The Twilight Hour Read Online Free PDF Page B

lies!’ shouted Colin. ‘I’m already in trouble with London District for querying the line on post-war reconstruction.’
    Alan leaned forward, genuinely interested. ‘You’ve never said anything about that.’
    Colin wouldn’t look at them. He pushed his hair back, staring downwards, possibly at his own feet. ‘That’s not relevant. It doesn’t matter.’ I knew he already regretted letting it slip out.
    â€˜You’re in trouble with the Party?’ Alan, of course, wouldn’t let it go. ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’
    Colin’s twisted smile was closer to a grimace. ‘You think friendship’s all-important, don’t you. But for me, you see–’
    â€˜No one wants you to say anything you don’t want to,’ soothed Hugh. ‘And the Party doesn’t even come into it.’
    â€˜The Party comes into everything.’
    An awkward silence. Then Hugh tried again. ‘I’m sure there’s a way round this.’
    â€˜A way round what ?’ muttered Colin.
    â€˜Look,’ said Alan, ‘I know it won’t be easy. You’re right – Radu wants melodrama and a vehicle for Gwendolen Grey. It’s not just you that wants something better than that. We do too. But we can get there with Radu. It’ll be in the way we write it – get the right kind of hero into the plot–’
    â€˜He doesn’t want a hero. He just wants her .’
    â€˜But Gwendolen will want a strong leading man. She’ll be that much stronger with someone to match her.’
    â€˜For God’s sake,’ muttered Colin, ‘we don’t want a lot of romantic tosh – love scenes, sex, that’s just bourgeois decadence.’
    Alan and Hugh both shouted their derision, and I was puzzled. Why was Colin so down on passion? He must be unhappy in love. There was another angry silence.
    â€˜D’you want more toast?’ I enquired brightly, to cover up the sticky silence. They ignored me.
    After a while Hugh said cautiously: ‘I know you think I shouldn’t have been talking to Enescu off my own bat, but it really will be worth it. Working with him we’ll get known – and then we won’t need him any more. Besides which, he’s in with Stanley Colman and Colman’s the man with the money.’
    This further enraged Colin. ‘Stanley Colman! Why the hell do we want to have anything to do with him?’
    Hugh smiled: ‘He’s got money, hasn’t he? He’s just someone who got lucky in the war. I quite liked him.’
    â€˜Black marketeer more likely. For heaven’s sake, what are we doing with these people?’
    â€˜We’re trying to get money for our film. We can’t be too choosy,’ said Alan. ‘And you’re the one who says the end justifies the means.’
    That shut Colin up. He sat there sulking. I spread the toast thinly with marge. ‘He won’t give you any money, anyway,’ I said, ‘he’ll give it to Gwendolen Grey.’
    The three men stared at me.
    â€˜He’s in love with her, didn’t you notice?’
    â€˜Oh, darling!’ said Alan with an indulgent smile. They thought love had nothing to do with it. They were so wrong! Love – or sex – had everything to do with what happened later … or some twisted version of love.
    â€˜Giving it to Gwendolen Grey will be giving to us – if we get in there,’ said Hugh. ‘Enescu is a real original – he’s taken something from the German expressionist films of the twenties and put a new slant on it – it can be used for social criticism, it heightens everything, it makes it all less drab. And he’s had this wonderful idea of giving his next film a really artistic dimension.’ He paused and looked sideways, enquiringly, at Alan, but Alan gave a shake of the head so minimal I don’t think Colin noticed