said jovially. ‘We’re all friends here. So you’re Charlene. I’ve been hearing about you. Nice to meet you. Hope you’re having a good time. Travis, make sure you treat this lady well. All right, all right, I’ll leave you two alone now.’
He took himself off, only turning at the last moment to give Travis a thumbs up sign and a beaming grin. Travis gave an inward groan.
‘He seems nice,’ Charlene observed. ‘Is something the matter?’
‘Everything’s the matter. I’m sorry about that. Denzil is thinking how he can make use of you.’
‘Of me? How?’
‘The fact is—I’ve been a bit of an idiot, and if there’s a disaster it’ll be my own fault.’ Caution made him stop there, but then he saw her face, kindly and understanding, as so few faces were in his world, and something drove him on to say, ‘I went to a nightclub with some friends, and there was this girl—’
‘The one that sat on your lap? Is that how they got the picture?’
He groaned. ‘You’ve seen it? Yes, it was in the newspaper, wasn’t it? I’m finished.’
‘No, she’s a bit blurred. You can sort of vaguely tell what she’s up to, and the fact that she’s hardly wearing anything, but the only face you can see is yours.’
‘Yeah, me cuddling a nearly naked girl,’ he groaned. ‘Actually, I was fairly tipsy by then and I just sat there and let her … well … And I’m paying for it. I’m supposed to be virtuous in private as well as in front of the cameras.’
‘And you’re not,’ she said sympathetically. ‘Not below the waist, anyway.’
‘Right,’ he said, relieved to find her so mentally in tune.
‘Well, I have the answer,’ she said. ‘The perfect solution to all your problems.’
‘Tell me.’
‘It’s simple. All you have to do is take up residence in a monastery. There, your life will be unassailably righteous, your career will be protected, and the studio profits will be safe.’
He stared. ‘You … you …’ Then he saw the wicked glint in her eyes and joined in her laughter. ‘You evil hussy!’ he choked. ‘I ought to … oh, but it was a good joke. You really had me scared for a moment.’
‘Well, at least you’re laughing,’ she said.
‘Yes, but it’s no laughing matter. I could lose so much.’
Travis’s phone rang. He answered quickly and seemed on edge.
‘Mom, it’s all right. Honestly. I can handle it. Stop worrying, I’ll call you later.’
He hung up, looking harassed.
‘She thinks I’m going to be brought down by scandal,’ he said. ‘When she was making films nobody could have survived what’s happening now.’
‘A film actress? Hey, that’s it. I thought you reminded me of someone, and now I can see. Julia Franklin.’
Julia Franklin had been a promising film actress some thirty years ago. For a while she’d shone brightly, and her old films were still shown on television.
‘That’s right,’ Travis said. ‘She’s my mother. You’ve seen her?’
‘One of her films was on television last night, and they’re often shown in England. Everyone thought she’d go on to be a big star, but for some reason it didn’t happen.’
‘That’s because she had me. Total disaster.’
‘Did your father make her give up acting to be a full-time wife?’
‘They weren’t married. My father’s English, a businessman who’s always travelled a lot. Thirty years ago he was in the States to make some deal, met my mother briefly, and I’m the result.
‘He was already married to his second wife, his first having chucked him out for playing around. My mother’s film career was just taking off but he wanted her to throw it all away and follow him to England. Not for marriage, just to live as his mistress, be there when it suited him and keep quiet when it didn’t.’
‘I hope she told him what he could do with himself,’ Charlene said indignantly.
‘I’m proud to say that she did. In fact she did more than say it. If you met him you’d see a tiny little scar on his chin where she … let’s say, put her feelings into action.’
‘Do you mean Amos Falcon?’ Charlene said suddenly. ‘Hey, you’re one of the Falcon dynasty.’
‘In a sense,’ Travis said so quietly that she barely heard.
‘Amos Falcon was in the papers last week,’ she went on excitedly, ‘and there was a picture with this little scar—’
Travis groaned. ‘All right, yes, but please forget it. I shouldn’t have told you.’
Charlene began to chuckle. ‘The journalist went on about that scar, how the “heroic” Amos Falcon confronted a robber and drove him off, at the cost of injury to himself.’
Travis gave a shout of laughter. ‘Robber, my foot! Mom chucked an ashtray at him. She must have been a bit like you, losing your temper and storming out of the bank. She’s got her violent side too. I reckon you two would like each other. She really scared my father. Not that he’d ever admit it, but after that things tended to be at a distance.’
‘Do you mean you don’t see him?’
‘We meet occasionally, but we’re not close. His second wife booted him out as well and he married a third time. I told Mom once that he ought to have married her—I was very young and naive in those days. She said she’d sooner marry the devil himself, except that the devil wouldn’t be nearly so interesting as Amos Falcon.’
‘He sounds a colourful character.’
‘I believe his business enemies say the same. A falcon is a bird of prey, and he’s known for preying on people. But enough about him. I must tell Mom the nice things you said about her. She’ll be so thrilled that someone remembers her. What was the film they were showing?’
‘Dancing on the Edge,’ Charlene remembered.
‘That’s her,’ Travis said at once. ‘How often have I heard her say, “If it isn’t on the edge, it isn’t fun”?’
‘She played the hero’s sister, the one who was always putting her foot in it, but everyone forgave her because she had that lovely cheeky grin.’
‘True. And it’s just how it is in real life. She blurts out all sorts of outrageous things, then says “Sorry, honey”, and gives you such a smile that you have to forgive her.’
Charlene wondered if he realised that he had the same smile—mischievous, delightfully wicked. He was nice too, courteously paying her as much attention as if she’d been a raving beauty. Not like Lee Anton, she had to admit with an inner sigh.
As if reading her thoughts, Travis said suddenly, ‘Why do you bother with him?’
‘Maybe because I’m a fool,’ she said lightly. ‘We got close during the play—all those scenes we had together—’
‘But they weren’t love scenes,’ Travis pointed out. ‘Demetrius rejects Helena until the last minute—’
Charlene nodded. ‘Saying things like, I love thee not, therefore pursue me not. But Helena won’t get the message. She follows him saying, Neglect me, lose me, only give me leave, unworthy as I am, to follow you. What a twerp she is!’
She gave a grim laugh at herself. ‘Listen to me, saying that. Follow him. That’s exactly what I did.’
‘But