SEVEN

T o put everyone in a festive mood, someone had put on some Christmas music. I smiled as I made my way down the hall, the sound of jingle bells ringing in my ears.

I entered the ballroom and quickly caught Keely’s gaze. Standing with a tech guy as they looked over the sketch of the ballroom scene and the desired effect, she waved me over.

“Good morning,” I said to both of them.

Keely turned to the technician. “Just make sure this one is working so that a faint glow comes up here and we should be good to go.”

He nodded and walked away.

“Ayra,” Keely quickly said. “Big day ahead. The big Christmas ballroom scene.”

“Darcy’s first dance with Elizabeth,” I said.

“That’s right. And that means we don’t have a minute to spare. As you can see, we’ve transformed a good portion of the room. Two settees have been placed over there, but I’m not sure they should stay.”

“I don’t see why not. The space is generous enough for dancing and all the guests.”

“But what I need from you now...” Keely looked around the room. “Over there. Cindy and Jai are preparing to go do a major makeover of the sitting room. Apparently, it’s been used as a storage room these past days and... anyway, can you go and give them a hand and ensure the room is ready... hopefully later today.”

“Sure thing.”

“Keep them in line. Jai tends to go off into his own imaginings sometimes. I need him to keep it real.”

I chuckled despite Keely’s complete lack of amusement. The stress of it all was getting to her. Her lips were almost always set in a tight line, and the slight bags under her eyes had darkened these past few days.

“Don’t worry, Keely,” I said, setting a soothing hand on her shoulder. “Things are going great. You’re doing a great job.”

She inhaled deeply and her shoulder sagged under my touch. “Thank you, Ayra. I’m beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. Things aren’t going as smoothly as I would have liked.”

“They never do.”

She nodded.

“I’m there for you, Keely. We’re in this together. Don’t let this stress you out. We’re making Pride and Prejudice . This is great.”

A tentative smile barely curved her lips, but her eyes were still filled with tension. “I know, and that’s probably what’s keeping me from collapsing.” Her smile broadened. “Now that you’ve given me a pep talk, go on and get to work.”

With a chuckle I walked away and joined Cindy and Jai.

“Good,” Cindy immediately said. “We need another pair of hands.”

I glanced at the unfamiliar woman beside her.

“Oh,” Cindy said. “And this is Jodi. She’ll be assisting us.”

Jai led the way to the sitting room. “As you may know, we’ve been using the space to store a few items since arriving here.”

“Yeah, Keely told me,” I said.

“But I’ve had it emptied and had it painted.”

I feared asking what color it’d been painted.

I walked into the room and was pleasantly surprised. The walls now painted a pale, pale green, left the room feeling huge and airy.

“It’s hard to believe that you were using this space for storage,” I said. “Where did you put all the stuff that was in here?”

He grinned. “You don’t want to know.”

“Now,” Cindy said as she looked around. “Where to begin.”

“We could start by putting up the wall sconces,” I said.

“The what?”

“The candle holder wall sconces I bought yesterday,” I said with surprising conviction. After all, wasn’t she the one in charge of décor? How could she not know what a wall sconce was? “I think we should set one between every one of those windows, on either side of the doors and...” I looked around the room. “One over there and another two on that wall there.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jodi said.

She and I got the box of sconces and set to screwing them to the wall while Jai and Cindy tended to other matters.

A quiet girl, Jodi was efficient and easy to work with... almost phantom like. We quickly went around the room and set up all the wall sconces which immediately gave the room a more refined appearance.

“What next?” I said as we reached Jai and Cindy.

“We have drapes to set up,” Cindy said. She bit her bottom lip and looked at me. “Problem is I found the red velvet ones, but Keely has decided to go with the gold ones... which I can’t find.”

“Great,” I said with a dry drone. “How hard can it be to find heavy golden drapes meant to adorn such large windows?”

“Well, for one thing, the gold ones aren’t velvet. They’re some sort of silky looking synthetic. That means that the drapes for each window would fit in a package only so big.” With her hands, she vaguely formed a toaster sized box.

“Great,” I said again.

Jodi spoke up for the first time. “Why not put up the red velvet ones to see if Keely won’t change her mind?”

“I have a better idea,” I said, jumping off Jodi’s initiative. “I’m a producer on this film. I have a say in what happens on this film. I’ve put up some of my own money to make this film.”

They all looked at me, anticipating.

“I second Jodi’s suggestion that we put up the red velvet drapes but disagree with her hope that Keely might approve... because... I approve. I think red velvet drapes would look positively smashing on these windows. Let’s get to it.”

Jodi smiled.

“Good to have you on our team,” Jai said as he patted my shoulder.

“If I could pass everything by you, it would make things so much easier,” Cindy added.

