‘What did I say?’ Ruth nodded knowingly. ‘It’s going to be a DFI kind of day.’
‘DFI?’
‘Different fucking instruction.’
‘So, what do we have to do?’
‘Wait.’ Ruth shrugged and settled herself in one of the chairs, propping her feet up on the counter.
Right, so, no Rowan until further notice? Lila wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed.
Jackie arrived from a canteen run with a box of mini churros and they made themselves comfortable, flicking through magazines, talking about random bits of news that took their interest. Lila rolled one of the stools out for herself. She took out her cell and, for want of something better to do, found herself on social media. She didn’t have hundreds of friends on there, though she was a member of a few period-drama fan groups. She wondered what everyone back at home – her old school and college friends and Milo – would think if she posted a status about where she was and what she was doing, and which insanely hot celebrity she’d actually had conversations (plural) with.
And she immediately discounted that as a stupid, indulgent idea for a few reasons:
A) People probably wouldn’t believe her.
B) If they did believe her, they’d be nonplussed that she could be doing anything remotely interesting and might gossip about it – the idea of which, made her feel sick.
C) She hated the idea of referring to Rowan like that – like he was some kind of trophy to wave under people’s noses. Maybe he didn’t care, or was used to it, the way Ruth had suggested when they were talking about whether or not it was pervy to ogle him while he worked. But she thought he deserved better than that.
A memory of the day before, when they’d been sat at his kitchen table, and she’d been weighing up whether she could be honest with him –trulyhonest – and he’d met her gaze with patience and…something that made her stomach flip.
Okay, time to distract herself. With the buzz of the other MUAs’ conversation in the background, Lila tapped the icon for Instagram. Maybe it was the little boosts she’d received from getting this job and finally starting to settle in with her colleagues, Ruth especially, but she felt the need to check her half-brother’s accounts.
No change as usual on his but when she flicked over to his partner Noelle’s…whoa!
There was an ultrasound photo. One of those faint, squiggly newt-looking pictures, accompanied by joyous writing all around declaring an expected due date. She gasped out loud without meaning to.
‘Everything okay?’ Jackie looked up from the quiz she was doing in her magazine.
‘Oh, yeah.’ Lila switched off her phone and went to grab herself a cup of water from the dispenser. ‘Just surprised by the price of an Italian for beginners’ course,’ she lied because it was a lot easier than explaining about her rolling stone of a father, who’d left his progeny dotted around the globe.
‘Yeah? You thinking of learning the language while you’re here? You know there are plenty of free apps you can try,’ Ruth said.
Jackie scoffed and offered her opinion on why those apps were free, and Lila sat back down, sipping water, and tuning them out while she tried to figure out why the baby news had her so thrown.
Technically, she was going to be an aunt. How crazy was that? As well as a half-brother, she’d actually have a niece or a nephew in six months’ time. The thought of missing out on that joyous moment didn’t sit as easily with her as putting off meeting Stephen. Maybe that was stupid, or maybe it was because the news had made her realise that she was opting out on a chance to be a part of his family, a chance forherhaving more than just her mom as her family if she let this chance to get to know him slip away.
Rowan
Rowan stood up slowly from the low, crouching position he’d been in for the last thirty minutes and stretched his legs out with a faint groan. His body ached from holding so many cramped positions, not to mention the extra tension he’d forced into every stance as he projected the fear Billy had of discovery. Every voice, every footstep echoing towards him, making him slam himself back into the wall and hold his breath, eyes wide, body taut, breath short. At times telling his body to act out that level of panic had tricked his mind into remembering those bleak times when he was small and he’d hidden, just like this. Only it hadn’t been strangers he’d been frightened of finding him back then.
He’d had to take a moment whenever that crept up on him, take a deep breath and push the memories away. When he’d spoken to Wesley in between takes, the director had been happy with that effect – the way it showed Billy trying to get a handle on himself. Which was handy. It really hadn’t occurred to Rowan when he took this role, how much of his time he was going to spend “on his own”, fabricating fear, as they travelled around Sicily. He’d never filmed anything so intense before.
Still, all he had to do was go where he was told and make sure he had the right directions. When Wesley had finally made the decision that morning to take them all out on location to shoot a night scene in this tiny hillside town outside of Catania, there had been a fair amount of grumbling. The change sent the production into a frenzy, calling in the extras, getting permission to cordon off the area and film there – Lord knows how Sally, the production assistant, had swung that at such late notice – and then set up all the equipment around the long alleyway that led uphill towards the thirteenth-century church, where Rowan would be filming indoors at a later date.
Many of them maintained it would have made sense to switch to the indoor filming when it was raining but since the renowned actor, Stan Gillian, who was making a cameo as the priest giving Rowan’s character shelter, wasn’t even in the country until later in the week, that wasn’t really an option. Also, the dates when they were allowed to film in the church were a lot stricter than filming in the street.
Rowan leaned back against the damp plaster of the wall and looked over at the building he had been moving slowly towards all evening. It stood tall amongst the surrounding houses, its white walls showing up even in the blanketing darkness of a night-time sky covered in rain clouds and the looming presence of the mountains behind. There was a single bell tower that looked centuries old and a set of dark double doors in an imposingly high archway at the front. Sicily was a place littered with historical architecture from all different periods – evidence of how many times it had been invaded and occupied on all sides. Funny how there was so much violence behind things they now saw as beautiful and full of character.
He was going to need to go around the side if the church another day, higher up, following a staircase that wound around the road to where the nave was built half into the hillside, making the windows ground level. That was where he was going to sneak in.
Maybe they’d get up to the building tomorrow, if it was still raining, or they’d have to wait until they next had the right weather or the rain machine. He wouldn’t be complaining if it did end up being delayed until a few weeks closer to the summer. Once the sun went down it was still chilly at night and he’d been stood out here for hours. It wasn’t cold enough that he’d lost feeling in his fingers or his toes, but he couldn’t deny he was pleased that filming was over for today. Only one thing left on the agenda – continuity photos.
Because the town was so small, most of the vans were parked in a winding line on the main road leading into the residential area, so it was probably going to take a while for Lila to walk up to where he was. Technically, he could have waited over at the video village, under the big tarp that was keeping Wesley and the screen equipment dry, but he wanted a little privacy from everyone when he saw Lila for the first time today.
With all the upheaval back at the unit base throughout the day, he’d not even had the opportunity to say hi to her in the makeup trailer. She’d been running in and out for Sibyl, packing up the van with whatever they needed. He’d tried in vain to catch her eye while he sat in the chair with Ruth doing his makeup, but she’d been too busy. At least he hoped that was what it was, and not that she felt too embarrassed or shy to meet his gaze again.
