by Katie Fforde
‘And you’ll be all right going to your dinner?’ asked Scarlet. ‘I don’t want you to feel abandoned.’
‘I only ever feel abandoned in a good way,’ he said with a wink, and Scarlet laughed.
They followed the concierge through corridors, down service lifts and, eventually, out into a back alley where a limousine was waiting. They piled in, laughing faintly hysterically.
‘It’s like some sort of bizarre hen-night caper,’ said Caro, settling back into the soft leather upholstery. ‘I know it’s serious but it was lovely seeing behind the scenes at the hotel. And the concierge was brilliant! It was a bit like being in a film!’
‘I’m glad you see it like that,’ said Scarlet. ‘It’s all my fault really.’
‘I don’t see how that can be,’ said Caro, who was sensitive about women taking the blame for all the troubles in the world.
Scarlet didn’t speak for a while. They were now driving through London and even Caro, the seasoned Londoner, appreciated the beautiful buildings, the lights, the busy streets and sense of excitement.
Eventually, Scarlet said, ‘I suppose it’s not my fault exactly, but it’s because of me. It’s a secret but I can tell you two. I’ve got a big part in David’s next film. Of course all of Hollywood will think it’s because we’re an item – or if they don’t think that they’ll think we became an item so I could get the part, but it really wasn’t like that.’
‘I’m sure it wasn’t,’ said Caro, although she couldn’t help thinking about the age gap between the powerful but not hugely handsome man and the extremely pretty young actress.
‘You know I’d still be with David if he was a realtor.’
‘That’s an estate agent,’ said Caro to Rowan, who may not have seen as much American television as she had.
‘But everyone thinks I’m with him for the parts he can give me, and this part is pretty wonderful, and he is directing the film,’ Scarlet went on.
‘But why are you worried about the press?’ said Rowan.
‘Because rumours about me getting the part got out and another – much more established actor – went public about wanting the role and saying it was because David had the hots for me that I got it.’ Scarlet shuddered. ‘It’s why I’m having some acting lessons while I’m here. I’ve really lost my confidence.’
Caro sighed. ‘It’s funny; so many people would envy you. You’re beautiful, talented and have a man who obviously adores you, and yet your life isn’t perfect at all.’
‘I’m going to make it work, though,’ said Scarlet. ‘I’m going to prove I can play the part and do it well. And I’m also going to prove that I love David for him, not for what he can do for my career.’
‘That’s so inspiring,’ said Rowan. ‘I ran away from home to look at art schools, to escape from my family, who do really love me, I know that.’ She shot a glance at Caro in case she was going to remind her of this. ‘But they – well, it’s Mum really – they try to protect me too much. I’ve got to do my own thing – I can’t just live the life she wants for me. I just have to have courage.’
‘I think you’re both remarkable young women,’ said Caro. ‘I’ve had life pretty easy really.’
‘Didn’t you bring up your daughter on your own?’ said Rowan, sticking up for her friend.
‘Yes, but I lived with my parents – latterly my dad. I wasn’t lonely or unsupported. Maybe I’ll make my mark somehow, but later than you two.’ Caro sank back in her seat and watched London go past. What had she done with her life, really? And was it too late to do something now? She wouldn’t let herself think about Alec, but she did acknowledge that helping him get his perfume business going would be an achievement. If she could do that, she could die happy (although not just yet, of course). For while he still hadn’t recognised her, she wanted the best for him. That was how love worked.
‘Oh my God,’ she muttered as she put in the code to get on to the moorings, ‘I’m taking a superstar into my home and I haven’t even tidied.’
Scarlet giggled. ‘We’ve been through that! I’m not a superstar and I don’t care about it being tidy. I’m just glad not to be stuck on my own in my enormous suite.’
‘Sitting on your lovely sofa watching a wonderful widescreen TV …’ The gate swung open and Caro went in, holding it for the others. ‘Our TV is very small and I will have to explain about the loo but at least it’s safe here.’
‘The loo is fine!’ said Rowan. ‘The barge is lovely. Come on, Scarlet.’
