[Churchminster #3] Wild Things (24 page)

To protect the film set and cause minimum disruption, the police had closed all the roads in and out of Churchminster for the day. This hadn’t stopped gaggles of onlookers from cloistering around the film cordons, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rafe Wolfe or
get
Sophia Highforth’s autograph. The paparazzi had turned up in their droves as well, and the hard-looking security men – who made the Mitchell brothers look like the Chuckle brothers – were patrolling the perimeters, keeping a close eye on things.

True to her word, Pam had got the grass crisis sorted out and Clementine had been pleased to see plastic mesh down on the busiest thoroughfares. It was a pity others weren’t so conscientious: Clementine had already had to tell a group of giggling schoolgirls to pick up their empty bottles of Coke and discarded chewing-gum wrappers as they took pictures on their camera-phones, screaming every time they saw a blond-haired man.

Camilla had the morning off, so she’d come out to stand by her garden gate and watch. It certainly was something. A gaggle of local schoolchildren dressed as ragamuffins were herded past, while a gang of extras filled in the time by playing impromptu football with a stray pumpkin. All around was noise and shouting and movement, as everyone rushed around chaotically, each with a different job to do.

‘Camilla!’ It was Angie Fox-Titt, in a peasant woman’s dress and floppy servant’s cap. She appeared to be wearing a false set of stained brown teeth

‘Nice outfit!’ laughed Camilla. The Fox-Titts had both signed up to be extras.

‘You should see Freddie, he looks like a relic from the Black Death!’

A woman with a loudspeaker started calling for all the extras.

Angie waved, ‘Might see you later! I’m going to need a glass of something after this!’

Suddenly, there was excited screaming from the onlookers and Camilla could see Sophia Highforth had appeared, dazzling in a full-length crimson gown. Compared to the scruffily dressed people around her, Sophia’s blonde hair and soft complexion were more luminous than ever. Camilla noticed the suited man from the Jolly Boot party was with her, while a young woman walked alongside Sophia, anxiously pulling out her long skirts to make sure they sat properly.

The screams intensified as she came over to sign a few autographs. Camilla couldn’t help but stare enviously at the gracious way Sophia worked the crowd. Her fans were putty in her perfectly manicured hands,

‘Sophia!’

‘We love you, Sophia!’

For a few minutes she chatted and laughed along with them, happily posing for pictures. It was easy to see her star quality. Sophia just radiated an aura.

The suited man tapped his watch with his fingers, looking agitated. Sophia registered the gesture.

‘I’ve really got to get back now, but it was so lovely to see you all,’ she said to the assembled crowd.

‘Don’t go!’ someone shouted. Sophia bestowed another sunbeam smile in his direction and floated off, acknowledging the shouts and calls in her wake. As she passed Camilla, Sophia caught Camilla’s gaze and after a pause flashed a vague smile.

Camilla dropped her eyes, embarrassed to have been caught staring. When she looked up, Sophia was
saying
something to her female companion. The companion glanced in Camilla’s direction before the two walked off, the suited man scurrying in their wake.

Cheeks burning, Camilla looked away. Had Sophia been talking about
her
? A nasty paranoid suspicion started in her stomach. Jed hadn’t mentioned it, but had he seen Sophia again? The Hall was a pretty easy place to bump into someone, and Sophia had made no secret of her appreciation of Camilla’s boyfriend. The memory of Sophia leaning out of her car and giving Jed an eyeful of her cleavage shot through Camilla’s mind. The film set had suddenly lost all its appeal. Turning on her heel, she retreated back up the garden path.

At the centre of all the action, Wes Prince scowled into the little screen monitor that allowed him to see every angle of filming. No one could get it bloody right today, and they’d already had to shoot this crowd scene five times. That was the trouble with extras: most of them were a bunch of bloody weirdos who wouldn’t know how to take direction if it came up and bit them on the arse.

‘All right, let’s try again,’ he shouted. ‘Action!’

Cameras rolling, the three cameramen panned out to show the crowd, each getting a different angle. So far, so good. As instructed by Wes, the trio started to move back in, showing the stalls and customers going about their business.

They’d just done a nice montage of crowd shots – Wes had told them not to linger on anyone in particular – when one camera suddenly homed in on a young woman. She was enormously well-endowed, her assets
spilling
out of her low-cut bodice. Wes frowned; surely people hadn’t worn dangly earrings and glitter on their eyes in the eighteenth century?

