considering he had absolutely nothing to do with it?’

  Avril was clicking her tongue. ‘Boy, you really have some to learn about how publicity works,’ she said. ‘John Rossmore is one of the very few actors in this country who appeals to men and women alike. Agreed? For the past three, or is it four years, since he made it big in whatever that bloody series was called, no matter what he does now people tune in, and if, for example, he happens to do a chat show and burbles on about this great new “travel show with a difference” that he’s about to start shooting, the first series of which just happens to be going out that night, or whenever, and is so brilliant that everyone has to watch … Guess what, at least half of them will.’

  Carla’s enthusiasm still wasn’t stirring. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I understand everything you’re saying, but this is my programme, Avril, and I want it to stay that way. With someone as well known as John Rossmore involved … Well, the whole thing will end up turning into his …’

  ‘Hey, listen to that ego!’ Avril cried. ‘But it’s OK, I take your point. He’s definitely a big fish, and you’ve worked too hard to get where you are to let him run off with all the glory. I just think you should at least talk to him, then see if you’re still of the same mind. If you are, we can forget it and move on. But I’m warning you, if we don’t take him, someone’s going to root out Chrissie and she’ll …’

  ‘OK, I’ll talk to him,’ Carla cut in. Then added, ‘Under no circumstances whatsoever do I want Chrissie involved in any of the publicity. Is that clear?’

  ‘I hear you. Now, I’ve set up a meet for you and John tomorrow at three thirty. I won’t be there, because I think it’s better for you guys to get to know each other with no-one else around.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘The Radisson Edwardian Hotel, at Heathrow. He’s meeting you halfway.’

  Carla looked at the receiver. ‘Heathrow is not halfway,’ she declared.

  ‘It is if you’re in Somerset and he’s in Paris. Actually, it’s closer to you, but he can only fly in for a couple of hours, because he’s got some other commitment in Rheims the next day.’

  Carla took a breath, then realized she wasn’t sure what she wanted to say. In the end she came up with, ‘How did you manage to get him?’

  ‘I’ve known his sister for years,’ Avril answered airily. ‘She’s out in Hollywood. An actress, but not doing quite as well as her brother. Now, changing the subject for a moment, any more emails from you know who?’

  Carla’s chest tightened. ‘No,’ she answered.

  ‘So no response yet to the request for a straight answer?’

  ‘No. But Graham told me last night that his wife thought she saw Richard here at the weekend.’ As she spoke she was looking at Sonya, whose eyes immediately bulged with interest.

  ‘No kidding,’ Avril breathed. ‘So what did he want? Any idea?’

  ‘None. But there’s a possibility he has keys to the place.’

  Sonya’s eyes almost popped as Avril shouted, ‘What!’

  Carla explained what Betty thought she might have seen. Then she added the mail’s mysterious journey to her desk. ‘Of course, it could have been me who picked it up,’ she said. ‘I was so spaced out when you dropped me off that I might have done it without realizing. It’s just that I was pretty sure I didn’t come into the study at all until quite a while after I was back. Still, no harm done. Everything’s here, and well, I suppose I should think about changing the locks just in case.’

  Sonya was nodding vigorously, then almost leapt out of her skin as someone knocked loudly on the front door.

  While she went to answer Carla filled Avril in on her decision to throw a party at the pub.

  Avril was thrilled. ‘Do you want me to get some press in?’ she offered. ‘It’ll probably only be local …’

  ‘No, let’s just make it a private thing,’ Carla responded. ‘Reporters and photographers will only turn it into a circus.’

  ‘OK. Your call. Now you will be there to meet John tomorrow, won’t you?’

  ‘I will.’

  ‘And leave your prejudice at home. Not all actors are egomaniacs, despite what you might read about them in the press.’

  Carla turned round as Sonya came back in the door and held up a parcel from FedEx. ‘Your computer’s just arrived,’ she told Avril. ‘I’ll bring it with me tomorrow, on the presumption that you’ll be waiting somewhere in the wings while John Rossmore and I talk.’

  Avril chuckled. ‘You know me well,’ she responded. ‘Now, put me onto that cousin of mine, because there’re a few things I need to discuss with her before I go. Oh, and by the way, the estate agent’s taking me to see a flat in Chelsea Park Gardens later. Will Chelsea do for Eddie?’

  Carla laughed. ‘He’ll work on it,’ she answered, and passed the phone to Sonya.

  Guessing Avril was about to school Sonya in ways to break down Carla’s resistance to John Rossmore, Carla left them to it and went to check on Eddie out in the garden.

