Free Silverbridge by Joan Wolf Page A

gutter press gets hold of the fact that Tracy Collins is staying in my house? I really can’t go through another Dana Matthews thing.”
    “You are also training Gwen Mauley’s horse,” Meg pointed out. “Darling Gwen is going to be hanging around here as well.”
    “I know.” He sounded grim.
    “Harry, even the Examiner won’t have the nerve to say that you’re having an affair with two women at the same time and in the same place.”
    His jaw set. “In my experience, there is very little that the Examiner doesn’t have the nerve to say.”
    Meg chewed on a strand of her hair and looked at him.
    He sighed. “Oh, all right. If the film company wants to pay me the Wiltshire Arms rate, they can stay here.”
    Meg jumped up. “Great. You’ll like Tracy, Harry. She’s not like Dana Matthews at all.”
    He grunted, put on his glasses, and turned back to the computer. As she was going out the do or he turned his head to call, “ Tell them I want the money up front.”
    “All right.” She squinted at the columns of figures that had appeared on the computer screen behind him. “What are you working on?”
    “Bills,” he said dryly, and turned back to the machine.

 
     
     
     
    7
     
     
    T he excitement over the fire had pushed Tracy’s vision of the horse rider to the back of her mind, but once she returned to Silverbridge for filming, it came back vividly.
    I must be letting the atmosphere of this place get to me, she thought, as she stood on her mark waiting for Dave to direct the cameras to roll. Clouds had come in during the course of the afternoon, and the changing light in the garden had forced them to shoot a scene near the end of the film, when Julia had begun to fear her obsessively jealous husband. Tracy’s mind, however, was not on the movie.
    I spend my days surrounded by people dressed in Regency clothes. Then I meet Lord Silverbridge, who, however rude and obnoxious he may be, is certainly a striking man. So I have this hallucination where I see a man who looks like Lord Silverbridge riding a horse and wearing Regency clothes. It’s weird, but explainable.
    The vision of the man on horseback rose again before her mind’s eye and her heart began to thud. As if from a distance, she heard Dave call, “Check her.”
    A studio makeup woman appeared at Tracy’s side, dusted a tiny bit of powder on her nose, and went away. Dave called, “Action.”
    Tracy made a great effort to close her mind to all outside thoughts, and began to walk along the path in the direction of the house. The camera, which was mounted on a dolly, moved beside her. Tracy, as Julia, looked toward the terrace, where she was supposed to see her husband awaiting her. In fact, Jon was not on the terrace. They would shoot the meeting between Julia and her husband later. Consequently, when Tracy focused her eyes on the terrace, she expected to find it empty.
    It wasn’t. A young woman with auburn hair was there, accompanied by a little boy. The woman wore a plain Regency morning dress of sprigged muslin, and the little boy was dressed in what looked like a gray jumpsuit with a short jacket over it. Even under the cloudy sky, his hair looked bright.
    Tracy stopped short, staring in disbelief at the tableau on the terrace. Her hand went to her throat in an instinctive gesture of protection. Then she shut her eyes, trying to get a grip on herself. When she opened her eyes again, the terrace was empty.
    “Cut! Dave called. “Were you able to get that, Michael? I know she wasn’t supposed to stop.”
    “We got it,” the cameraman called back.
    “Then print it,” Dave said.
    He came up to where Tracy was standing. She had broken out in a clammy sweat, and small tremors were causing her body to quiver. Dave appeared to notice nothing of this, however. “That was brilliant, Tracy. Just brilliant.” Behind his thick glasses his eyes were glittering. “Do you think you could do it once more, just in case the first take