Her Leading Man (47 page)

Ben obliged her. From her perspective, it was the
first time all day
anyone had. She knew she was being
unreasonable.

“
Yeah,” the cameraman said. “Let me get the
camera
bolted to the tripod, and we can get started.”

It had gone like that all day long. Because close-up
photography was a
new technique in motion picture
development, every time the scenery
changed, Ben
had to lug his heavy equipment to wherever the next
scene was to be
shot.

Christina tried to console herself with the
knowledge
that everyone else involved with the picture was
going through the
same hell she was. Except for the
Orozco angle. She was the only person in
the entire
company who was being pawed and preyed upon by
the erstwhile Latin
lover from the Bronx.

She hated him
.
She wanted to murder
him
.
She
wanted to stick poisoned darts in him and watch him
die an agonizing
death. She wanted to sic her grandmother
on him
.
It was
Christina’s bad luck that Gran’s
lumbago had kicked up overnight,
and
she’d had
to
spend the
day resting in bed. Christina wondered
why
her
inconvenient grandmother only showed up when
Christina didn’t want her to and
stayed away when
she might be useful.

“
I’m going crazy,” she growled, still patting at
her
sweaty brow—she couldn’t wipe the sweat from her
face because she’d
ruin her makeup. Of course,
makeup was thick and hot, and she felt as if
her
face had
been baking in an oven for hours. She must
be done by this time.

“
What’s
the matter, love?”

Christina glanced at Marlin. who also showed signs
of strain. He’d
dragged his fingers through his hair
and tugged on his worry lock so many times
that
his
hair
looked
sort of like a disorderly hayrick, only
shorter. Lines creased the skin
around
his
mouth, and
there were dark circles under his eyes. Although he
was lucky in the
sense that he didn’t need to wear
the thick makeup required for close-up
shots, his job
was probably harder than anyone else’s. Poor Martin
had to do just about
everything. Christina wanted to
run her fingers gently over his face and
massage out
the stress lines.

Such a pleasant diversion would be denied her for
at least another
hour
or
so, however. “Nothing, really,”
she answered
him.
I was just wishing Gran
was
here
to whack Pablo with her cane for me.”
She
achieved
a relatively successful grin. “That’s why
t said I must be
going crazy.”

She felt a small surge of accomplishment when
Martin
grinned, too. “I might have to agree with
you
if you
keep having thoughts like that.” His grin vanished,
and he tenderly
patted her shoulder. “I’m
awfully
sorry Pablo’s giving
you such a hard time,
darling
.
I wish I could do something more to stop
him, but short of shooting him
I
can’t think
of anything
to do. Besides, if I shot him, the picture would
be ruined and we’d
have to do all of this over again.”

“
God forbid.” Christina managed a
creditable
laugh
, but noted that Martin
seemed
troubled after
he’d admitted his reluctance to tackle Orozco for
fear
the
picture would
suffer. But Christina understood.
She didn’t pop Orozco with a heavy
club for the
same reason—and for the sake of her education.
“It’s all right,
Martin. This picture
will
be in the
can one of these
days, and then I’ll never have to
see Pablo Orozco
again. At least I hope I
won’t.”

Another grin on Martin’s part lifted her spirits
slightly. “You might
have to see him if Lovejoy organizes
a hoity-toity premiere of
Egyptian
Idyll
.”

She assumed a pose modeled after one of her costar’s
more noble efforts
and splayed a hand over her
heart. “For the sake of the picture,
I shall
endure.”

Martin laughed, and Christina felt as though she’d
at last done
something worthwhile
that
day
.

“
All
ready!” a voice called out.

Christina and Martin turned and saw Ben gesturing
for them to take
their places. Christina sighed.
“That’s awfully far to walk, isn’t
it?”

Another chuckle from Martin gratified her. “It sure
looks like it. But
this is the last scene. Well,” he
corrected himself, “the close-up shot will
be the last
one, I guess, but this one’s next to last on today’s
schedule.”

“
Thank
God.”

“
Amen.”

The scene captured from a distance by the
long
-
range
camera was one intended to depict the last
hours of the two
lovers’ perilous journey of escape
from Egypt.
Christina’s character would collapse
on
the
desert, and Martin would pick her up and
stagger
off into the distance with her. With luck
and
skillful
editing, the audience would be left with the
worrisome feeling that the two
of them might not
make it.

Scenes featuring Paul Gabriel and his army,
ostensibly
in
pursuit of the escapees, would be filmed the
following day. Martin intended
to intersperse snippets
of the
pursuing army with the escape scenes,
thereby
conveying the enormity of the
problem facing
Christina’s and Orozco’s characters.
If the editing
went as Martin
wanted it to,
Egyptian Idyll
wouldn’t
be a mere spectacle, but would also
be a gut
wrenching
emotional experience for the audience.

