Zack emailed her that day to tell her that they had hired a very talented young British costume designer, Lally Bristol. She was fantastic with historical work, was already starting to research the time period of the series, and was very excited to be on board. He had sent Kait a photograph of her with his email. She was a beautiful young woman, about six feet tall, with a shapely figure and long blond hair. Kait just hoped that Dan Delaney didn’t go after her, but she was probably used to men like him and dealt with them all the time. It was going to be her first series too. She had done most of her work in feature films, as many of the actors had.
Agnes had promised to call her again, and Kait tried to reach Candace several times in the next few days. Her calls continued to go to voicemail immediately, without ringing first, which usually meant she was out of the country. Kait had no idea where she was, and that always made her uneasy.
She was working on Becca’s most recent script, making notes one night, when the phone rang. An unfamiliar voice with a British accent asked for her by name. She had no idea who it was, and her caller ID just showed that the call was from the BBC with a London number, but it was the middle of the night for them, and nine P.M. in New York.
“Yes, this is she,” she said, putting the script down, with a sudden anxious feeling. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m calling about your daughter Candace. She’s all right,” he said immediately, to reassure her. “There’s been an incident.”
“What kind of incident? Where is she?” Kait said immediately, as panic seized her in a viselike grip.
“She’s actually in Mombasa. She was doing a story on a refugee camp a hundred miles out of the city, and there was an attack on the road. A mine, she’s been injured, but she’s all right, minor burns to her arms and chest.” He didn’t tell Kait that the driver and photographer with her had been killed. All Kait needed to be told was that her daughter was alive. “We’re airlifting her to London tonight. She’s in stable condition, and we wanted to get her medical care here at home.” Kait was on her feet immediately, pacing the room, thinking of Candace injured, and her heart was in her mouth.
“How bad are the burns?”
“Second and third degree, I’m told. Mostly second, with a third-degree burn on one hand. It just seemed the wisest course to get her out. We will keep you fully informed, Ms. Whittier, I can assure you. Her plane should land in a few hours. She’s coming in by medevac and she’ll go straight to the hospital when she arrives. I’ll call you with an update then.”
“What hospital is she going to?”
“The adult burns unit at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. They have one of the best burn centers in England.”
“I’m going to try to catch a flight tonight,” Kait said, suddenly distracted, trying to think of everything she had to do. “Please tell me your name and how to reach you.”
“You really don’t need to rush over. I was told that her condition is stable, and she is not at any life-threatening risk.”
“I’m her mother. I’m not going to sit in New York while she goes to a hospital in London with third-degree burns.”
“I understand,” he said coolly.
“Please call me or leave me a message when she arrives. I’ll contact you as soon as I land, or go straight to the hospital. Thank you for calling me.” She was listed as Candace’s next of kin, and she lived in dread of something like this happening. She called Tommy in Texas as soon as she hung up and told him the situation, that she was going to try to catch a flight that night and wanted him to know where she was. He said he’d call the hospital himself in a few hours to see what he could find out about his sister’s condition, and try to reach her when she was admitted. He was worried about her too.
And then Kait hung up and called British Airways. They had a one o’clock flight to London that night. She had to check in at eleven, and leave her apartment by ten to get to the airport, which left her forty minutes to pack, dress, and go. She started racing around the apartment as soon as she paid for her ticket and booked a seat.
She was out the door at five to ten, and had called for an Uber car, which was waiting downstairs. She had thrown whatever clothes she thought she’d need into a small rolling suitcase she could take as carry-on, and threw Becca’s script, a file of letters for her column, and whatever else she could think of into a tote bag, and she got to the airport on time to check in for the flight. Her phone rang as she was boarding the plane. It was the same man in London, who said that the medevac flight had arrived, Candace was en route to the hospital at that moment, and was reported to be in good condition. Kait called her cellphone as soon as they hung up, and for the first time in weeks, Candace answered, in a groggy voice.
“Are you okay, baby?” Kait asked her, feeling tears fill her eyes.
“I’m fine, Mom. We ran over a land mine.”
“Thank God you weren’t killed.”
“I wasn’t, but other people were. It was a mess.”
“How bad are the burns?”
“They don’t hurt,” Candace said vaguely and Kait knew that wasn’t a good sign. “I can’t see them, they’re covered up.”
“I’m getting on a flight now. I’ll be there at one P.M. your time and I’ll come straight to the hospital.” Kait was talking to her on her cell as she took her seat on the plane.
“You don’t have to do that, Mom. I’m fine.”
“Well, I’m not. You scared the hell out of me. I’m coming over to be with you and see for myself.”
Candace smiled as she listened to her. “Don’t you have something better to do?” she asked. She knew her mother, and had suspected she would come as soon as she heard. Her first priority had always been her children, and nothing had changed since they’d grown up.
“Actually, no, I don’t. See you in a few hours,” she said, and had to turn off her phone. She had sent a text to her editor in chief, and another one to Zack to tell them where she was going, and promised to be in touch. And she’d sent her flight details to Stephanie and Tom.
