‘I think she was just worried about her daughter,’ Gemma said.
‘But I brought Bel here to see her mum. You’d think Teresa would have liked the surprise.’
‘I’m sure she did,’ Gemma said, ‘but you probably scared her witless. She didn’t know where Annabel was. Honestly, I’ve never seen her look so anxious.’
Oli sighed. ‘This is the last time I work with her—the very last.’
‘Oli—’
‘She treats me like a child, and I’m not going to put up with it.’
Gemma watched as Oli stormed off across the lawn. ‘Oli?’ she called, but he had vanished.
***
Adam and Kay were walking the length of Marine Parade towards the parking lot by the harbour. The sea was the colour of slate, and the sandy beach was quiet and newly swept.
Adam’s gaze drifted to the Cobb, and he smiled. ‘When I first saw that when I was a little boy, I thought it was a sleeping dragon.’
‘Were you afraid of it?’
He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘I kept wanting to visit it to see if it had woken up. Drove Nana crazy.’
‘You’re very close to Nana Craig, aren’t you?’
‘She’s my family. She’s like parents, siblings, and best friends all rolled into one.’
‘That’s nice,’ Kay said.
‘What about you?’
‘What about me?’
‘Whom are you close to?’
Kay stopped walking for a moment. ‘I don’t know.’
Adam looked surprised. ‘You don’t know?’
Kay sighed. ‘My mother died recently,’ she said, ‘and I lost a good friend too.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Is that what made you move here?’
She nodded. ‘I had to get away, and I wanted a complete change. There were too many sad memories for me in Hertfordshire.’
‘What about your father?’ Adam asked.
Kay looked up at him. ‘He left when I was little.’
‘And never came back?’
‘Oh, he came back, all right,’ Kay said, ‘but only to leave again.’ She shook her head. ‘I think he was one of the reasons I became obsessed with fictional heroes. They’re so much more reliable, aren’t they?’
For a moment, Kay thought about all the times she had been hurt in love and remembered Harry Golden, the man who stole and then broke her heart when she was twenty-one. They had been dating for just over a year when he dropped the bombshell about being married.
No, she didn’t miss Hertfordshire.
‘But didn’t you worry about being lonely?’ Adam asked. ‘I mean, you don’t know anyone here.’
‘I know you,’ she said.
He grinned. ‘And I’m very honoured to be your friend.’ He winced at the word that now lay between them as heavy and cumbersome as a slab of cement. He didn’t want to be her friend. Well, he did—of course he did, but he wanted to be more than that. ‘I’ll always be around if you ever need to talk to anyone. You know that, don’t you?’
‘You’re so sweet, Adam,’ she said. ‘Gemma’s a lucky girl.’ She began to walk again, leaving Adam to cringe.
Shortly before they reached the parking lot, they passed a secondhand bookshop, its windows crammed with gems.
‘I can never resist the lure of books,’ Adam said.
‘Neither can I,’ Kay said. ‘You know, Oli told me he hasn’t read Persuasion.’
‘Really?’
‘He doesn’t like reading at all. Well, other than scripts.’
‘But that’s terrible,’ Adam said, aware that it was bad practice to slander one’s rival, but nevertheless, it was tempting to do just that.
They entered the shop together and marvelled at the shelves and the magical musty smell of old books. As if of one mind, they both ventured towards the fiction section, and it wasn’t long before Adam made a discovery, pulling out an old copy of Pride and Prejudice from the shelves.
‘Look at this,’ he said, handing it to Kay.
‘It’s illustrated,’ she said in delight as she flicked through the pages. ‘They’re wonderful. Look at them!’
Adam looked at the pages she held open for him and nodded. ‘I’m betting they’re not as lovely as your illustrations,’ he said.
‘Oh, you flatterer!’
‘And you must let me have a look at them some time.’
‘Really?’
‘I’ve said so before. Perhaps I could help you find an agent for them—get you on the road to publication.’
‘Oh, I don’t know about that,’ Kay said.
‘Why not? Isn’t that what you’re aiming for?’
