The Cornish Cream Tea Summer

by Cressida McLaughlin

  ‘Hey,’ she replied. ‘You OK?’ Marmite bounded up to Sam, and Sam lifted him up and rubbed him under the chin.

  ‘We’re grand,’ Toby said. ‘Even more so now you’re here.’

  ‘What scene do you need help with?’

  He passed her a dog-eared script. Estelle: Episode 4 was written on the front, and then, below it: Strictly Private and Confidential. She had seen this one already.

  ‘It’s where Henry sees the ghost of Estelle for the first time,’ Sam said. ‘Robert and Henry are together, they’re having one of their more heated discussions and then – wham, there she is.’

  ‘OK,’ Lila replied, flicking through the pages, taking longer than she needed to find the right place.

  ‘It doesn’t matter exactly where you stand,’ Toby said. ‘We’re not scheduled to film this scene until we get to Bodmin, so the landscape will be quite different. But Estelle has a monologue – it’s as if she isn’t aware of the boys’ presence – and we need to make sure our lines and our reactions – our timing – is right.’

  ‘Of course.’ Lila scanned Estelle’s words and felt a rush of satisfaction. She loved this part: it was so emotional.

  ‘It was very kind of Keeley to offer your services,’ Toby said, grinning.

  ‘It’s only us,’ Sam added. ‘And you were so good on the beach.’ He caught her eye and looked quickly away, suggesting to Lila that it was still as much in his head as it was in hers. ‘You’ll nail it. And the shoot will go more smoothly if we’re prepared.’

  ‘I’m ready,’ she said.

  ‘Excellent.’ Toby rubbed his hands together. ‘Sammy, better put the dog down.’

  ‘Oh … yes!’ He put Marmite gently on the floor, and Lila clipped his lead to a nearby truck. She wasn’t going to risk losing him again.

  ‘If we start from your line, Sammy. We’ll approach from this direction, Lila, and if you stand there looking all ethereal, we’ll chance upon you and then you just follow our lines, then read out Estelle’s part from the script.’

  ‘Sure.’ She watched as they turned and strolled away from her, Sam tugging at his cravat, his hair dancing in the breeze. She felt a pang of something that she put down to nerves and buried her nose in the script, reading through the words, suddenly terrified that she would be awful. Not that it mattered – she was only helping them rehearse – but she wanted Sam to look at her again as he had done on the beach.

  ‘Stay for a moment, Henry. Can’t we talk about this?’ Sam was following Toby back towards her, their strides long, both of them looking manly and angry and determined, so that Lila’s heart was suddenly racing.

  ‘There’s nothing to talk about. Not this time. You’ve made your thoughts on the matter perfectly—’ Toby came up short, eyes widening as he saw her. Lila wondered for a second what was wrong, before realizing that this was the moment Henry saw Estelle.

  Sam came to a stop alongside Toby, his gaze also fixed on her. ‘You see her?’ he said quietly. ‘She’s been … coming to me. Ever since we arrived. I thought it was the upheaval, I thought I was going mad, but …’ he laughed humourlessly. ‘You see her, don’t you? Estelle.’

  Toby opened his mouth to speak and Lila, knowing this was where she was meant to come in, cut him off. ‘It wasn’t supposed to happen this way,’ she started. She didn’t look at either of them but stared off to the side, holding the script at an angle so she only had to move her eyes if she forgot any of the lines. Every inch of her skin prickled with the awareness of being watched. ‘It was my chance at a good life, one with purpose.’

  ‘Is she—’ Toby said.

  ‘Brother,’ Sam murmured, stopping him.

  Lila, as Estelle, continued. ‘I knew someone was watching me, almost as soon as we arrived. The moment we were husband and wife, and this house was my castle, the fear began working its way inside.’ She pressed a fisted hand against her breastbone. She felt so sad for Estelle, for the young woman who had had her whole life ahead of her, but had lost it at the hands of some unknown – because Toby hadn’t given her all the scripts yet – killer.

  ‘A prickling at my nape,’ she murmured, ‘a sudden chill when the sun was still bright on the terrace. My things displaced, hardly noticeable, except to me, who had started with so little, and cherished each shawl and slipper and chain. There were unkind eyes on me. Planning. Plotting. Though I knew not why I was the flame to their moth. I had found love, a home. I believed that, at last, happiness was mine. But …’ she swallowed, feeling the emotion rush through her like a tidal wave. ‘It wasn’t to be.’

