Twelve Days in May by Niamh Hargan

Author:Niamh Hargan [Hargan, Niamh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2022-03-23T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

The first priority, of course, is what to wear. Not in order to make a splash or to make heads turn – Lizzy’s goals are much more modest. Blend in, look appropriate. That’s it.

Every year, she brings one sort-of-fancy dress to Cannes, just in case. It’s midnight blue, falling to just above her ankles in swishy narrow pleats. Gold beading and sequins are dotted delicately from waist to throat, then encrusted, in more dramatic fashion, across the shoulders and down to elbow-length sleeves. Lizzy brings it because she always feels good in it, and because it doesn’t really wrinkle. She’s never ended up wearing it at any of the festivals past, though. By now, the thing has become more like a talisman in her suitcase than anything else. The prospect of actually needing it had seemed so remote this year that she hadn’t even thought so far as accessories. Though a little scuffed, she figures her flat gold pumps should probably do. That just leaves a purse. And a bra – the back of the dress dips low, requiring some kind of strapless feat of engineering that she can only hope will be available at short notice in such a tiny town. Then, she gets a hold of herself. Surely if any tiny town is going to anticipate an underwear emergency, then Cannes – at least for twelve days in May – is the one.

By four o’clock the following afternoon, with the hours falling away before she’s due to show up at the Carlton, Lizzy dashes out of the Scottish Pavilion, a woman on a mission. Her entire working day, in truth, has felt like a mere formality – something to be endured and now, finally, escaped.

‘I gotta go, I’ll talk to you later!’ she calls out as she passes Shauna at the front desk.

‘Cool. Oh, hey!’ the other woman’s voice rises, and Lizzy stops in her tracks. ‘Some guy was just here looking for you, but you were in the middle of your meeting. From the … rifle place or whatever?’

‘The what?’

Lizzy stands aside, lets Shauna meet and greet a bunch of people traipsing in for the last panel event of the day.

‘The place where we’re having the ceilidh,’ Shauna clarifies, once they’re alone again.

‘Oh! Plage Raphael. Monsieur Henri. What did he want?’

‘He just wanted to talk to you – he was quite hard to understand to be honest. I said you’d email him.’

‘Okay,’ Lizzy replies, and she must look a little worried because suddenly the younger girl does too.

‘Is that alright? Should I have got Simon?’

‘No! No. That’s fine, I’ll deal with it. Thanks!’

She’s practically out the door when Shauna calls out to her once again. ‘Are you coming to that Raindance reception tonight by any chance? I thought it might be a good way to meet new filmmakers. They won’t have any money, yet, obviously, but still. Good to know who’s on the up, and develop relationships and all that.’

Lizzy smiles. She has high hopes for this girl, she realises.

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