“Enough sucking up,” I said with a laugh. “We’ve got work to do.”

We paired up, working two to a window. I again worked with Jodi who proved a pro at putting up curtain rods, ensuring they were sturdy and straight. Within the hour we had four windows properly dressed.

“We’re almost finished with this last one,” Cindy called as she and Jai put the finishing touch to the last drape then climbed down the ladder.

“I can’t imagine why Keely would have preferred the golden curtains,” I said, gazing at our handiwork. “The red is so fiery and gorgeous.”

“Just so you know,” Cindy said. “If she chews me out about them, I’m pointing my finger directly at you.”

I nodded my acceptance of that possible outcome.

“Now,” she went on with a clap of her hands. “All that’s left is the placement of our simple, yet elegant wreaths.” She pulled them out of the large box in the corner. “Hmm, a little blander than I expected.”

“We could add a few sprigs of red berries,” Jodi suggested.

“Good idea,” I said, happy to see her growing more and more confident.

I grabbed a few sprigs from the craft bag that had been brought into the room and strategically placed them in the two larger wreaths.

“Good. Now,” Cindy said. “Where do we put them?”

“I’d say about seven feet up on that wall,” Jai said. “And one there and another one up there,” he added, as he pointed out prospective spots.

“Since you’re so good at this,” Cindy said with a laugh as she set a wreath over his head and around his neck. “You can start with this one.”

She turned to Jodi and set a smaller wreath on her head. “Find a spot for this smaller one.”

“What about me?” I said, pouting like a child.

“Sorry. Nothing for you.”

“I’ll give you mine,” Jai said, taking the wreath from around his neck and setting it on me as I tried to slap it away.

Jodi giggled which prompted Cindy to chuckle which then had Jai and I laughing.

“Come on, guys,” Cindy said. “We have to work.”

We all fell silent for a guilty second, then burst out laughing even louder.

“Well, you guys sure are having fun,” Keely called out as she walked in.

We all zipped up as if our mother had caught us doing something bad. Discreetly setting our wreaths aside we stood stiff, side by side, waiting for her reprisal.

“At ease, soldiers,” she said with a snicker. “I didn’t mean to come in and ruin your fun.”

“Of course not,” I said relaxing my suddenly tense shoulders. “You just startled us, that’s all.”

“Well,” Keely said. “When you’ve had enough of your fun and games, come join us in the living room. Barn and I went out to get some pizza and we’re going to watch an older version of Pride and Prejudice .”

“Sounds great,” I said. “We’ll be right there.”

“In the meantime,” Cindy said. “What do you think of what we’ve done so far?”

Keely’s response was a simple thumb’s up as she walked out.

With her gone, we once again looked at one another.

“Looks like the red velvet drapes got a pass,” Cindy whispered with a silent clap of her hands.

“Let’s hurry up and get these wreaths in place,” Jai said. “I’m starving.”

*****

F OLLOWING THE DELICIOUS scents of piping hot pizza, we arrived at the large living room and joined the rest of the crew. With my stomach rumbling, I grabbed a paper plate, opened the pizza box marked ‘extra cheese’ and slipped a huge slice on my plate.

As I took a quick bite, I spotted Keely seated at the back and headed in her direction.

“This seat taken?” I said as I sat down.

“Good pizza, huh?” she gave as a response.

“You didn’t say much about all the hard work we put into that ballroom. Did you even see what we did?”

“I had plenty of time to examine your handiwork as you guys laughed like school kids.”

“But you didn’t say much.”

“I like keeping Cindy on her toes,” she said with a smirk. “Truth is, I loved it.”

“Even the red velvet drapes?”

Munching on a bite of her pizza, she grinned, that devilish little grin that told me she was up to something.

“Keely... what did you do?”

“I’m the one who hid the golden drapes.”

I let out a quick but loud laugh. Everyone turned to us but Keely quickly and sternly swept their gaze back to the huge television screen that had been set up for the viewing of Pride and Prejudice .

Settling farther back in my chair, I leaned closer to Keely. “Why did you hide them?”

“I love Cindy, really I do.”

That immediately had me thinking she wasn’t too fond of the girl.

“But she can be so... oh... you know... so...”

“Know it all.”

“That’s it. Know it all. Most days I can handle it, but when we discussed which drapes to use, she was so uppity when I mentioned the golden ones, so... condescending, that I insisted she use those, even though I had my heart set on the red velvet ones.”

“Gee,” I said through another bite of my pizza. “Then I guess I must have read your mind. When she told me she couldn’t find the golden drapes, I insisted she use the red ones... I was making an executive decision.”

She reached out to grab my hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “You do have a way of reading me somehow.”

I gazed up at the screen, falling in love once again with Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy. “Such a wonderful movie.”