  Lila dropped her hand to her side, her head to her chest, waiting for Sam to say his next line. Or was it Toby? She couldn’t remember. She glanced at the script, frowning when the silence continued. She risked looking up. Toby and Sam were staring at her as if she’d suddenly grown an extra head. And there was someone else standing behind them. Gregor. Lila almost dropped her script.

  ‘Bloody hell,’ Sam said quietly.

  Toby started clapping.

  ‘Was I … weren’t you meant to come in? One of you?’

  ‘It was me,’ Sam said. ‘I had the next line, but I was too busy watching you.’

  Lila blushed. ‘I—’

  Sam was in front of her in a second, taking her hand. ‘That was brilliant, Lila. The beach wasn’t a one-off. You are … something else.’

  ‘He’s not wrong,’ Toby said mildly. ‘You dark bloody horse.’

  ‘Delilah Forest,’ Gregor boomed, making Toby and Sam jump. It was obvious they hadn’t realized he was there. ‘Coffee and cake aficionado, reckless abandoner of buses before the day’s filming is done. What is the meaning of this?’

  ‘She was helping us rehearse,’ Toby said.

  ‘She was not,’ Gregor argued. ‘She was stunning you, like trout.’

  ‘She was incredible,’ Sam said, laughing and rubbing his cheek. When he looked at her, Lila felt heat reach parts of her nowhere near her face.

  ‘When we move to Polperro,’ Gregor continued, ‘Thursday morning, we need a Miss Trevelyan. It’s only one line, but it’s yours, Lila. I’ll get Bethan to bring you a script, to tell you where you need to go and when. Carry on.’ He turned and strode away.

  Lila blinked. ‘What just happened?’

  Toby laughed. ‘You auditioned yourself into the show. Your scene is with me on Thursday morning and, don’t worry, Bethan’s the assistant director, she’s brilliant – completely on the ball. But whatever questions she can’t answer, you have me and Sam.’

  Lila inhaled, her mind whirring. ‘What about Gertie?’

  Sam’s eyes were bright. ‘You deserve this, Lila. Max or someone else from the catering team will pitch in to help. You just need to focus on delivering your line, which isn’t going to be a problem after what we’ve just witnessed.’ He glanced at Toby, and Toby nodded.

  ‘I’m going to be in Estelle?’ She couldn’t absorb it. The last twenty minutes felt like a blur. But then Sam’s arms were around her, and he was pulling her against his chest and laughing softly into her ear, and even the prospect of being a small part of the BBC drama faded into insignificance.

  ‘This ain’t right, Mr Bramerton, sir, what you’re doin’ here.’ Lila dropped the script onto the arm of the sofa. She didn’t need it, but it felt like a talisman. She cast a wary glance at her audience: Juliette, Lawrence, Marmite and Jasper, sitting in a row in front of her. She waited, licking her lips. ‘Well? What do you think?’

  Lawrence rubbed his hand over his blond stubble. She didn’t know Juliette’s boyfriend that well, but he seemed so nice, so genial, and that was what she needed right now. ‘That’s it?’ he asked.

  Lila nodded. ‘That’s my line. I’m Miss Trevelyan, the schoolmistress. I’m part of the mob of angry villagers who don’t like how Henry Bramerton is treating his tenants. But it’s not really Henry’s fault, you see; there’s this other landowner who—’

  ‘And Henry Bramerton is Toby Welsh?’ Ju
liette asked, slightly breathlessly. ‘And you’re speaking those words to him? You’ve spent actual time with him? You’ve acted in front of him already, and he said you were good?’ Lawrence rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

  ‘Yes,’ Lila said, wishing Juliette would stop being so starstruck and give her some feedback.

  They had turned up on Charlie’s doorstep at half past nine. Filming had finished early, as they had needed to move the entire production team over to Polperro, and Lila had been able to come home while Mike drove Gertie to her new position. The reality of what was happening tomorrow had been starting to sink in when there had been a knock on the door.

