‘I take it that’s a rhetorical question?’
‘You fucking idiot,’ said Dorian, opening the paper to page four and shaking it in front of Sabrina’s nose. When she read the headline, her stomach lurched.
‘
RACE ROW ACTRESS TELLS BRITAIN’S BLACKS TO F*** OFF.’
Beneath the bold, black lettering they’d run a picture of her at Heathrow yesterday looking glamorous and starry, walking beside a mountain of Louis Vuitton luggage. Her face was set in a hard, uncompromising attitude that Sabrina remembered as fear, but that in print looked horribly like arrogance.
‘Read it,’ commanded Dorian. ‘Read it out loud.’
Sabrina took a deep breath.
‘Controversial Hollywood actress Sabrina Leon, the woman at the centre of a bitter Hollywood dispute after branding African American director Tarik Tyler a “slave driver”, yesterday astonished Britons by making a second ugly slur, this time against our own black community. When asked by our reporter if she had any message for black people in Britain who may have been offended by her original remarks, Miss Leon, who is in this country to film a remake of the British classic
Wuthering Heights,
replied that they could “f*** off”.’
‘That’s not true,’ said Sabrina, lowering the paper. ‘I never said that.’ There was a silence you could have cut with a knife. Then she added, ‘I mean, I did tell the
guy
to fuck off. The reporter.’
‘Jesus.’ Dorian shook his head in disbelief. ‘Why? Why did you say anything?’
‘Because he was crowding me!’ said Sabrina. ‘The whole pack of them. It was intimidating.’ She looked to Viorel for support. ‘You know what it’s like, right? It’s frightening.’
Vio nodded, but Dorian was having none of it.
‘Read the copy, Sabrina. They’ve got quotes from a whole bunch of witnesses, all of whom apparently heard you insult the entire black population of this country.’
‘Well, the witnesses are lying!’ Sabrina shot back. ‘I was talking about him, the reporter. I told
him
to fuck off, not anybody else. Why would I? You think I want to reopen this can of worms? You know, if you hadn’t been so damn high-handed and sent them away, you could have asked my bodyguards. They were there. They’ll tell you.’
‘Oh, great,’ snarled Dorian. ‘And are they gonna tell the ten million people who read
this
over breakfast this morning?’ He snatched the paper back from her. ‘All you had to do was keep your mouth shut.’ Turning on his heel, he stormed back out, slamming the trailer door behind him so loudly that everyone jumped.
For a moment, Sabrina just stood there, stock-still. Vio saw the tears in her eyes, saw the struggle as she fought to contain them. Then, after a few seconds, she sat back down in the make-up chair, her face as blank and unreadable as an empty screen.
‘You OK?’ he asked her.
‘I’m fine,’ she said briskly. Turning to Maureen, she asked: ‘How much longer?’
‘Not long, lovie. Five minutes, tops.’
Chuck MacNamee knocked on the door. ‘Ready on set when you are, Mo.’
‘Come on,’ said Sabrina to Viorel. ‘Let’s finish reading through the scene. Your line, I think. From “Does it really matter, Catherine?”’
You’re a good little actress
, thought Vio. But he could see how scared Sabrina was. He hoped Dorian would ease up a bit once they started filming.
Dorian didn’t.
The morning shoot was long and gruelling. It was a hot day, a good ten degrees warmer than it had been the day before, and by eleven Sabrina was roasting in her heavy meringue of a dress. But Rasmirez didn’t seem to care, keeping her standing for hours under the glare of the lights, refusing her a chance to sit down or grab a glass of water, and rolling his eyes when Sabrina insisted on a break after three straight hours on set.
‘Either I go to the bathroom, or I pee right here on the ground,’ she said defiantly.
‘Go,’ Dorian growled. ‘You have two minutes.’
‘Come on,’ said Viorel, once she was out of earshot. ‘Give her a break. My horse is getting better treatment.’
Dorian glanced across at Heathcliff’s skewbald pony, contentedly gorging itself on a bucket of oats behind camera two. ‘Yeah, well. Your horse hasn’t single-handedly alienated the entire British press.’
‘It’s her first day,’ said Vio.
‘And she’s already fucked up.’
‘It was a mistake.’
‘Yes it was. A big one. Look,’ said Dorian, sensing Vio’s disapproval, ‘she has to learn. Actions have consequences. Of course the press were hounding her. What did she expect? Of course they were pushing her, trying to get her to lose her temper. That’s what they
do
. But that’s all the more reason to keep a lid on it. If people are trying to trip her up, if they want to think the worst of her, she’s only herself to blame for that.’