She was awake for most of the flight, worrying about her daughter, and nodded off just before they landed. She woke up as soon as the wheels hit the runway. All she wanted to do was get to the hospital to see Candace. She had no luggage to get at baggage claim, and raced through customs after explaining to them it was an emergency, and then ran to the curb to find a cab. She was at the hospital forty minutes later, and a nurse directed her to her daughter’s room. She found Candace sedated and half asleep with heavy bandages on her arms, and another one on her chest. She woke up and smiled when she saw her mother, and Kait leaned down kissed her forehead, relieved to be with her.
“You couldn’t go to beauty school like a normal person?” It was an old joke between them about the kinds of dangerous jobs Candace had always been drawn to. This was the first time she had been seriously injured. A doctor assured them a little while later that the burns weren’t as bad as they had feared. There might be some scarring, but she wouldn’t need skin grafts, and they thought she could go home in about a week, after they checked her out more thoroughly and observed her for a while.
“I was supposed to start another story tomorrow,” Candace complained. She was the image of her mother, with the same green eyes and red hair.
“I don’t want to hear a word about another story, or I’m taking you home to New York with me,” she said sternly, and her daughter smiled again.
“Tell that to my bosses,” she said groggily.
“I’ll be happy to. I wish to hell you’d get another job,” Kait said and settled into a chair in the room, and they both took a nap. Doctors had told Candace she’d have to wear the dressings for about a month, but she didn’t seem to mind. She was far more upset about her colleagues who had been injured, and the two who had died. The others had been too badly wounded to be moved.
“Are you okay? How’s your daughter?” He was seriously concerned about both of them.
“She’s okay. She got some nasty burns on her arms and chest, nothing on her face, and she won’t need grafts, although there may be some scarring, but thank God, she’s alive.” Kait still sounded badly shaken by what had happened. “She’s the only one they shipped back. They were making a documentary at a refugee camp, and hit a land mine on the road to Mombasa. I hate her fucking job,” she said with feeling, and he laughed at how she said it.
“So would I in your shoes. Let’s find her something else to do,” he said quietly.
“I’ve tried. She loves what she does, and thinks she’s going to change the world. She might, but she’ll give me a stroke in the meantime.”
“Let me know if there’s anything I can do. And get some rest, Kait. It sounds like she’s going to be okay. This is hard on you too.” She was touched by the concern in his voice, and she called Tommy and Stephanie after that. They had both spoken to their sister after Kait left the hospital, and were worried about her.
“I asked her if her face is messed up and she said it’s not,” Stephanie told her mother. She was brilliant with computers but had no filter with humans, and Kait could just imagine her saying it to Candace.
“She’s going to be okay,” Kait told them both, but it was a harsh reminder of the dangers Candace faced constantly. And she had a serious talk with her daughter about it the next day. Candace wasn’t as groggy, and insisted to her mother that she was fine, she loved her job, and she didn’t want to move back to New York.
“Can’t you make documentaries in England or Europe? Why do you have to be in every war zone in the world?”
“Because that’s where the interesting stories are, Mom,” Candace insisted. Kait could see she wasn’t getting anywhere, and told her about the series then, and just as her siblings had been, Candace was enormously impressed. “That’s fantastic, Mom.”
Kait told her who was in it, what the story was, and everything she’d been doing for the past three months. And then she went back to the hotel while Candace took a nap. She had the hotel print out the latest script Becca had sent her, and she made notes on it, and then went back to the hospital. Candace had just woken up and was talking to her boss at the BBC. She was upset that they had given her next assignment to someone else, and they were insisting that she take several weeks off. Kait knew that it was a losing battle and she’d be back in the field as soon as she could.
She stayed in London until Candace was released a week later, and settled her at home. Candace was determined to at least go to the office then, bandages and all, and once she did, Kait knew it was time to go home. Candace was doing well, and Kait had nothing to do now that she was back at work. She had been in London for ten days, and she’d enjoyed being with her despite the circumstances. She hated to leave, but she could sense that she was getting on Candace’s nerves by being around. She didn’t want anyone fussing over her, she just wanted to be in the office. Kait was worried, sure that she would talk them into sending her somewhere too soon. She didn’t want her going anywhere dangerous again, but Candace had a mind of her own.
Kait was sad to leave. They went out to dinner the night before, and the next morning before Candace left for work, Kait gave her a long hug. And then Kait took off for the airport.
Maeve called her as soon as she got back. She had heard about Candace’s accident from Zack and had texted several times with Kait while she was away.
“How is she?” Maeve asked her.
“She’s all right, all she wanted was to go back to work.”
“Can’t you talk her into doing something less dangerous?” Maeve felt sorry for Kait. She could hear the fatigue and worry in her voice.