‘Well, yes. In the long run.’
‘Why not now?’
Kay bit her lip, and Adam hoped he hadn’t pushed things too far. ‘I—I’m just a bit busy with the bed and breakfast.’
He gave her a little smile. ‘It’s rejection, isn’t it? You’re scared of rejection.’
Kay didn’t answer at first, but then she nodded. ‘Of course I’m scared of rejection. Who isn’t? You see, at the moment, the paintings are mine and they’re—well—perfect, because nobody’s told me otherwise. But what if somebody does? What if somebody doesn’t like them and says they’re no good?’
Adam scratched his chin. ‘If you’re going to try to get published, you’re going to have to accept that someone’s going to say that at some stage—that is, unless you get incredibly lucky first time. But you shouldn’t let it put you off. My goodness, if I’d given up after my first rejections—’
‘You’ve been rejected?’ Kay asked in surprise.
‘Countless times!’ he said. ‘There was one really awful year when I got nothing but rejections, and yes, it knocks you back a bit and you feel like your work’s worth nothing, but then you dust yourself down and start again.’
Kay’s face looked pale with anxiety. ‘I don’t know if I could survive it. It sounds brutal.’
‘It is, but you get over it. At least, you do if you want to have your work out there and you love doing what you do. Truly love it.’
‘Oh, I do!’
‘That’s what will get you through the rough times.’
Kay puffed out her cheeks in a sigh. ‘I’m not sure I like the sound of rough times.’
‘They’re not easy—I won’t paint an unfair picture for you—but when you have a piece of work accepted…’
‘What?’ Kay asked.
Adam smiled. ‘It’s the best feeling in the world.’
‘I wonder how Jane Austen felt,’ Kay said, ‘when she first saw her book in print.’
‘Sense and Sensibility, wasn’t it?’
Kay nodded. ‘In 1811.’
‘She was in her midthirties,’ Adam said.
‘Yes.’
‘So there’s plenty of time for you!’
Kay laughed and flicked through the illustrated copy of Pride and Prejudice again. ‘This is lovely,’ she said.
‘Let me buy it for you.’
‘Oh, you don’t need to do that.’
‘But I want to,’ he said, plucking it from her hand and taking it to the till.
How very sweet Adam was, Kay thought. It was rather a pity that she’d matchmade him to Gemma; otherwise she might be starting to have ideas about him for herself. He was certainly cute with his dark hair and bright eyes.
She shook her head. He was Gemma’s. Anyway, wasn’t she in love with Oli?
Once he purchased the book, Adam handed it back to her.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘What a lovely gift.’
‘My pleasure. But now you’re beholden to me.’
‘I am?’
‘Yes. You have to promise me that you’ll send your work out to agents and publishers.’
‘Oh.’
‘I’ll help.’
Kay was still looking anxious, but she finally nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I will.’
On the way out, they passed a great shelf f
ull of well-loved Enid Blytons.
‘I used to adore The Famous Five. First-class escapism for children,’ Kay said with a happy sigh. ‘But I always wanted Anne to fall in love on one of the holidays.’
‘So you’ve always been a romantic?’ Adam said with a grin.
‘Oh, yes!’
‘And when did you graduate from Miss Blyton to Miss Austen?’
‘Very early,’ Kay said as they finally managed to leave the shop and head towards the parking lot. ‘One of my cousins was staying during the holidays, and she was meant to be reading Pride and Prejudice for school, but she hated it. I don’t think it had anything to do with Jane Austen, because my cousin was going through a phase when she hated everything. Anyway, she left the book in the garden one day, and I ran outside to get it when the rain started. I couldn’t resist taking a look to find out more about the dreadful book, and I was hooked. I had to buy my own copy after that. How about you?’
‘How did I discover Jane?’
Kay nodded.
‘Nana Craig sat me down one Saturday afternoon to watch the old Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.’
‘And you didn’t run out of the room screaming?’
‘No. I’d been in a terrible mood. My team had lost a big football match at school, and she thought I needed cheering up.’
‘Nobody can do cheering up quite like Jane Austen.’
