Daddy's Girls

by Danielle Steel

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  —

  When Juliette got home on Labor Day weekend, she looked alive and well, and her eyes were bright again. She’d cut her hair just a bit shorter and it didn’t look quite so wild. She was smoking French cigarettes again, and Kate noticed that her English had suffered a little, but she looked peaceful, had gained a few pounds, and said she had seen a lot of old friends all over France. She had mostly spent time in Provence, and visited the Camargue, where she grew up.

  She looked both sad and nervous when she told Kate about the decision she’d made, but she knew she had to tell her. Kate looked shocked when she did. Juliette had decided to move back to France. She realized that she belonged there. It was her culture, her language, her home. It was too hard for her to be at the ranch without Jimmy. He was really her only reason to be there, and now he was gone, and she felt it was time for her to leave too. She said it had been a hard decision, but she thought it was the right one. She would come back to visit, but now she wanted to live in France again. She had come to California for a summer and stayed for twenty-four years, because of him.

  “You and Thad should move into my house, your father’s house,” she corrected herself, “when I go.” Kate had told her about them as soon as she got back, so she heard it from her first, and Juliette approved.

  “Your father thought about that sometimes too. He said he was the only right man for you, but it would never work because he was the foreman, and a man needs to be the boss.”

  “We both will be, we work well together.” Kate smiled at her, surprised by her father’s comment. “He’s going to build a house on the land he bought from Gemma. They’re starting to lay the foundation in a few weeks.”

  “Your house is too small for the two of you, and it will take time to build his house.” Kate liked the idea of moving into Juliette’s, but she didn’t want to rush her, and was sad that she was going back to France. She wanted to settle in Provence, and could afford to buy a nice house with the money Kate’s father had left her. And he had left her enough so she wouldn’t have to work.

  “When are you thinking of leaving?” Kate asked sadly.

  “Not too quickly. I will need time to say goodbye to the Valley.” She looked at Kate with her big green eyes. She was such a good woman. Kate was going to miss her. “I’m thinking by the end of the year. Maybe in December. I’m going skiing with my brother for Christmas. I’ll go before that.” Kate nodded and hugged her and told Thad about it that night.

  “I’m not surprised,” he said softly. She told him about Juliette’s suggestion that they move into her father’s house, and he liked the idea. Juliette was right, Kate’s house was a tight fit for the two of them. And now that everyone knew about them, they had nothing to hide.

  There was no question about it. Four months after her father’s death, change was everywhere and had touched them all. It was comforting for Kate to know that her father would have approved of her relationship with Thad. It was like a final tender goodbye from wherever he was now.

  Chapter 13

  In the third week of September, Jerry called Gemma as she was leaving the gym. She had had a good workout, her body had never looked better, and she was settling into her L.A. routine. It had taken a while after coming back from the ranch, and she had promised Kate she’d come up for a weekend soon. She’d gone to a premiere and several parties, just to keep her face out there. She had gone alone.

  “What is it this time?” she asked him as she got into her car. “Another teenage horror movie, or an infomercial, selling mattresses at two A.M.?” She was kidding, but not entirely. Nothing had turned up so far.

  “Don’t be such a bitch. I told you the Brits would come through. I just met with the producer/director. They’re ready to cast. They start shooting in December, on location in Zimbabwe. They’ll be there for two months, and then go back to London. The show will be based there. And they’re looking for an American actress for the part I told you about. I gave them your name first. We just watched you in two episodes of your old show. And you know, I hate to admit it, but damn, you’re good.” He was laughing and she laughed too.

  “Is that a compliment or an insult?”

  “Both. They want to meet you. The casting director is here with him, a woman, and the executive producer. It’s a big budget show. A period piece. You’re good at those. What are you doing at four o’clock?”

  “Today? Oh God, I look like shit. My hair is a mess.”

  “They don’t care. For that historical stuff, they use wigs. And you’ll be working in a field hospital in World War I. You’re supposed to look a mess. Whatever you’re doing, cancel it. This is the best project I’ve seen in years and you’re perfect for it.”

  “Don’t I get to see a script first?”

  “No. You’re broke, remember? You haven’t worked in months. I’ve got nothing here. And it’s this or the infomercials you were just so rude about, or vampire pictures.” He was in great spirits. The meeting had gone well, and he liked giving her good news for a change. She was a fine actress who deserved to work.

  “I would have to live in London?”

  “Yes, during the season, when they’re not on location. You can come back during the hiatus. It’s the best shot I’ve got for you for now,” he reminded her. “It’s going to be a great show and a huge hit.”

  “Okay, okay. I’ll be there. Remind me of the director’s name, I’ll google him.”

  “Rufus Blake-Harte. He’s one of the best directors in England. Everything he touches turns to gold, and if you turn this down, I’m personally going to kill you, and you lose your whining rights for at least six months. Don’t be a diva, Gemma. You need the work and they need you.”

  “I get it,” she said grudgingly. She googled the director on her phone and recognized everything he’d done. It was all top material and hit shows, and he’d written some of it himself.

