Dreaming of Mr. Darcy (17 page)

The taxi ride back to Lyme Regis was one of the strangest journeys of Kay's life. Oli was silent at first, his head bent down and his blue eyes hidden behind his dark glasses. Kay felt horribly conspicuous in her bright green cardigan and yellow hat and had seen the double take the taxi driver had given as they got into the car.

‘Where's the fancy dress party, then?' he quipped. ‘Dreadful floods at the moment,' he said, peering at them through the rearview mirror. ‘Would avoid driving round here if I were you.'

‘It's a bit late for that, I'm afraid,' Kay said and then received a nudge in the ribs from Oli.

‘Shush,' he said.

So this was the life of a movie star's girlfriend, was it? Being made to dress incognito and being told to shush all the time? Kay wasn't impressed. In fact, she was just about to tell Oli, when he did something quite unexpected.

He picked up her hand and gave it a squeeze. ‘I'm sorry today turned out like this,' he said, leaning in towards her and whispering in her ear.

‘It's okay,' Kay found herself saying.

‘No, it's not,' Oli whispered. ‘I wanted it to be—you know—special.'

‘Did you?'

He nodded, and his fingers traced a tiny circle in the palm of her hand, which gave her the most delicious goose bumps. ‘Of course I did.'

Kay felt her body heat up and was quite sure her face was too, as she looked into his eyes.

‘We were sitting in the back of a taxi when he proposed to me,' she would tell journalists in the years to come. ‘He was wearing only a T-shirt and an old raincoat,' she would say with a giggle. ‘It's a long story.'

‘Oh, tell us, Kay!' they'd beg.

‘All I'm going to tell you is that I said yes.'

Gazing into his eyes now, she wondered what he had planned for their lunch together. ‘Oli?' she said, but she didn't get a chance to ask him anything, because a phone rang with a blast of Wagner. Kay recognised ‘The Ride of the Valkyries' and grinned.

‘Ah! We're back in civilisation,' Oli said, finding his phone. ‘Hello? Yes. I'm heading back to Lyme.' There was a pause. ‘Nowhere. Just out to lunch. I don't know where—we didn't get that far. What?' he said. ‘Kay. I was with Kay. In the car. No, I'm in a taxi now. The car flooded.' There was another pause, and Kay could see a frown on Oli's face. ‘I don't know. About an hour? I've got to get back to Lyme and get changed. Okay. Yes. I said I will. All right, then.'

‘Everything okay?' Kay asked after he put his phone away.

‘That was Teresa,' he said.

‘She didn't sound happy,' Kay said.

‘You heard her?' Oli looked anxious.

‘Only her tone of voice,' Kay said.

Oli looked relieved. ‘It's a good job I didn't tell her I didn't have any trousers on.'

‘Have you got to get to the set?'

‘I'm afraid so. Teresa's panicking. They've moved a lot faster than she thought, and she needs me to get out there as soon as I can.'

‘But you've not had any lunch.'

‘Neither have you.'

‘But I can get some at home.'

‘I'll grab something somewhere,' he said. ‘Don't worry about me. Hey, mate,' Oli said, leaning forward in the taxi as they took the road into Lyme Regis. ‘Can you hang around for me? I have to get to Marlcombe Manor.'

‘No problem,' the taxi driver said, looking at him through the rearview mirror. ‘You're that actor, aren't you? I've seen you on the TV.'

Oli gave a little nod.

‘I thought it was you. You can't fool these old eyes. You were in that—what was it called?' He took a hand off the wheel and clicked his fingers as if he might summon the title. ‘
Parisian
Nights
. Am I right?'

Again Oli nodded.

‘Bit saucy, that, wasn't it? I was watching it with my wife and mother-in-law. Now
that
was embarrassing!'

Kay grinned as she remembered the scene the taxi driver was referring to.

‘Still, must all be in a day's work for you, eh? All that rumpy pumpy! Now ain't that something—getting paid for that. I tell you, I'm in the wrong job!'

***

The taxi dropped them off and the driver promised to wait for Oli. The two wet travelers walked along Marine Parade towards the bed and breakfast.

‘I guess that happens to you a lot,' Kay said.