Caro hung back a bit. Rowan seemed to have really come out of her shell since meeting Scarlet – given that the effect of the champagne must have worn off by now – which said a lot for Scarlet’s warm and inclusive nature. If Rowan were a bit more aware of the world of showbiz, she’d be terrified of Scarlet; instead she’d just responded to the real person she’d met, and treated her like anyone else.
Scarlet and Rowan were still in the wheelhouse by the time Caro had walked down the pontoon and climbed on to the barge. They were exclaiming with joy at the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf.
‘It’s like two worlds,’ Rowan was saying. ‘Down in the barge it’s all quiet and homey, but when you come up here you see London, right there!’
‘This is so cool!’ said Scarlet. ‘I love it!’
‘You’d better come down below and see the rest of it,’ said Caro, pleased the barge was doing so well so far, and hoping too much washing up left around wouldn’t let it down.
Scarlet’s enthusiasm didn’t wane, in spite of the untidiness of the saloon. Joe appeared to be out but had obviously been home because there were greasy dishes thrown in the sink. Scarlet didn’t notice those. She saw the built-in sofa covered with throws and sheepskins near a coffee table that bore a little clutch of candles. She saw the built-in bookcases and desk, the way every nook and cranny was used. Caro sometimes felt she wanted to clear everything out and start again but she didn’t want to live in a barge that was more like a flat. She liked the way you knew you were on a boat, with the ancient portholes, one of which had a bullet hole from when the barge was in the Second World War. And Scarlet obviously responded to all these things too.
‘This is joyful!’ she said. ‘I just love it!’
Caro opened her mouth to apologise for the mess but then shut it again. It would be wrong to draw attention to something Scarlet seemed not to have noticed.
She already loved Scarlet but her reaction to the barge made Caro love her even more.
Scarlet moved round the saloon, looking at everything. ‘It’s quite big, isn’t it?’
‘It’s not the biggest barge on the moorings, but yes, it’s pretty spacious.’
‘Compared to my first Manhattan apartment it’s huge,’ said Scarlet, impressed.
‘Can I get you something to drink?’ Caro said. ‘And then we can think about supper.’
‘Do you have green tea?’ asked Scarlet. ‘Sorry to be so actressy.’ She made a face when she said it but, to Caro’s delight, she didn’t do the rabbit ears with her fingers to signify the inverted commas.
‘That’s fine, we have green tea – all sorts of different kinds. Joe’s very into all that.’ Caro paused. ‘You don’t want alcohol?’
Scarlet shook her head. ‘No thank you.’ She sat down on the banquette, next to Rowan and looked quite at home.
‘I think I might have a glass of red wine,’ Caro said, hoping this didn’t make her look desperate. ‘Rowan? Scarlet’s having green tea, what would you like?’
‘Peppermint, please,’ said Rowan, who was rummaging in her bag. She pulled out her sketch pad. ‘Do you mind if I draw you, Scarlet?’
‘Go ahead. Just don’t sell the drawings to the press, OK?’ Scarlet laughed to show she was joking but Caro sensed she was a bit sensitive about it.
‘God, no!’ said Rowan. ‘No one would want them anyway, I’m not good enough, but I certainly wouldn’t do anything with your image you weren’t happy with. I can’t imagine anything worse! My
mum told me that once when her best friend came to London she had something put in her drink and she was photographed—Oh, never mind.’
Caro couldn’t press her because Rowan obviously found it all horrendous but she longed to know if Skye’s best friend was photographed falling out of a taxi or if it was something far worse. If the latter, it would explain Skye’s deep hatred of London.
‘Hey? Can I look at your work?’ said Scarlet, changing the subject. ‘Or would that annoy you?’
‘Of course – it’s only fair if you’re letting me draw you. Here – I’ll take out a sheet so I can draw but feel free with the others.’
Caro put on some gentle jazz, feeling that music would be soothing, and then began gathering crockery and stacking it in the dishwasher.
While Rowan was drawing and Scarlet was looking at her sketches, her own mind was churning. She was anticipating Alec’s arrival the following evening.
