Brilliance

by Rosalind Laker

‘Yes, for a little while, but I can forget everything when I’m painting. It’s as if I lose myself in another world. I’m going to start a portrait of you before you go home to your movie maker.’

  Lisette liked Joanna’s work. The portraits were strong and yet sensitive, while her landscapes were sweeping, capturing the feeling of space and the open air. In the studio Lisette sat for her against a background of looped grey silk. Yet the two of them were so busy, going to exhibitions and other events by day and partying every night with Boris escorting them, that the portrait was only just finished when the day came for Lisette’s departure.

  Joanna carried the packaged painting when she went with Lisette to Victoria Station to see her off on the train.

  ‘Now you will come down to the coast again very soon and stay with us, won’t you?’ Lisette said through the open carriage window.

  ‘I promise,’ Joanna said. She stood waving until the train had carried Lisette’s fluttering handkerchief of farewell out of sight.

  Daniel approved of the painting and had just finished hanging it above the fireplace in the sitting room when Jim arrived in search of him.

  ‘That’s fine portrait of you, Miss Decourt,’ Jim said admiringly as he stood back to study it carefully. ‘There indeed is a face to launch a thousand cameras.’

  Daniel grinned. ‘How right you are, Jim.’

  It seemed to Lisette that the look they exchanged had more to do with her than an admiration of her likeness. Yet she had forgotten about that moment when Daniel mapped out his next project as they sat together in the firelight.

  ‘It will be a story with romance and drama,’ he said, full of enthusiasm. ‘For the time being comedies will still be made, for those bring in the money, but this time I’m aiming to tell a full story!’

  ‘Your first epic!’ she exclaimed, delighted

  He grinned. ‘That’s what it will be!’

  ‘The title?’

  ‘“Out of the Flames.”’

  ‘Splendid! What comes out of the flames?’

  ‘Love, of course. It’s time to put romance on the screen.’

  ‘I agree!’ she exclaimed delightedly.

  ‘There’s something else I want to tell you.’

  ‘Yes?’ Her eyes were still sparkling from what she had heard already, but as his expression became serious she realized that he had something else on a different line to say to her. Yet his next words were totally unexpected.

  ‘I think we should marry, Lisette?’

  She straightened up in her wing chair. ‘Why?’ she exclaimed in astonishment. ‘We decided long ago that neither of us needed marriage in our lives.’

  ‘That was when you were in flight from a man you had no wish to marry and I had not fully overcome a setback in my past.’

  ‘But I don’t understand. Whatever has happened to make you change your mind?’

  ‘I have good reason.’

  She felt the old fear of being trapped and took refuge in being slightly scornful. ‘Don’t tell me it’s the gossip? I knew there was tittle-tattle long before Mrs Pierce left us and it is still rife.’

  ‘You know me better than that,’ he replied soberly.

  ‘Then why do you want to change everything? Surely we’re happy as we are! What difference would a marriage certificate make?’

  ‘Suppose we should have a child?’

  She was taken aback and averted her eyes from him. It was not chance that she had not become pregnant. ‘We had a child,’ she exclaimed emotionally. ‘One who can never be replaced!’

  ‘Do you think I don’t realize that?’ He moved across to sit on a footstool beside her and gently turned her face to him again. ‘For that child’s sake we should be husband and wife. If ever she should come looking for us in years to come it would lift the stigma of illegitimacy from her to find that her parents are married to each other.’

  Her eyes were agonized. ‘How could she ever find us?’

  ‘One day she’s going to see her birth certificate and discover the truth if she has never been told, which is most likely. Maybe it will happen when identification is needed for a passport or perhaps for a marriage, but sooner or later she will discover her true identity.’

  ‘But she’s not three years old until May!’ Lisette exclaimed in exasperation. ‘How can you look so far ahead?’

  ‘Because I love you and will always love you to my last breath. That’s why I want the pain in you to heal by your looking to the future instead of being held back by the past. Marry me, Lisette. The time is right for us now.’

  She sat very quietly, looking down at her hands resting in her lap. ‘You really believe that, don’t you?’ she said softly.