  She went home and spent two hours trying to figure out what to wear. She knew it didn’t matter, her work history did, but she still wanted to look her best. She finally decided on black jeans, a black Chanel jacket, six-inch heels, a black alligator bag, and diamond stud earrings. Rich but not too rich, successful but not showy, youthful but not too young. She wore her shining dark hair down, and was satisfied with how she looked when she left her house. It was a half-hour drive to Jerry’s office, and she arrived on time, and was ushered into his inner sanctum immediately. He was sitting with a group of people who were laughing and looked relaxed. The men were wearing tweed jackets and jeans, and brown suede boots or shoes. They had a polished look to them that American producers didn’t. Stylish and sophisticated without trying, longish hair, some beards, and one in particular seemed to be studying her carefully from the moment she walked in. They all stood up when she entered the room, and the woman with them, the casting director, was young and beautiful and looked like an actress herself. They were a handsome group.

  Jerry introduced her to Rufus Blake-Harte, who had been studying her so intensely. He smiled at her as they shook hands. “I apologize for staring. You’re even more beautiful than I expected, even more than you are on screen. Thank you for coming in on such short notice. We’re only here for two days.” They all sat down again, and he looked to be about fifty. He had a well-trimmed beard and was very tall and lean with dark hair like hers, and intense blue eyes. He had a pronounced British accent, and what she’d read on Google said he had gone to Oxford and had been a Shakespearean actor himself at the beginning of his career, but became a film director very quickly, and had worked in TV series for the past fifteen years.

  He admired her tan and casually asked where she’d spent the summer. She could sense that he was trying to get her measure and who she was in real life. She explained that her family had a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, and he looked pleased.

  “You ride?”

/>   “I do. I grew up on horses.”

  “Wonderful. It’s so much easier than needing a stunt double for every shot, with actresses who are terrified of horses.” They talked about the show she’d been on and how much she’d loved it, the writing, and her fellow actors, and how sad she was that it had ended. It had been like home to her for ten years.

  “Well, we’d like to find you a new home for the next ten,” he said warmly, and everyone in the room laughed. He seemed like a very intelligent, sensible, easygoing person, with none of the posturing of Hollywood, and he asked her how she felt about being based in England while they’d be shooting.

  “That’s fine with me,” she said simply. “I’m not married, I don’t have kids, no boyfriend, no dog. I’m unencumbered.” He looked ecstatic. Another actress they were considering had four young children and wanted it in her contract that she’d be flown home every weekend, or her children, husband, and nanny would be flown to England. It was a nightmare of logistics they knew would never work. And she wanted special accommodations if she got pregnant again. They’d been asking around about Gemma and liked what they’d heard. Good actress, reliable, shows up and does her job, a consummate professional in every way, easy to get along with, well liked by director, crew, and cast. That was worth its weight in gold to them, not to have to deal with histrionics on the set, or actresses who didn’t know their lines, and there were plenty of them, male and female in the business, who required twenty or thirty takes before they got it right. Time was money, and although the director said he was a perfectionist and people hated that, no one wanted to retake a scene ad nauseam because the actor hadn’t learned his or her lines. Everything he had heard about Gemma so far had convinced him she was right for the part.

  “We’d like to give you a script, and see how you feel about it. We’ll be shooting in Africa for the first two months. Christmas, I’m afraid. You’d get to spend it with me and the cast, although we’ll have a break in there somewhere.” She looked unfazed by any of it. She hadn’t gone home for Christmas in years, and usually tried to go away with friends. And Africa would be interesting. She’d never been there.

  “I’ll admit I’m not crazy about snakes, but I don’t mind being on location over Christmas.”

  “I will personally protect you from them. We’ll be in a very civilized, sophisticated, high-end safari camp. Most of it is for several episodes later in the season, and some for the first show, but we thought we’d get it out of the way right off the bat, and stay in England after that, with a few scenes in Paris during the war. Your character has an affair with a French army officer in the First World War, and she goes to meet his family at their chateau. He gets killed shortly after so that takes care of that.” He smiled at her, and Gemma liked him. He seemed warm, personable, unpretentious, and human, and she liked the idea of working with him, and loved the concept of the show. “Your part is the second lead role. Your co-star is a very hot young British actress right now. She’s twenty-eight, brand new, and a joy to work with. And from everything I understand, so are you. We need a British actress in the lead role to keep the folks at home happy on British TV, but as it will be seen worldwide, we want an American, a real one, in the second lead. You’d be the only American in the cast. The rest are all British. And we intend to do a maximum of publicity for the show. We want it to be the number one show in England a year from now. And with you on board, I feel sure we can do it.” He smiled at her, and one of the other men handed her a script. “If you have time to take a look at it tonight, I’m sorry to press you, but I’d love to hear from you by tomorrow. There’s no point chasing a flock of others if we can have you. You really are our top choice,” he said, and Gemma glowed.

  The meeting lasted for two hours and she was floating on air when she left. She went straight home, took off her shoes and jacket, and sat down to read the script. She called Jerry at nine o’clock that night. He was on the freeway on the way to a party and put her on speaker.

