The Catch Up, page 16
He was good, Jan allowed. Very good. He really didn’t need her there. However, she stood up and carefully thanked him and Alex for their contributions and Mr Donaldson for putting forward the concerns of the owners. “I will have the notes ready in a day or so and then address each question in turn.”
She smiled and looked round the room. Thom winked and gave a swift thumbs-up. Lois appeared bored and Sasha worried. Arietta looked amused and Moss had a poker face.
“Thank you all for coming. Any other questions?” There was silence.
Phew. “If you think of any, I’m available during working hours. Just ask at reception. Thank you.” She sat down and counted to ten under her breath. She had to say she would be around to help, but oh boy, she hoped no one took her up on it.
“Well done.” Zac grinned then wiped his smile off abruptly as Alex stood up and moved in front of him and Jan.
“That man is a menace. He cannot see what would be good for this place. I warn you now, I want a definite answer in two weeks or…” He left the rest of his sentence unsaid. “Goodnight.”
“Or?” Jan queried. “They pull out? That would solve a lot of problems, wouldn’t it?”
“And add a few more. Ah well, let’s go and eat. I see your fiancé approaching.”
“Well done.” Thom kissed Jan’s cheek and hefted her briefcase up. “This still weighs a ton. Arietta and Moss have headed home. She says she’ll see you tomorrow. She’ll bring lunch. Moss and I are supposed to be checking out where in them there hills would be a good place for us to hide in the series. If it ever gets made round here.” He knew he sounded doubtful. He was. “Luckily the permission to do that was straight forward. Zac gave it to us, it’s his land and not the cottage owners’. We had to sign stuff to make sure he’s not liable for anything and that we know where we’re going. We also had to state we are certain we won’t fall into or off anything nasty.” Even though Moss, as an ex-owner, probably knew the area better than anyone, he was, he said, not taking that responsibility on. “No idea how we can be sure of that but hey, we’ve signed. It’s Moss, me, Alex and a cameraman. If we bump into any local, so be it.”
“Probably be a poacher,” Zac said gloomily. “Be just my luck. Or someone after the salmon.”
“Cheerful, isn’t he?” Thom said. “Any more doom and gloom to put me off my dinner?”
Zac laughed, reluctantly it seemed. “Not at the moment. As long as whoever is pinching the salmon has left enough for me to have a legal go at when I can.”
“Fair enough.” Thom’s tummy rumbled and he put his hand over it and gave a comical grimace. “It must be dinnertime.”
“It is. I’ve booked the small dining room for us. A bit of privacy and oh-ho, here comes your octopus.”
“As long as we don’t shorten it to puss, because soft and purring she ain’t.” Jan moved swiftly and stood as close to Thom as she could.
Zac did the same thing on his other side. Thom smiled inwardly as he put the briefcase in front of him, and like a row of warriors they moved forward together.
Lois stopped a few yards away and scowled. She did a good line in scowls, Thom had to admit that. It was a pity it changed her from what was a very pretty person with good bone structure to one who appeared disgruntled, frowning, angry and unhappy with life. What must it be like to feel so—so jaded and dissatisfied all the time? Thom couldn’t imagine being someone who never even tried to see something positive in life. Unless her being positive showed as always expecting to get what she wanted and in her own way? He had no intention of finding out.
Thom, Jan and Zac stopped moving and Thom noticed all three of them, straight-faced, stared at her.
“Excuse us,” Zac said politely. “We would like to get by.”
Lois ignored him. “Thomas, I wish to dine with you. We have a lot to talk about.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Anything you wish to say can be discussed at another time. With witnesses.”
She stared, open-mouthed. “You wish to talk about our life in front of others?”
“Lois,” Thom answered, as even-toned as he could manage. He was holding onto his temper. Just. “We—we—do not have a life. Not a Thomas-and-Lois life. You know that and so do I. This harassment has got to stop. My fiancée and I are getting mighty sick of your attitude. It verges on stalking and if it doesn’t stop, I am not only going to explain to Alex and Sasha why I won’t be taking up the option to another contract, however successful the film appears to be, and whatever I think of the chance to be in an award-winning series but I will also contact the appropriate authorities about your behaviour. Do you understand?”
