Dreaming of Mr. Darcy

by Victoria Connelly

  ‘What?’ Kay screamed in the here and now. Amazing what? She didn’t have anything amazing.

  She flung open the wardrobe door in the hope that she had overlooked something and stared gloomily at the contents. It was the usual problem: a packed wardrobe, but absolutely nothing to wear.

  ‘I’ll just have to make do,’ she said, pulling out a blue cotton dress that was sprigged with tiny pink roses. It wasn’t the stuff of sex symbols, but it was sweet. She grabbed the hair dryer to work as much magic into her mop as she could in the time available, hoping her toffee-coloured tresses wouldn’t become too flyaway. A quick application of makeup, and she was almost finished. She still needed shoes, and she knew just the pair. The prior summer, she bought a pair of strappy silver shoes that were more like jewellery than shoes. She knew their day would come. She placed her dainty feet into them now and sighed, hoping that sheer stockings and strappy shoes weren’t tempting the rain clouds again.

  Grabbing her handbag, she took a deep breath and left the room, venturing down the stairs for her date with Oli. There he was, pacing up and down the hallway, his blond hair bright against a sky-blue shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal a pair of strong, tanned arms.

  ‘Hello,’ she said, her mouth suddenly feeling quite dry.

  He turned around, his bright eyes appraising her. ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘You look lovely, really.’

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Kay asked, dismayed by the look on his face.

  ‘Nothing—nothing’s wrong. It’s just—well, you look like you.’

  Kay’s face fell. She knew she’d never be as beautiful as the actresses Oli was used to being seen with, but she thought she’d scrubbed up pretty well, considering the lack of notice he gave her.

  ‘I didn’t put that very well,’ Oli said. ‘I mean—we have to disguise you. There are paps everywhere.’

  ‘Are there?’ Kay said, looking around as if a telephoto lens might suddenly poke through the letterbox.

  Oli nodded. ‘I’m afraid they’ve got wind I’m here.’

  ‘Oh, dear.’

  ‘Exactly, and if they get a picture of you, it’ll be all over the papers.’

  Kay didn’t think that sounded too bad at all. In fact, the idea rather appealed to her. She could see it now.

  Oli’s Mystery Girl, the headline would read, and there would be a photo of the two of them driving off together or one of them running into a restaurant together, Oli’s arm protectively around her shoulder.

  Speculation has arisen over the girl the handsome star is dating, and there are even rumours that the two of them are engaged. Could this be the future Mrs Wade Owen?

  ‘So you see,’ Oli said, ‘we’ll have to disguise you, because we can’t possibly have them knowing who you are. It’s for your own privacy.’

  ‘Oh,’ Kay said reluctantly, her imagined headlines evaporating. ‘I see.’

  ‘Leave it to me,’ Oli said, and he ran up the stairs two at a time and knocked on Beth’s door. Kay followed him, wondering what he was up to. Beth hadn’t come downstairs yet that morning and was still resting her ankle. At least she was supposed to be resting, but Kay still didn’t know what had gone on in Beth’s room the night before. If Oli had spent the night in there, Kay was doubtful that rest would have been much of a priority.

  ‘Beth? It’s Oli.’

  It was the only password needed, for the door opened almost instantly.

  ‘What is it, Oli?’ Beth said with a sweet smile. She was wearing full makeup despite being an invalid, and Kay could see that her hair had been blow-dried.

  ‘We need that wig of yours.’

  ‘Wig?’ Beth said. ‘I don’t wear wigs. Not unless I’m filming.’

  ‘Come on, Beth. I’ve seen it. It’s in your suitcase.’

  Beth sighed. ‘That’s a hairpiece, Oli. Quite a different thing. Everyone’s wearing them these days. Some women wouldn’t even put out the trash unless they had their hairpiece in.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah. Let’s just have it.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘For Kay. We’ve got to disguise her.’

  Beth frowned. ‘Why?’

  ‘We’re going out to lunch, and we need to hide her identity from the press.’

  ‘But I’ll need to wear it if we’re going out to lunch.’

  Oli looked uncomfortable for a moment. ‘I’m taking Kay out to lunch,’ he said slowly, as if testing the waters.

  ‘I see,’ Beth said. ‘I’m not invited. I’m just the invalid who can be left alone all day with no company.’