It was like waiting for a particularly large firework to explode. There was excited expectation but there was also, for Caro anyway, dread at the thought of the enormous bang the firework would make. Not that Alec was noisy exactly but at the moment everything was peaceful and calm. Could she be calm when Alec was in her space, so near?
Of course she could. She turned the hot tap on to last night’s chilli pan. It would be fine. And, in fact, it was brilliant that he hadn’t recognised her from that night long ago on a Greek island. This way she could pretend at least that she didn’t care about him, and was only interested in getting the right perfume for Scarlet.
The fact that he would have to stay over was a bit of a problem. It meant they’d have to be together last thing at night, and for breakfast.
She left the kitchen area and went to where Rowan and Scarlet were so happily occupied.
‘These pictures are amazing!’ said Scarlet. ‘I can’t think why Rowan keeps saying they’re not good enough. Good enough for what? Surely good enough to get her into art school!’
Joe came home and obligingly turned leftovers from the previous night’s chilli into a surprisingly delicious spaghetti sauce. He was pleased but not overawed to meet Scarlet. He had never heard of her but, being a film buff, had heard of David and, to Caro’s relief, approved of his work. Joe was lovely, but he was a bit inclined to say what he thought without adding a filter.
Scarlet disappeared after the meal to take a call from David. She came back a little while later looking worried.
‘David says there’s a crowd of paparazzi outside the hotel. He wonders if I could possibly stay the night here with you? He thinks it would be safer. With luck tomorrow they will have lost interest in me and be on to somewhere else. He could pick me up when the coast is clear?’
‘Of course,’ said Caro. ‘We’d love to have you.’
Rowan clapped her hands with delight.
‘I’ll just fetch some bed linen and show you where you could sleep.
It was a pretty single cabin, with a small wardrobe half full of clothes, a little bedside cabinet and a bookshelf.
‘It’s just darling!’ said Scarlet. ‘Here, let me do that.’ She took the bundle of linen from Caro’s arms. ‘I’ll put the duvet on. I saw this neat thing on YouTube. You turn it inside out …’
‘I have to say I wouldn’t have seen you as someone who looked on YouTube to learn how to put on duvet covers,’ said Caro, watching Scarlet rolling and tucking while she herself put on pillow cases.
‘I haven’t always been the superstar fiancée of a Hollywood mogul, you know. I used to be a perfectly normal young woman. But I must admit I got led to the site by something quite different. You know what the Internet is like.
‘Oh, I do!’ agreed Caro. ‘Now, can you fit the sheet round that corner? We’ll be done in no time.’
When the bed was made, Caro switched on the bedside light.
‘It’s adorable!’ said Scarlet. ‘I feel like Anne of Green Gables seeing her bedroom for the first time. Thank you so much!’
Caro went to bed fairly early, and Joe went out, leaving the girls curled up on the banquette with throws and blankets, wearing pyjamas and bedsocks.
‘You look like an advertisement for hygge,’ Caro said on her way back from the shower room.
‘What’s that?’ asked Rowan.
‘Scandinavian cosiness,’ said Scarlet. ‘It’s gone out of fashion a bit now.’
‘Not on this barge, it hasn’t!’ said Caro. ‘Now goodnight and don’t stay up too late.’
‘Why not?’ asked Rowan.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ said Caro. ‘It just felt like the right thing to say.’
Caro was up early the next morning and had been to Waitrose to buy bits and pieces including croissants and freshly squeezed orange juice. If Scarlet wanted healthy food for breakfast there was plenty in the cupboard.
Although she was trying hard to be calm, she was a bit stressed. It wasn’t so much the thought of David coming to collect Scarlet that morning as much as the prospect of Alec being on the barge in time for dinner. She wanted to get the food thought out so she could focus on all the other stuff.
Finding a perfume-maker for Scarlet and David would likely mean the end of her part in their story, she realised now. Rowan would probably go back with Alec after he’d talked to David and Scarlet, even though she hadn’t yet had her promised week in London. She, Caro, would be left on the barge feeling, she anticipated, anticlimactic and lacking a project. She’d have to think of something – something to take her mind off Alec, principally.