  “Sign me up. I want it. I don’t care if I have to sleep with the snakes in Africa, it’s the best show I’ve ever read and the part is perfect for me.”

  “They think so too. The director is obsessed with you.” He was smiling. “I’ll give them a call right now. They’ll be thrilled. You’re okay about being stuck in England?”

  “I’d be willing to be stuck at the North Pole to play that part.”

  “And you don’t mind having a co-star this time?”

  “I can live with it. It looks like a beefy part for me.”

  “They say it is. They want both characters to be equally strong. I’ll call them. Talk to you tomorrow, and, Gemma, congratulations! I’m happy to see you back on top again.” In reality, it hadn’t taken long, only three months, but it had felt like centuries, thinking that her career was going to tank. But it hadn’t. It was on the upswing again.

  Three dozen roses and a magnum of champagne appeared at her house the next morning, and Jerry had the contract in his hands at noon. He was having it checked by his legal department, and she’d have to have it seen by her lawyer too, and add any special conditions she wanted. But Jerry knew that Gemma was usually reasonable, and didn’t ask for the absurd stipulations and perks that some actresses did. He had told the producers that too.

  Rufus called her himself that afternoon. “I can’t begin to tell you how happy you made us, and me personally. I’ve loved watching you on your old show for years. I think this is going to be a very exciting shift in your career, more dramatic, historically based, we want to give it real substance, and keep it on the air for as long as we can. I don’t quit when we’re on top,” he reassured her.

  “I’m really excited,” she said, and sounded like it. “When do we start shooting?”

  “We’re going to need you in Zimbabwe around December fifteenth, or thereabouts. Right in time for Christmas. But I meant what I said, we’re going to make it as pleasant as possible for the cast, and make it a very special experience.”

  “I can’t think of anything better,” she said. She was floating.

  “See you in Africa then.”

  She looked over the contract that afternoon, after Jerry cleared it. She added a few minor things, and sent it to her lawyer. They emailed it to Rufus two days later with her signature. He countersigned it, and by the end of the week, the deal was signed, sealed, and delivered. She called Kate as soon as it was.

  “I have a job!” she screamed into the phone and told her all about it. “The show is based in England, so I’ll be in London eight or nine months a year, but I can come home for three months in the summer, and you can come and visit me.” Kate was thrilled for her, though sorry to hear she would be so far away, but three months in the summer would be wonderful. And Kate promised to try to come over, although she hadn’t been away in years.

  As soon as Gemma hung up, her phone rang again. It was her tenant from the summer. He had decided to make an offer on her house. It was raining blessings on her. She had already decided on a price, based on comparables in her neighborhood, and had communicated it to him. He knocked ten thousand dollars off the price on principle, and she accepted the offer. He said he’d have the written offer to her by the next day, and he did. He wanted a sixty-day closing and expected her to balk at it, but it was perfect for her since she was leaving for Africa in mid-December and could empty the house before. She told him she was planning to put all her furniture and art in storage. He called her back two hours later. For another two hundred thousand dollars, he wanted most of her furniture, which was a fair price for it and close to what she’d paid. She’d only have to store what he didn’t take, her art and some personal effects. She was planning to sell some of her clothes, the ones she knew she’d never wear again. She was trimming down her life in every way.

  She texted Kate about the house, and called Caroline, who was standing in the totally bare room that had pre
viously been their bedroom. She had gotten rid of everything and was starting fresh. She was planning to go to the Galleria in the city, and redecorate her bedroom exactly as she wanted it, without a hint of Peter in it, or Veronica Ashton. She couldn’t wait to start, and planned to sleep in the guest room in the meantime, and then replace that bed too.

  “That’s not a good sign,” Morgan whispered to her brother when they saw it. “She’s getting rid of everything that reminds her of Dad.” She had already told them that they had decided to extend their time-out until the end of the year. But at least they hadn’t filed for divorce yet. There was still hope they might get back together, but they were worried about the empty bedroom. Morgan was feeling stressed about it, and Billy didn’t like it either. Now that they were home from the ranch, their parents’ separation seemed all too real to them. Their mother tried to reassure them without lying to them. She didn’t want to make promises she couldn’t keep, and the future of their parents’ marriage was uncertain.

  Later that night, Caroline told Gemma about her new bedroom, she thought it was a great idea, and Gemma told her all about the new show she was going to be on. She made Caroline promise to come over and visit and bring the kids during a school vacation.

  “We’ll come in February, for ski week,” she promised. So they both had something to look forward to, and Gemma was very happy with the money they were going to pay her for her co-star role. The money from the house sale was better than she’d hoped for, without a realtor’s commission to pay. She was on top again, and even better than before. Losing the show had been a powerful wake-up call to her, and had taught her a lesson. She was never again going to let her finances slide out of control, with nothing tucked away. She was just lucky that she’d had part of the ranch to sell, and a house. And her salary on the new show was higher than the old one. She was on top of the world.