Persuading Austen

by Brigid Coady

  She wrapped her coat further round her. It was May; surely it shouldn’t be winter clothes weather.

  Annie looked at the burn and projection on the tracker again, but nothing changed. How could they already be projecting an overspend a week into filming?

  She’d forgotten about the voice calling for her. It had come closer.

  ‘Annie?’

  Whoever they were they would’ve had to go through the stables, which were a mix of wood, steel barricades, and canvas. They would’ve had to dodge the horses who were very nosy and liked to snuffle at anyone who ventured by. Then if they got that far, they would have to know that the loose canvas flap actually held the tack room.

  Someone had obviously been watching her.

  ‘Annie?’

  The man’s voice was closer now; maybe if she sat really still he wouldn’t be able to find her?

  A head popped through the canvas door of the tack room. She jumped and almost knocked her laptop off the saddle she was using as a desk.

  ‘Sorry to disturb you. Austen said I’d find you here.’

  It was John Benwick. Harmless John.

  ‘It’s okay.’ She sighed and pushed her laptop lid closed. She rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to massage away the tension headache that had been building all day.

  ‘What’s gone wrong now?’ she asked too tired for small talk. No one came to see her for a chat any more.

  ‘Bad week?’ he asked, smiling understandingly at her.

  They stared at each other for a beat and then Annie found they were laughing together

  ‘It isn’t just me then?’ she said.

  ‘Nope,’ he said dusting down one of the saddles and leaning on it. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen such a dysfunctional first week in years.’

  ‘Yeah.’ She fiddled with the leather bridle that dangled from one of the hooks on the wall.

  ‘Did you hear that the make-up team have downed tools and are now refusing to work? It seems that Les made some comment about the orange hues of the Bennet girls that didn’t go down well,’ John said.

  Annie groaned. ‘I know. Why do you think I’m hiding out in here? I did try to point out to him that because he cast some celebrities rather than straight actresses to get the ratings up, he would have issues. And that he should’ve built in a twelve-step programme when cutting them off from their fake tans.’

  ‘I heard the screaming when the AD went in and confiscated the fake tan that Jillian Mansel had stashed in her trailer.’ John shuddered. ‘I thought we were on the set of Midsomer Murders or something.’

  ‘Oh it was because of that? I thought it was about the gel nails she was asked to remove.’ Annie laughed, trying to find humour in it.

  ‘I think she hyperventilated over the gel nails too. That was when they had to get the set nurse involved.’

  They both smiled at each other.

  Annie knew she’d have to face it all.

  ‘We’re not going to survive another month of this are we?’ she said.

  ‘We’ll be lucky if we make it another week, not with the talent at odds with the rest of the team,’ he said.

  Was there was a ringleader? Someone who was deliberately making everything difficult and bringing people along with them? She’d seen it on some productions, when a strong personality had swayed the whole team, usually her dad. It normally was resolved when one of the leads or a venerated performer stepped in to look for a compromise. Yeah, she snorted, but Dad was the venerated performer and he would more likely stir it up. And Auntie Lil had yet to arrive on set.

  And the lead? Well Austen was locking himself in his trailer between takes and seemed distracted except when he was acting. Austen had always been someone who didn’t like to be disturbed before performing. Annie had been the exception to the rule. He had liked to have her curled up in the chair next to him in his dressing room, as she hid from Dad.

  Annie had seen Louisa knocking on his door only this morning. Annie had suddenly remembered a job that she needed to do on the other side of the set. She’d needed to run and it had nothing to do to with not wanting the image of Louisa being let in to Austen’s trailer to be in her brain. But she couldn’t help but look back; Austen had poked his head out the door and sent Louisa away. Annie had felt a little spark of joy light up inside.

  ‘We probably need one of those team-building exercises where everyone goes off for the day and you have to build trust by falling off things and your team catching you.’ John’s words broke through her musing. ‘Mind you I wouldn’t trust hair and make-up to catch anyone at the moment.’