  ‘With all my heart.’

  It was a long time before she finally raised her head and her eyes, warm and loving, gave him his answer. He stood to draw her up from the chair into his arms and kissed her.

  Three weeks later they left for France. Lisette wanted to marry in Lyon. An invitation had been sent to Daniel’s sister and her husband in Edinburgh, but they declined as he was not well. They sent a very handsome wedding gift which was an elegant silver set of a Georgian coffeepot, teapot, milk jug and sugar basin. Lisette was delighted with it

  On the way to Lyon she and Daniel broke their journey for a week in Paris where she met her lawyers and signed some papers concerning her inheritance. As they left the lawyers’ chamber again she linked her arm in Daniel’s and he grinned into her face.

  ‘I told you that you would always be able to have jam with a croissant.’

  She laughed. ‘Now I want to go shopping to prove it!’

  At the House of Worth she chose a wedding dress and jacket in blue velvet with a fashionably large hat trimmed with ribbons, veiling and silk roses. Daniel had a discreetly splendid suit for the wedding day that had been made by his Saville Row tailors and in the Champs Elysèes she bought him a silk cravat with a trace of blue in it that matched her bridal attire.

  When they arrived at the Bellecour house it had been fully opened up at her instruction with fresh flowers in all the main rooms, and temporary staff installed to take care of everything during their stay. Then there began a renewal of friendships for her in the community and introductions for Daniel, who only knew the Lumières. The brothers were continuing their immense success. One of their cameramen had stood in a gondola in Venice and turned his camera slowly around to take the whole panoramic view, which was again a ‘first’ for the brothers and had already become known as ‘panning’ a scene.

  Two days before the wedding Joanna arrived to be bridesmaid. She had chosen her own gown in burgundy silk and a beautiful hat as large as Lisette’s with abundant trimming. She was so excited to meet the Lumière family, whom she declared were the source of the entire movie industry, that the brothers gave her a tour of the factory and they answered her many questions with patience and a smile at her enthusiasm.

  The wedding day dawned bright and sunny, but cold. Multi-coloured sunbeams, coming through a stained glass window, fell full on to Daniel and Lisette as they stood side by side for the service in the church she had always attended as a child. Monsieur Lumière himself took a motion picture of the bridal couple coming out of church, which would be presented to them before they left Lyon again. Joanna departed the day after the wedding with a promise that she would see Lisette and Daniel again soon.

  When the time drew near for their departure, Lisette felt the same fierce wrench at the prospect of leaving the old house as she had done previously. Secretly she wished they could have gone on living there with Daniel engaged in work less hectic than movie making, but it was in his blood and nothing could change it.

  On the eve of their leaving they went into the blue salon where she opened the bureau and drew forward a sheet of paper. Picking up a pen, she held it out to him.

  ‘You write the letter,’ she said.

  He gave a serious nod, looking deep into her eyes. ‘Do you know now what you want to
say?’

  ‘Yes. Do you?’

  He nodded. ‘I’ve been giving it a great deal of thought ever since we first discussed it.’

  He sat down at the bureau and she rested a hand on his shoulder as together they composed a letter to their daughter. Then they both signed it before he folded it into an envelope. He rose to his feet and took her gently by the shoulders.

  ‘Now we have done everything in our power,’ he said quietly. ‘Everything else will depend on the convent and meanwhile we must be patient through the years ahead.’

  Her head drooped as tears gathered in her eyes. He drew her forward and held her close to him.

  They broke their journey to Paris as Lisette had done in the past to visit the convent. To Lisette’s relief the abbess was available and agreed to see them. As Daniel’s surname was unknown to her she had supposed them to be a couple wanting to adopt, but she recognized Lisette immediately and welcomed her. She listened compassionately as Daniel explained their mission.

  ‘So you see,’ he concluded, ‘it is our earnest hope that one day our child will want to trace us and perhaps discover that she was born here.’