  Apparently Charlie had told Juliette that Lila had seemed a bit frazzled last time they’d FaceTimed, and had asked Jules to check on her. Lila had let them in, made them hot drinks, and was now – after giving them a potted history of her time on set so far – practising her line on them.

  ‘Toby is lovely,’ she continued, in response to Juliette’s question. ‘But he is a professional actor, and if I don’t get this line right tomorrow, if I mess it up and have to do it hundreds of times, then he might not want to spend any more time on Gertie, and neither will anyone else.’

  ‘But that … what you just said,’ Lawrence continued, ‘that was it?’

  ‘Yes. That was my line.’

  ‘It sounded great. But …’

  Lila waggled her fingers. ‘But what?’

  ‘If that’s it, what are you so worried about?’

  ‘Because I’ve never done anything like this before! You understand, don’t you, Jules?’

  ‘If I was standing opposite Toby Welsh, I doubt I could make my voice work at all. I think you sound wonderful, Lila. Very Cornish, but still quite sultry with it.’

  ‘Sultry? I don’t want to be sultry. I want to be angry!’

  ‘OK then.’ Jules sat up straight and beckoned at Lila. ‘Give it to us again. I want Cornish, sultry and angry this time. And we’re not going to stop until you get it right. You will not be letting Toby Welsh down tomorrow.’

  Lila managed a smile, wondered if enlisting their help had been wise, and then tried her line again. The dogs watched on impassively, their dark eyes shining with something that looked distinctly like pity.

  The new filming village set up just outside Polperro was almost a carbon copy of the previous one, Gertie sandwiched between the catering tent and the other craft stalls, except that they weren’t in a rural location and so everything felt more hectic. Lila’s stomach danced with nerves when Bethan appeared in the doorway alongside the ever-cheerful Max, who was once again taking charge of the bus while she was gone. This time, she was going to leave Marmite with him too.

  ‘We’ll get you costumed up, take you for a brief stint in make-up, and then it’s down to the set. Excited?’

  Lila nodded, holding her script so tightly that she thought it might spontaneously combust.

  The outfit she was given was heavy and uncomfortable: a dull brown dress, cinched in at the waist, with a short jacket in a slightly darker shade and sturdy, pinching boots. In the make-up trailer her hair was teased and pulled into a complicated up-do that, from her position in front of the mirror, looked deceptively simple and elongated her neck. Her shine and freckles were powdered into submission, her hair sprayed until it set.

  While this happened, and Perry, the young, beautiful make-up artist chattered on, Lila’s nerves slowly turned into excitement. She was here, getting to see how it all worked first-hand, experiencing what Keeley and Sam, Aria and Toby experienced on a daily basis. She was a genuine, bona-fide part of Estelle.

  Once Perry had finished with her, a runner took her down to the set.

  Unlike the lonely cliff-top scenes at their last location, this new set was a port town, flung centuries into the past. The narrow street had been stripped of all its modernity, shop fronts covered, benches hidden. It looked dusty and quaint, and there was already a crowd of extras milling about at its fringes, while a host of crew members chatted and scurried and moved cameras, lighting rigs, sound booms and bounce boards, getting everything into position. Lila was overawed.

  ‘It’s amazin’, isn’t it?’ a young woman said, smoothing her hands down her simple white apron. ‘Bein’ a part of all this.’ Her accent sounded genuine, and Lila’s insides flipped.

  ‘It is. It’s going to be a wonderful series. It’s—’

  ‘Lila!’ Toby, dressed impeccably as Henry Bramerton, was waving at her.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Apron Girl squealed. Lila gave her a quick smile and hurried over to Toby. She knew, from her several million read-throughs of the scene, that Robert wasn’t in this one, but Sam had told her he’d be there. She hadn’t decided if that made her feel better, or added to her nerves.

  ‘You all prepared?’ Toby asked. ‘It’ll be a cinch, honestly. You’re a natural.’

  ‘Yes, but look at all these people.’ Her voice gave a perfectly timed wobble.

  Toby squeezed her arm. ‘There isn’t an actor in the business who isn’t daunted by the sight of a full set, however long they’ve dreamt of being part of one. Ride the adrenaline, turn it towards your performance, and you’ll be fine. Gregor saw you taking Keeley’s place as Estelle, and he wanted you to do this. Remember that. You’re here because you’re good.’

