Sins of Sarah (9 page)

Hastily pulling a tracksuit over a white bikini, she ran down through the house to find it, built into a huge conservatory on the side of the house. Only then did she discover that Nick had beaten her to it, and she was forced to share the pool with him, much to his amusement. Ronnie sighed as she unveiled her wet hair and reached for a hairdryer. 'Don't think flashing your tits at Herr-Director is going to give you an easy ride,' he told her with a knowing grin. 'It has been a real shit all week!'

'I've got more sense than that, Ronnie,' she assured him. 'And anyway, he was yelling at me within five minutes of my arriving.'

'Cress said he would do.' He finished drying her hair and began to work on it. 'Joanna,' he called to the dresser. 'Is the coffee on yet? I'm desperate - I don't know about madam, here. Have you met yet?' He introduced them just as Cress arrived, with Jenny and James. Predictably, once Cress got going, things started to move. Joanna brought coffee to revive all of them and Cressida's laughter filled the make-up area as she flew around, chatting to everyone. That morning she had all the principals in at once, as well as a crowd of extras to deal with. The first couple of hours in the day were always the busiest for her, yet of all of them she was the coolest there.

Unlike the old-style, grand film designers. Cress was a hands-on type, bred, like Nick, by television's faster pace. She was quite ready to do up buttons and laces, adjust ribbons and fasten jewellery, chivvying along both artistes and staff at the same time. The runner was already asking for an exact time when the actors would be ready, and annoying her.

'Always the same,' she moaned, yanking at Sarah's corset. 'Lighting can take all the time in the world, but costume has to be ready before all of them! Joanna, get Sarah's dress, I'll see to Mariette.' Joanna buttoned the tiny silk-covered buttons down the back of Sarah's dress. The corset was already beginning to irk her, and she wriggled continually. 'Lean into it,' she was advised. 'Don't tense up or it'll hurt even more. Put your foot up, and I'll do your boots.' Cress whisked back and pinned a cameo to the neck of the chiffon and lace dress. Sarah was exhausted already.

'You'll do,' said Cress, standing back critically. 'OK, I'll knock off some pictures and Nick can have you. They won't be ready - lighting never are - but at least you will be.' Joanna led the way from their dressing room area to the morning room, converted for the film into a drawing room because the French doors opened onto the garden terrace. Carefully, Sarah picked her way over the light- ing cables and assorted equipment towards Nick and Alex, the first assistant director, as they stood talking over the script. To her relief, a slow smile spread over his face.

There had been no time for costume tests or parades in the rush to get everything made, he had simply trusted his judgement and Cress's expertise from the sketches and fabric samples. For him, suddenly, after months of anguish, and battling over the script, Abigail had come to life. Sarah's height gave her the elegance of the period, and the ruffles of creamy lace and blue chiffon against her soft golden hair gave her the fragile air of innocence that he had searched for for so long.

'Perfect,' he breathed. Mindful of her make-up, he kissed her cheek lightly. 'Well done, guys,' he acknowledged.

He was hard on his crews, but he was always ready to praise where it was due. 'OK, children, let's get moving!' It was the last pleasant moment of the morning. By lunchtime, Sarah hated him. It seemed she could do nothing right for him. The corset was digging into every rib, but she dared not hold everything up while Joanna fixed it.

Yet when they broke for lunch Nick turned to her with a charming smile and said, 'Not bad!' Sarah stalked off to her dressing room in exasperation.

'I believe everything James said about him,' she sighed, sinking down into a chair carefully.

'Oh, that's nothing!' Cress assured her. 'That niggling is standard behaviour. Wait till he really gets going. Feelings don't come into it!'

'I'm not sure I can cope with it.' Sarah moaned. 'Or this damn corset!' Cress unfastened her dress to find her ribs red and sore on top of the bruises.

'Ouch!' she exclaimed with feeling. 'You should have said something! I'm amazed you got through the morning. I'm sorry, Sarah, I'll loosen it.'