  As she brushed him down and fussed him, she was mulling over all the jitteriness and anxi
ety that had managed to slosh itself up on the shores of her newborn zeal. It was annoying, but true, that in total contrast to last night, she was now feeling almost reluctant to take any more steps forward. It all seemed to be going so fast, and she was afraid it might run her into a position she couldn’t find a way out of. Like this situation with John Rossmore. She needed some time to think about that, but Avril wasn’t allowing it, and apart from feeling railroaded, she was also angry that she hadn’t put up a better fight. Then there was the apartment in London, which she’d known was coming, but she’d been tucked away here for so long, with no risk of running into Chrissie or Richard …

  ‘Hey! Eddie!’ She laughed as he started licking her face. Then, hugging him, she said, ‘OK, it’s the fact that there’s no email from him this morning that’s having this negative effect on me. So what do I do to get past it?’

  Eddie immediately pounced on his ball and offered it as a solution.

  ‘Oh, no!’ she told him. ‘I’m not throwing that so’s you can go and get muddy again. So come on, in with you, we’ve got plenty to do and sitting here feeling sorry for me isn’t going to get us very far.’

  Returning to the office to find Sonya ready to take up arms on behalf of John Rossmore, Carla quickly grabbed the phone as it rang.

  ‘Carla! Teddy Best. Thought I’d give you a call because I’ve just decided to go over to France this weekend and I wondered about some champagne for your party. I can get it a lot cheaper over there, if you want some.’

  ‘That’s a great idea, Teddy!’ she cried. ‘How much is it?’

  His voice rang with pleasure as he said, ‘Well, if you want some decent stuff I’d say about fifteen quid a bottle.’

  ‘Perfect. Get two cases. Do you think that’ll be enough?’

  ‘Oh yeah. More than enough.’

  Carla was about to ring off when she remembered he might be able to help in another way. ‘Teddy, you don’t happen to know any good locksmiths, do you?’

  ‘Not offhand, but I’ll make some enquiries and ring you back.’

  Sonya was now on the other line talking to Sylvia about the catering. Then Fleur popped over to have the proof for her personally designed flyer inspected, and while she was there Gayle Locke rang to ask if anyone had thought about music.

  Realizing that this bash was going to start taking over, Carla made an instant decision to delegate all responsibility to Sonya, and was about to go off to Bristol for the first of the three sessions she had booked to re-edit the programme, when Graham called.

  ‘The grapevine tells me that you’re looking for a locksmith,’ he said.

  Carla was momentarily taken aback, until she looked out of the window and saw Faith across the road chatting to Maudie Taylor. Obviously Teddy had told her, and now she was informing the rest of the village that Carla needed new locks for her doors. And what could be the reason behind that? Faith would demand of all concerned. Carla could almost hear the tone of intrigue, bordering on scandal, that Faith was famous for, and was even mildly interested to know what answers she was coming up with. ‘That woman!’ she laughed. ‘She was obviously a town crier in a previous life.’

  Graham chuckled too. ‘So, would you like me to talk to Barry?’ he offered. ‘He’s sure to know a good one.’

  ‘Inspector Fellowes? Of course, why didn’t I think of that?’

  ‘I’ll get on to it and call you back,’ he said.

  As Carla rang off she was aware that her strongest motive for changing the locks was to punish Richard for not replying to her email yet. Which was so utterly absurd that she was surprised she could even admit it to herself. And just as bad was the conflicting reluctance to lock him out, when she didn’t even know if it had been him in the first place. In fact, as far as she knew he’d never had any keys anyway.

  ‘OK?’ Sonya asked, looking up from the accounts she was working on.

  ‘Mmm,’ Carla responded. Then, suddenly galvanized, ‘Couldn’t be better! Now I’d better go or I’ll be late.’

  It was after seven by the time she returned that evening to find a lengthy note from Sonya informing her that Inspector Fellowes was sending someone over in the morning to sort out the new locks; that Avril had had a productive meeting with Channel 4 and was dying to tell her about it; that she had to call back everyone listed below, which included the Radio Times, Great Western Radio, the marketing manager of British Airways and a couple of provincial newspapers. There was also a party update that went on for a page and a half, and at the very bottom was a great big love-heart pierced through by an arrow bearing John Rossmore’s name.

  Laughing, Carla shrugged off her coat, and after giving Eddie a couple of biscuits, and making herself some tea, she went to turn on the computer. It was too late now to return any of the calls except Avril’s, and before she did that she was going to check the email.

  There were eight messages waiting to be opened, but none were from Micromegas.

  Angry and upset, she slammed a hand on the desk and cried, ‘Why did you ever have to come back into my life just to mess me around like this?’

