The Perfect Hero: The perfect summer read for Austen addicts!. Victoria Connelly

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Kay blinked her tears away and then waved her hand in front of her face. ‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about me. I didn’t mean to be miserable. You shouldn’t be sitting here, listening to me wittering on. You should be down at the pub with the others.’

      Gemma shook her head. ‘I’m not into all that. They’ll all be drinking too much and bitching about the business. It’s not me.’

      ‘No,’ Kay said, ‘it wouldn’t be me either. I’d rather curl up with a good book.’ She picked up her copy of Persuasion and showed Gemma.

      ‘You’re reading Persuasion?’

      ‘It’s one of my favourites. It’s why I chose to move here.’

      ‘And then the whole cast descended on you!’

      They sat quietly for a moment, sipping their tea.

      ‘Well,’ Gemma said at last, ‘thanks for the tea. I think I’ll go and do a bit of swotting.’

      Kay looked quizzical.

      ‘It’s what Beth calls learning your lines,’ Gemma explained. ‘She’s always teasing me that I’m swotting again but I can’t help it. I need things fresh in my mind.’

      Kay smiled and watched as Gemma left the room. She was one of the sweetest people Kay had ever met and she was going to make a wonderful Anne Elliot, she thought.

      Suddenly, Kay got very excited at the thought of being able to watch some of the scenes being filmed. She had a front row view of the Cobb for a start and she wondered if Teresa would let her get even closer whilst they were filming. Maybe she’d be asked to be an extra! Or maybe nasty Beth would twist her ankle during the scene on the Cobb steps and Kay would stand in for her, doing such an amazing piece of acting that Teresa would be completely bowled over and recast Kay as Louisa Musgrove. And, during that wonderful scene where Louisa jumps down the steps into Captain Wentworth’s arms, she’d look deep into the blue eyes of Oli Wade Owen and he’d fall madly in love with her.

      It would be a small wedding with six hundred guests, Kay thought, and a few helicopters from rival magazines flying overhead trying to get a shot of Oli’s bride. They’d become media darlings – their every move photographed.

      She shook her head. It was so easy to get carried away and daydream – it was one of the little quirks from her childhood that had followed her into her adult life and she knew she really had to learn how to control it because daydreams, as harmless as they might seem, had a way of disappointing the daydreamer by not coming true. Kay was just an ordinary young woman running a bed and breakfast and Oli Wade Owen was never going to pay her the slightest bit of attention, was he?

       Chapter Nine

      As predicted, the cast and crew came home only once they’d been chucked out of the pub. Kay heard them halfway down Marine Parade from her bedroom and was sure she could hear Beth Jenkins singing. Well, screeching really. It wasn’t melodious enough to be called singing.

      There was a banging and a scratching at the front door as somebody tried to get it open and then it sounded as if everybody was trying to get in all at once. Kay giggled as she opened her bedroom door and dared to peep over the stairs.

      ‘Shusssssshhhh!’ Sophie was whispering. ‘You shusssshhhhh!’ Beth retorted, stumbling up the first stair.

      ‘You always have to overdo things, Beth. That’s your problem.’

      ‘Don’t you tell me what my problem is!’ Beth said. ‘My problem is you!’ she said, poking a finger into Sophie’s chest.

      ‘Yeah? Well my problem is you!’ Sophie said in response.

      ‘Ladies, ladies!’ Oli cut in. ‘We can’t have the Musgrove sisters at war with each other now, can we?’

      Kay watched as they all came tripping up the stairs. Beth’s face was bright red and she had a naughty gleam in her eye. Oli’s blond hair was tousled as if somebody had been ruffling it – Beth, probably, Kay thought. Teresa’s eyes were almost completely shut as if her mind was already in bed and only her body had to catch up. Then Les brought up the rear with Sophie. He looked as morose as ever, his face sullen and sunken as if it had been sat on. Sophie was the only one who looked relatively normal. Her face looked a little flushed but she was smiling and managing the stairs better than any of the others.

      ‘Night!’ she said when she reached the top.

      Beth shoved a hand in the air by way of response and fell into her bedroom.

      ‘Goodnight, my sweet princesses,’ Oli said before disappearing into his own room. The others did likewise and Kay quietly closed her own door.

      For a moment, she stood perfectly still wondering, once again, if she’d imagined the whole thing.

      ‘Where’s my hairdryer?’ a voice suddenly bellowed into the corridor. It was Beth Jenkins’s voice.

      No, Kay thought, she hadn’t imagined it. There really were several film stars staying in her home.

      ‘Sophie? Have you got my hairdryer?’

      ‘No, I haven’t got your poxy hairdryer. Keep your voice down. Gemma’s trying to sleep in here.’

      Beth slammed her bedroom door and all was quiet again. Kay giggled. This was just too strange. Just a couple of doors away, Oli Wade Owen would be getting ready for bed. Kay got into her own bed. She must stop thinking about him but it was so hard to ignore somebody who had crossed her threshold with the true panache of a Jane Austen hero and, as she closed her eyes that night, Kay didn’t dream about Mr Darcy but Oli Wade Owen.

      * * *

      Making breakfast for six people was a novelty for Kay but not one that she wasn’t enjoying. Sophie had been the first one up, looking bright-eyed and eager to throw herself into the day ahead even though it was only six in the morning. Which was more than could be said for Beth who entered the dining room with her eyes half-closed.

      ‘Good morning, bright eyes!’ Sophie chirped. ‘And how are you this morning?’

      ‘Shut up, Soph!’ Beth groaned as she pulled out a chair at the dining table and sat down. ‘Oh, my head. Who bought me all those drinks?’

      ‘You did!’ Sophie told her with a bright laugh.

      ‘Don’t laugh. Don’t say anything. It’s too painful.’

      ‘You’d better smarten yourself up before Teresa makes an appearance,’ Sophie warned her. ‘You know what she’s like.’

      ‘Oh, God! If she tells me to wake up and shake up, I’ll scream,’ Beth said.

      As Kay placed two pots of coffee on the table she watched as Teresa and Les walked in together.

      ‘Good morning,’ Teresa said. ‘Good God, Beth! What happened to you?’

      ‘Nothing. I’m fine,’ Beth lied, wincing at the sound of her own voice.

      ‘You look appalling. СКАЧАТЬ