‘All right, move it back,’ he muttered, but the camera zoomed in even closer, giving Wes an eyeful of juicy cleavage. It could have been his imagination, but he was sure the young girl gave her boobs a jiggle. Wes looked up from the monitor and signalled frantically to Evelyn Vesper, who was standing behind the camera in question. ‘Too much tit! Oh, for Chrissakes! CUT!’

As Wes stalked over to yell at Evelyn Vesper that they weren’t filming a bloody smut movie, Stacey Turner hoisted her breasts up even higher. She was going to get in this film if it bloody killed her.

It had been a long day and dusk was falling by the time they started to pack up. Clementine had decided to come down with Errol Flynn to make sure the green was left as it had been found. From the amount of activity going on earlier, she was convinced a huge mess was going to be left behind.

She was pleasantly surprised to see the village green was nearly back to normal. All the stalls had been dismantled, the pigs taken back to the local farmer, and the grass had thankfully escaped unscathed. Despite her earlier reservations Clementine was impressed; they obviously ran a tight ship. She watched as the last of the props were loaded into a huge white lorry parked by the side of the green. It was a simple job for the truck to reverse back along the road, but for some
reason
, the back wheels were heading towards the green. Clementine hurried over waving her arms.

‘Stop! You’re going to go on the grass!’ But under the noise of the engine her shouts went unheeded. Clementine watched in dismay as the vehicle reversed on to the green, leaving two huge tyre tracks in its wake. It was going to take months to grow back!

‘Why didn’t you look where you were going, man!’ she cried at the cab driver. He wound down his window.

‘Sorry, love, I was only following that woman’s directions.’

He pointed his arm and Clementine saw Pam Viner, with both hands over her mouth.

She looked distraught. ‘Oh good heavens, I’m so sorry!’ She rushed over.

‘I said reverse to your right!’ she cried at the driver.

‘You said left!’

‘No, I didn’t!’

Pam turned to Clementine, face stricken. ‘Mrs Standington-Fulthrope, I don’t know what to say.’

Clementine didn’t, either. A sinking feeling washed over her. ‘It was just an unfortunate accident, please don’t upset yourself.’

‘If I can do anything …’ Pam trailed off. There wasn’t anything anyone could do.

Clementine shot a death stare at the driver. ‘Honestly my dear, don’t blame yourself. There was an obvious
breakdown
in communication.’

‘’Ere, are you talking about me?’ exclaimed the driver. ‘She told me left, God’s honest.’

‘I suggest you get your vehicle out of here before you do any more damage,’ Clementine said icily. After placating Pam one more time, she made her excuses and left. She couldn’t bear to look at the damage for one moment longer.

Sometimes it felt like invisible forces were conspiring against them.

Chapter 32

CAMILLA HAD BEEN
asleep when Jed had finally got in, and he was already gone by the time her alarm went off the next morning. A pair of dirty socks on the floor by the door was the only indication he had ever been there. Camilla felt a stab in her stomach that he hadn’t at least woken her to say goodbye.

Is that all we are now? Ships that pass in the night?

She lay staring at the Cath Kidston rosebud wallpaper. Something imperceptible had shifted between her and Jed. From having complete faith in herself and their relationship, Camilla now felt as if she were on shifting sand, no longer able to be sure of anything. Having the boss from hell didn’t help either; she felt she was going from one bad atmosphere to another each day.

Why had Sophia’s companion looked at her in that way? Camilla was convinced that she wasn’t being paranoid. A nasty little thought that had been rustling at the back of her mind flared up. Was
Sophia
the reason
Jed
had been so funny recently? Camilla realized with growing panic that she didn’t really have a clue what Jed got up to at work. He could be off with Sophia at this very moment!

Stop this
, she told herself. She was getting carried away. Camilla sighed, she was sick of this: thinking and dramatizing everything in her head. It was exhausting. She had to stop worrying about whether or not her boyfriend had the hots for a gorgeous film star. Camilla shook her head wrily, even she could see the irony in that sentence. But apart from Jed being a bit distant, where was the real, hard evidence? He’d told her the reason for that: he was tired and a bit stressed from work. Their conversation about Sophia flashed back into her head, after she’d been flirty with him on the green. Jed had made a joke about how Sophia wouldn’t fancy him if she saw him mucking out the pig sties and Camilla had joined in.