The saloon smelt of fresh coffee by the time Scarlet came in, rubbing her eyes and looking delightfully ruffled with no make-up and her hair in curls as yet undisturbed by tongs or even a brush.
‘I slept so well! It’s so quiet,’ she said, coming up to Caro and putting her arm round her waist and kissing her cheek. ‘I do love a good hotel but they are much noisier than it is here.’
Caro was delighted. ‘It’s because we’re much lower than all the hustle and bustle of Canary Wharf,’ she explained. ‘The noise just goes straight over us. I still get surprised when I draw back the curtain and see a double-decker bus through the porthole.’
‘And that coffee smells so good!’ Scarlet stretched, reminding Caro of a kitten. She was completely unaware of her loveliness.
Rowan came in, looking very similar to Scarlet in that they shared the same sleepy beauty while looking quite different from each other. ‘We stayed up talking quite late,’ she said. ‘I do hope we didn’t disturb you.’
‘My cabin is tucked away in the stern,’ said Caro. ‘I never hear what’s going on in the saloon apart from when the pump goes off. Now, coffee for both of you? Or tea? Orange juice? Then we have croissants, granola made by Joe, eggs, bacon …’
Scarlet’s phone vibrated. ‘Oh, excuse me, it’s David.’ She got up and retired to her cabin. She came back a little while later.
‘All right?’ asked Caro as Scarlet sat down at the table. She passed over the coffee pot.
‘Everything’s fine really, but David now says he can’t get here until the evening.’
Caro waited for a few seconds. ‘And the problem is …?’
‘Would it be OK for me to hang out with you until he can get here?’ asked Scarlet.
‘Of course!’ said Rowan. ‘It would be lovely!’ Then she looked at Caro. ‘I mean—’
‘It would indeed be lovely,’ Caro confirmed. ‘And he can meet Alec. We’ll all have dinner together.’
‘We could take you out—’ Scarlet was still unsure of her welcome.
‘Really,’ said Caro. ‘I’d love to cook for everyone. It’s been ages since I’ve done fancy cooking.’ As she said it, it sounded as if this was a pleasure she’d been deprived of but now she thought about it, she was worried that she was out of practice. But as the two younger women were looking at her happily, convinced she was about to indulge in a favourite hobby, she went on. ‘It’ll be great fun,’ she said.
Soon all three
of them were sitting round the table eating breakfast as if they were old friends and Scarlet and Rowan were planning their day.
‘So are there actual shops round here?’ asked Scarlet. ‘Or would you like to do something else, apart from shopping?’ She was addressing Rowan.
‘I’d love to go shopping with you,’ said Rowan. ‘I hardly ever get to go to the shops. Where I live, unless you’re buying a kilt, you’re a bit stuck for haute couture.’
Caro laughed. ‘Glasgow is about three hours away from where Rowan lives,’ she explained. ‘You can get all sorts through mail order but actual shops are a great treat.’
‘I’d love to hang out with Rowan,’ Scarlet said. ‘And I want David to see her drawings when he comes and I’d just love to take Rowan shopping – but not in a regular mall. I want something different.’
‘Well,’ said Caro, having thought a bit, ‘if you want different, you could go to Old Spitalfields. It’s great and it’s different. You could find some lovely vintage stuff and even if you don’t you’ll have fun.’
‘How do we get there?’ said Rowan. ‘Will you come with us?’
‘You could go on the Underground or the bus,’ said Caro. ‘I could show you where to go, but I really want to stay at home and cook for this evening.’
‘Or we could take a cab,’ said Scarlet. ‘The lazy option?’
This was the option that seemed to most appeal to Rowan and it wasn’t long before the two of them set off, Scarlet fairly well disguised in an old hat of Posy’s and an unflattering hoodie. No one would ever guess she was a star of interest to the gossip columnists.
Chapter Eight
Caro was very pleased to see Joe on deck, on hand to help her on board with her bags of shopping.
‘Joe! Lovely to see you! Good night?’
‘Guests still here, I gather, given the amount of food you’ve bought.’ He effortlessly swung several bulging Bags for Life into the wheelhouse.
‘Yes, and they’re coming back for dinner, with two others.’
