Chapter 9
9
Esme had taken the following Tuesday off work and had a fun day planned. First she would take the bus into Inverness to go shopping for the last bits for her new room, then she was going to start packing up the things from her room at home that she wanted to take with her to Garden Cottage. Following all that, the evening would see the first Romeo and Juliet rehearsal of a fairly gruelling three evenings a week for the foreseeable future.
It seemed that Sylvia had acquired friends in high places as she had miraculously secured a room at the Eden Court theatre for their rehearsals going forward, and there had even been talk of them using one of the stages at the place to put on the play in the late spring or early summer, depending on how things went. Esme couldn’t quite believe that she could soon be treading the boards at the theatre she had visited as a child. It was all a little surreal but probably the closest thing to achieving her childhood dream that was ever likely to happen.
She stepped off the bus in Inverness and was happy to see that the sun had made an appearance into what had started off as a dull and damp day. She walked through the doors of the first charity shop and made a beeline for the bedroom furniture. The first thing she spotted, as if a spotlight shone down on it just for her, was a stunning old brass double bedstead that reminded her of the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks that she had watched a couple of times at Christmas as a child. The bed wasn’t to everyone’s taste admittedly, but to Esme it was just what she wanted, fitting perfectly into the ‘cottagecore’ aesthetic she had planned. She checked all around it for a sold sticker and when she couldn’t find one she couldn’t believe her luck. She was so giddy she was tempted to do cartwheels along the aisle but managed to curb her excitement and instead she hurried to the cash desk to enquire about it before anyone could beat her to it.
The woman behind the counter, wearing a navy-blue polo shirt and gilet emblazoned with the Salvation Army logo, smiled when Esme told her what she was after. ‘Well, I never. This must be one of those strange, kismetty, meant to be occasions you hear about,’ the short, dark-haired woman said with a disbelieving shake of her head. ‘We had sold it, but the buyer rang when we opened today to say they had changed their mind.’
Esme widened her eyes. ‘Oh, my word, that’s amazing. I’m so glad they decided they didn’t want it because it’s absolutely perfect for me.’ After she had paid for, and arranged delivery of, the bed for later in the week, she wandered around the rest of the shop with a trolley, adding things she liked. It was so exciting to be buying things for her new place even if it wasn’t entirely her own.
On Olivia’s advice, she had checked out the website of her best friend, and very first PA, Bella Douglas. Bella had relocated with her Granny Isla to move in with her boyfriend and was now working as an interior designer based at her home on the Isle of Skye. As Olivia had suggested, the website was filled with tons of inspiration.
Using the ideas from one of Bella’s blogs titled The Thrifted Home , Esme selected some lovely pieces to purchase: a tiffany-style lamp – obviously a copy though – with a green and cream glass shade and a brass base, a couple of gold picture frames, a patchwork quilt in varying shades of green, some pretty China mugs, a set of white dinner plates, and a pretty old painting of a highland glen carpeted with heather that reminded her of holidays she’d had with her mum and dad. At another charity shop in the city, she found a wicker bedside table and a couple more pictures. She was getting more excited by the minute and couldn’t wait to pull it all together.
When she arrived home, her dad helped her unload the taxi and then she was greeted by a very excited pug.
‘Have you missed me? I haven’t been gone that long,’ Esme said as she crouched to scoop up her little dog. ‘Guess who has got a new bed for the new place?’ she asked in a high-pitched voice that made Betty wriggle with excitement. ‘You have! It’s like a little sofa and it’s all for you. Yes, it is.’
‘You’ve bought her a sofa?’ her mum asked, a glimmer of amusement in her eyes.
‘It’s so cute, Mum. It’s the same green as the bedding I bought for my bed, and it looks so comfy. She’s going to love it.’
Her mum laughed and shook her head. ‘That dog is spoiled rotten. Anyway, come on, I’ve made an early dinner so you’re not late for your first rehearsal.’
They sat at the kitchen table and Betty curled up on Esme’s feet. The spicy aroma of her mum’s signature dish, slow cooker chicken curry, filled her senses and her stomach growled.
As they ate, Esme told them about the brass bed and that all she needed now was a mattress. Her dad told her, ‘Me and your ma have been talking and we’ve decided we’d like to get you a new mattress. We were going to get you a bed frame too but seeing as that’s sorted we’ll get you a rug for your new place.’
‘Oh, that’s so lovely, thank you but you don’t have to do that, honestly.’
Her mum reached out and squeezed her arm. ‘No, we want to, sweetheart. Sleep is so important, and we’d prefer you to have a good one. And I think you may struggle to find a rug at a charity shop that will go with your scheme so have a look online and find something you like. Our treat.’
Esme’s stomach flipped with excitement. Her mum was coming around and that was all she had wanted.
