by Susan Lewis
‘Which you had to know was coming. Are they offering a small fortune?’
‘Actually, quite a large one, but I’ve turned it down. It’s not the kind of thing I want to get into.’
‘Does Alan know?’
‘Yes, and needless to say he thoroughly approved of my failure to be tempted by untold riches. However, he was pretty keen to take some risqué shots himself, which we had quite a bit of fun with before he erased them. Now, enough about me. We’ve hardly spoken this last couple of weeks, so I want to hear what’s been happening with you. Have you found out any more about Frank’s aristocratic connections, or who broke his heart?’
‘I’m presuming that was his wife,’ Patsy answered, ‘but there’s no one to ask … Correction, no one I’m prepared to ask about him, apart from Claudia, and since it’s not something I want to get into on the phone I’m waiting until she flies in at the end of next week. At which point, maybe she’ll be able to explain how Frank knows my heart has been broken.’
‘Well, obviously she must have told him,’ Susannah replied, ‘how else could he know? And I think it’s good that he does. It gives him a better understanding of you as a person, instead of you as his boss. Anyway, all that aside, have you seen much of him?’
‘Less than usual, because we’ve both been all over the place, me in Rome and Prague, then Madrid, while he’s been visiting the regional sales people in France about customer service, and how we can beat off the competition with ours. I have an incentive plan, but I need a good feasibility study and the go-ahead from Claudia before I can put it into motion. But we don’t want to talk about all that, tell me more about the series and the other members of the cast. What are they like?’
Susannah waggled a hand, comme ci comme ça. ‘Mostly great,’ she said, ‘George especially, but the jury’s still out on a couple of them, like Polly Grace who got the part of Penelope. We detest one another on screen, and I fear it’s not going to stop with the cameras, because apparently I stole Marianne from one of her closest friends, who everyone just knew the part had been written for.’
‘Is that so? Sounds to me more like sour grapes that you got a better part. Have you seen Michael Grafton at all since you had lunch?’
‘Only once, at a drinks party last week, but the place was packed and as I was supposed to be one of the star attractions I had to spread myself around, which meant we barely said more than hello. I’ll probably see him tomorrow at the pre-shoot meeting.’
‘Is Alan taking you up to Derbyshire?’
‘No. It’s cast, crew and production personnel only this weekend. We have to get settled into our accommodation and familiarise ourselves with the sets. He’s going to try and take some time off during the week, though, to come and spend the night, which’ll be great if he can, because as luck would have it I’m supposed to be sharing a cottage – or they call it a lodge – with, guess who, Polly Grace.’
Patsy chuckled. ‘That should be fun,’ she commented. ‘Can’t you get it changed?’
‘Probably, but if I do it’ll only set her back up more, and she’s not actually in very many scenes, so it’s not as though she’s going to be around all the time, or for very long.’
‘Well, that’s a relief. Now, what about Neve? How’s her crush going? God, even thinking of all the hormones flying about in your house is bringing me out in spots.’
With a laugh, Susannah said, ‘On the whole she seems to be handling it fairly well, I think, but she still has moments when she gets quite down or querulous and short-tempered with me. Alan’s incredibly good with her. Her attachment to him, and sudden mood swings, aren’t only about her age, he tells me, they’re about the way she perceives her father to have abandoned her … Speaking of whom, wouldn’t you just know it, he popped out of the woodwork again a couple of days ago, wanting to know if I’d agree to sell the house now I’m doing so well.’
‘So you informed him it’s let and that he could go bury himself again?’
‘Kind of. I said I’d share the rent with him after he’s repaid what he owes me from the last three years’ mortgage. He wasn’t thrilled, as you can imagine, but once I’d reminded him it was the only way he was going to get half the value of the house when it is eventually sold he let it drop.’
‘Did he ask about Neve?’
‘Actually, yes. He wanted her mobile number, but I couldn’t give it to him until I’d checked with her first, and she was absolutely adamant that I must not, under any circumstances, let him have it.’
‘Mm. What did Alan have to say about that?’
‘That it was sad, but not especially surprising. He thinks it’ll change in time, but it’s probably best not to try pushing her, at least until she’s become more used to me being away a lot.’