  The abbess gave a little sigh and her sympathetic gaze rested on their anxious faces. ‘It is good news that you have found and married each other,’ she said, ‘but the situation is the same as when you last called here, Lisette. No,’ she added as Lisette asked if there had been any communication from Josephine de Vincent. ‘We have never heard from her since she left here the last time. Yes, I will take your letter.’ She held out her slim-fingered hand to receive it. ‘This is not the first time I have had a similar request, but I cannot say there will ever be a result. I have been here twenty-nine years and to date I have never had an inquiry from any of the many children that have been born here.’

  It was a depressing statement of fact and Lisette was downcast as they left, until Daniel spoke optimistically to cheer her. ‘There’s always a first time for everything, and maybe our daughter will surprise Mother Abbess one day by arriving in search of us. We must never give up hope. Remember that sooner or later Marie-Louise will become curious about her origins.’

  Lisette managed a smile in an effort to be more cheerful. ‘If she has your determination and my stubbornness she should be able to find us wherever we are!’

  He grinned. ‘That is true!’

  The next day they returned to England and the routine of movie making.

  As preparations went ahead for Out of the Flames Lisette was surprised when Daniel told her that he had chosen a young actress named Betsy Grey to play the heroine. Previously the girl had only appeared in comedies. She was a pretty little thing, but Lisette did not think her acting ability was nearly strong enough to sustain this particular role. It was also known that the girl was nervous about the conflagration scene when she had to be in a burning building, all of which had been arranged with the resort’s fire service.

  Lisette challenged his decision as they sat with coffee one evening after dinner, for during a rehearsal that day Betsy had dissolved into tears several times at having to repeat a scene yet again.

  ‘I admit Betsy looks the perfect heroine,’ she said, ‘with her big eyes and naturally rosebud mouth, but you should face the fact that she isn’t a good enough actress for this very important role. Your reputation as an exceptional movie maker will stand or fall by this new venture.’

  Daniel inclined his head towards her attentively. ‘I agree with all you’ve said. But everything is set up now and where else would I find another actress at such short notice?’ He looked persuasively at her. ‘Of course, you could always step in.’

  She was undeceived, seeing that this was what he had been aiming for over some months. She also remembered the conspiratorial look that he had exchanged with Jim, who had made the remark that her face could launch a thousand cameras. The two of them had been plotting for a situation like this all along!

  ‘Since you need a replacement so urgently,’ she conceded, amusement in her eyes, ‘I’ll take the part. But it’s for once only.’

  Yet she knew full well that he would keep finding roles for her from now on.

  Eighteen

  As Lisette had guessed, Betsy Grey was thankful to be replaced, especially as she was given a minor role that was more suited to her talents.

  Before rehearsals started Lisette met the young actor, Ronald Davis, who was her own age and would be playing the hero to her heroine. He had only recently joined the studio and was tall, broad-shouldered and handsome with romantically long-lashed dark eyes and a swashbuckling look about him. Lisette thought that women in the audiences would love him on sight. He seemed to think the same, for he exuded self-confidence even though it was his first time in the motion picture business.

  ‘I’ve been in repertory on stage for two years,’ he had told her, ‘and so I’ve played a variety of parts. I was in a major production at the Theatre Royal in Brighton when Mr Shaw saw me and offered me this new experience. Acting in such a very different medium should be an interesting interlude.’

  He gave the impression that he had been playing the lead in the major production, but she had been with Daniel at a performance and seen that he had had quite a minor role. In fact it was she who had pointed out to Daniel that he had the looks of a romantic hero.

  ‘Perhaps you will never want to return to the stage,’ she suggested. ‘With time, many more people would see you on the screen than in a theatre.’

  He preened. ‘Yes, I should like to be seen as much as possible.’

  Lisette thought him insufferably conceited, but she had seen during rehearsals that he could act, sometimes quite sensitively, which was what mattered.

  On the day that filming started Lisette emerged from the make-up room with her eyelashes very black and her lips as rosebud as was possible with her generous mouth. She was wearing one of her own summer dresses and a straw hat with ribbons, which was from the wardrobe room. Tom, who had long since left her domestic employ to work full-time at the studio, gave her a courtly bow copied from one of the actors.