Christina had infinite faith in Martin’s ability put the
whole picture
together
eventually. She found
her faith in herself had slid a good deal during
the
stressful
day.

But the day
was
almost over, and then she
could
bathe
and relax, take a headache powder, go to bed
early, and have the pleasure of
watching Paul Gabriel
endure the ghastly sun on the morrow.

She and Martin
took their places.

Martin glanced at the far-distance cameraman, who
signaled that he was
ready. “You set to go, love?”

She
nodded. “All set.”

Martin called out in a voice that had been
overworked
during the day and now rasped, “And . .
.
action!”

The cameraman started cranking, and Martin and
Christina,
their
arms
around each other, stumbled
across the bleak
desert. Indio had nothing much over
Egypt when it came to desert, although
civilization
was a good deal closer. Thank God. If
Christina had
had to endure this
foot trek for real, she knew darned
well she wouldn’t have
survived.

“
All right, Christina, as soon as we get to
that
rock, you fall. Got it?”

“
Right. I don’t think
I’ll
have any
trouble
looking
pathetic,
either.”

“
Don’t
make me laugh.”

She loved it
when the smile sounded in his voice.

“
I’ll try not to.”

They reached the rock, Christina’s feet dragged for
a few seconds, and
then she sank slowly and gracefully onto the sand. “Darn it, the
ground’s really hot,”
she muttered.

“
Sorry, darling. I’ll try not to delay, but I’ve
got
some business to do first.” He did it well First he
stared down at her
in consternation. His ruffled hair
came in handy now, since he truly looked
as though he’d been through an ordeal. He
dragged his fingers
through it in order
to mess it up some more as he
gazed at Christina sprawled elegantly on the
dirt.

“
All right,” he said. “I’m going to pick you
up
now.”

“
Sorry, Martin. I wish I weighed less. Hope I
don’t
strain your back or anything
.
”

“
Don’t
worry, I’ll cope.”

He fell to his knees on the far side of her body,
keeping his head
down so as to disguise his appearance
from the camera and the viewing audience.
After
making
a placating gesture to the heavens, he bent
over further and slid his arms under
her.
“Heave
ho.”

Christina was distressed to hear the heaviness of
his grunt when he
rose to his feet with her in his
arms. He staggered backward a few steps,
and she
feared he wasn’t acting. She murmured once more,
“Sorry about the
weight, sweetheart.”

“
Think nothing of it.” The words came out in
a
series of gasps. “I think I’ve got you now.”

When he set off toward a far oasis, his footsteps
didn’t achieve a
straight line. While Christina figured
his staggering gait would look good
on film, she
felt
sorry for the strain her weight was putting on him.
She wasn’t fat, but
she still weighed a good hundred
twenty-five or more pounds. She was
certainly
no
lightweight for a man who was already too tired to
be performing such
strenuous
stunts.

“
For Pete’s sake, aren’t they ever going to
call
cut?” she asked after what seemed like hours of
being
carried
across the burning desert sands.

“
I don’t
think so,” Martin gasped back.

“
Why don’t you call a cut yourself? You
shouldn’t
have to carry me any farther, Martin. I know you’re
straining something.
You’ll be laid up tomorrow if
this scene doesn’t end soon.”

“
I can
make it.”

She could tell he was talking through clenched
teeth. Sweat poured
from his face and dripped on
to
her body. Fortunately his back was now to the
camera,
so
nobody would know about the sweat but her.
Darn it, this wasn’t fair.

“
If that idiot hadn’t broken his stupid arm,
you
wouldn’t
have to go through this,” she told
Martin.

“
If he hadn’t broken his aim, he’d be
the one carrying
you. I’d hate that even more than I hate having
to carry you in the
hot sun.”

How marvelously sweet he was! “Thank you,
dear.”

“
Cut!” Ben called at last. Since Martin was
unable
to see the
scene as he was acting in it, Ben had been
enlisted to cut the
scene when he felt the proper effect
had been achieved.

Martin almost dropped her, his arms were so tired.
She helped
him out by jumping
to the ground. Immediately
she turned, grabbed on to his arms, and
gazed at him with
concern. “Are you all right, Martin?”

“
Yeah. I
think so. Let me shake out my arms.”

She let him go, and he shook out his arms as
Christina inspected
him for damage. She didn’t see
any, but she worried about his spine. “How’s
your
back? Do
you feel any strain there?” She knew how
painful back injuries could be. Her
father saw
many
patients who suffered from sciatic pain after
hurting
their
backs by lifting and carrying things. It was one
of the most painful
conditions
known
to man, and
Christina would feel horribly guilty
if she’d caused
Martin to suffer from it.