‘I guess that makes sense. So, all in all, everything seems to be falling into place at last.’
Susannah smiled as a wave of happiness coasted through her. ‘Don’t let’s tempt fate,’ she cautioned, ‘but yes, it’s feeling pretty good right now. I just wish you weren’t seeming so down.’
‘Me?’ Patsy cried in surprise. ‘I’m fine. What makes you say that?’
‘You just don’t seem your usual lively self.’
‘Probably because I’ve been working all hours, and I have to admit, I don’t always find it easy being in an office where I have to try so hard to get along with people. My natural charm has always worked its magic before, but if I’ve ever come across a cultural clash it’s now. It didn’t happen in Australia at all, but in France, which is so close it’s like stepping out of your front door on to the path by comparison …’ She sighed. ‘We just don’t seem to think the same way, never mind behave, but the differences are so subtle that half the time you can hardly even put them into words.’
‘Does that mean you’re starting to become jaded with Paris?’
‘Not with Paris, just with some of my colleagues, and now Frank’s not around much lending his support my valiant efforts to integrate are like trying to carve my initials in sand – no sooner have I finished than they’re swept away by the next tide of bigotry, or resentment, or whatever the hell else they’ve got on their agenda.’
‘Well, you’re the boss, is it possible you could base yourself in another European city, such as here, in London?’
Pats shook her head. ‘Claudia wouldn’t want that. She’s keen to conquer France in a way she hasn’t managed up till now, and I’m not ready to give up yet, anyway. However,’ she went on, forcing a smile, ‘it feels really good to be here, because look where we are. Do you remember how we used to consider it a huge adventure to come down here to Clapham Common for the day when we were kids? It seemed such a long way away from our estate, didn’t it?’
‘Miles. And when the circus was here we’d think we were going on a major expedition. We couldn’t sleep for days beforehand and you were actually sick with excitement once, I remember.’
Patsy laughed. ‘Does it still hold that much appeal for children?’ she wondered. ‘For us, it was an amazing magic kingdom. Stand aside Lion, Witch and Wardrobe, or Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings. We had Clapham Circus.’ She smiled ironically. ‘And now here you are, about to enter a magic kingdom for real.’
Susannah squeezed her arm. ‘But not before Alan’s taken us all out for dinner tonight,’ she responded. ‘I’m so glad you were able to make it. As Lola said earlier, with you here it feels as though the family’s complete.’
‘That’s so sweet of her,’ Patsy replied, meaning it. ‘But tomorrow we all go our different ways again.’ As well as Susannah’s new journey she was thinking of her own Eurostar to Paris, and Frank, and whether he was due to be in the office on Monday.
‘The good thing is,’ Susannah said, ‘no matter where we are or what we’re doing, we’ll still always have the invisible threads that tie us.’
‘Without which,’ Patsy added, ‘there wouldn’t be a lot of point to anything really, would there?’
; Laughing at her gloomy tone, Susannah said, ‘I suppose not. Now, if I were you, Pats, I’d start facing up to the fact that you’re falling for that man, because as long as you’re in denial, you’re going to be in this depression.’
‘This isn’t a depression,’ Patsy informed her hotly, ‘this is an all-out black despair, because I swear I can’t stand him really, I just can’t seem to stop thinking about him.’
‘He’s definitely got through to you,’ Susannah chuckled, clearly enjoying Patsy’s struggle, ‘so when you do finally get it together, make sure you’re on the phone to me the minute it’s over, because I’ll be wanting every detail. And no pretending next time that you can’t remember what happened.’
‘I swear there was no pretence the last time,’ Pats said earnestly. ‘Those hours are still a complete blank to me, and remain the source of high amusement for him. Or I suppose they do, it’s hard to know for certain when I rarely see him these days, and it’s annoying the hell out of me that I seem to mind about that.’
With a sigh, Susannah tightened her hold on Patsy’s arm as she said, ‘Love’s never easy, is it?’
