she changed direction and went to join him by the fountain. “I’d like you to meet Lady Margaret Oliver,” he said. “She’s Lord Silverbridge’s sister and is a great fan of yours.”
“How do you do, Lady Margaret. What a nuisance this must be, having all these people tramping around your lovely garden.”
Lady Margaret’s hair was so blond it was almost white, and her elegant, straight nose was dusted with freckles. She wore jeans, a red sweater, lace-up suede boots, and looked about sixteen. The most noticeable thing about her, however, was that she was painfully thin.
“Not at all,” she replied to Tracy’s remark. “I think it’s great fun.”
Dave said, “Tracy, if you are going to get something to eat at the catering truck, will you take Lady Margaret with you and introduce her around?”
The look on his face said clearly that he knew he was asking a lot, but that he badly needed to ditch this young sister of the owner. Tracy opened her mouth to say that she wasn’t going to dinner, but then she saw the hopeful look in Lady Margaret’s eyes. There was something vulnerable about the girl, and Tracy, who had once wanted to be a high school teacher, changed her mind.
“Of course.” She turned to Lady Margaret, and said kindly, “Are you hungry? Would you like to have dinner with some of the cast and crew?”
The girl replied shyly, “I’m not hungry, but I’d like to meet them.”
Thank you , Dave mouthed to her, as she prepared to remove Lady Margaret from the area of the shoot. Tracy shot him a look that said clearly You owe me one, before she shepherded Lady Margaret away.
“Have you been watching for long?” Tracy asked, as they made their way through the yew-enclosed garden.
“I’ve been watching the whole time,” the girl replied enthusiastically. “It’s so super having a movie made here at Silverbridge.”
“I hope you still feel that way in a few weeks, Lady Margaret. It can get to be awfully old, having strangers in your home all the time.”
“Please call me Meg.” The girl’s sky-blue eyes regarded Tracy worshipfully. “And it may sound idiotic, but I don’t feel as if you are a stranger at all. I’ve seen all your pictures, Miss Collins, most of them more than once.”
“Thank you,” Tracy replied. Normally a comment about knowing her through her movies would annoy her, but there was something about this girl that called forth her protective instincts. So she said, “As such a devoted fan, you have earned the right to call me Tracy.” Greg, the assistant director, was hurrying along the path in their direction clutching his clipboard. He gave Tracy a grin as he went by, and she flapped a friendly hand in his direction. Then she turned to Meg. “How does the rest of your family feel about this invasion?”
“My brother Tony thinks it’s super too. I’m sure we’ll see him sometime during the course of the shooting.” Meg shot Tracy an impish look. “You might even want to put him in the picture. Tony’s gorgeous.”
“If he looks at all like you, then he must be.”
Meg became flustered. “Oh, I’m nothing compared to Tony.”
This unsure girl was nothing at all like Tracy’s image of an aristocrat, and she replied gently, “I think you are extremely pretty.”
Meg shot her a doubtful glance. “I’m not, really.”
Tracy, who rarely touched people who were not fam ily, found herself patting Meg on the shoulder. She barely refrained from wincing at the sharpness of the bone under her fingers. “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to accept my word for it, Meg. I have seen and worked with some of the most beautiful women in the world, and, in my judgment, you are a very pretty girl.”
“Well … ” Meg said. “Thank you.”
“You’re quite welcome.”
They went up the stone steps together, and the lawn, the fountain, the terrace, and the house stretched out before them, golden in the hazy late-afte rn oon sun. “What does
Monika Zgustová, Matthew Tree