‘Now and again,' he said.

‘So the disguise didn't work.'

‘I'm afraid not,' he said. ‘But at least he'll never recognise you.'

‘Oh, nobody would ever recognise me,' Kay said.

Oli stopped. ‘Well, they should.'

Kay turned around to face him, and he took off his sunglasses.

‘The whole world should recognise you,' he said.

Kay wasn't sure what to say, and so she said nothing at all. She was so glad that she didn't when he moved towards her, closing the brief space between them and leaning down to kiss her. It was what she'd dreamed of, but she never expected it to really happen. Now it was. She felt suspended, as if she were dreaming, and if she opened her eyes, Oli would evaporate and she'd be staring into space like a fool. When he took a step back and she opened her eyes, though, he was really there, all six foot four of him, and he was looking at her with such intensity that she couldn't speak.

‘You okay?' he asked.

She nodded, and he laughed.

‘What?' she asked.

‘You! You're so funny!'

‘Why am I funny?' she asked, not at all sure he was paying her a compliment.

‘Because your head is full of fluffy clouds.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘You're a romantic, aren't you? You believe in princes on white horses and happy-ever-afters.'

‘How do you know that?'

‘It's written all over that face of yours,' he said. ‘That gorgeous, dreamy face.' He grinned and reached out to stroke her cheek. ‘I've never met anyone like you,' he said. ‘I'm afraid the acting business usually knocks out any romantic notions I may have about the world.'

‘That's awful!' Kay said. ‘Especially when you're playing some of the great heroes.'

Oli shrugged. ‘You mustn't think we're all like the heroes we portray. I'm not Captain Wentworth, you know.'

‘I know that,' Kay said, secretly dismissing his protestation, because she knew that the man standing before her was the perfect hero.

‘It's just a job like any other.'

Kay shook her head. ‘But you need sensitivity and passion to play a part, don't you?'

‘I guess,' Oli said.

‘When you played Sydney Carton in
A
Tale
of
Two
Cities
, I cried myself to sleep that night.'

Oli laughed. ‘But I'm not Sydney. I wouldn't have given up my life like him. I'd have left Paris at the first opportunity and put that silly woman, Lucy, out of my mind.'

‘No!' Kay said. ‘I don't believe that.'

They walked towards the bed and breakfast, the sound of the sea in their ears.

‘I'm a no-good, selfish actor,' he said. ‘I'd be wary of getting involved with me if I were you.'

Kay's heart skipped a beat. So he wanted to get involved with her? Was that what he was saying? ‘Are you challenging me?' she dared to ask.

He smiled and held her gaze. ‘Perhaps I am.'

Kay was about to reply when she looked ahead to Wentworth House and saw two figures sheltering in the doorway of the bed and breakfast. ‘Who are they?' she asked. One was a young woman with short-cropped hair. She was wearing a white cap and skinny jeans and looked as if she'd be more at home in Kensington High Street than Lyme Regis. Standing next to her, holding her hand, was a girl no more than five years old. She had bright rosy cheeks and the longest, blondest ponytail Kay had ever seen.

‘Annabel?' Oli shouted.

‘Oli!' The little girl dropped the woman's hand and came running towards Oli, and Kay watched as he caught her up in his arms and spun her around. Who on earth was she? Kay wondered.

Oh
my
goodness!
She suddenly thought.
It's his daughter
. She had the same butter-coloured hair; that much was evident.
He
has
a
secret
love
child! If I marry him, I'll be a stepmother!

‘Come on, Bel, I want to introduce you to a very good friend of mine,' Oli said, bringing the girl safely back down to earth.

A
very
good
friend.
Kay didn't like the sound of that, but what else could he say in the circumstances?
This
is
your
new
mother, and you are going to love her as much as I do?

‘Kay, this is Annabel,' Oli said. ‘Annabel, this is Kay.'

The little girl's face flushed the colour of pink roses, and she gave a hesitant smile. ‘Hello,' she said.

‘Hello,' Kay said, thinking that she was the prettiest little girl she'd ever seen. But why hadn't she heard of her existence before? How had Oli kept her hidden for so long?