‘Definitely not where I’m concerned,’ Pats retorted, ‘but I’m not in love with Frank so it doesn’t apply. And I’m not sure you can say that about you and Alan. Unless we’re talking about Michael, of course.’
Susannah cast her a glance of surprise. ‘I was absolutely meaning Frank,’ she assured her. ‘And whatever you say, as soon as it’s possible, I’m coming over there to Paris to meet him.’
‘Fine, but I’m starting to wonder if I might be needed in Derbyshire first to help put out the flames of a hotter than hot affair.’
Susannah’s eyebrows rose. ‘You mean with Michael?’ she said. Then with a mischievous twinkle, ‘Well, actually, put like that, what can I say but bring it on,’ and laughing delightedly they turned tail to begin a much brisker walk back to the house, where Neve, Alan and Lola were setting up aperitifs before the taxi arrived to take them for dinner.
‘Here’s to Susannah,’ Alan toasted when they were all settled at their table in the restaurant later.
‘Susannah,’ everyone echoed.
‘Long may she shine and far may she reign,’ Patsy added.
‘Pats, that’s really good,’ Neve told her, almost choking with her determination to get in fast.
‘I’m known for it,’ Patsy commented wryly.
‘Amongst other things,’ Susannah muttered and they all laughed.
Susannah was looking sensational in a black and silver dress that clung lovingly to her figure, while her glistening blonde hair fell like shimmering bands of silk around her shoulders and back. Already a waiter and another customer had come to ask for her autograph, which was an interruption Alan had seemed to consider an intrusion, while Lola had been tickled pink, and Neve had almost burst with pride to be at the same table as someone famous, even if it was her mum.
‘OK, shall we all choose what we’re going to eat?’ Alan suggested. ‘Then we can really get stuck into the fizzy stuff.’
No sooner had the ordering been done than Patsy’s mobile bleeped with a text, causing everyone to groan. ‘No work tonight,’ Neve protested. ‘You have to turn it off.’
‘It might be Fronk,’ Susannah told her.
‘In that case,’ Neve said, ‘can we all read it?’
‘It won’t be him,’ Patsy said, opening up the message. ‘He’s in Toulon.’
‘Oh, like the end of the world where phones don’t work,’ Neve declared knowingly. ‘So come on, what’s he saying?’
‘It’s not from him,’ Patsy insisted, her cheeks starting to colour.
‘Liar!’ Susannah laughed. ‘I can tell by your face that it is.’
‘OK, but you’re not reading it. Any of you.’
‘That’s not fair!’ Neve cried. ‘I’d show you if it was from one of my boyfriends.’
‘One of?’ Lola chipped in. ‘How many do you have?’
Neve blushed. ‘Enough,’ she answered, throwing a girlish glance at Alan.
‘That means too many,’ he said with mock sternness.
‘Well, anyway, I would show you,’ Neve insisted. ‘So come on, Pats. Hand it over.’
‘Absolutely no way,’ Patsy retorted, and turning the phone off she opened her bag, dropped it inside and zipped the bag up again. ‘So, where were we?’ she enquired with an eye-fluttering smile.
‘I think it was good,’ Susannah whispered to Neve.
‘I do too,’ Neve replied. ‘She’s trying to pretend she’s not interested, but you can tell by the way …’
‘Will you stop,’ Patsy cut in. ‘Alan, do you have no control over the women in your life?’
‘Now how dumb a question is that?’ he responded, throwing out his hands. ‘Look at them. How can I be expected to have anything as grand as control? But in their royal munificence they do allow me to think I have a little every now and again.’
‘When it suits us,’ Neve confirmed, and immediately blushed at her own temerity. ‘So come on, Mum,’ she said quickly, ‘talk us through what’s going to happen tomorrow. I know you’ve got a taxi picking you up at ten in the morning – have you finished packing, by the way? I hope you haven’t nicked anything of mine, because if you have …’
‘Don’t worry, your precious Topshop collection is safe.’
‘It better be. Anyway, the taxi takes you to Hyde Park, where you transfer to a bus …’
‘Luxury coach,’ Susannah corrected.
‘… that will chauffeur you and God knows who else to the Derbyshire dales.’
