‘But I did, only…he doesn’t seem to be getting his messages the last few days.’
Travis judged it best to maintain a tactful silence. He’d known Lee for only a few weeks and disliked him. Selfish, self-centred, indifferent to everyone else was how he would have described him. In the short time Lee had been in Los Angeles he’d raised the roof with his ‘girly antics’ as they had become known.
But he wouldn’t say this to the young woman sitting beside him. There was no need. Clearly she was discovering it for herself.
‘Do you know him well?’ he asked.
‘We’ve acted together.’
‘You’re an actress?’
‘Not professionally. I work in a bank, but I do a lot of amateur acting. That’s how I met Lee.’
‘Hey, now I remember. There was a story in the papers-he hadn’t had a job in a while, so he did some amateur stuff and an agent saw him.’
‘That’s right.’ Charlene showed him the photograph. ‘That’s us.’
‘What was the play?’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘Lee played Shakespeare?’
‘He was very good,’ she said defensively. ‘He was Demetrius, I was Helena.’
And Helena spent most of the play pursuing Demetrius, begging to know why he no longer loved her. Travis studied the picture, noticing the passionate adoration in her face and the impatience in his. How much of it was acting? Not much, he guessed, drawing on his knowledge of Lee.
He glanced at her. She was tall, with dark, straight hair, flowing casually over her shoulders. Not a beauty. Not even pretty in the strictest sense. Her features were regular but there was a slight touch of severity about her face that might warn people off, just at first, although it faded when she smiled, brightening her large dark eyes.
Intriguing, he thought. She didn’t flaunt everything on the surface, but perhaps she might lure a man along a fascinating path of discovery. Or maybe not. Who could say? But she was exactly the kind of woman he doubted that Lee bothered with for long.
He knew a twinge of pity. He had an uneasy feeling that she was facing heartbreak.
A shadow appeared in the doorway and a woman strode in, looking around frantically.
‘Oh, goodness!’ Charlene said. ‘I got in as part of a studio tour, and that’s the leader, looking for me.’
The woman bore down on them, uttering words of concern and disapproval.
‘I’m afraid it’s my fault,’ Travis said at once. ‘Charlene is an old friend of mine and when I saw her here I persuaded her to spend the day with me.’ He smiled at Charlene. ‘You should have told me you were coming and I’d have rolled out the red carpet.’
‘I didn’t want to be a trouble,’ she said, falling into character.
‘You’re never a trouble to me.’ He turned back to the leader. ‘You can safely leave her in my care.’
He accompanied the words with his warmest look and the leader melted.
‘Oh, well…in that case I’ll leave you to it.’ She departed, but not before giving him a mystified look over her shoulder.
‘You see?’ Travis said to Charlene. ‘No problem.’
‘That was an incredible performance,’ she said. ‘You really fooled her. Thank you so much. And I won’t be a nuisance. I’ll go now.’
‘No way. You just heard me say you were spending the day with me, so that’s what you have to do.’ He dropped his voice to a theatrical undertone. ‘If you flee my company it looks bad. People will think I’m losing my touch.’
‘And we can’t have them thinking that,’ she agreed.
‘Right. Now it’s time we went to the rehearsal.’
‘We? Am I allowed?’
‘You were going to go with the group.’
‘Yes, but will they let me in on my own?’
‘You won’t be on your own. You’re my guest, and you can do anything I say.’
He drew her to her feet, then crooked his arm for her to take.
‘Time for our entrance,’ he said.
CHAPTER TWO
WHEN they entered the rehearsal room the director raised his eyebrows, but a smile from Travis and his arm around Charlene’s shoulder evidently answered all questions.
He saw her comfortably seated and flicked open the script. ‘Which scene is it this morning?’
‘The one where you try to talk Myra out of being in love with Dr. Baker,’ the director said, ‘and Baker overhears you-if those two would only turn up-ah, Lee, Penny, there you are!’
Charlene stiffened as Lee appeared in the doorway, with the girl she’d seen him with earlier. She turned her head but not quickly enough.
Lee had seen her.
He’d recognised her.
She tried to interpret his stunned look as pleasure. Now he would hurry across the floor to greet her.
But he stayed where he was, confused, troubled. Not delighted.
‘Right, Lee,’ the director said, ‘we’ll have a camera on you, to get a reaction shot. Travis, start at, “You should forget Dr Baker.”’
They took their places and Travis began.
‘You should forget Dr Baker. I know he’s incredibly handsome, but looks don’t really matter. Try to believe me. A man’s face is the least of him.’
‘Oh, they do matter, Dr Harrison, truly they do.’ Penny sighed. ‘He’s so attractive that I can’t help loving him.’
‘But is he generous, affectionate, honest? Will he always put you first?’
‘You mean is he dull and reliable?’ she challenged.
Dr Harrison took her hands in his and spoke with feeling. ‘I promise you, when you come to marry, dull and reliable is the best.’
‘Fine,’ the director said. ‘Lee, you should try to look as though you’ve just had a terrible shock.’
The actress called Penny gave Travis a look of laughing camaraderie. ‘“Dull and reliable is the best,”’ she teased. ‘You sounded like you believed that nonsense.’
‘I’m an actor,’ Travis protested. ‘I’m supposed to talk nonsense convincingly.’ He grinned. ‘However little I believe it.’
‘Well nobody ever accused you of being dull and reliable. That picture-’
‘You didn’t see it,’ he said hastily. ‘There’s no picture.’
‘If you say so.’
They rehearsed the scene several more times. Never once did Lee look in Charlene’s direction, and perhaps Travis realised this too, because when there was a break he went over to him. Charlene couldn’t hear what they said but she saw him take Lee’s arm and draw him towards her. She noticed, too, the uneasy glance he gave Penny.
As Lee sat down next to her he managed a polite smile, but his words brought a chill to her heart.
‘Fancy seeing you again.’
‘Why do you sound surprised? I’ve been sending you texts-’
‘My cellphone needs repair. Never mind. It’s great to see you again. What are you doing here? Did you come to see Travis? I hear you’re an old friend of his.
The last words were called to Penny, who was standing by the door, signalling him and mouthing a word that looked like