She blinked, opened her mouth and closed it. Then, slowly, she nodded. “You are making a great mistake which you will soon discover. I love you.”
“That sounds remarkably like a threat,” Zac said in a steely voice. “Which I have taken a note of. That sort of attitude is not condoned around here. Not at all. I suggest you rethink your recent behaviour, stop acting like a spoilt brat and grow up.”
Lois wheezed. A strange noise, Thom decided. One that was almost enough to make him feel sorry for her. Almost but not quite.
“I am not a spoilt brat,” she said in a choked voice. “It is you who are horrible and—” She broke off and turned away, her backless clogs clacking on the parquet floor as she walked. “You will regret it.”
“I wonder who that remark was directed at?” Thom said to no one in particular.
“All or any of us,” Jan replied and sighed. “I almost felt sorry for her. She really didn’t think that through, did she? I reckon she still thought she’d say jump, she loves you and you’d go how high and marry me.” She shook her head. “I’m guessing she’s never been told no before.”
“She thought wrongly,” Thom said, short and terse.
“Yeah. Wonder what next?” Zac drawled.
“We eat.” Thom deliberately chose to misunderstand. “Lead on, Zac.”
Zac inclined his head. “Our table awaits and we can even get there without going through the main restaurant. Comes in handy sometimes.”
This was no doubt one of those times, Thom thought, now fed up and exhausted. Somehow he doubted it was all over, but he could live in hope.
Jan tucked her arm through his, a gesture he loved.
“Come on Mr Wanted By All. You’ll feel better with some food in you.”
“I hope so. Sod the wanted by all, wanted by you is enough.” Thom flashed her a grateful smile as Jan chuckled.
“Always,” she said solemnly as they followed Zac into a comfortable dining room. Furnished more like a sitting room that just happened to have a dining table in it, it was elegant and welcoming. The settee and chairs grouped around the fire invited you to sit, sprawl or curl up. The glowing coals of the fire reminded him of how he could enjoy just watching them, make up pictures in the flames and dream.
How good it would be to sit next to a fire like that one, with Jan next to him. Discussing their day, making plans? To come home after a long day’s filming and be able to sit and relax with the one he loved.
The one I love. How do I persuade Jan I mean it? Truly mean it? Grow old together, share the highs and lows of life? He was afraid he might not be able to. Oh, she said she wanted him, but that wasn’t enough. Want was good, need was better.
Zac coughed and brought him out of his reverie. “Earth to Thomas.”
“Sorry, wool gathering,” he apologised. “Admiring the room.”
“You were in another world,” Jan teased. “Not here with us.”
“Not quite true,” Thom argued then grinned. “Okay, almost true. I love looking at a coal fire. It’s like a comfort blanket.”
“I remember,” Jan said. “But Zac wants to know if you’d like a drink before dinner or just one with our meal.” Her tummy growled and she bit her lip. “Oops, sorry.”
“I think that sort of answers the question,” Thom said with a grin. “Let’s eat.”
* * * *
Several hours later, they wandered back to Jan’s cottage, as Thom put it, stuffed to the gills. Their golf buggy was left to be picked up the following day on the grounds of too much alcohol—even though neither of them had had more than two small glasses—plus a need to walk some of the sticky toffee pudding and apple crumble cake off. As they reached the door, Jan slid the key from her pocket into Thom’s palm. “You open it.” She didn’t say why.
In the glow of the porch light, she watched as realisation hit him, and he gave the slightest of nods.
“That food was fabulous,” Jan remarked as Thom opened the door and stood back to let her precede him inside with an extravagant bow and a grin that made her giggle.
“My lady, our bed awaits.”
“My hero.”
Our bed? Once the door was shut, she turned to him and gave him a quizzical glance. “I didn’t see anyone around, but you never know. Did you?”