  ‘Come on, Beth, don’t be like that. We’re always having lunch together.’

  ‘Yeah, with about a dozen extras and all the crew.’

  ‘Can we borrow the wig? Please? I’ll owe you big time.’

  ‘God, Oli! You’re the limit. You really are.’

  Beth disappeared into the room and came back brandishing the red hairpiece. ‘Be careful with it. It cost me a fortune.’

  ‘We will. Don’t worry. Now, help us with it, will you? And that nice blue dress of yours.’

  ‘Not the Versace!’

  ‘The very one.’

  ‘Oli!’

  ‘Please!’

  Beth gave a gargantuan sigh before going to fetch her things.

  Ten minutes later, Kay was transformed. The blue dress was slinky and sexy and skimmed over her figure in a most alluring way. Her own hair had been tied up into a tight bun on the top of her head, the red hairpiece had been carefully pinned around her face, and then everything had been squashed into submission by a hat.

  ‘Sunglasses,’ Oli said. ‘Those nice big blue-framed ones of yours.’

  ‘Oli, no! They’re my Tiffany’s.’

  Oli’s eyes looked up at her pleading. ‘You would be doing me such a huge favour. I’d really owe you.’

  ‘You always owe me,’ Beth said sulkily, hobbling back into the room on her dodgy ankle and emerging with the prized glasses.

  ‘Just don’t lose them or break them.’ She handed them to Oli, who gave them to Kay.

  ‘Thanks, Beth,’ Kay said, opening the box and eyeing the beautiful glasses. She had never seen anything so lovely, and she was a little afraid to put them on.

  ‘Go on,’ Oli encouraged her.

  Kay put them on and smiled. ‘Okay?’

  ‘Wow!’ Oli said. ‘You look like Audrey Hepburn.’

  ‘Except with red hair and a squashy hat,’ Beth added.

  ‘Do I look okay?’

  ‘You’ll do,’ Oli said, ushering her down the stairs.

  Catching her reflection in the hall mirror, Kay gasped. She looked like a movie star! Versace dress. Tiffany glasses. It was something she could never have imagined. Well, she could have imagined it—after all, she had a fairly wild imagination, but it seemed crazy even by her own ambitious standards. One minute she’d been washing dishes and cleaning bathrooms, and the next she was dressed like a princess and being escorted to dinner by the most handsome man in the world.

  She stole a quick glance at him as he opened the door for her.

  ‘How many are there?’ she asked.

  ‘How many what?’

  ‘Paparazzi.’

  ‘Oh,’ Oli said, ‘I don’t know. I think they’re hiding.’

  Kay followed him out and looked eagerly up and down Marine Parade. There were the usual tourists in search of sustenance, but she couldn’t see any telephoto lenses. She pouted.

  ‘Come on,’ Oli said. ‘Let’s get to the car before anyone sees us.’

  Oli donned a pair of glasses, turned up the collar of his jacket, and held his head down, but he was still unmistakably Oli Wade Owen. Kay rushed along in her strappy shoes, trying to keep up with him. The sky was looking ominously thundery. Some heavy clouds hung over the Cobb, and the sea looked as if it were holding a deep, dark secret.

  ‘Here we are,’ Oli said as they reached his car. It was an electric blue Lotus Elise, and Kay got excited at the thought of being a pas
senger in such a vehicle.

  The unknown redhead was seen getting in Oli Wade Owen’s infamous Lotus Elise, her shapely legs revealed by her Versace dress.

  Kay could imagine the magazine reports as she settled into the smooth leather seat and checked out her reflection in the wing mirror. She was incognito!

  ‘Okay?’ he asked.

  She nodded, and they both buckled up.

  The car sped up Cobb Road and headed out of Lyme Regis and into the countryside. Kay tried to sit back and relax, but it was nigh on impossible. She still couldn’t believe he asked her out.

  ‘This is wonderful,’ she said, giving him a smile.

  Oli’s gaze didn’t shift from the road, which was comforting as a passenger but disconcerting as a woman.

  ‘It’s a real treat,’ she said.

  ‘Pardon?’

  ‘I said this is a real treat—to be taken to lunch.’

  ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘Right.’