* * *
At seven o’clock that evening, Esme and Parker walked into the rehearsal space that Sylvia had arranged for them. It wasn’t a huge room but there was a proper stage at one end and tiered seating for around fifty people. Esme’s heart felt as though it was trying to escape from her body and return back home. It was a nervous excitement though, not one born of fear. The rest of the cast were already there, that is, apart from Bryce.
‘Good evening, all, let’s get started, shall we?’ Sylvia’s voice bellowed out from the low stage. ‘Now we have a little issue in that Bryce has poisoned himself with some out-of-date salmon.’ She rolled her eyes in evident exasperation. ‘The timing couldn’t have been much worse. He’s under strict instructions to check the use-by dates on things before he consumes them from now on. Anyway, this means that, just for this evening, I shall be reading Romeo.’
‘Or I could stand in, Aunty Syl,’ came a voice from the back of the room.
Sylvia spun around. ‘Charlie! My dear, dear boy! How marvellous to see you! I didn’t think you’d have the time!’
Esme and everyone turned around to see the owner of the voice and a collective gasp traversed the group. Esme widened her eyes and Parker gripped her arm, giving it a hard squeeze.
‘She wasn’t lying after all about her famous nephew,’ Parker hissed.
Confusion boggled Esme’s mind. Charlie? Why is she calling him Charlie? His name is Zachary Marchand.
‘My dears, I would like to finally introduce you to my wonderfully talented nephew, Charles Zachariah MacNab!’ She began to applaud and after a split second of stunned silence everyone else joined in.
Okay, that doesn’t really explain anything.
‘Now you will all no doubt know Charlie by his stage name Zachary Marchand, which is made up of his middle name and his mother’s maiden name, but to me he is my younger brother Angus’s son, whom I have always affectionately known as Charlie Chuckles.’
A rumble of laughter travelled the group this time and Zach crumpled his brow and covered his face in embarrassment. ‘Come on, Aunty Syl, don’t go giving away all my secrets. Leave me a wee bit of mystery.’
Sylvia walked across the room to hug her nephew. ‘I genuinely wasn’t expecting you to show up when I invited you, but I’m so glad you have. This is a special treat.’
Zach hugged her back tightly. ‘How could I turn down an offer of watching Romeo and Juliet taking shape? And to have the opportunity to play Romeo again, even if it’s just for one night, well, I can’t pass that up.’
Sylvia led Zach over to Esme, a wide, beaming smile across her face. ‘Esmerelda, my dear, meet your one-night-only Romeo.’
Zach’s eyes locked on Esme’s, and his face flushed the deep pink of what Esme guessed to be awkwardness. ‘Esme. Hi. It’s so good to see you again.’ He held out his hand.
‘Hi, Zach,’ she said, and as she slipped her hand into his, a shiver travelled her spine. ‘Good to see you too.’ She felt her own cheeks warming.
Sylvia clapped. ‘So, you have met! I did wonder with you working at the castle, Esme, but of course my lips were sealed about my nephew’s identity. I’m not one to hang on the coat-tails of my nephew’s fame.’
‘Yeah, Esme helped me rehearse my lines one day when I was struggling,’ Zach said without taking his gaze from hers.
Sylvia put an arm around them both and gave them a squeeze. ‘Wonderful, wonderful! And now you can return the favour. Right, let’s begin! Places, everyone!’
Halfway through the rehearsal, Sylvia called for a coffee break, and everyone began to disperse into the corridor where there were vending machines. ‘Just a short one, my dears! We have plenty to get through this evening!’
Parker walked over to stand by Esme. ‘You didn’t tell me you’d been helping him with his lines,’ he whispered. ‘You dark horse.’
Esme shrugged. ‘It was no big deal.’
Parker gasped and placed a hand on his chest. ‘No big deal? How can you say that? No big deal indeed. It’s a very big deal, Esmerelda Cassidy. It’s the deal of all deals. In fact, it’s the deal of the decade. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.’
Before she could explain herself further, Zach appeared in front of them. He cleared his throat and shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. ‘Ahem, Esme, could I have a quick word?’
Parker stared for a moment until he realised Zach meant a private word. He gestured to the door. ‘I’ll go and get a hot body…’ His eyes widened in shock and he placed a hand on each side of his own face. ‘Shit, I mean a hot chocolate . Hot chocolate is what I’ll be getting. From the vending machine where the d-drinks are,’ he stuttered and dashed for the door and Esme watched him with a smirk.
She turned her attention to Zach. ‘So, how come you don’t go by your actual name? That was so confusing,’ she blurted.
‘Ah that, yeah, it’s to do with SAG-AFTRA,’ he replied as if it was common knowledge.
She narrowed her eyes. ‘With a what now?’
‘Sorry, it’s an acronym for Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The rule is that you can’t register with a name that’s similar or the same as another registered actor. There was already an American actor called Charlie MacNab so I had to come up with something new.’
Esme raised her eyebrows. ‘Oh! That seems a bit mean, making you change your name like that.’