'Maybe I can eat now!' Sarah joked, but she was too nervous to do more than pick at a salad, which was not like her.

'It gets easier,' James comforted. 'No point in wasting away, sweetheart.'

'I feel like the new kid at school,' she confessed sadly.

'Well come out and play after school,' he invited. 'We've found a good disco in Swindon, believe it or not!'

'I don't!' 'We're all going tonight - even Ronnie,' Cress put in.

'OK, you're on,' Sarah decided. It beat Nick ordering her to bed at eleven o'clock.

The afternoon went far better for her. Nick seemed calmer with her, as if he had wound her up to keep her on edge and try out her nerves. Now he relaxed with her, once he had set the limits for that day.

CHAPTER 6

Even though she often joined James and Ben in the hotel gym, and swam with them afterwards, Sarah frequently went up to Hastings Court early, to swim in the privacy of the pool there. Inevitably, it seemed. Nick joined her, and she quickly grew used to his company as they raced up and down the pool.

If the atmosphere had been difficult on set the day before, they hardly spoke at all; at other times they invented crazy games to play. Both highly competitive, each always had a sharp urge to win. Nick beat her on speed, but she frequently beat him on diving skills or underwater. It seemed an unwritten rule that they didn't discuss work. Occasionally he would ask what she had done the night before, and gradually she grew to trust him enough to tell him. He didn't always approve - she could soon tell that from the frown that quickly appeared - but she always told him the truth.

Some mornings she felt his eyes on her body, admiring her, she knew, yet she took care not to flirt, knowing instinctively that he would hate it. Always she kept her distance from him; always she left the pool in good time for her hair and make-up call.

Ronnie got quite used to drying off her hair when she got to him. He was the only one in the unit to know of the early-morning ritual, but, unusually for a born gossip, it went no further. If any of the others knew about it they said nothing to Sarah, and no one would dare tease Nick about it.

After her initial irritation with him, Sarah had been unsure of Ronnie, but as they got to know each other she had discovered he could be a loyal friend. Outrageously camp, with blond curly hair and a wild selection of earrings, Ronnie was over forty, a seasoned veteran of the business, and had soon taken Sarah under his wing.

'Now, don't tell me you let that big butch he-man take advantage of you, dear,' he admonished as Sarah waltzed into make-up one morning, singing cheerfully. 'You've got that look in your eye!' 'Rubbish, Ronnie. I've just got an easy day today, that's all.' Sarah poured herself some coffee from the pot he had put on when he came in.

'I wouldn't blame you if you did, though,' he re-joined. 'I was always partial to running the old hands through a bit of chest hair, and for all his faults that Nicholas certainly has a lovely body. Shame it's wasted on women!' Sarah giggled.

'Ronnie, you're terrible! Anyway, I don't fancy Nick. I'm sorry to disappoint you. He's nice enough, but not for me.'

'Nice! He's bawled you out rotten for three weeks!'

'He's surprisingly nice first thing in the morning,' Sarah corrected him. 'Anyway, he may yell, but he would have thrown me off if he didn't like my work.'

'You're right there! But he made one of his worst enemies ever doing that. Ever heard of Max Moreton?' 'The film critic on the Unicorn?' Everyone knew of Maxie; he was a hated slimeball.

'Nick threw his girlfriend off a shoot once, she was so appalling. Maxie never forgave him for that. He's sworn to get even, and the sod will - one of these days.'

'Poor Nick! It's enough to make him look over his shoulder a great deal.' Sarah had several friends who had suffered from Maxie's poisonous pen.

'It certainly makes him a bit more careful who he jumps into bed with nowadays,' Ronnie said waspishly, securing her topknot with endless pins. They were doing an out-door shot that morning.

'I didn't think he had much time for that,' Sarah teased, and shielded her eyes for the inevitable torrent of hair-spray.

'He's always made time for it in the past. You just ask Cress - she knows all his little secrets. He is said to have had a thing with her once, as well!'

'Cressida? Are you kidding me, Ronnie?' Sarah spun the chair round to face him with incredulous eyes.