Sabrina was coming back. Vio dropped his voice to a whisper.
‘Fine,’ he said. ‘But just ease up a little, OK? Let her finish the scene. She won’t be able to give much of a performance if she drops dead from heat exhaustion. And neither will I.’
At four o’clock they wrapped for the day. Dorian headed straight for his room. There were bound to be a thousand emails and voice messages wanting his response to Sabrina’s latest blunder, and he needed to get some sort of statement out there before tomorrow.
On his way back to the house, he bumped into Tish. She’d been out to a local theme park with Abel. When she saw Dorian she flashed him the kind of megawatt, grid-lighting smile that forced you to smile back yourself.
‘How was your first day of filming?’
‘Awful. But thanks for asking. How was Thomas the Train Land?’
‘Oh, you know. Hell on earth,’ shrugged Tish. ‘Abel enjoyed himself.’ She turned around to look for him, but he’d already scampered off somewhere. She hoped it was for a slice of cake with Mrs Drummond, and not to pester the actors or film crew. At breakfast this morning he’d already coloured three cards: one for Deborah Raynham, the camera girl who always gave him sweets, one for ‘Princess Sabrina’ and one for Viorel – a therizinosaurus.
Dorian followed Tish into the house.
‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ she asked him. ‘I bought milk and biscuits on the way home.’
‘I can’t,’ said Dorian. As they walked to the kitchen, he explained briefly about
The Sun
’s article and the problems Sabrina had caused. ‘I should have dealt with it this morning, but it was such a great day, I didn’t want to lose the light.’
‘I’m sure she didn’t mean it the way it came out,’ said Tish, wondering as she switched on the kettle why she was defending Sabrina, who – if yesterday’s behavior was anything to go by – was a loathsome little madam. ‘Our papers do have a way of twisting things.’
Dorian rolled his eyes. ‘You sound like Viorel.’
Tish made herself a cup of Lapsang and asked casually, ‘How was he today? I hope we didn’t tire him out too much yesterday, with the hospital and everything.’
Dorian watched in silence as Tish put far too much tea into the pot, lost in her own thoughts. ‘Might that not be a bit strong?’ he asked, after the seventh heaped spoon of tea leaves.
‘Oh!’ Tish blushed. ‘Sorry. I was, er … I was miles away.’
Damn it.
Dorian frowned.
Why couldn’t Hudson have left the girl alone?
‘Listen,’ he said, taking the stewed tea and emptying it into the sink. ‘Viorel’s a great actor and a nice enough kid. But he’s young. He’s looking for a good time, not for anything serious.’
Tish looked taken aback. Was it really
that
obvious she found Viorel attractive?
‘I know it’s none of my business and I’m probably over-stepping the line here,’ said Dorian. ‘But you’re a nice girl. I wouldn’t want you to get burned.’
Tish contemplated getting angry. It was none of his business. But she knew that Dorian meant the advice kindly. She also knew he was right.
‘Actors are a difficult breed,’ he told her. ‘Moody. Unpredictable. Trust me, I’m married to one. One minute you’re the hero, the next you’re the villain, and no one ever gives you the script in advance.’
‘It sounds exhausting,’ said Tish.
Dorian thought of Chrissie. Since his refusal to fly home to Romania for Saskia’s ‘Temperature-gate’ they were barely on speaking terms.
‘It is. But you know, when you love someone, you’ll put up with anything, right?’
‘Well, hopefully not
anything
,’ said Tish. ‘You have to know where to draw the line.’
For a split second, Dorian wondered how different his life might have been if he’d married someone like Tish – sensible, reasonable, self-assured – and not the wildly needy Chrissie. He hoped Tish’s level head extended to her own love life and that she steered clear of Viorel Hudson.
‘Don’t worry,’ she said, reading his mind. ‘I like Viorel, and Abel adores him. But I have no intention of making my life more complicated than it already is.’
‘You forgive the meddling?’
‘Of course,’ said Tish, adding a touch sadly, ‘My own father died last year. It makes a nice change to have someone looking out for me.’
Jeez
, thought Dorian.
She looks on me as a father?
Working with Sabrina Leon must have aged him even more than he thought.
On her way up to her room, Sabrina passed the kitchen and saw Dorian sitting at the table with Tish, laughing it up, as relaxed and avuncular as Santa Claus.