‘Annabel's Teresa's daughter,' Oli said.

‘What?' Kay said, looking startled.

‘Teresa's daughter,' Oli repeated.

‘But I thought…'

‘What?'

‘I thought she was yours,' Kay said in a whisper.

Oli grinned. ‘She's an angel, isn't she?'

Kay nodded in relief, but she was surprised too, because the girl bore so little resemblance to the harsh mother Kay had got to know over the last few days.

‘Where's Mummy?' Annabel asked.

‘She's busy filming,' Oli said.

‘She's always busy filming,' Annabel said.

‘I'm sorry to turn up unannounced,' a voice said, and Kay suddenly became aware of the woman standing in the doorway.

‘That's okay,' Oli said. ‘Always good to see you both. Oh, let me introduce you both—Kay, this is Clare, Annabel's nanny. Kay runs the bed and breakfast.'

‘I hope it's all right, me turning up like this,' Clare said. ‘Teresa said it would be okay.'

‘It's no problem,' Kay said, liking Clare immediately. She had a lovely round face and smiling eyes.

‘Here, come on in, and let's get some lunch. I'm starving,' Kay said.

‘Me too,' Annabel said with a giggle.

‘You've just had lunch,' Clare said.

‘But I want to have lunch with Oli,' the little girl said.

‘I'm afraid I've got to get over to the film set.'

Annabel gasped. ‘You've got no trousers on!'

Clare's eyes darted down to Oli's legs, and her mouth dropped open.

‘You're right,' Oli said, ‘and I really should do something about that.'

They all entered the hallway, and Oli disappeared up the stairs in a half-naked streak.

Kay stood looking a little awkward. ‘I'm afraid we're all booked up here,' she said.

Clare nodded. ‘That's okay,' she said. ‘Teresa said she got us a room somewhere up Cobb Road.'

‘Oh, good.'

‘We've booked in, but I wanted to call here on the off chance of her being around.'

‘I don't think she'll be back until the evening,' Kay said. ‘Do you have a car? Maybe you could drive out to the set.'

‘Can we, Clare?' Annabel asked excitedly.

‘We'll have to see,' Clare said. ‘Now, why don't you go and sit over there?'

Annabel did as she was told, entering the sitting room and walking straight over to the window. ‘We can't see the sea from our flat, can we?'

‘No,' Clare said. ‘But we've got a very fine view of Primrose Hill.'

Kay went through to the kitchen and made two cups of tea. ‘Are you sure I can't get you anything to eat? I'm going to make myself some pasta so it's no trouble.'

‘No, really, we've just eaten.'

A sudden thudding was heard on the stairs, and Oli appeared in the kitchen doorway. ‘All dressed,' he said.

‘Are you sure you haven't got time for something to eat?' Kay asked, rather sorry to have lost the half-naked Oli from her life. Perhaps—once they were married—they'd walk half-naked all day around their plush London apartment together.

‘I really haven't time,' Oli said. ‘I'll see you later, all right? Maybe we'll have time for that meal together then.'

Kay smiled, hoping he was right and already planning the outfit she'd wear. She'd have to make time to go shopping and surprise him with something beautiful that actually belonged to her this time.

‘Oh!' Kay said, suddenly realising she was still wearing the soggy hairpiece and had a bag of wet clothes to sort out before Beth saw them. ‘I must get this dress dry.'

‘Can I help with anything?' Clare asked. ‘I could start lunch for you.'

‘Oh, thank you!' Kay said. ‘That's so kind. I'm absolutely starving.'

Kay left the kitchen and went up to her bedroom, placing the wet hairpiece and dress above her bath to drip dry. She felt terrible about the dress. It would be the first and last time a film star would lend her any clothes; that was for sure.

After hanging up the soggy items, Kay slipped out of Nana Craig's stripy dress and cardigan and placed them on a Lloyd Loom chair next to her bed. She would wash the dress and return it with a big bunch of flowers to thank her. When she slipped into a cotton shirt and a pair of jeans, Kay's tummy rumbled, reminding her that she left Clare downstairs in the kitchen.

As soon as she was on the landing, Kay heard Clare's voice. She was calling for Annabel—over and over again.