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Authors: Carole Mortimer

Merlyn's Magic

BOOK: Merlyn's Magic
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Merlyn's Magic
By
Carole Mortimer

 

Contents

 

    MERLYN'S MAGIC

    A sob caught in Merlyn's throat for the ravages this man's
    grief had made on his face, his eyes dull with his private pain.

    A shudder racked his body as she looked at him.
    'Rand…?' She half ran to him, and then stopped, not knowing
    what he wanted her to do.
    She
    wanted to go to
    him, put her arms around him, and comfort him in any way that he would
    let her.

    As he slowly stood up, the magnificence of his body bathed
    in the glow of firelight, she knew there was only one way she
    could
    comfort him, that mere words alone wouldn't be enough.

    'I want your magic tonight, Merlyn. I
    need
    it.'

CAROLE MORTIMER

is also the author of

GYPSY

First published in Hardback in 1986

by Worldwide Romance,

15-16 Brook's Mews,
London W1A 1DR

This Paperback edition published in 1986

by
Worldwide Romance

©
Carole Mortimer 1986

Australian copyright 1986

Philippine copyright 1986

ISBN 0 373 50386 5

For my husband John,

and our sons

Matthew and Joshua.

CHAPTER ONE

'He
says he doesn't want you to be his wife, Merlyn,' the man seated across
the restaurant table told her with barely concealed anger.

She had known when Christopher Drake took time away from
the film he had almost finished directing to take her out for lunch
that something had gone wrong with their plan to work together in six
weeks' time. Christopher was already way behind deadline, a fact that
was reputedly making him harder to work with—and
for
,
according to the cast and crew. He was a veritable demon, and as both
producer and director, who demanded nothing less than perfection one
hundred per cent of the time from those who worked for him, he must
have been hell to be with these last few weeks of production.

Merlyn knew a lot of people considered her insane to feel
this way, but she was actually looking forward to working with him. She
had no doubt that he would live up to his reputation, but she had taken
on difficult directors before and lived to tell the tale, and she had
liked Christopher's looks from the first. He was tall and slim, the
latter maintained by his barely leashed energy, with over-long blond
hair that he constantly pushed off his forehead in impatient movements.
It was an endearing habit, and Merlyn found herself resisting the
impulse to smooth back those wayward locks herself.

But if what he said was true, then she wasn't going to get
the chance to know him better, the prospect of working with him
apparently in jeopardy. And knowing who 'he' was, she knew why.

'Don't feel bad about it, Merlyn.' Christopher scowled,
obviously not pleased with the development at all. 'You're the fourth
he's turned down in almost a year.'

Tact and diplomacy didn't appear to be part of Christopher
Drake's personality either, but after years of living and working with
people in a profession full of affectations and insincerity, it was a
refreshing change to meet someone so bluntly honest.

'Who was my competition?' she asked in an amused voice.

'Not competition,' Christopher dismissed disgustedly.
'Just your predecessors. None of them got any further than this stage
either.'

'This stage?' she prompted, toying with the scampi on her
plate.

'The film studio bought the screen rights to the book from
the author but, unfortunately, she made the stipulation in the contract
that her brother-in-law had to approve of the actress chosen to play
the part of his wife.' Christopher's disparaging tone told her exactly
what he thought of that clause.

Merlyn shrugged, the long swathe of her shimmering red
hair rippling halfway down her spine to her waist. 'That seems only
fair.'

Christopher's slender fingers tightened about his
wineglass. 'Not when he doesn't want the film made!' Blue eyes glowered
his displeasure. 'Anne Benton forgot to mention that little fact when
she signed the contract.'

Merlyn had read the book Anne Benton had written about her
sister's short but eventful life, had been touched by the affectionate
admiration the younger sister had for the elder. The book was
poignantly tender, a fitting tribute to a warm and beautiful woman who
had died too young. It must also be a heart-breaking reminder to Suzie
Forrester's husband of his tragic loss.

'That's that, then,' she sighed, sitting back, her
disappointment reflecting in the deep green of her slightly uptilting
eyes. She had never met Suzie Forrester, but she had been attracted to
portraying her as soon as she read the script, even more so since
reading the book.

'Not necessarily,' Christopher said slowly.

She looked at him sharply. 'If Brandon Carmichael doesn't
want me in the part—'

'How does he know what he wants?' the man opposite her
dismissed impatiently. 'He's never seen you! He didn't see any of your
predecessors either, he just turned them down flat. Now if he could
just meet you, and we could convince him—'

'Don't you mean
I
could convince
him?' Merlyn cut in hardly, easily able to guess the way his mind was
working; he was far from the first completely ruthless man she had met
in this profession. And she doubted he would be the last, either.