‘You’re not wrong there,’ Adam said. ‘All the same, I didn’t let my mates know. I don’t think it would have done my reputation any good on the pitch.’
Kay laughed. ‘I guess not, but—’ she stopped.
‘What?’
A frown creased her forehead. ‘Do you think it gave you unrealistic expectations?’ she asked slowly.
Adam was surprised by her question. ‘You mean of love?’
Kay nodded. ‘I mean, I’m always being told I’m—that I have—that Jane Austen has given me—’
‘A horribly warped view of the world?’ Adam suggested.
‘A wonderfully warped view of the world,’ Kay corrected him.
‘How?’
‘Oh, you know—the usual stuff about happy endings and expecting to fall in love with the perfect hero.’
‘And you haven’t?’ he dared to ask her.
Kay’s bright eyes misted over. ‘I’m afraid I have, but it seems to happen an awful lot.’
‘You mean the heroes don’t turn out to be heroes?’
‘That’s exactly it!’ she said, thinking of her own sorry history with various ex-boyfriends who let her down—like Charlie Russell, whom she dated for six months before receiving a postcard from him from Barcelona where he decided to move without telling her.
‘And you’re blaming Jane Austen?’
‘I have to blame somebody, and I don’t like the idea of it being my fault.’ A small smile spread across her face. ‘How about you? Any failed relationships you can blame on dear Jane?’
Adam cleared his throat. ‘One or two,’ he said. ‘One or two.’
Chapter 31
Half an hour went by at Marlcombe Manor, and Oli Wade Owen was still a missing person. Teresa had paced up and down for ten minutes, wondering what to do.
‘He just stormed off,’ Gemma said when Teresa asked where her leading man was.
‘Where? Where did he storm off?’
Gemma pointed across the lawn where the garden sloped and was lost in a group of trees.
‘Bloody hell!’ Teresa said, and Gemma watched as the director followed the path that Oli had taken earlier.
‘What did he say to you?’ Sophie asked as she approached from behind.
‘Oli?’ Gemma said. ‘Not much. Just that he was fed up with the way Teresa was treating him.’
‘The usual, then?’ Sophie said.
‘What’s going on?’ a voice suddenly cried from behind them. ‘What have I missed?’
Gemma and Sophie turned around to see Beth emerging from the back of a taxi, wincing as her sprained ankle hit the ground.
‘Shouldn’t you be resting?’ Gemma asked.
‘I couldn’t stay in that bed and breakfast a minute longer,’ Beth groaned. ‘I was so bored!’ The taxi pulled away and Beth hobbled over towards them. ‘What’s going on?’
‘Oli stomped off in a huff after upsetting Teresa.’
‘Her daughter turned up at the bed and breakfast with her nanny and then promptly disappeared,’ Beth said.
‘Yes,’ Gemma said. ‘She turned up here with Oli.’
‘I was trying to hear what was going on from my room, but it was no use, and then Kay seemed to forget I was there at all. She’s gone off with Adam.’
‘Now we’ve lost our director on top of everything else,’ Sophie said. ‘I thought we were trying to make a period drama here, but it’s turning into more of a farce.’
‘I don’t think Oli and Teresa should be working together,’ Gemma said. ‘They constantly wind each other up.’
‘But have you seen their films?’ Sophie said. ‘She always gets the best out of Oli.’
‘I don’t think he should be acting at all,’ Beth said.
‘What?’ Sophie all but screamed.
‘What makes you say that?’ Gemma asked. ‘He’s a brilliant actor.’
‘I know,’ Beth said.
‘What, you think he should give it all up and make babies with you?’ Sophie teased. ‘Because that’s not going to happen.’
Beth scowled at her. ‘And how do you know?’
‘Because he’s got his eye on someone, and it’s not you,’ Sophie declared.
‘Who?’ Beth asked.
‘I think it might be our little hostess,’ Sophie said with a smile, delighting in taunting Beth.
‘But she’s off out somewhere with Adam,’ Beth said.
‘So?’ Sophie asked.