  Lila swallowed. ‘And it’s only one line, right?’

  ‘Every line is important,’ Toby said, smiling. ‘Don’t think it isn’t. I have to go and talk to Bethan. You’ll be OK?’

  ‘I’m grand,’ she said, with more confidence than she felt. Once Toby had gone, Lila dissolved back into the crowd of supporting actors and waited for them to be called.

  The waiting, it turned out, was the worst part. It seemed to take for ever for Gregor and his minions to set up the shot, to adjust the lighting, the camera angles, the props on set, check the doorways that would be opened or closed, check for stray pigeons, check … Lila didn’t even know what else they were checking for – but it took hours.

  And then her group, the angry mob, was called forward, and Gregor gave them instructions: how exactly the scene would go, at which precise moment to move forward, and where, specifically, to step. Lila nodded along with everyone else, but had the sense that they all knew a lot more than she did. They buzzed with energy, hiding their excitement under cloaks of professionalism.

  ‘You good, Delilah Forest?’ the director asked, just as Lila thought their briefing was over.

  ‘I am. Very good,’ she said, and then cursed under her breath. What kind of a response was that?

  To her surprise, Gregor laughed. ‘I know, otherwise I wouldn’t have given you this part. Be my Miss Trevelyan, incensed and dutiful and intrigued by the Bramerton brothers. She knows she can get what she wants, knows she has the wit and cunning, but also that she has to take it one step at a time. That’s all there is to it.’

  Had he remembered she only had one line? She didn’t think she should remind him, so instead she nodded and smiled and just about resisted giving him a thumbs-up, and hoped she looked as though she was absorbing his advice.

  By the time they were moved into place, Lila’s heart was beating so loudly in her ears she was convinced the person next to her could hear it. She breathed slowly through her nose, a yoga technique Juliette had taught her the night before. After a few deep breaths, it started working. Everything settled, her nerves and her pulse and her jiggling insides.

  Toby strode onto the set, took up his mark alongside a reedy man who was playing the banker, to act out the end of a conversation that had started inside, and which would be filmed at an entirely different time, in a studio miles away from here, perhaps three months from now. Lila couldn’t get her head around it, this discordance of story. But at this moment that was the least of her worries.

  She focused as Gregor murmured something to Bethan, there was a shift of camera angle or another detail, and then he called, ‘Action!’

  Chapter Five

/>   Lila had thought that saying her line over and over the night before had been extreme, but compared to the number of times they had to shoot this scene, to say their lines and then reset everything, for Toby and his fellow actor to have a particular exchange, or end their conversation in a slightly different way, it felt like a few seconds’ work. She supposed that with such a busy setting, so many more people, a hundred different things that could go wrong, it made sense that they would reshoot a lot. Besides, it was their first day at this location; they were still getting to know its quirks.

  The first time she got to say her line, she hadn’t been prepared for the look of pure scorn Toby gave her as he walked past. She had expected a quick smile to show her she’d done well, but of course, he had to be angry – their characters were opposed to each other. Here, he didn’t know her. Here, she was against him.

  After that, despite the long waits, the pinch of her boots and chill of the wind that found its way easily through her ill-fitting dress, she began to enjoy herself. She focused, harder than she had done in a long time, absorbing herself fully into the scene. Toby became Henry Bramerton and she was an impoverished, dedicated schoolmistress trying her best for her pupils and their families, outraged at being treated with so little respect by her new landlord, but still needing him to listen to her.

  ‘This ain’t right, Mr Bramerton, sir, what you’re doin’ here.’ She injected anger and pleading into her voice, lifting her skirts and wringing them while Toby – Henry – strode past, again and again. She tried slightly different inflections, each time waiting while her fellow extras threw less distinct complaints and insults at Henry until he stormed out of frame, and she could give it another shot. She never wanted it to end. She wanted to keep going, keep trying until she felt she had got it exactly right. She was desperate for everyone to believe in Miss Trevelyan.

  Lila said her line and watched Toby whisk past her again, staring after him in what she hoped was defiance, until she heard the familiar ‘Cut!’ and then Gregor added, ‘Right everyone, that’s a wrap!’ There was an immediate change in atmosphere, people sighing and relaxing their postures, gentle murmuring as they made their way off set.