False Money by Veronica Heley

Author:Veronica Heley
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd
Published: 2010-10-31T23:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Thursday evening

Bea walked in on a scene of chaos. Had she been descended upon by a crowd of locusts? Every seat in the sitting room was occupied, every inch of table space covered with sheets of paper. There were empty and half empty mugs of coffee everywhere, crumbs from biscuits on the carpet and a pair of trainers, untenanted, just inside the door.

It occurred to her that if she were to continue housing her two young assistants, they must be provided with their own sitting room, preferably soundproof. Tomorrow morning first thing she would investigate how to turn the large junk room in the eaves over to youth.

Her arrival caused heads to turn.

‘Oh, sorry!’ said a scratty looking youth, removing the trainers and stuffing his feet back into them. ‘I think better with bare feet.’

‘Um?’ said Oliver, who was lying prone on the floor for some reason. Scrutinizing a script? ‘You’re back, then?’

‘Sorry,’ said Maggie, trying to sweep the papers on the table into a manageable pile. ‘The kitchen table wasn’t big enough.’

Chris got to his feet, with one of his most charming grins. ‘We were trying to work on a storyboard. Hermia’s a genius, but she’s also a slave driver.’ Bea looked hard at him and realized he knew nothing about lottery wins, nor that Hermia was – on paper at least – a millionairess.

Hermia had been standing at the back window, staring up at the picture of Bea’s husband, but now returned to where she’d left her laptop open on the settee. She’d fluffed out her hair and was wearing a touch of blusher as well as lipstick today.

A girl with blazing red hair and high cheekbones had a sketch pad on her knee and was working on it with a soft pencil. Not an actress, but an artist, sketching in possible backgrounds?

Hermia was playing at being a film producer. ‘So sorry, Mrs Abbot. We have rather taken over, haven’t we?’

Bea wanted to hit Hermia, but refrained. There were other people in the room who hadn’t been introduced, but the two women might have been alone. Messages passed from one to the other.

Hermia communicated, without words, that she’d staked her claim to work on Chris’s next film.

Also without words, Bea made it clear to Hermia that she was not a happy bunny at this invasion of her territory, and that she objected to Hermia’s taking Chris over.

Bea smiled at everyone. ‘Carry on, children. Don’t worry about me. I’m for a cup of cocoa and early bed. Hermia; a word?’

Hermia snapped off her laptop and followed Bea out to the kitchen.

What Bea wanted to ask Hermia was whether she was serious about Chris or not, but she didn’t. Hermia would tell her to take a running jump. Politely, of course.

Bea opened fire from a different angle. ‘CJ and I have just been talking to Duncan. He’s told us all about the lottery. I understand you gave your permission for us to see what we could do to help.’

Hermia was wearing brown and cream, a cowl-necked jumper over well-cut trousers; cashmere and silk.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.