  Team building.

  The words gave her a jolt. Made her sit up straighter. Of course, that was exactly what was needed here. No one trusted anyone else. The cast and the crew were on opposite sides of a daily widening crevasse and neither one wanted to stretch out a hand and help the others across.

  ‘John, I could kiss you.’ She leapt up, grabbed her laptop, and pressed a kiss on the top of his head.

  Leaping over piles of straw and dung, dodging inquisitive noses, she stumbled out of the stable. What did she need to do first?

  Call the other producers and Les, get them to agree to spend a few days out of the shoot to try and get this motely crew acting as a team. This would work – it had to work and maybe she could take her mind off Austen and get it back on to what was going wrong with the finance side.

  ‘Annie?’ Harry said, as she almost crashed into him. He grabbed her biceps as she staggered and almost fell.

  ‘Oh hey.’ She smiled up at him absently, her mind working out the logistics and possible arguments.

  Austen peered at her from behind him. They looked like they had come out of make-up and were heading for the set. Harry released her once she was balanced and Annie patted Harry’s cravat back into place as she juggled her laptop with one hand.

  ‘Okay, got to go; break a leg.’ She waved behind her as she jogged towards to her crooked office.

  ‘John, where did you come from?’ she heard Harry ask.

  ‘Oh,’ Harry carried on sounding wounded, ‘what were you two doing hiding back there?’

  Did it look like she and John … Crap.

  Annie wasn’t sure why Harry sounded so upset though, and then she remembered. John had been engaged to his sister. And now he thought …?

  Double crap. Now both Austen and Harry thought there was something going on with John. Just when her day was looking up.

  Enough of that – this was work not a dating game. She ran to her trailer. It was her job to get this production back on the straight and narrow before one of the lighting guys decided to ‘accidentally’ drop something on someone. If Cass was making her stay here then she would be the best damn producer there was. Bloody men be damned.

  ***

  Two days later, five shouting matches and numerous promises that it would be worth the money, it was settled. They were having a team-building day. Everyone decided that it had to be that weekend to reduce the amount of time out of the production and additional cost.

  Annie also thought it reduced the amount of time where things could go wrong.

  And because it had been Annie’s bright idea, Eric had made sure she was in charge of organizing it; so she had to put on a fake smile, pretend everything was going fine, peachy in fact. After this, she thought, tackling Les about where the hell the money was going would be a walk in the park.

  Maybe.

  As the away day had been thrown together with luck and cash four days after she’d come up with the stupid idea, Annie’s days had been long and nights short as she’d juggled this along with her usual job. It had better bloody work.

  At the crack of dawn on the dreaded day, Annie lay in bed trying to will her limbs to walk her to the bathroom. Her phone rang.

  ‘What?’ she croaked as she accepted the call.

  ‘Morning, sunshine,’ Cassie chirped.

  ‘What’s good about it?’ she said picking up the spare pi
llow and putting it over her face. It didn’t do anything to block Cassie’s voice but it made Annie feel better.

  ‘A day spent with delectable Austen Wentworth, surely?’ Cassie cackled.

  ‘Ha,’ Annie spat into the cotton over her mouth.

  Austen still hadn’t spoken to her since that day in the hotel. But she could feel him watching her. When she caught him looking, he turned away with a frown. She was starting to think running up to him, shaking him, and screaming, ‘What do you want?’ in his face was the only way she could lessen the tension.

  ‘I’ve been told there is a fun activity day today and you all have to go. In fact, didn’t you organize this?’ Cassie said.

  Annie wasn’t sure why she liked Cassie. This was a woman who voluntarily ate cupcakes instead of fairy cakes after all. She hated her.

  ‘Fun? Fun?’ Annie exploded. ‘I’m supposed to be working, Cassie. But if we don’t get this shit show working it is going to cost a small fortune and we’ll have nothing to show for it expect maybe a few convictions for justifiable homicide or manslaughter or something.