‘Oh, for goodness sake, you two!’ Gemma cried out. ‘Can’t you talk about anything else?’
Sophie and Beth exchanged puzzled expressions.
‘What else is there to talk about except love?’ Sophie asked.
***
As Adam and Kay crossed the parking lot, he thought about her question about Jane Austen. Did Jane Austen ruin lives by giving people false expectations about love? Were her heroes just too good to be true? Could a real man of flesh and blood ever hope to live up to such paragons? And were books with happy endings cruel? Did they give their readers a warped view of the world and what they could expect from it?
For a moment he thought of his own view of the world. Had it been coloured by the literature he read? He wouldn’t be surprised if it had, and now here he was adding to the sum total of happy endings in the world with his own writing. Was he perpetuating the myth?
Adam sighed. As long as he could remember, he had been an optimist. He always looked on the bright side of life. He always thought things would turn out for the best and never had anything but the highest expectation of things. Until Heidi Clegg, that was. Before Heidi, Adam believed that love was a pure and simple thing and that being honest and open was a sure way to find a happy ending of his own. He was wrong.
***
Adam met Heidi Clegg at a wrap party for the first film he produced. She came as a friend of one of the actresses but was not an actress herself, much to the relief of Nana Craig.
Heidi was tall with short blond hair cut elfin-like around a beautiful face, and she had the most hypnotic eyes Adam had ever seen. They were like polished jade and gave her face a feline appearance. Adam had fallen in love in the space of a moment.
There followed a few blissful months of wonderful dates and romantic nights when he felt that the city of London had been made for them alone. They did many funny, silly things together. He took her to London Zoo, where they ate ice cream and laughed at the penguins. They took a boat out on the Serpentine in Hyde Park and picnicked on Primrose Hill. It had been the most perfect summer of Adam’s life, and he knew that she was the one.
He bought the ring—a beautiful square-cut diamond set in platinum—from a jeweller’s he walked by a dozen times on his way to the studio where he worked. That morning, it had stopped him in his tracks, winking at him as strongly as a lighthouse beam. It had been a sign. Well, that’s what Adam thought at the time.
He chose a restaurant by the river, the sun setting behind the city, and then he waited for her to arrive. This, he thought, is going to be the most perfect night of our lives. He felt excitement bubble up inside him and then wondered if he should order a bottle of champagne to get some real bubbles in on the action. He motioned to the waiter and tried not to splutter into his tie when he saw the prices.
‘Thank you,’ he said, ‘I’ll have this.’ He chose a bottle that cost more than he received for the first short story he sold. It’s a special occasion, he told himself. A very special occasion, and if one can’t have champagne on such an occasion, then it was a poor do.
He looked out into the darkening night and wondered where Heidi was and if she had any idea what he was going to ask her. Didn’t women have a sixth sense for these sorts of things? Maybe she was panicking about what to wear or was fixing her hair so that everything would be perfect. He tried to imagine her arriving—walking in through the restaurant door. She was a woman who made heads turn, and he was quite sure it would happen that night. How proud he would be to see her! He’d catch her eye and she’d beam him one of her bright smiles, and the other diners in the restaurant would turn to see who she was meeting.
‘That’s my future wife you’re admiring,’ he’d want to tell them.
He checked his watch again. She was fifty minutes late, which was perfectly normal for Heidi. He had come to expect her to be late, and she always had a good excuse. Take the time when she was late for the theatre because she broke a nail. It must have been horribly painful, and of course she had to fix it, and he didn’t mind not being let in to the show until the interval. After all, you couldn’t expect to ruin the enjoyment for everyone else—not when you were sitting in the front row. It would have been disruptive. Then there was his hour-long wait for her outside the Victoria and Albert Museum for the exhibition he wanted to see. Heidi hadn’t been able to decide what shoes to wear and so went shopping on the way. He had to admit that she did look fabulous, and he hadn’t minded missing the exhibition. Who wanted a timed ticket entry anyway? Wouldn’t it be more fun to just look around the permanent collection at one’s own leisure?
Dreaming of Mr. Darcy Page 20