“It’s an argument I never win with her. She thinks she’s wasting her life unless she’s risking it to make it a better world. Her sister is perfectly happy going to basketball games, and her brother is selling fast food in Texas. Meanwhile, Candace has been on some mission or other since she was twelve years old. I have no idea how three children with the same parents can be so different. She’s been giving me heart failure for twenty years. She could have been killed.”
“Thank God she wasn’t,” Maeve said with deep compassion for Kait.
“What have I missed since I’ve been gone?” Kait sounded bone tired after a week at the hospital with Candace and the flight home. She missed her already, but it felt good to be back to more mundane pursuits. Nothing worried her more than her children when one of them had a problem or was hurt.
“I think Nick Brooke agreed to take the part of my big love interest in the final episode of season one, which means that he’ll be back in season two as a main character, if we last,” Maeve filled her in. “I’m looking forward to working with him. He’s a terrific actor, and a serious guy. He lives in Wyoming when he’s not working. He’s a real man’s man, and kind of a cowboy. He’s perfect for the part, as an ex–fighter pilot and war hero. Ian knows him better than I do.” He was a huge name, which would be a big draw for season two, if they got that far, which they all hoped they would. “We have a passionate relationship. We have a huge fight and it ends in a big love scene at the end of the first episode I do with him. That ought to be fun. He’s a good actor. Let’s have lunch when you have time,” Maeve suggested. They could both hardly wait to start the show. And she said that Ian was doing well. Nothing had changed or gotten worse, which was a victory for now.
Kait checked in with Zack too, and he brought her up to speed on everything. He had sent her flowers in London to cheer her up, and she’d been very touched. He told her about Nick Brooke too, and she congratulated him for talking him into it.
“I don’t think I deserve the credit for it. He wanted to work with Maeve. The prospect of a weekly show with her was too appealing to resist, although he was disappointed we don’t have any horses in the show. He flies his own plane too. He’s definitely the right man for the job. He wanted to do his own stunts, but the insurance company won’t let him. He knows a lot about planes and aviation in the early days.”
“He sounds like an intriguing guy,” Kait said.
“He is. Now get some rest. I’ll talk to you in a few days.”
Kait climbed into her bed after calling to check on Candace in London, and Agnes called just as she was falling asleep. It took her a minute to figure out who it was. Agnes’s voice sounded rough.
“Is something wrong?” Kait could barely keep her eyes open, and forced herself to wake up.
“I can’t do this. I can’t do the show.”
“Why not?” Kait asked her, suddenly wide awake.
“I just can’t. It’s too hard. I went to three meetings today.”
“Yes, you can,” Kait told her in a stern voice. “You know you can. And you want to do the show. You’ve done this before, and you can do it again.”
“I’m powerless over alcohol,” she said, repeating the first step in AA.
“No, you’re not. You’re stronger than that.”
“I want a drink,” she said miserably.
“Go to a meeting, call your sponsor. Go for a walk. Take a shower.”
“It’s not worth it.”
“Yes, it is,” Kait insisted. “Just take it one day at a time. Go to bed. And go to a meeting in the morning.” There was a long silence at the other end, and then a sigh as Agnes exhaled.
“All right. I’m sorry I called you. You sound exhausted. I just had a bad moment. I was sitting here staring at a bottle of bourbon, and I wanted to drink so badly, I could taste it.”
“I thought you got rid of all your booze.” She had told Kait that the last time she c
alled.
“I found the bottle under the bed, literally,” Agnes said.
“Pour it out, and throw the bottle away.”
“What a waste,” she said, sounding despondent. “Okay, I’ll do it. Get some sleep,” she said, seeming better, and Kait fell back against her pillows with a groan after she hung up and realized what had happened. She had just adopted an entire cast of children, to worry about along with her own. She was going to have to be concerned about who Dan was sleeping with, if Charlotte was fighting with someone, if Agnes was staying sober, if Maeve’s husband was still alive, if Abaya could remember her lines, and if Becca could write the show. She had taken all of them under her wing, with their problems, their fears, their quirks, their tragedies, their needs and desires. The thought of it was overwhelming as she closed her eyes for a minute, and within seconds, she was asleep.
Chapter 10
Life seemed to calm down for Kait in May. Zack called her every few days to report progress on the preparations for the show. All the contracts had been signed, the actors lined up. Lally Bristol was working on the costumes. And the scouts had found two perfect locations for them. One was a small airstrip on Long Island where the owner had an extensive collection of antique planes he was happy to rent to them, and he was excited to be involved in the show. And they had found the perfect family “home” for the Wilders in upstate New York. They were going to shoot it to look like the airstrip and house were on the same property, which wasn’t hard to do with computers in postproduction. Becca was writing dynamite scripts. Agnes called Kait from time to time and was still going to AA. Candace reported that her burns were healing and she was chafing to be off and running again. And Maeve and Kait had lunch at the deli where they had met originally, and Maeve said Ian was responding well to some medications they were giving him to slow the progression of the disease slightly, and there had been no recent change. And Kait was keeping up with her column.
The Cast Page 12