CHAPTER 11
“Good morning, Mrs McDonagh.” Jess waved to the head of housekeeping when she got to work the following day.
The woman stopped in the foyer and gave her a professional smile. “Good morning, ma’am.”
There was no point asking her not to call her that, Jess knew – she’d upset her too much. She’d also learned that the woman never spoke unless she was asked a direct question or had something important to say. Which meant she and Jess had barely spoken since she’d arrived.
“So, have you any idea where the crew are filming today?” she asked.
“They’re setting up right now in the orangery, ma’am.” She gave a small sigh. “They’re moving furniture around, and they’ve gone and broken one of the big plant pots so I had to ask two of the staff to rescue the yucca. Our gardener will have to transplant it today.”
“Oh, that’s a shame.” Jess had no idea what a yucca was. “Still, at least the plant itself wasn’t damaged.”
Mrs McDonagh pressed her lips together for a moment. “Well, if there’s nothing else, ma’am.”
After she left, Jess slipped into her office, dumped her bag on the floor and shrugged out of her light jacket. Her phone started to ring and she swiped a finger across the screen, putting Kate on speaker.
“Hey, Kate, all good? How are the wedding plans?”
“That’s actually what I’m phoning you about. I’m doing a straw poll to see what sort of wedding cake most people want.”
“What?”
“I’m kidding,” Kate chuckled. “The cake was made months ago.”
Of course it was, Jess thought. Kate had obviously decided to let Simon’s mother arrange the whole wedding, and she’d gone with exactly what she thought was correct: a traditional fruit cake. Although, really, what did it matter? Kate was marrying the man she loved.
“So are you phoning about the wedding at all?” Jess asked.
There was a brief silence. “In a roundabout way.”
Jess pushed the heel of her hand into her tummy. “Is it about Adam?”
“He was asking how you are, Jess. Not just now, but before,” Kate said quickly. “He wanted to know how you’ve been.”
Jess felt a momentary buzzing in her ears. “What did you say? No, don’t – it doesn’t matter. He’s no right to grill you like that or –”
“He wasn’t grilling me, Jess.” Kate sighed. “He really did seem concerned. Why won’t you take his calls?”
“He can’t call me.”
“He can’t … you’ve blocked him?”
“He left, Kate.” Jess hated the familiar sickish feeling that rippled through her.
“You know all this, I shouldn’t have to keep explaining it.
And whatever he’s doing now, asking how I am, it’s just guilt.
He’s back in Dublin and you’re reminding him of me.
He’s trying to ease a guilty conscience, that’s all. ”
“Jess, I think you’re wrong.”
“I don’t think so.” She pushed down a wave of sadness. “Listen, I have to go, Kate.”
“Yeah, me too.” Kate sounded overly bright. “Figures to wrestle.” After a beat, she added, “Take care, miss you.”
“Miss you too.” Jess hung up.
Sometimes she wished she could pull every last memory of Adam out of her head so she’d never have to think about him again.
Except that then she’d lose all the good memories too.
With a small sigh, she opened her laptop and skimmed through her emails, answering the most important ones and marking a few to follow up later.
Then she picked up her phone again. The previous week, she’d followed Afric and Spencer on their socials and updated her notifications.
Now she spent a few minutes searching social media for references to Linford Castle and the movie.
Afric had posted a short video on Instagram just moments ago. So excited to start working on An Irish Inheritance at Linford Castle. Check out the cool orangery where we’re filming this morning. #AnIrishInheritance #romcom
Jess watched the video of a small group of designers putting the final touches to the set.
At the end, Afric had cut to Spencer, who seemed to be giving a smouldering straight-to-the-camera look before walking out of the shot.
Jess watched the last bit again. Nope, he was just glaring.
She shook her head. If the leads were hoping to convince the cinema-going public that they actually got on, they needed to work a bit harder than that. Still, for once it wasn’t her problem.
At the same time, it’d be useful to be able to reshare posts on the group’s social accounts.
She worked for another while before giving in to her curiosity.
Outside the orangery, one of the ADs was lounging against the closed door, scrolling through her phone. She glanced up as Jess approached.
“They’re filming at the moment,” she said quietly. “I can let you in when they’re –”
“Cut!” shouted Doug from inside.
The AD opened the door and Jess slipped into the room, her eyes immediately drawn to the corner, which had been styled with a curved sofa, a low table, some lamps and a large, log-filled basket.
Lisa was holding her phone in both hands, her thumbs flying over the keys, when Jess weaved her way across the room to her.
“Hey.”
She didn’t bother to look up.
“Hi, Lisa. I was just wondering if I could reshare some of what you and the actors are sharing on their socials. We’ve a big following on our own accounts.”
Lisa shrugged. “Once it’s all super positive.”
Which meant she’d already seen Afric’s post. “Of course.”
“Places, everyone!” Doug ordered, crossing the set to stand behind one of the cameras.
Afric and Spencer took their places, standing at opposite ends of the sofa and waited.
“Quiet on set, please,” Doug said. “And, action!”
Spencer gave an audible sigh. “Here’s the thing, Freckles – if you’d wanted the best room in this mausoleum, you’d have got here first.”
“Are we back in camp?” Afric retorted, flicking her hair over her shoulder.
Spencer folded his arms. “At least I only had to deal with bullies and cry-babies there. You fell into the latter camp if I remember. But I never had to see any of those losers again after four weeks. If I have to see you every day for a year, I might have to revive my knife skills.”
“Cut!” Doug looked up from the camera. “The line is ‘I might have to revive my rope skills’. You sound like a serial killer.”
Jess flashed Lisa a quick glance, but Lisa had buried her head in her phone again and hardly seemed aware they’d stopped.
“Right, from your last line, Spencer!”
Spencer folded his arms and checked his stance on the set.
“Action!”
“But if I have to see you every day for a year, I might have to revive my rope skills.”
Afric smiled sweetly at him. “Ooh, promises!”
Jess watched as Spencer walked closer to Afric. “I wasn’t talking about those sort of rope skills, sweetheart, but that can be arranged.”
Afric poked him in the chest. “Not if you were the last man on earth, Spencer!”
“Cut!”
“Shit!” Afric flushed bright-red. “Sorry, I meant Gabe.”
Doug flashed her a smile. “Okay, don’t sweat it, we’ll take that again.”
Maybe they were just finding their way into the movie, Jess mused. She couldn’t imagine that every scene took so long to get right.
“Get the names right, please, Afric,” Mel said, sharply.
Doug shot Mel an impatient look. “From the top, boys and girls!”
Lisa looked up from her phone and rolled her eyes. Jess had a feeling it was going to be a long morning.