“No, but like you said. In case there was anyone in the area, who might, shall we say, be wondering if indeed we are sharing this cottage now, I saw the sense. Not that you aren’t capable of opening a door or anything but…”
“Yeah, but.” Jan wandered into the kitchen, shut the blinds—she’d not done so before they went out—hung her bag over the back of a chair and picked up the kettle. “Cuppa?”
Thom shook his head. “I’m fine, thanks. I’ll hang around a bit, though, if that’s okay with you?”
“I’d hope you would,” Jan said, and decided just to say what was on her mind. “Like a good twelve hours.”
Chapter Ten
“This is shit on a stick,” Thom said grimly to Moss as they clambered up the side of a hill, pushing their way through bushes and round trees of all shapes and sizes. “The not knowing what’s going to be the outcome I mean. It would be perfect if not for all the problems us being here could bring.”
Moss nodded grimly. “Yeah, and not just Lois-shaped ones. I’d not have been surprised to see her pop up disguised as a rowan tree or a clump of heather.”
Thom laughed as Moss’ droll comments and deadpan voice lightened the atmosphere. They’d been out in the extensive grounds of the castle, an area Moss knew like the back of his hand, for most of the day. He’d spent a lot of his youth playing there. The long day of walking, climbing and, if Thom were honest, swearing, was coming to an end. Thank goodness. He was certain his midge repellent was wearing off.
“That’s just great. I’ll examine every tree closely.”
The cameraman with them was an outdoor enthusiast, which Thom decided was just as well. Anyone less fit would have given up hours before. At lunchtime, or even earlier.
Thom and Moss jumped over a narrow stream and Alex, who up until then had gamely struggled on, took one look at the rushing water and rocks a few feet below him and declined.
“I’ll stay on this side,” he said. Pale and a little bit green, he shook his head. “You two are the tough guys.”
Thom nodded but didn’t speak. He glanced at Moss and saw the moment his friend also decided not to comment about the tough guys comment. He thought himself reasonably fit and strong, but that sentence referred to their characters in the film, not them.
The cameraman shrugged. “No need to go over, boss,” he said amiably. “They did it, that’s all that matters. Where next?”
Alex glanced at Moss. “You know the area, where next? A cave, didn’t you say?”
Moss nodded. “It’s just over this rise.” The rise was a good-sized hill. “Up and around that cluster of trees.” He waved his hand towards the crest of the hill. “You don’t need to jump here. Head up your side of the stream about a hundred yards or so and there’s a wee bridge. Used to be used by shepherds. Cross there. Then after the cave we go down away back to the castle.”
Thom waited for an argument. Alex had been determined to check out every place that could be used for filming—even when Moss told him there wasn’t enough time to do it all in one day. Now the man appeared thoughtful.
“A bridge, you said?” he asked slowly. “Then how long back to the castle?”
“’Bout an hour, hour and a half. From the cave.” Moss smiled evilly. “Take us ten, fifteen minutes to the cave.”
Thom bit back a grin. He was damn sure Moss wasn’t being honest there. Even he knew from his visits to Arietta and Moss you could get to the castle without climbing the hill first, and it would take thirty minutes, tops, from the cave, all downhill.
“Think we’ll give the cave a miss for today then,” Alex said. He turned to the cameraman. “I reckon once we’ve seen how hidden they are in that clump of stuff behind us we’ve got enough to see if this is feasible to use as well as the nearer areas.”
The cameraman, a tall lanky guy called Shuggie, nodded. “Aye, I reckon so, boss. I’ll sort it oot when we’re back.”
“Okay, that’s settled,” Alex said in a tone tinged with relief. “Nip into those bushes, both of you. Then lead the way back.”
Moss glanced at Thom and winked. “You’ll need to head up towards the bridge, cross it and head down this side of the stream. Then over that wee rise and you’ll see the castle. If Shuggie needs us to duck under a bush, we’ll do it while you get to us.”
Shuggie laughed. “Just walk through some and then that’ll do.”