‘About forty other cast and crew,’ Susannah supplied. ‘We’ll then be taken to our various lodgings, which I’m assured are home from home, and everything’s in the same valley so we’ll never be too far from the set.’
‘You mean they’ve bought an actual valley?’ Patsy enquired, ready to be wildly impressed.
‘Leased, I think, from a local farmer or landowner. It’s got everything from an enormous manor house to stables, barns, cottages, manèges, gallops, paddocks and obviously the Peak District right on the doorstep. Everyone else has already managed to get up there to have a look around, but tomorrow will be my first time, because I’ve been too tied up here with publicity and all the rest of it. Polly, who’s obviously not going to be my best friend, has already informed me that she’s moved her things into the lodge, and she hopes I don’t mind, but she’s taken the bedroom that has the en suite, because she has to get up a lot in the night.’
‘Probably gets lonely,’ Patsy decided, ‘or has to check her incontinence pad.’
Alan gave a splutter of laughter.
‘If she’s a cow to you, Mum,’ Neve jumped in, ‘make sure you don’t let her get away with it. You’re the star, remember? You could probably have her fired.’
‘Oh, the power’s going to my head already,’ Susannah joked.
‘I’m serious,’ Neve said. ‘I bet you could. I mean, Michael Grafton himself chose you for the lead so that’s got to mean something.’
‘He was only a part of the decision-making process,’ Susannah informed her, throwing a pained look Alan’s way. ‘The final say was with Marlene Wyndham.’
‘My reckoning is,’ Alan pronounced, ‘that you’re going to have a much easier time of it with the men than the ladies, so if you go out of your way to make friends with your own sex, you should be a winner all round.’
‘And this isn’t control?’ Patsy cried with a laugh.
‘Friendly advice,’ he corrected.
‘Mum’s so brilliant with people, she’ll be fine,’ Neve weighed in. ‘She gets it from Lola.’
‘Who else?’ Lola wanted to know. ‘Actually, I could have been a TV star myself once, but they hadn’t invented anything risky enough for me when my bits were in the right places.’
‘Don’t go there!’ Neve cried. ‘Alan hates thinking about Mum doing love scenes, don’t you?’ she challenged.
‘Un
less they’re with me,’ he responded.
Was there really, Pats was thinking as she went along with the banter, an undercurrent of tension around the table, or was it her imagination? Since she was slightly wound up by the text she’d received, her perspective was skewed, so she couldn’t be certain, but she seemed to be sensing something, she felt sure of it. However, as the evening wore on, and they drank more champagne, she decided to give up trying to read a subtext that probably didn’t even exist. Everyone seemed happy enough, and hopefully she did too, but by the time she sank into the new king-size bed in the guest room she couldn’t help feeling relieved to be able to drop the facade.
Michelle and I in Marseilles Mon till Wed, then Bordeaux till Friday. This means will be unable to make marketing meeting on Thurs. Email with detailed itinerary to follow. F.
He was going to Marseilles with Michelle Maurice, the company’s Director of Beauty, and a more aptly titled individual Pats had rarely come across. She was a sumptuously brunette version of a young Deneuve, with a figure that could make grown men fall to their knees and weep. It was only recently that she, Pats, had started to notice how friendly Frank and Michelle had become, or perhaps they’d always been close and she hadn’t been interested enough in their personal lives to care. Now she felt sure they were having an affair, in spite of Michelle being married to a lawyer Pats had actually heard of, he was so successful. Not that Pats had pulled Michelle’s personnel file to find that out, exactly, because she’d asked for the Director of Fragrance’s details too, in order to review both their bonus schemes.
The dossiers were back at human resources now, and it was on Patsy’s agenda to discuss her proposed increases with Frank at their next meeting. She was interested to see how he responded to discussing his mistress’s financial rewards – if she was his mistress, and Pats was becoming increasingly certain that she was. To say it didn’t bother her would be ludicrous self-deception, because she was hardly able to get it out of her mind. She kept imagining the two of them together, seeing their bodies entwined, erotic, steamy and sensuous beyond bearing. She was doing it now, and wanting to scream at the detestable images her mind was conjuring up.