  ‘You look very fine, madam.’

  Daniel gave a nod. ‘I agree,’ he said with a grin as she came towards him. ‘Every inch the demure maiden. Now we’ll get to work.’

  Jim, who always wore his cap back to front in order to keep its peak from getting in the way as he filmed, had set up his camera on its tripod in the lane. He gave her a smiling wink as she passed him. This was his day of triumph. He was getting her before his lens at last.

  She went along the lane to take her place at a five-barred gate. There she leaned an arm on it as she gazed into the distance. Today there were sheep in the field, a peaceful scene under a porcelain blue sky flecked with wispy clouds like sugar strands and the soft, undulating line of the grassy downs lay in the far distance. Momentarily letting her thoughts slip, she realized how much she was beginning to feel at home in England.

  Daniel’s shout through his megaphone broke into her reverie. ‘Camera! Action!’

  After a few moments, as rehearsed, she moved away from the gate and started strolling leisurely in the direction of the camera. As she passed Ronald, apparently without noticing him, he moved into the lane and gazed after her as if already smitten by love at first sight.

  ‘Cut!’ Daniel snapped. Instantly Jim stopped turning the handle of his camera and they exchanged a grin of satisfaction.

  For the next scene they all moved into the neighbouring hamlet where at Daniel’s prompting through his megaphone Lisette came out of a bakery in time to see Betsy getting her purse snatched. Then she watched in apparent admiration as Ronald gave chase, fought Betsy’s attacker and brought him to the ground. With the cooperation of the resort’s police force, a Black Maria was driven on to the scene. Then an actor, dressed as a policeman, jumped from it with truncheon and handcuffs to arrest the villain and bundle him into the vehicle. Lisette, watching the action, thought it was as well there was no sound as she could h
ear the policemen laughing in the vehicle and guessed they had come along to enjoy the action.

  Throughout the week the filming of Out of the Flames continued with an unwinding of the plot, which included a scene of Betsy shyly giving Ronald a photograph of herself in the hope that she would fix herself firmly in his memory and he would want to see her again. The casual way in which he slipped the photograph into his pocket would confirm to audiences that his heart was already lost to the girl he had seen in the lane.

  Most animated picture directors wanted acting on screen to be slightly larger than life for the meaning of everything to be fully understood by audiences, but Daniel believed otherwise. When taking close ups, he wanted expressions to be subtle and all movement to be totally natural. Even when a dramatic indoor scene was to be enacted he warned both Lisette and Ronald not to exaggerate their gestures in any way.

  It was to be filmed as every indoor scene had to be: in the open air. On the wheeled platform a backcloth of a sitting room had been set up with plywood walls, one inset with a door, on either side. The furnishing consisted of a rag rug, two chairs and a table laid for tea. The plot had brought Lisette and Ronald to the point of his declaring his love. The breeze fluttered the tablecloth and played with Lisette’s hair as she poured the tea, but Daniel said the audience would be too enthralled to notice, especially when Ronald took up Lisette’s hand and kissed it, his handsome eyes very eloquent. But then the photograph of Betsy fell from his pocket and Lisette viewed it with an anguished gaze.

  The sequence of the quarrel then took place, both Lisette and Ronald enjoying the enactment of the clash between them, she in tears at his deceit and he throwing his arms about in protest at being unjustly accused of unfaithfulness. In a final gesture he tore up the photograph to show that it belonged to the past, but when Lisette refused to be convinced and turned her back on him, he rushed off the set in a fine show of despair. All those standing around clapped enthusiastically.

  Two days later Jim set up his camera again. Everybody was on site early at the derelict house that was to be burnt down in the climax of the movie. The resort’s fire brigade arrived on time, brass helmets and the clanging fire bell well polished and flashing back the sunshine. Word had spread beyond the studio that the brigade was to be involved in the filming and local people from both the neighbouring hamlet and the resort gathered to watch the spectacle, not realizing that their presence would add to the realism of the scene. There was some delay when the chief of the brigade, resplendent in the silver helmet that denoted his rank, felt that he should rescue the heroine.