'Loves 'em and keeps them loyal, that's our Nicholas. She certainly had a thing for him, that I do know! It took her years to get over it. That stuck-up little wife of his must have something, though, since he always goes back to her.'

'Well, you learn something new everyday on this unit!'

'Laugh a minute!' he agreed. 'Did you also know our Nicky has his fortieth birthday this week?' 'Oh, gosh, no! Shall we get him a cake?'

'With forty candles? Rather you than me! He would probably hit you over the head with it for reminding him.'

'I'm sure he wouldn't.' Sarah was already planning it.

Both Cress and Alex looked doubtful when she mentioned it. 'No one has ever done that for him before,' Alex said. 'Could be dangerous ground, Sarah.' But Sarah had made up her mind, and was feeling recklessly cheerful that morning. Do or Dare were coming down to do an interview and take some shots of the filming, so she would be seeing Peter and Paddy. The only drawback was that the loathsome Philippa was coming too, to interview James. Nick had very reluctantly agreed to an hour's break for them to do it, he was still sore at Paddy over the stunts, and Sarah was sure he had scheduled a kissing scene to remind Paddy who was the boss now.

She ran out to talk to the caterers before they began shooting and made swift plans with Karen and Joe, collecting a breakfast roll as she did so. Her appetite had come back, sharpened by the early-morning exercise.

To the amusement of the crew, and Sarah's own surprise, she had found she could happily eat a huge bacon roll for breakfast and a three-course lunch, only forgoing something if she felt her corset becoming tight. However, she made sure to finish the roll before she strolled across the lawn. Cress and Jenny were viragos where food and costumes were concerned.

The crew greeted her cheerfully. 'Ready to get your stays bent?' teased Alex as she approached. This was the first love scene to be shot.

'Passion at this time in the morning,' she laughed. 'It's all too much!'

'It's never too early for James,' put in Lenny Clements, the lighting cameraman.

'Just don't tear the frock, James,' Joanna begged, already pulling twigs from the hem. James leant back against the tree trunk, laughingly taking Sarah into his arms and kissing her.

'Take your time, guys, we'll just get some practice in!' They were working under a huge cedar tree and the lighting was complex.

'You can concentrate and rehearse instead of messing about!' Nick snapped. 'We haven't got all day, thanks to the TV people!'

'What's the betting he has the hots for her?' Ronnie murmured to Jenny. 'I have a feeling James is really winding him up.' They both sneaked a look at Nick's furious scowl as James and Sarah giggled together, their arms around each other with the easy familiarity of the friends they were.

'And this is only a kiss!' laughed Jenny. 'If that is the case, wait till next week!'

Nick knew he was being irrational, and for once he curbed his temper. He knew it wasn't fair to them, just because James held Sarah so confidently and she was so obviously comfortable with him in a way she certainly wasn't with him. It even irked him that she happily allowed Charles to kiss her cheek when she greeted him, yet he knew, deep down, that Sarah had an easy rapport with everyone on the crew, and had done almost from day one. She was openly affectionate with them all. Her reserve was only for him.

* * *

On Wednesday no mention was made of Nick's birthday.

Even Sarah began to question the wisdom of what she had planned, when he was as picky as ever over her performance, but Karen had made a superb job of the cake so she felt honour-bound to carry it through.

'You're on your own in this one,' the crew had insisted, but, unknown to her, they had chipped in for champagne, waiting till she was halfway across the room to an astonished Nick before they struck up with a loud chorus and produced it.

'My God! How did you find that out?' he demanded in amazement.

'Unit gossip. Happy birthday. Nick!' To their surprise he was clearly touched by the gesture. Laughing, he obliged by blowing the candles out.

'I hope you made a wish,' Cress told him, as she handed him a glass of champagne.

'Certainly, but I think I may have a long wait for it to come true.' Cress gave him a quizzical look. 'I've never known you wait for anything,' she smiled.

'Not one of my better traits, I admit.' She leant over and kissed his cheek. 'I could get used to this.' He smiled back.