  He didn’t sound too enthusiastic, but perhaps he was tired. He didn’t get much free time, did he?

  Kay settled back into her seat and adjusted the red hairpiece above her left temple. It felt like it was slipping. She looked in the wing mirror. She wasn’t at all sure about herself as a redhead. She’d had visions of being transformed into a beautiful Pre-Raphaelite nymph, but she believed she looked more like a slightly baffled red Irish setter. The hat wasn’t helping either, and the glasses—which she’d thought were beautiful at first—were far too big for her face.

  ‘Can I take it all off now?’ she asked.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The disguise?’

  ‘No,’ Oli said abruptly. ‘We don’t want anyone recognising you.’

  ‘But I don’t think anyone’s followed us,’ she said, looking behind them at the empty country lane.

  ‘You can never be too sure.’

  Kay pursed her lips. Wasn’t he being a little bit paranoid? They hadn’t seen another vehicle since that mucky tractor, and nobody could keep up with Oli anyway, not at the speed he was driving. In fact, Kay was starting to get a bit nervous. The lanes were narrowing, and the hedgerows were flashing by at an inhuman speed.

  ‘Oli?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Can we slow down?’

  ‘You want to get there in time, don’t you? I’ve got to be back by three, or Teresa will kill me.’

  Of course she wanted to get there in time, but she also wanted to get there in one piece.

  As they took a corner, Oli slammed on the brakes. The torrential rain of the past few days had turned the little roads around the Marshwood Vale into rivers, and the way ahead of them was flooded.

  ‘Will your car be all right?’

  ‘’Course it will,’ Oli said. ‘This baby can cope with anything.’ He revved the engine, and Kay watched as he slowly built up a bit of speed before plunging the car through the water. A huge spray cascaded over the wheels, and Kay giggled.

  ‘Told you!’ he said. ‘Wasn’t that fun? Like one of those theme park rides, only faster.’

  Kay nodded. She felt rather like a teenager on a first date.

  She looked over her shoulder as the flooded lane vanished behind them, but it wasn’t long before they reached the next. This time, the water stretched as far as they could see, and there was no telling how deep it was.

  ‘Perhaps we should go back,’ Kay said.

  ‘You’re joking!’ Oli said. ‘We can’t go back now. We’re nearly there.’

  ‘Yes, but this looks deep to me.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Oli said. It’s just a big puddle.’

  Once again, he revved the engine.

  ‘Oli, I really think we should go back.’

  He took his sunglasses off and smiled at her, and she could see that there was absolutely no way he was going to do anything other than drive full speed ahead through the flood.

  ‘Hold on to your hat!’ he said, but Kay’s hands were firmly gripping the edge of her seat as the Lotus gained speed.

  This isn’t a good idea. This isn’t a good idea, she chanted as the water approached.

  ‘Slow down!’ she shouted, but Oli didn’t seem to be listening. He was locked in complete concentration, as if he were playing some addictive computer game and the rest of the world didn’t exist. He and the flood was all there was.

  The Lotus hit the water, and Kay closed her eyes as the windows and bonnet were drenched.

  ‘Wow!’ Oli shouted. ‘Did you see that?’

  The sound of water filled Kay’s ears, and she sat perfectly still for a moment before she dared to open her eyes.

  ‘Is it over?’ she asked. They were completely surrounded by water, but the car didn’t seem to be moving. ‘Oli? What’s happened?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, frowning. ‘I think I might have just wrecked the car.’

  Chapter 24

  Much to Gemma’s horror, Kim Reilly was still hanging around Lyme Regis and insisted on accompanying everyone in the minibus to shoot that morning’s Uppercross scenes.

  ‘You won’t even know I’m there,’ she’d told Gemma, clutching her arm and laughing, but of course it was an empty promise. Kim Reilly could go nowhere without making her presence felt. Even a simple trip to the local newsagent’s to get the morning paper was a scene of great theatricality, with makeup and hair in place and a thousand anecdotes to tell any passerby who might be interested. It couldn’t be helped—it was just the sort of person she was. Gemma remembered once looking through an old photo album at her grandmother’s. Virtually all the photos had been of her mother—not because they’d been taken of her, but because she’d run into them when they were being taken. Every photo of her Aunt Christie’s tenth birthday party had Kim in the foreground. Even the blowing out of the candles had Kim leaning into the frame to get in on the action. At Great Uncle Henry’s wedding, Kim had cartwheeled down the aisle, showing off her pink knickers to the entire congregation. Gemma was therefore understandably nervous about the chaos her mother might cause on set.