'Why not?' Christopher wasn't in the least abashed at the
admission.

Merlyn gave him a pitying look. 'Brandon Carmichael hardly
sounds the type to be swayed by a pretty face!'

'You aren't merely pretty, you're beautiful,' Christopher
stated, as a man used to dealing in nameless beautiful faces rather
than personalities. 'You're also a damned good actress,' he added, just
as practically. 'Besides, there's only six weeks left until production
starts, and I'm beginning to feel like Selznick looking for his
Scarlett!'

Merlyn didn't like to disillusion him, was sure he
believed that every film he made was a masterpiece, but she knew that
however poignantly moving the film on Suzie Forrester was going to be,
it was only Christopher's conceit that allowed him to in any way
compare it to the legendary
Gone With the Wind
.
He was hardly the enthralled producer David O. Selznick, and she
certainly wasn't Vivian Leigh!

Christopher scowled at her sceptical expression. 'For
God's sake, I'm not asking you to sleep with the man, just convince him
that we aren't all "ghoulish bastards"!'

She ignored the reference he had made to her using bedroom
tactics to get Brandon Carmichael to agree to her playing the part of
his wife in the film, knowing Christopher Drake was quite capable of
asking that of her if he thought it would get the result he wanted. She
was equally as sure what her answer to him would be! 'Is that a direct
quote?' she asked ruefully.

Those deep blue eyes narrowed angrily. 'That's one of the
more repeatable remarks he's made about the film being shot,' he
confirmed harshly. 'The man is so damned arrogant—'

'He did lose his wife, Christopher—'

'Two years ago,' he put in in a disgruntled voice. 'God
knows she was a beautiful woman, but—'

'You knew her?' Merlyn asked with interest.

Christopher shrugged. 'I worked with her a couple of
times. Any man would be upset at losing her, but it was
years
ago now.'

Merlyn's expression softened indulgently. It didn't take
too much intelligence to know that in all of his thirty-six years
Christopher Drake, for all that his intensity as a lover was as
renowned as his ability as a director, had never been in love. She
wasn't too familiar with the true emotion herself, but she had known
enough of the
untrue
kind to appreciate that to
have loved and lost must be infinitely more painful than never having
known the emotion at all.

But Christopher saw this situation one-dimensional, could
only see Brandon Carmichael as the man who stood in the way of his
making his film and not as the man who had loved his wife so much her
death had all but destroyed him. Time certainly hadn't lessened the
man's pain.

'What
did
you have in mind by way of
convincing him?' Merlyn arched auburn brows mockingly.

'Well, I did invite him down to London to see you at the
theatre, but—'

'He refused,' she guessed dryly. 'I really don't think
seeing me play Kate would endear me to him!' she derided, her title
role in
The Taming of the Shrew
nothing at all
like the vivacious but warmly beautiful Suzie Forrester. If Brandon
Carmichael had seen her as Kate he would definitely have refused to let
her take his wife's role in the film of her life!

He had turned her down anyway.

But being reminded of the latest role she had played
during her year at the theatre, she was also forced to realise that she
had turned down the offer of another contract so that she could start
work on
To Live a Little
… that she
only had another week to go before her replacement took over.
Originally, she had planned to take a month off before work began on
the film, now it looked as if she were about to join the more than
lengthy queue of the unemployed, and for someone who had rarely been
out of work the last five years, that was going to be difficult to
adjust to. But she had effectively closed one door and now another was
being slammed in her face.

'This is as important to you as it is to me.' Christopher
was shrewd enough to realise this as he watched the changing
expressions on her face.

'I want the part,' she nodded. 'And not just because I'm
out of work without it,' she added ruefully. 'It really is something
that appeals to me.'

'It appeals to me too,' Christopher grated. 'We could pick
up a few Oscars with it.'

The fact that their reasons were so different didn't
surprise Merlyn, and she knew that Christopher's more mercenary
attitude would in no way detract from his ability to make a fantastic
film. But she had spent so much time during the last few weeks in
learning the script and doing the research she felt necessary to get an
all-round picture of Suzie Forrester, that she felt an affinity with
the other woman, almost as if she had known her as a friend, even
though they had never met. She would feel as if she were losing that
friend if she didn't play Suzie.

BOOK: Merlyn's Magic
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