Keely nodded. “I know we’re going to be criticized for certain... well, you know, anachronistic issues, but...”

“Artistic license,” I said.

She nodded again.

“We’ve had this discussion before.”

“I know.”

“Finding the right balance between being true to the book and making a movie that will resonate with a younger audience was key.”

“I know.”

“And same goes for being true and precise with historical facts and fudging a bit and making it more palatable for that younger audience.”

“Some find that insulting.”

“And others find it enticing.”

Taking a last bite of her pizza and dropping the crust in her plate, she turned to me. “You always know what to say, don’t you?”

“I try.”

She smirked to herself as she turned to face the screen. “Well now, try to shut up so I can watch this.”

We settled in to watch the movie. But after the family Bennett scene, Keely received a text, shook her head and abruptly got up and left.

Her stress level was going to go up again, I thought with a sad shake of my head.

“Where’s she off to?” Barn said as he quickly slipped into her vacated seat.

Happy to see him again, I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. My insides buzzed with active nerves, while on the outside I was cool and collected, or so I hoped.

He leaned heavily into me, nudging my shoulder with his. “What fire has she run off to put out this time?”

“I really don’t know. She didn’t share that information with me.” I glanced at him and noticed his naughty grin. “What?”

“I have something for you.”

“Really? What is it?”

“It’s a surprise.”

“Oh?”

“Have I piqued your interest?”

“Well, of course you have.”

“Good.”

“So. What is it?”

“I told you. It’s a surprise.”

Frowning, I tried to size him up. “Well then, surprise me.”

“Tomorrow. Meet me out by my car.”

“Aren’t you filming the ballroom scene tomorrow?”

He hesitated, but before he could answer, Keely poked her head into the room.

“Change of plans, everyone,” she shouted over the sound of the television. “We can’t shoot the ballroom scene tomorrow. You guys have the day off. Enjoy!” And she disappeared back into the hallway.

“No,” Barn said simply with a satisfied grin.

Keely poked her head in again. “For everyone in those ballroom scenes, please rehearse your lines. We’ve lost enough time as it is. The last thing I need is fifteen takes for a flubbed line.”

She disappeared once again.

Barn’s grin didn’t waver. “I know my lines... all of them. I know this role inside and out, backwards and forwards, right side up and upside down.”

I laughed. “Okay, okay. I get it. So you know your part.”

“I don’t just know that part. I am the part. I was born to be Mr. Darcy. I mean, when you think about it, my mother ensured that this part be mine the day she married... well... my dad, Mr. Darcy.”

“You’ve got a point there.”

“Darcy is in my blood.”

“Fine... Mr. Barnaby Darcy. Since you know your part so well, I guess I’ll meet you at your car tomorrow morning. What time?”

“Eight o’clock would be good.”

“Fine then. I look forward to seeing what a day off with Mr. Barnaby Darcy is like.”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” he said with a smile. “Oh, before I forget; do dress casually and wear comfortable shoes.”

Hmm. That intrigued me even more.

“I’ll be sure to do that.”

We sat back to quietly watch the movie.

“Admit it,” Barn said during the dive in the pond scene. “I’m far better looking than he is.”

I didn’t know what to say. Yes, he was good look... a little younger perhaps, but Colin Firth was my first Mr. Darcy love.

“And you can bet I’ll be taking off my shirt for that scene... a maybe even a little more.”

I chuckled. “Remind me to be there for that.”

He laughed.

The movie came to an end, and someone flicked the overhead lights on.

“Well,” Barn said. “That’s my cue to be off for the evening. See you tomorrow morning, love.”

I was tempted to ask where he was going off to but quickly realized it was none of my business. But I was just dying to know.

The room slowly cleared out with Jai left to pick up after the crew. I joined him as he tossed paper plates into a large garbage bag.

“Hollywood types,” I said with a teasing nudge. “You can never trust them to pick up after themselves.”

I helped him clear the room of plates, cups, straws and the occasional plastic fork and knife for those unwilling to eat pizza with their hands.

“Bonus,” Jai said as he checked the last pizza box to find half a pizza in it. “I’ll take this to be my tip.”

“Well deserved.”

“I’m glad you stopped to help,” he said. “Not that I need the help, but I wanted to talk to you.”

“Sure, what about?”

He shrugged. “Just wanted to tell you how much fun it was decorating the ballroom with you today. It was really cool working with you.”

“Thanks, Jai. I really enjoyed working with you, too.”

“It really makes me feel like a part of the crew.”

We both glanced at the bag of trash and laughed.

“You know what I mean,” Jai said.

“It may not look like it now,” I said, glancing once again at the garbage bag, “but I happen to know that the cast and crew really appreciate you and are happy to have you here, too.”