  ‘We don’t have the money for this but we can’t afford not to do it. And don’t even start me on the dodgy spreadsheets that don’t add up. Someone is playing fast and loose with the cash. And this is the job you told me I couldn’t turn down. It isn’t like he’s Christopher Nolan and he’s re-creating World War Two,’ she grumbled into the pillow.

  ‘Get up, Annie. If you can’t enjoy it then suck it up and think of the work we can get out of this if you keep it on the straight and narrow.’

  Annie took the pillow off her face. ‘Much good that’s going to do us if I’m in prison for murder. I swear, Cassie, it is already the biggest load of nonsense and for once Dad and Immy aren’t the worst, but I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop with them.’

  ‘Good luck,’ Cassie said and started laughing.

  ‘Ha. You can just bugger right off.’ Annie hung up on the cackling.

  This day had ‘crap’ written all over it.

  ***

  An hour later she walked out of her room, checking that the lock caught, pretending to herself that she hadn’t spent a large part of the hour putting on one outfit and taking it off before trying something else on. Not that you could tell, she thought. A pair of rolled-up jeans, Vans, and an old Feckless Rogues tour T-shirt washed from its original black to a soft charcoal. It wasn’t exactly London Fashion Week.

  She heard the sound of another door shutting. Glancing sideways she saw Austen in front of the door to the presidential suite.

  They were neighbours? Was that why the receptionist had been making unsubtle hints? She only hoped the walls were thick.

  ‘It is some team-building day, wrestling the kids into line and showing them that they can play nice,’ Austen said into his phone. ‘Of course I’m playing nice, in fact …’ He paused as he caught sight of Annie. ‘Hold on, I’ll call you back.’

  No.

  The last thing Annie wanted was another hotel corridor confrontation with Austen. She walked quickly towards the stairs.

  ‘Annie, wait.’

  Maybe if he’d called her Anne, she would’ve stopped.

  ‘Going to be late,’ she called over her shoulder and thundered down the stairs and into the lobby. It was full of people. She wove her way through them until she could hide from the stairs.

  She watched as Austen came down the stairs and looked for her before Harry grabbed him.

  She was safe.

  ‘Okay, people, we are all off to a secret location where you will be given your instructions. You’ll be competing in teams for certain tasks.’ Tanya, the overzealous assistant director who was her second in command for all the details of putting the day together, clapped her hands.

  Annie put on her sunglasses. Tanya wore a tad too much sparkly bling. The morning sun glinted off it aggressively.

  ‘Will there be prizes?’ Will asked, way too wide awake for this time in the morning. And also for the amount of wine he looked to be putting away last night in the bar, Annie thought.

  ‘Of course there are prizes.’ Tanya sounded indignant.

  Of course there were prizes, Annie echoed in her head. Really … it was great that Tanya had used her own initiative but did they have the money?

  She pushed the sunglasses further up her nose and hunched her shoulders, hoping the sick feeling in her stomach was down to not having eaten breakfast yet rather than money worries. Could she just go back to bed now?

  Two posh executive coaches pulled up in front of the hotel. With their black-painted sides shining in the early morning light, they looked like overgrown hearses, she thought.

  There were whoops from the crowd of people in the lobby and a shout of ‘bagsy the backseat’ before there was a surge and they spilled out the door towards the buses.

  It only needed a few bread trays full of brown bag packed lunches for it to be like a school trip.

  How Annie had hated those school trips. Not cool enough to be on the back seats, not geeky enough to be in the front seats. She was just middle of the road, with the heart-tug yearning to be one of the ‘in crowd’. Someone who people pointed out and said, ‘Hey, that is Annie Elliot. She’s the coolest girl in sixth form.’ All she’d got, if people noticed her at all was: ‘Hey, isn’t that Immy’s kid sister?’ Or: ‘Isn’t that William Elliot’s daughter?’ And then after a while being noticed wasn’t what she wanted.

  Of course Immy and Marie had been in the cool crowd in their years.