‘
Or fast asleep on the sofa, cupping your balls!
’

‘
I only do it when you won’t cup them for me
.’

Camilla couldn’t help but smile at the memory.
That
was what their relationship was about: affection, closeness, sexuality. It was as if a little light had been switched back on, making her feel a hundred times better. She and Jed were rock solid. He wouldn’t have his head turned by someone like Sophia Highforth, no matter how stunning. She was going to go up to the Hall and tell him how she’d been feeling, and they’d both have a good laugh about it. Full of resolve, Camilla swung her feet on to the bare wooden floorboards. She’d
take
him some lunch, start building the relationship back up again.

A few hours later she was driving along the sweeping drive to Clanfield Hall, two rounds of doorstep sandwiches and a large piece of fruitcake in a basket beside her. It was Jed’s favourite. She’d got a bottle of home-made lemonade out of the pantry and put it in there as well. With lunches like this and a home-cooked dinner every night, she’d have Jed back up to speed soon.

As she drove up she saw Jed’s van, parked outside the little trailer he was using as a makeshift office. Camilla parked up behind it and got out, clutching the basket. There was a small patch of daisies growing in the grass outside and Camilla plucked two and put them behind her ears.

‘Jed,’ she called out. ‘Flower-girl delivery for your lunch … oh!’

Jed and Sophia Highforth looked round, surprised expressions on their faces. He was sitting in his chair behind the desk, and even though there was a chair on the other side, Sophia was perched on the desk in front of him. There was an air of intimacy in the room that Camilla really didn’t like.

‘Hey, you!’ said Jed, springing up. ‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’

Camilla tried to smile. She noticed Sophia looking at the flowers tucked behind her ears, and pulled them out, feeling stupid.

Jed gestured to Sophia, who was looking even more ravishing than normal in her costume, her hair piled
up
sexily and a low-cut dress making the most of her creamy white décolletage.

‘Er. This is Sophia. Sophia you remember meeting Camilla, don’t you?’

Sophia smiled, showing little white teeth. ‘Hello Camilla.’

The use of her name made a nasty little stab in Camilla’s stomach.

‘Hello!’ Camilla said over-brightly. There was an awkward silence. Camilla didn’t know what to do. ‘Well, don’t let me keep you.’ Putting the basket down on Jed’s desk she walked out. Camilla felt sick to her stomach. What was Sophia doing in Jed’s office?
Isn’t that perfectly obvious?
a nagging little voice said in her head. She hadn’t gone ten yards before he’d caught up with her.

‘Camilla! Are you OK?’

She turned to look at him. ‘I don’t know. Are you?’

He flushed. ‘Is this about Sophia being in my office?’

Camilla tried to keep her voice neutral. ‘It was a bit of a shock, if I’m perfectly honest.’

‘She just dropped in, I could hardly shut the door in her face.’

‘Does she often drop by, then?’

Jed hesitated, uncomfortable at the tone of her voice. ‘A few times. She wanted me to show her round the estate so …’

The shock hit Camilla like a punch in the stomach. ‘You’ve been on
walks
with her? No wonder you’ve been so “busy” at work!’

Jed took a step towards her, surprised. ‘Whoa, calm down it was only once!’

Camilla bit her lip. She was sure Sophia was listening at the office door. ‘I’m going now.’

‘Camilla …’ But she was already halfway back to the car.

‘I’m sorry.’

His apology didn’t sound heartfelt. They were in the kitchen, washing-up in silence. Camilla had put together a half-hearted supper of cold meats and salad, neither of them having an appetite for much.

She carried on drying the plate in her hands, not knowing what to say.

Jed turned to her. ‘Did you hear me? I’m sorry.’

Camilla remained silent. Jed threw the dishcloth down in exasperation. ‘Why am I being made to feel like the bad guy, anyway? I haven’t done anything wrong. I can’t keep myself under lock and key when I’m away from you!’

Camilla’s irritation flared up. ‘That’s not what this is about,’ she replied hotly, ‘I’ve never stopped you being your own person, Jed. It was just a shock, coming in and finding you together like that.’