He shrugged. ‘It is what it is and I don’t really mind. It means I get to pretend to be someone else even when I’m not acting.’ He chuckled.
She shook her head. ‘Anyway, sorry, you wanted to talk to me?’ she asked, trying her best to appear nonchalant and to remember Judd’s words, ‘ We’re all human .’
Zach fixed her with those delicious dark brown eyes. ‘Look, I owe you a huge apology.’
Esme feigned ignorance and gave a shake of her head. ‘For what?’
‘For asking you to help me with my lines and then not showing up.’
Esme brushed invisible lint from her sleeve. ‘Oh, that, it’s no problem. Don’t worry.’ She added a shrug for good measure.
‘No, Esme, it wasn’t nice of me to not turn up like that. And I’m really sorry. The thing is…’ He rubbed his chin. ‘The thing is Lucille is still jealous when I talk to other women. So when I mentioned I was meeting someone called Esme to run lines she decided we needed to practise a scene that she was apparently having trouble with. Utter rubbish. She doesn’t have trouble with scenes. She doesn’t want me, but doesn’t want anyone else to have me either.’
Esme scoffed. ‘But I don’t have you. We met briefly for one lunchtime. It hardly constitutes an affair, does it?’ Whoops, that sounded catty and rather bitter. Rein it in, Cassidy . ‘What I mean is she has nothing to be jealous about. It was just lines.’
He pulled his lips into a line and nodded. ‘You’re right. I know. And I shouldn’t even care what she thinks any more but she’s a horror to work with if she’s not getting her own way and we end up bickering and then scenes take twice as long. So, I just take the easy route. Just while we’re filming. Then afterwards we can get back to avoiding each other like the plague.’
Esme raised her eyebrows. ‘Sounds like a good plan.’
‘Anyway. I wanted to tell you that I enjoyed running lines with you. And… I have to say, I’m very impressed with your Shakespeare. There aren’t many people without training who get the gist of it right away with the language being so complicated, but you…’
Esme scowled. ‘A mere PA? Is that what you were going to say?’ She gave a wry smile.
His eyes widened and he held up his hands. ‘God, no, not at all, I just meant Shakespeare is notoriously hard to grasp even for trained actors so to be as good at it as you are with no training is pretty incredible.’
Esme cringed. ‘I’m not technically untrained. The truth is I was offered a place at the Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow but… I couldn’t accept it… for… personal reasons that I won’t go into.’
Zach shook his head and narrowed his eyes in what appeared to be disbelief. ‘You turned down a place at the Conservatoire? Seriously?’
She nodded. ‘Seriously. Crazy, I know. And although I love my job at Drumblair, I do sometimes wonder what might have happened if I’d accepted it. But hey-ho, too late to be regretting it now.’
‘Hey, it’s never too late. You could always get back into acting properly. Not that this isn’t proper acting but… well, you get what I mean. You really do have talent.’
Esme tucked her hair behind her ear and glanced at the floor, finding it difficult to accept a compliment from someone so well known for his own talent. ‘That’s very kind of you but I’m okay with my life as it is.’
‘But you could have so much more.’
Esme shrugged. ‘I’m grateful for what I do have. I know it probably seems a bit boring to someone like you but?—’
Zach’s eyes widened. ‘No, that’s not what I…’ People began filtering back into the room again. Zach rubbed his hands over his hair and lowered his voice. ‘You’ve got me wrong. I didn’t mean?—’
Sylvia clapped her hands, cutting him off. ‘Right, everyone, let’s continue! You’ll have plenty of time for chatting after rehearsal. Come along!’ Everyone quickly took their positions once more.
* * *
At the end of the evening, Zach’s security guard appeared at the doorway and stood there in his black clothing looking like a night club bouncer, with a serious expression on his face and his bulky arms folded across his broad chest. He was a giant of a man, and not someone you would want to meet in a dark alleyway, not least because you’d never be able to pass him; he was almost as wide as he was tall.
‘Thank you for your efforts this evening, everyone. Please get learning those lines though. The sooner we can get down to acting rather than reading from the script the better. And I hope you will all join me in saying a huge thank you to our special guest. I’m sure you’ll all agree that he is the epitome of Romeo.’ Sylvia began to clap and this time everyone quickly joined in with the applause.
As some people left, other members of the drama group gathered around Zach to shake his hand. He signed scripts and t-shirts and posed for selfies.
‘Oh, to be so adored,’ Parker said as he joined Esme. ‘I think the only time I feel that amount of adoration is when I get home to Gladys.’
‘What about Benoit? He adores you, doesn’t he?’ Esme asked.
‘He does but sadly I don’t see him as often as I would like so I have to cuddle my grumpy chihuahua.’ He began to chuckle. ‘That sounds like a euphemism.’
They stood and watched as Zach said his goodbyes and headed for the door. As he reached his security guard, he glanced back over his shoulder and gave Esme a sad smile that she wasn’t sure how to interpret.