The Girl with the Irish Secret (Magnolia Manor #3)

Chapter 1

1

The waiting room was, as always, chilly. Vi wrapped her legs around each other and zipped up her short down jacket as she sat on the hard chair. She looked at the receptionist, trying to gauge how long she would have to sit there before she was asked to go in to the office. The woman was dressed in what looked like several layers of cashmere. She was busy peering at the screen of her computer and kept typing, not seeming to notice Vi’s discomfort. Well, all those sweaters had to keep her warm, Vi mused as she tried to think of something cheery while she waited. But all she could do was to go through all the frustrations of the past few months.

Her acting career, which had seemed so promising, had stalled. She was beginning to wonder if she shouldn’t consider giving up altogether. But she had worked so hard to get even where she was today: a working actress in Ireland, the kind who was cast in small productions and local plays, but who was always the second lead, the heroine’s best friend or sister. Then there were the historical dramas where she played the serving wench in medieval costume with a dirty face and blackened teeth. It felt like being always the bridesmaid, never the bride, and she was sick of it. She was about to turn thirty and felt that she had somehow missed that breakthrough that was supposed to happen just out of drama school.

Her agent, in whose office she was waiting, kept saying she would soon get that big part, but nothing much had happened yet and now Vi was quite sure it never would. The acting world was fickle; what if she was seen as too old soon? Vi wondered if it wouldn’t be better to give up acting altogether if she kept getting mediocre parts. It was tempting as it sometimes felt as if she was running up a very steep hill never to reach the top. She decided to tell Hugh what was going through her mind when he was finally free to see her. She was wondering what was keeping him. He was usually so punctual and correct.

The secretary was still busy at her computer and Vi considered leaving when the phone on the desk rang. After a brief conversation, the woman looked at Vi as if she had just noticed her.

‘Violet Fleury?’ she asked.

Vi shot up from her chair. ‘Yes, that’s me. Can I go in?’

The woman nodded. ‘Yes. Hugh will see you now. He’s just been on the phone to LA. Long conversation,’ she added. ‘But he says he wants to talk to you.’ She smiled apologetically. ‘Sorry, I haven’t been here long so I don’t know all of Hugh’s clients yet. My name is Fiona, by the way.’

‘Hi, Fiona,’ Vi said as she walked to the door into the main office. ‘I hope you’ll like your new job.’

‘I will if they fix the heating in this building,’ Fiona replied. ‘But these old Victorian piles are often freezing anyway. I seem to be wearing all the woollies I own today.’

‘I know how you feel,’ Vi said. ‘I should have put on my thermals instead of these leggings.’

‘You’re right. Oh, I wish I could go to LA to work instead of sitting here in dreary London,’ Fiona said with a sigh. ‘The weather has to be better in California.’

‘Yes, it is. But I prefer being over here. I’ve heard LA isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.’ Vi opened the door to the main office. ‘See you later.’

‘Good luck,’ Fiona said before she turned back to her screen.

Vi walked into the large office which was a lot warmer than the reception area. The thick carpet muffled her footsteps and the man at the big mahogany desk was busy looking at his phone and didn’t see her until the door closed behind her. Then he looked up and smiled.

‘Vi. Hello. Come in and sit down. Sorry to have kept you waiting, but I wanted to get all the details before I spoke to you.’

‘What kind of details?’ Vi asked, sinking down into a leather armchair opposite Hugh. He was in his early sixties with balding fair hair and kind eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses. Vi had known him since she had graduated from acting school nearly ten years ago when he had landed her a part in a romantic comedy shot in Scotland. She had stayed with his agency because he always got her parts, even if they were often small. She’d heard a lot of bad stories about agencies dropping their clients, but Hugh was loyal to her. He was her friend.

‘I’ll get to that in a moment.’ Hugh looked at Vi and smiled. ‘I have bad news and good news.’

‘Let me have the bad news first.’

‘Okay.’ Hugh looked serious again. ‘You didn’t get the movie you went for, sorry. But that was a good thing, actually.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I was just on the phone with Liz Wall of Wall it had affected her earlier auditions, when casting directors had been dismissive of her she’d found it hard to stay quiet. ‘Or I’ll try my best. Thanks for this chance, though, Hugh. You’re a brick.’ She blew him a kiss at the door and then walked out of the room, practically running to the ladies’ toilet. ‘Got to go and freshen up,’ she said to Fiona, who was still typing away at her laptop. ‘Important interview in a minute.’

‘Break a leg,’ Fiona shouted after her.

‘That’s what Hugh just said,’ Vi remarked with a nervous laugh. ‘I hope that won’t jinx it.’

‘If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen, my granny used to say,’ Fiona called after Vi as she raced to the ladies’.

‘I hope it is,’ Vi shouted back.

Once inside, Vi walked to the mirror and stared at herself. ‘Jack Montgomery,’ she said. ‘I’m going to work with Jack Montgomery. If I get the part. How am I going to get him to like me?’ She pinched her cheeks and tried a smile, tossing back her red hair that hung like a heavy curtain to the middle of her back. ‘Be myself,’ she said to her image. ‘That’s harder than being Lady Macbeth.’ Her huge green eyes stared back at her with defiance and also a touch of fear. If I don’t get this part, I’m giving up acting , she promised herself as she touched up her lips with bright red lipstick which accentuated her fair complexion and made her freckles stand out. Then she took a step back and nodded to herself. ‘There. Very nineteen fifties. The typical girl from the Emerald Isle, that’s me. Who could do that better? Nobody, that’s who.’

Feeling a lot more positive, Vi walked down the stairs and out of the building, marching up the street with a mixture of determination and fear.

As the traffic rumbled up the street, Vi tried her best to boost her confidence. She desperately wanted this part, but the fact that it was going to be filmed at Magnolia Manor was making her feel nervous. Her sisters, Lily and Rose, might not like to see Vi arrive at the house with a film crew. Not after the bitter row last year.

Why did it have to happen? Vi thought. We were so close – until that awful row which wasn’t really my fault. We must try to make peace with each other. Maybe this is a chance for us to be sisters again like we used to. She longed to have that close connection with them again, which had felt like a solid wall of support, just like in boarding school when her older sisters had defended her if anyone tried to bully her. But now that wall had crumbled and she didn’t know how to build it up again.

Vi couldn’t help but think about all the things she had sacrificed for her career. Her love life, her friendships, a steady income… and recently her family. The long nights and unreliable schedules had got in the way of most of her relationships. And other actors didn’t tend to warm to her.

But she forced herself to shake off her concerns as she arrived at the building where the London office of the film company was housed. This was her last chance. And perhaps it was an opportunity to mend things with her sisters and show them it was all worth it: she was getting somewhere. She pressed the button beside the intercom and said her name when prompted. Then she pushed open the heavy door and entered the building, mentally steeling herself for the ordeal that was to come: facing a bunch of film people and trying to act natural. Especially to Jack Montgomery.