  Sitting in makeup, Gemma wondered how long it would be before her mother became bored.

  ‘Oh, my God!’ her mother said, popping her head around the door. ‘Teresa just asked me if I’d like to have a walk-on role. Isn’t that marvellous?’

  The colour drained from Gemma’s face. ‘What walk-on role?’

  ‘That card-playing scene when Captain Wentworth walks in. You know the one.’

  Gemma did. It was a scene of great subtlety, and if there was one thing Kim Reilly wasn’t good at, it was subtlety.

  ‘I’ll be walking into the room before Captain Wentworth arrives and flirting with a gentleman over a game of cards. Isn’t it exciting? I’ve never done a period piece before. It could be a whole new direction for me.’

  Gemma didn’t know what to say. The thought of her mother in a Jane Austen adaptation was just too much. What was Teresa thinking? But perhaps it was her way of appeasing Kim. She knew what her mother could be like when she got an idea into her head, and Gemma was quite sure it hadn’t been Teresa’s doing at all. Kim would have chipped away at her until she gave in.

  ‘I thought I might stay on here for a bit. There’s nothing for me to rush home for.’

  ‘Oh,’ Gemma said.

  ‘Well, you might sound a bit more enthusiastic,’ her mother said. ‘This could be my big relaunch. I haven’t had a decent part in years.’

  ‘But you played Queen Elizabeth for the BBC last year.’

  ‘Oh, tosh! That was a mere walk-on role. I had less screen time than the wolfhound. It was ridiculous,’ she said. ‘No, you mark my words, this could be the beginning of great things for me.’

  ‘But I thought you were going to concentrate on your charity work now,’ Gemma said, hopelessly grabbing onto anything she could think of.

  Kim Reilly sighed. ‘Charity work’s all very well, but it’s so boring! Honestly, the speeches one has to sit through. And the publicity is appalling. Nobody’s in
terested, because everybody’s doing it.’

  Gemma grimaced. That wasn’t what charity work was about, she thought, but she didn’t dare say anything. ‘And you’re meant to be taking it easy—after that breakdown last year, remember?’

  ‘That wasn’t a breakdown,’ her mother told her. ‘I was just a bit tired, and who can blame me, after that dreadful man?’

  Gemma sighed as she remembered Lance Carlson, the Texan with the twinkle who had swept her mother off her feet in Paris, married her in Vegas, and robbed her in New York. The marriage had been swiftly annulled, and Carlson had been arrested a week later at The Chapel of Undying Love in Vegas on the verge of committing bigamy.

  ‘At least it got me some column inches,’ Kim said. ‘Anyway, one just can’t retire from acting. It’s not like other professions—it’s a part of who you are,’ she said, squinting at her reflection in the mirror from behind Gemma’s shoulder. Gemma gazed at her own reflection, wishing she had the courage to retire. With immediate effect.

  ***

  Kay took the Tiffany sunglasses off and put them carefully away in their case before looking out the window. It was obvious that the Lotus was not going anywhere.

  ‘The engine’s stopped,’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ Oli said, turning the key in the ignition. Nothing happened.

  ‘I think you’ve flooded her,’ Kay said.

  ‘I think you’re right,’ he said. ‘Shit!’ He hit his hand against the steering wheel.

  Kay bit her lip. This wasn’t what she had in mind for her date with a movie star.

  ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked.

  ‘We’ll have to ring a garage.’ Oli patted his jacket and pulled out his mobile, but his face soon fell. ‘There’s no bloody service. Can you believe it?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kay said. ‘We’re at the bottom of a valley here.’

  ‘We’re at the bottom of the sea!’ Oli said.

  Kay wasn’t the sort of person to say, ‘I told you so,’ especially not to a handsome movie star, but she did wish he had listened to her. Instead, she looked out the windows at the deep water surrounding them and the high hedges and trees. There were sheep in a field, and she could barely make out their bleats as the young lambs raced each other under the shelter of an enormous oak tree.