  As her words fell into the silence she turned back to the screen, knowing that the anger was about to desert her and leave her feeling only miserable and alone. It was all very well to be experiencing an upswing in luck regarding her professional life, but these new and confusing events in her personal life were definitely taking the edge off it all.

  Then quite suddenly her heartbeat began picking up speed.

  ‘Oh God, don’t do this to me,’ she murmured, sitting forward.

  She’d been so intent on searching out Micromegas that she hadn’t noticed a message from someone calling themselves Bel Ami – which didn’t only mean beautiful friend, but was the title of one of Maupassant’s classics.

  Quickly she reached for the mouse and clicked the message open.

  She read fast, too fast, so that she had to slow herself down and start again.

  ‘You ask what I really want and I feel that to paraphrase Maupassant’s Georges Duroy would express my thoughts better than I could do alone. “What was she going to do now? Whom would she marry? Had she any plans or projects, any settled ideas? How he would have liked to know! But why this concern as to what she would be doing? He asked himself the question, and realized that it sprang from one of those confused and secret motives that you hide from yourself and only discover when you start searching deep down inside yourself.”

  ‘In my search I have at last confronted my need to reconnect with the strongest part of myself. So I want to know about you; what you’re thinking, what you’re doing, what you wear, how you feel. Tell me everything, but spare me the pain of knowing that you love someone else now.’

  Carla’s heart was drowning in the words. ‘Oh God, Richard, my love,’ she groaned in despair. ‘What have you done? What have you done?’

  ‘Made a complete balls-up of everything, that’s what he’s done,’ Avril responded when Carla repeated the question later, after reading her the email. ‘And what a bloody cheek, asking you to spare him the pain of telling him you love someone else! Pity he didn’t think about that before he went off screwing your best friend.’

  ‘We’ve all made mistakes, Avril …’

  ‘You call that a mistake! After all you’ve been through and you’re calling it a mistake. That’s like saying “I had a little smash” when you drove over a cliff and your car blew up. Email him back and plunge in the dagger by telling him you never knew what love was until you met …’

  ‘Georges Duroy,’ Carla supplied when Avril struggled for a name.

  ‘No! Definitely not him. And though my recollection of that book might be dim, I’m sure I’m right in thinking that Duroy was a shallow bastard who couldn’t keep his hands off anything in skirts. So I’m not as impressed with his choice here as you seem to be.’

  Carla couldn’t help laughing. ‘What about him wanting to reconnect with the strongest part of himself?’ she said.
/>   ‘I can only think that Chrissie’s cut off his dick,’ Avril responded.

  Again Carla laughed, but only because she knew exactly what he’d meant and was, in truth, so thrilled by this email that all the feelings she’d been struggling to suppress since he’d gone were now flooding freely back into her heart where they belonged. But she wouldn’t discuss that with Avril, because by Avril’s own admission she had no romance in her soul, and to be in touch with what was happening here a spirit of romance was vital. And even then it would be wrong of her to expect anyone else to understand the depth of her feelings for Richard, or his for her, when even they struggled to define it with words. The unusual power of their connection meant that though in a physical sense they could live without each other, as the past year had proved, he was obviously finding, just as she was, that it was only half an existence.

  So the question now was, should she do as he asked and give him the succour of knowledge about her life? It would almost certainly mean continuing with the emails for a while, because she of all people knew how impossible it would be for them to stay apart once they had seen each other again, and he had other commitments now. Yet he had risked it on Sunday. She was puzzled by that, but not for long, as she realized that it must have been her lack of response to his email that had driven him to come and see her. Which only went to show how deeply he must be suffering. Her heart simultaneously sang and ached to know that he still cared so much. But while he was embroiled in a tangle of entirely different emotions that probably didn’t as much concern Chrissie as his daughter, Carla was willing to accept that she had to be patient. In truth she didn’t mind that so much, for her life was going to be so hectic and erratic in the next few weeks that right now probably wasn’t a good time to be trying to sort things out with Richard. It was enough to have this contact with him that created no physical demands, yet enabled them to give each other the love and support they both craved.

  It wasn’t until she was getting into bed that she realized, with interest, that he appeared to have taken her forgiveness for granted. She cocked an eyebrow at that, but though on one level it might irk her, on another she was too happy to care that much. Besides, his betrayal with Chrissie wasn’t only his fault, it was Chrissie’s too, and as Avril had so eloquently pointed out when they were in Monaco, there wasn’t a man on this planet who wasn’t available if the offer was right. And Richard was no exception, as Chrissie had proved.