CHAPTER 18
@starzwatch: Afric Brooks has been badly hurt following a terrifying ordeal in the infamous Lady Linford tunnel at Linford Castle. A source on the set of An Irish Inheritance has confirmed that two members of Linford’s staff were with her at the time. #TheLinfordCurse
Jess finished a couple of hours of work in the orangery, grateful that the doors to the large patio area and some of the windows overhead had been left open. The west of Ireland was having the hottest June on record, and the kind of temperatures normally expected in the southeast of the country.
Now, with the sun at its highest, she packed up her laptop, pocketed her phone, and decided to head back to the cooler surroundings of Ian’s office for the rest of the day.
As she emerged from the east corridor into the foyer, she realised the film crew were shooting a scene at the base of the stairs behind the hidden lift, leaving her no room to pass. Just as she turned to retrace her steps, Doug cut the scene.
Dermot stepped back from behind the camera lens and caught Jess’s eye. “Do you want to get through?”
“Sure.” Jess started to pick her way carefully over cables and around equipment as Spencer stepped off the bottom stair.
“Can we have a word, please, Doug?” Spencer asked.
“Sure thing.” Doug grabbed Jess’s elbow as she walked past. “Wait up a minute, honey. We need to talk.”
He probably just wanted to know what exactly had happened in the tunnel and whether the accident could have been avoided. Which it could have if Afric had simply listened to her and not panicked!
Maybe he even wanted to apologise to her for having to put herself through all that in the first place. Especially as it had been a complete waste of time.
Spencer ran his hands back through his hair as he approached Doug. “I’m losing my cues because Afric isn’t following the script.”
“She is,” Doug said flatly. “I gave her a few extra lines.”
Jess pulled out her phone and opened her emails, clicking into the new one from Frank Charleston. Afternoon, Jess, I heard about the incident in the tunnel from Anthony. Please make sure that nothing like this will happen again. The last thing we want is a lawsuit on our hands. Regards, Frank.
She suppressed a sigh and glanced back up at Spencer, whose jaw was clenched.
“But I wasn’t told about any changes to the script today,” he said.
Doug looked surprised. “You weren’t?” He clicked his tongue. “I’ll have to talk to Mel about that.”
“Also, every time there’s a change, it’s because Afric’s getting extra lines.” Spencer folded his arms. “Why is that?”
Doug put a hand on his shoulder. “Try to understand, Spencer. I have a certain creative vision for this movie. This was just an oversight, hm? Now, we’re going to take the scene from the top with the new lines. We all good?”
At that moment, they were interrupted by one of the makeup artists and Spencer curtly excused himself.
After he left, Doug turned to Jess.
“I think we’ve had a breakdown in communication, honey.”
“Is this about the incident in the tunnel, Doug?”
“Yes. Specifically why the fuck you took her into a tunnel in the first place!” He narrowed his eyes. “Afric is claustrophobic.”
“So I discovered. Pretty quickly, in fact.” Jess kept her tone even. “Mel asked me to take her in, so she wouldn’t be so nervous when you’re shooting the tunnel scenes. She was only in there for a few seconds, but when she was leaving –”
“Shooting the tunnel scenes?” Doug cut across her. “Do me a favour, honey? Don’t attempt to take Afric near those tunnels again. And if Mel asks you to do anything else, you run it by me first.”
“Of course.” Jess felt a flush creep up her neck. “Is there anything else?”
“Nothing that you can help me with.” Doug turned and walked back over to the crew.
Jess watched as he spoke to Mel. Before she could turn away, Mel shot her a steely look.
“Where’s Spencer?” Doug shouted. “I need Callie here too! We’re gonna start with the kiss!”
Jess reached her office and closed the door behind her. Shit, how had she ended up being the bad guy? And why hadn’t Mel told Doug about her taking Afric into the tunnel? Not to mention that the whole thing had been leaked online and now seemed much worse than it was!
“Places, everyone!” Doug called from the foyer.
Jess took a deep breath and pulled a set of noise-cancelling headphones out of her desk drawer.
Whatever game Mel was playing, she wished she’d leave her out of it.
The last thing she wanted was to be drawn into Doug and Mel’s apparently complicated relationship.
Not that she was in any position to start judging relationships, when all of hers had failed.
Great! Somewhere, the world’s smallest violin was playing at the Pity Party for one. All she needed to complete the little scene was chocolate. She opened the desk drawer again and found the KitKat she’d been saving.
Perfect.