Chapter 18 #2
Did having a crush mean I was falling? I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to think about it. There were too many other things pressing on my mind and heart.
“What about your other path?” she asked. “I hear the way you talk about Sam Kendal. Aren’t you supposed to marry him?”
“I don’t know.” I moved past her, not wanting to answer her questions.
“Do you love Sam?”
I opened my mouth to answer her as quickly as I had about Spencer, but something made me pause before I said, “No.”
“Are you falling for him?”
This time I couldn’t respond because I knew the truth, even if I didn’t want to admit it. What I felt for Sam was different. It was more than a crush.
“If you’re falling for Sam, why are you toying with Spencer?”
“I’m not toying with him.”
“What do you call that?” She motioned to the chaise.
“He kissed me.”
“It didn’t look like you tried to stop him. You’re giving him false hope.”
“Spencer Hayes is not in love with me, and I have given him no reason to have false hope.”
“That’s not what the magazines are saying.”
“You know those magazines are garbage. As soon as this movie releases, I’ll probably never see Spencer again.”
“Then let me have a chance.” Vicky put her hand on my arm to stop me. “You might not be in love with him, but I am, Ally.”
My lips parted, compassion for my sister filling my heart. “You’re in love with him?”
Embarrassment colored her cheeks, and she lowered her eyes.
“Every time I think I’m making progress, you swoop in to steal the show.
If you’re not in love with him and you’re not falling for him, then step aside.
Please.” Her face was serious and more vulnerable than I’d seen in years.
“I detest begging and admitting that I can’t win him unless you’re out of the picture, but that’s how desperate I am for him to notice me. ”
I pulled back just slightly. “You are in love.”
She swallowed. “I hate how much.”
I was quiet for a moment. I’d never been in love before, but I knew it would be torture if the other person didn’t love me. “I’m sorry, Vicky. I really didn’t know. I already agreed to go with him to the Gold Diggers of Broadway premiere tonight.”
“Ask him to take me instead.”
If I did and the magazines saw him there with Vicky, they’d start to speculate that Spencer had betrayed me with my sister. It would ruin all the progress we had made to restore his reputation. But Vicky didn’t know about our contract.
“I’m sorry.”
She pulled back, hurt and confusion in her face. “At least I know where we stand.” She started to walk away.
“It’s not what you think.” I ran after her. “I have to go with him, Vicky. I don’t have a choice.”
She didn’t stop walking toward the door as she said, “Why? Are you under—” She paused and turned to me, comprehension shining from her eyes. “Mr. Mayer worked out a deal with Papa, didn’t he? We got Spencer if you agreed to date him.” She shook her head. “Of course. Why didn’t I realize it before?”
I stared at her, unsure what to say. “No one must know, Vicky.”
“Is that all this has been?” Shock, relief, and then satisfaction played across her face. “A show for the magazines?”
“You can’t say anything.” I put my hands on her arms. “If this information leaks, it will enrage Mr. Mayer and hurt Papa. Mr. Mayer could even break the contract and not let Spencer finish the picture.”
“Oh, I understand.” She smiled to herself. “Don’t worry, Ally. Your secret is safe with me. I’m just happy to know Spencer is fair game.”
“But he’s not. If the magazines think he betrayed me with you—”
“I’m done sacrificing for this family.” Anger and bitterness edged her words. “Papa is going to lose Bennett Studios no matter what we do. And at the end, what will we have left? I need to take what I can now so I’m not alone and penniless when Papa finally fails.”
“How can you say such things? Mama and Papa have sacrificed everything for us.”
“No.” She pressed her lips together. “They’ve done it for this studio and for themselves. We’re the ones sacrificing. Don’t fool yourself, Ally. Take what you can before it’s all gone.”
With that, she left.
Searchlights lit up the sky above Grauman’s Theatre as we waited in Spencer’s Rolls-Royce that evening.
There was a line of automobiles, all waiting to drop off their occupants for the premiere of Gold Diggers of Broadway.
We had been given a special invitation, and even though Spencer and I worked for different studios, the producers of the Warner Bros.
picture wanted as many top-name actors and actresses in Hollywood as they could get.
The more attention they could draw for their movie, the better.
“First talking films, and now colorized talking films,” Spencer said with a shake of his head. “How is a small studio like your father’s going to keep up with all the changes?”
My heart was still heavy from my conversation with Vicky.
Just like Spencer, she believed there was no hope.
But I knew better. As soon as I could get the gold safely deposited at Wells Fargo in San Francisco in 1849, Papa and I could drive there the next day to retrieve it, though I wasn’t quite sure how it worked.