“It better,” Moss said quietly to Thom as they watched Shuggie jump the stream and Alex struggle up to where the tiny bridge crossed the stream at a narrow and shallow area. “I’m pissed off with this. Do you think your fiancée can persuade anyone to compromise on anything?”
His fiancée? The word gave Thom a jolt. He’d forgotten that he’d have to remind Jan that Moss and Ari hadn’t been told the story behind the so-called engagement. But did he have to? Really? Couldn’t they make it official?
That gave him something else to think about.
“Oy, Tam, get on wi’ it.”
Thom jumped at Shuggie’s voice. Tam? He gave a mental shrug. It was better than some of the things he’d been called over the years.
“Sorry, Shug. I was wool gathering.”
“Well, dinnae.”
Thom waved his hand in apology and scowled at Moss, who grinned.
“Come on, Tam, let’s get it over and done with. Then we can get back. You to Lois dodge and me to be given the third degree by my ever-loving.”
“Why the third degree?” Thom asked, puzzled.
Moss rolled his eyes. “She’s a woman.”
“Sexist. Better not let her hear you.” Arietta would, in their mother’s words, have his guts for garters if she did.
“True. There’s no way I’d say that to her face, though. Put it this way, she’ll be interested to know what we think might happen, and when. Oh, and any more gen on the Lois situation combined with the you-and-Jan-engagement-when’s-the-wedding stuff.”
There was no answer to that.
* * * *
“Have you ever wondered why you?” Jan queried. She’d wondered about that on many occasions, but never voiced the question before. “After all, and no offence, surely she’s around a lot of men who are more…more… Oh, stop it.” She punched his shoulder and Thom spluttered his glass of wine all over his shirt.
“Serves you right,” Jan said. “I was going to say wealthy, richer, maybe more handsome—in her eyes anyway.”
“What a good get-out, my love,” Thom remarked once he had stopped spluttering. They were sitting in the lounge of Jan’s cottage with a well-needed glass of wine after what both of them called their day from hell. “Well saved. But yes, she must do, and no, I do not know why me. I’ve never been more than politely friendly, if you know what I mean. Shook hands when we were first introduced, treated her to a coffee and nothing more. No knowing looks or winks, no admiring her obvious assets no… Well, nothing. Now if I looked at her like I sometimes look at you…” He twirled an imaginary moustache. “That would be different.”
Jan threw a cushion at him, which he caught with annoying dexterity and hurled it back at her. She ducked and it hit the window with a dull thud.
“Oops. Dodgy aim.” Thom chuckled. “You need more practice.”
“Oops indeed. Children, really.” Arietta stood in the doorway and waved a set of keys in the air. “You left these in the lock. I let myself in.” She frowned. “Anybody could have walked in and pinched whatever.”
“Sorry, Mum,” Jan said in a silly singsong voice. “Blame Thom.” She accepted Arietta was correct, though. What if Lois had sneaked in and hidden somewhere? What if… Oh, enough. She’s not a bunny boiler. I hope. “He was last through the door, it’s his fault.”
Arietta grinned. “It usually is.”
Thom scowled. “You pair are ganging up on me.”
“Of course we are,” his sister assured him. “Friend power works best like that. Which is not why I’m here. I’m on a mission. We just wondered why Lois has told Moss that he might be your brother-in-law but she doesn’t have to listen to him. You’re the only one that matters and you’re in for a surprise.”
“What?” Jan and Thom said in unison.
“About what?” Thom added. “Why? And shit, does that mean she’s still not got the hint?”
“She must have, surely?” Jan said. “It was given clear enough and plenty of times. When did she say that to Moss?”
“This evening. Once he’d showered, glowered and muttered stuff about sodding films, why did he ever decide to be an actor and should we move to somewhere remote and lotus eat, Moss popped into the hotel to see if you were around, Jan, but Zac said you’d been working here. Moss was on his way out of the hotel when, in his words, she descended like a bat out of hell, informed him about not listening to him and stormed off. He rang me, asked me to meet him here, and here I am.”
