director said, ‘we’ll have a camera on you, to get a reaction shot. Travis, start at, “You should forget Dr Baker.”’
They took their places and Travis began.
‘You should forget Dr Baker. I know he’s incredibly handsome, but looks don’t really matter. Try to believe me. A man’s face is the least of him.’
‘Oh, they do matter, Dr Harrison, truly they do.’ Penny sighed. ‘He’s so attractive that I can’t help loving him.’
‘But is he generous, affectionate, honest? Will he always put you first?’
‘You mean is he dull and reliable?’ she challenged.
Dr Harrison took her hands in his and spoke with feeling. ‘I promise you, when you come to marry, dull and reliable is the best.’
‘Fine,’ the director said. ‘Lee, you should try to look as though you’ve just had a terrible shock.’
Which he has, Charlene thought sadly.
The actress called Penny gave Travis a look of laughing camaraderie. ‘“Dull and reliable is the best,”’ she teased. ‘You sounded like you believed that nonsense.’
‘I’m an actor,’ Travis protested. ‘I’m supposed to talk nonsense convincingly.’ He grinned. ‘However little I believe it.’
‘Well nobody ever accused you of being dull and reliable. That picture—’
‘You didn’t see it,’ he said hastily. ‘There’s no picture.’
‘If you say so.’
They rehearsed the scene several more times. Never once did Lee look in Charlene’s direction, and perhaps Travis realised this too, because when there was a break he went over to him. Charlene couldn’t hear what they said but she saw him take Lee’s arm and draw him towards her. She noticed, too, the uneasy glance he gave Penny.
As Lee sat down next to her he managed a polite smile, but his words brought a chill to her heart.
‘Fancy seeing you again.’
‘Why do you sound surprised? I’ve been sending you texts—’
‘My cellphone needs repair. Never mind. It’s great to see you again. What are you doing here? Did you come to see Travis? I hear you’re an old friend of his. OK, I’m just coming!’
The last words were called to Penny, who was standing by the door, signalling him and mouthing a word that looked like Lunch.
‘Old friend and good friend,’ came a voice above Charlene’s head. It was Travis, who’d been shamelessly eavesdropping. ‘It made my day when you turned up here, Charlene. Now, make it even better and have lunch with me.’
His hand on her arm brooked no resistance. Not that she wanted to resist. She was too grateful to him. Lee gave her a meaningless smile and vanished out of the door with Penny.
There was no doubt that Travis had saved her dignity. All eyes were on them as he escorted her out of the studio, into the corridor, into the elevator, finally the canteen. Heads turned, people stared at him in the company of a girl nobody had seen before.
Charlene struggled to collect her thoughts. Lee’s blank manner had told her everything she needed to know. But would that change when he heard her news? She had a terrible fear that it wouldn’t.
‘Thank you,’ she said when they were sitting at the table. ‘You saved me from looking a complete fool.’
‘Don’t call yourself a fool. That’s just playing his game. Presentation is all important.’
‘It’ll take more than presentation to stop me looking pathetic,’ she said in a tone of self-contempt. ‘I came all this way for a man who isn’t interested.’
‘But nobody has to know. Smile at me. Let them see us enjoying each other’s company. Go on, smile. More. That’s better.’
She was aware of the crowded canteen, and even more aware of Lee and Penny sitting together.
Good, she thought defiantly. Now he knew she wasn’t desperate for him.
‘So you’re a financial genius,’ he said.
She made a face. ‘That’s what I used to think, but it seems not.’
‘Hey, if you’re good with figures then I’m impressed. I’m rubbish at them.’
‘But it’s possible to be good with figures and rubbish at everything else,’ she said quietly. ‘It doesn’t make you good with people. I thought being good at the job was all I needed to get promoted, but the promotion went to some little doll-face who’d learned the job from me in the first place. When I protested I was told that they relied on me to keep an eye on her.’
‘So you’d do the work and she’d get the credit?’ Travis said sympathetically.
‘And the company car. And the increase in salary. So I told them to forget it.’
‘Good for you!’
She gave a brief laugh. ‘I wasn’t very clever. They offered me a bonus if I’d stay there, look after her and promise to keep quiet about “everything”.’
‘Meaning your boss and the girl he was sleeping with?’
‘Right. I could have had it made, but I lost my temper. I was really violent. They say the building shook when I slammed out.’
‘You?’ he queried. ‘Violent?’
‘Well, you’ve already found that out, haven’t you?’
‘No, you didn’t hit me on purpose. Pure accident. You seem so sedate, I just can’t imagine you slamming out.’
He might have added that her clothes, hair and make-up told the same story: austere, severe, sober, stern, unyielding. There was nothing fiery about her. Not on the surface, anyway. But inside he guessed there was something else.
Perhaps Lee had tempted it out into the open, which made it all the more strange that he was avoiding her.
‘Well, I’m paying for it,’ she said. ‘If I’d been clever I’d have driven them to fire me, then claimed unfair dismissal and sued.’
‘Admirable, but could you have driven them to fire you?’
‘Maybe. People can be tricked into doing what you want.’ She smiled. ‘I expect you know that.’
‘Sometimes,’ he conceded. ‘But I have a feeling I’m not as good at it as you.’
‘Well, I wasn’t good at it this time. First I lost my temper, then I realised I shouldn’t have, and by then it was too late. I did everything by the virtuous book, but sometimes you can have too much virtue.’
‘How true,’ he murmured. ‘So how did you find the cash to come here?’
‘My grandparents paid. They brought me up since my parents died. They’re lovely, adventurous people. Right now they’re on holiday in Africa, looking for elephants. They said I could go with them but I chose to come here instead.’
‘To find Lee?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where are you staying?’
‘The Howley. Why do you shudder? Do you know it?’
‘Not the hotel but that part of town. Depressing. I’d get out if I was you, find something better.’
He could have bitten his tongue out for his own tactlessness. Obviously she was making the money last, not knowing how long she would be here.
He took hold of her hand. ‘Charlene, listen to me. Don’t do anything crazy. It’s not—’
‘Well,