Of course he’s sweetness and light with wholesome Lady Letitia
, she thought bitterly. It hadn’t escaped her notice yesterday, the way that Dorian had automatically taken Tish’s word over Sabrina’s about that stupid non-incident with the car. To see the two of them now, so companionable and touchy-feely, you’d think they were lifelong friends. Or maybe it was more than that?
Maybe Dorian patron-saint-of-marriage Rasmirez isn’t as squeaky clean as he makes out?
Trudging up the back stairs to her room, Sabrina tried to put her bastard director out of her mind and focus on the evening ahead of her. After filming, Vio had offered to take her out to the pub for supper and she’d jumped at the chance. She was under contract not to touch a drop of alcohol, but she was still looking forward to it. With any luck, tonight would mark the beginning of a beautiful friendship with her sexy co-star. Unless Rhys or the dreadful Jamie Duggan decided to join them – or, worse, Lizzie Bayer, who’d already been nicknamed ‘Mimi’ by Chuck MacNamee and his crew because she talked about herself so much. Sabrina thought this was hilarious, but had no intention of joining in the general cast banter or becoming ‘one of the gang’ on set. That wasn’t what stars do. Stars remained aloof, fraternizing only with others of their own status. In this case that meant Dorian Rasmirez or Viorel Hudson. Sabrina knew which of those she preferred.
It’ll be just the two of us
, she thought happily.
Viorel and me for the whole summer, with no competition and no distractions.
A summer affair was just what she needed to lift her spirits. That and for the movie to be a hit. But it would be. Having hot sex with one’s co-star off set invariably made for better love scenes once the cameras rolled. If Dorian Rasmirez was determined to make her life on this movie a misery, which if today was anything to go by he quite plainly did, then Viorel Hudson could be her consolation prize.
Starting tonight.
Back in her room, Sabrina crashed for a couple of hours, exhausted after the traumas of the day. When her alarm went off at seven, she was so out of it that it was a struggle to open her eyes, but the prospect of a night out with Viorel propelled her up and into the shower, and after ten minutes beneath the pounding hot jets, she felt fully revived. Opening her still-unpacked trunk, she pulled out a sexy new pair of white Fred Segal trousers and a floaty chiffon blouse from Chloé. The trousers were skin tight, but the overall look was casual and effortless. It wouldn’t do to let Hudson think she’d tried.
To heel or not to heel
, she thought, holding up a pair of hot pink Manolo sandals and some simple Fendi ballet pumps.
Fuck it.
She pulled on the heels. One could take this low-key shit too far.
Rough-drying her still-damp hair, she spritzed herself with Gucci Envy, dusted a little bronzer across her cheekbones, and opened her bedroom door. On the floor in front of her was a folded note with a set of car keys on top. Sabrina picked up the note and read it.
‘
Sorry Angel. Terrible migraine. Gone to bed. I left you the keys, in case you still fancy getting out of Dodge tonight. Will make it up to you soon, promise, V xx.’
The disappointment hit her like a punch to the stomach. She was angry with herself for caring so much. After all, it was only one dinner. And it was only Viorel Hudson who, if Dorian had let her keep Enrique, she probably wouldn’t be bothering to try to seduce in the first place. Even so, standing there in her sexy pants and heels, it was hard not to feel a bit like Cinderella at midnight. She also wondered whether Vio really had a migraine, or whether this was some sort of petty power game he was playing to get her attention. He’d been fit as a fiddle all day on set. It had certainly come on very suddenly.
Pocketing the car keys, she was about to change back into flip-flops and wander down to the kitchen – most of the actors skipped Mrs Drummond’s buffets and ate supper in the catering trailer with the crew, but Sabrina had no interest in making small talk with cameramen – when she suddenly changed her mind. Sabrina had never been to a British pub, and although the thought of dinner alone was not exactly appealing, it was better than spending the night here making conversation with Tish Crewe and her housekeeper, or, worse, getting cornered again by Rasmirez. She was pretty sure she remembered the way down into the village.
Fuck it
, she thought.
I’ll go.
The Carpenter’s Arms in Loxley was a low-beamed, medieval building, built in the same warm stone as the rest of the village, but covered almost completely at the front by blossoming violet wisteria. It had an old-fashioned swinging sign, a pretty beer garden overlooking the village green and, on a warm, late spring evening like this one, it was packed.