  Annie hung back, scuffing at the dusty gravel, focusing on the phone in her hand. If she got on last then the decision would be made for her. She opened up her Tumblr app and started to scroll down.

  Blurry photos of Austen Wentworth and Diana Tomlinson were all over it. It seemed as though someone had been taking surreptitious photos of the first few days of shooting. The set had been locked down and they were in the middle of nowhere so it had to be someone on the cast or crew.

  Someone who should know better and had signed a contract to that effect.

  Great, they were going to have fans and the paparazzi descending on them.

  She checked what people were saying about the photos. Some were raving on about how cute they looked together, comments such as ‘I ship this’. Another fairly vehement group were shouting down the first group with evidence that Diana was in fact with Olivia. Annie hadn’t realized their ‘friendship’ was quite so widely known by the fans.

  And then there were a couple of posts that purported to have on-set gossip. There was an anonymous ‘ask’ that had been sent to one of the largest Wentworth fan blogs:

  ‘I know someone who’s working on the production. According to them Austen has been spending most of his time with his Ten Peaks co-star Harry Harville. Most people think that he and Harry are together. The whole Diana situation is just bearding.’

  Annie couldn’t help but laugh. She didn’t see anyone coming between Harry and Lewis, even Austen.

  Another anonymous ‘ask’ said:

  ‘I work on set and the whole atmosphere is toxic. Austen is the only nice cast member. And he looks amazing in breeches.’

  Great, now people were gossiping about the state of morale. Hopefully today would deal with that.

  She was about to click out of the app when she was caught by another post.

  ‘I work at the hotel they’re staying at. Austen and Louisa Musgrove are definitely “more than friends”.’

  Her breath caught, trapped in her chest. Were they? Annie flashed back on Austen sending Louisa away from his trailer … Had that all been a cover? She knew she should take it with a pinch of salt. Never believe anonymous posts on the internet, but yet …

  She couldn’t stop herself from reacting. Her body chilled, as if all her blood had rushed to her vital organs. Trying to protect her from danger. Except this was a danger of the heart. And even if it felt as if someone was gouging her insides out with a blunt spoon s
he wouldn’t die of it.

  Annie clicked her phone lock on and took a deep and shuddering breath.

  No. She was a bigger person. It didn’t mean anything. They had been mentioning Harry and Austen having a fling as well.

  But Austen and Louisa – she wouldn’t let him go. Louisa was very determined when she wanted something.

  He could respect her.

  And as it rolled out in front of her Annie could see their engagement party, their wedding with Austen staring down at Louisa the way he used to look at her. The dazzling life they would have. All shiny and Hollywood, and she’d be on the edge. Her vision blurred for a moment.

  Suck it up, Annie, she thought. If this does end up as the truth then you deal with it. You gave him up eight years ago. You don’t get to be maudlin now.

  She had to grow up. He was always going to move on, find someone else. Now she just had to learn how to as well.

  Brushing the moisture from underneath her eyes, uncaring if it blurred her mascara, she looked up and saw that while she’d been reading internet gossip and losing her heart, the final few people had boarded the coach.

  This was it. Trapped for the rest of the day with a dysfunctional production, her family, the man she still loved, and his alleged new girlfriend. It was like the start of an episode of Murder, She Wrote. If only Annie could be J. B. Fletcher? More likely she would be the murderer, killing Cassie for getting her into this indentured servitude. Surely she’d get a reduced sentence?

  She pulled herself up the stairs as slowly as she dared. If she wasn’t the one organizing this she would be heading back to the hotel. Annie stood looking down the aisle of the coach.

  Great.

  Cuddled up on the back seat were Austen, Louisa, and Harry, with Lewis half hiding having been smuggled on by Harry. Lewis held a finger to his lips and winked at her. What Annie wouldn’t do to be able to join them. She couldn’t help but find herself looking at Austen and Louisa. Why did she still have that lurching movement in her stomach when she saw him? Now it included the swift sinking feeling when she saw Louisa’s hand on his arm.