Would it already be there, if we went for it today?
Or did I have to wait until I put it there in my other path before it showed up in this one?
It didn’t pay for me to even go to San Francisco in this path until I was certain.
So much could go wrong between now and then.
“I hope your father is pleased with filming today.” Spencer pulled his automobile forward a little. “I think this was our best day yet.”
There were hundreds of people milling around Grauman’s, and so many lights, it was a spectacle to behold. I’d been to other premieres here, but this one was highly anticipated.
“I think that’s why he let us leave a little early,” I said. “He was very happy with our work today.”
Everyone had done well, and we hadn’t come up against any obstacles.
Even Vicky was in a good mood and remembered all her lines.
She didn’t seem affected by our conversation, which meant she was probably relieved and excited to discover that mine and Spencer’s relationship was a sham.
I caught her watching him throughout the day, and she didn’t hide her flirting.
She was bold and unhindered, and he seemed to enjoy her attention.
She tried getting him to invite her to the premiere, but he only had two tickets.
“It just occurred to me,” I said as I sat back in the chair and studied Spencer. “You’re stuck here with me for the next few minutes. You can’t run away this time if I ask you a hard question.”
He laughed and turned to me. “I could say the same thing about you. We could practice that kissing scene again, and no one would interrupt us this time.”
My cheeks warmed at the memory of our kiss.
“It was nice, wasn’t it?” His gaze slipped to my lips. “Any time you’d like to—”
“What are you hiding from me?” I had to be blunt, not only because he was embarrassing me, but because he was deflecting again.
“Hiding from you?”
“The thing just under the surface?”
His smile disappeared, and he gripped the wheel. “Why would I answer that question?”
“Because you trust me.”
“It’s not a matter of trust. There’s no reason to tell you anything.”
“Aren’t we friends?”
He reached for my hand. “We could be more than that, if you’d like.”
“You’re trying to distract me again. Maybe it worked on your other girls, but not me.”
“I knew you’d be trouble.” He laughed, but I could see he was deflecting again as he let go of my hand.
“I’m serious, though.” I wasn’t sure the wisdom in telling him, but I went ahead. “I think my sister has feelings for you, and I don’t want to encourage her unless I know you’re trustworthy.”
“Vicky has feelings for me?” The look of surprise on his face was honest and raw. No pretense. No guile.
“I think so.”
“Yeah, well.” He shuttered his emotions again. “I wouldn’t do that to her.”
“Do what?”
“Encourage her.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’ve hurt every woman I’ve seriously dated, and I couldn’t do that to her—or to you and your family.”
I frowned. “You already know you’d hurt her?”
He looked out the window as he pulled forward a little farther. “It’s not something I do on purpose. It comes with the job.”
“I know a lot of actors who have very happy relationships. Hurting people is not a by-product of acting.”
“I’m not talking—” He stumbled over his words, as if he hadn’t meant to say them, and finished weakly, “About acting.”
“Then what job are you talking about?” I frowned as I recalled his meetings at Sardi’s and on the gambling ship.
“You’re working with George Cryer and Kent Parrot, aren’t you?
That’s why you were with Mr. Cryer at Sardi’s that day and why we went to the gambling ship—and probably why we were in the speakeasy that evening.
” I pulled back as far as I could in the car, the frown deepening.
“That’s it, isn’t it? You came out here from Chicago.
Do you work for Al Capone?” I whispered, my eyes widening.
“Is that what you meant when you said you didn’t want to tell me how you got out of Chicago and into the movies? ”
Spencer put his finger over my mouth to silence me.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about, Ally.” His voice was serious as his brown eyes held mine captive. “You have bits and pieces to a puzzle, but you can’t see the full picture.”
He didn’t deny my charges.
The vehicle ahead of us pulled away from the curb, and it was our turn to get out.
“There’s no need to keep asking questions,” he said, “or talk about this again. Do you understand?”
I pressed my lips together as I nodded, not sure what else to do.
“The most important thing is that I will do everything I can to keep you safe,” he told me.
Again I nodded, but fear started to creep into my heart.
“I care about you and your family, Ally.” He watched me closely. “Everything else might be a lie, but that’s the truth.”
An attendant opened my door and offered me his hand to step out of the automobile as another took the keys from Spencer and drove the vehicle away to park it.
Spencer came around and offered his elbow, a smile on his handsome, familiar face.
No one would suspect him of anything.
And perhaps that was the whole point.