LITMIR.BIZ

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an acquired taste,’ Gemma said with the tiniest of smiles.

      ‘Can I get you anything? A cup of tea?’ Kay asked. ‘I was just going to make a quick bite to eat. Not much, just some soup or something. You’re welcome to join me – if you’re not going to the pub, that is.’

      ‘I won’t be going to the pub,’ Gemma said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. ‘I think I’ll just have an early night with a book.’

      ‘Okay,’ Kay said. ‘I’ll be downstairs if you need anything.’

      Gemma nodded and Kay left the room, closing the door and returning to the living room downstairs. She saw the opened paperback of Persuasion on the chair where she’d left it and smiled. It was as if the characters from the book had walked out of the page and right into her bed and breakfast.

      She sat down heavily in her chair by the window. Sophie Kerr, Beth Jenkins, Gemma Reilly and Oli Wade Owen.

      Oli Wade Owen! Kay’s eyes widened at the thought. How many daydreams had Kay had over the years about Oli Wade Owen? How many boring office hours had been enlivened by thoughts of that gorgeous smile of his and that twinkle in his blue eyes? She remembered cutting out a picture of him from Vive! once because she’d thought he would make the perfect hero to paint. Where was the painting now? she wondered. But maybe she could get on with some new ones. Maybe he would sit for her – in costume!

      She picked up her copy of Persuasion but she couldn’t concentrate and so put it down again. She could hear Gemma moving about upstairs and wondered whether she should make her a cup of tea anyway and take it up to her. But she was probably exhausted and wouldn’t want to be disturbed which was a shame because Kay would have loved to talk to her.

      ‘Don’t rush things,’ she told herself. ‘They’ll all be here for a while.’

      For a blissful moment, she thought about what the next few days might bring. She might end up best friends with Gemma Reilly and Sophie Kerr! They’d invite her to red carpet premieres and Kay would get a swishy new haircut and become a media darling. ‘Confidante to the stars’ they’d call her. ‘Former B & B owner, Kay Ashton, is now a star in her own right with her bestselling book, The Illustrated Darcy.’ She’d be an overnight sensation and Oli Wade Owen would fall desperately in love with her. Teresa Hudson would also be dazzled by her talents and insist she take up the lead role in her next film – starring opposite Oli, of course. They’d have just come back from their honeymoon and the film would be the talk of the—

      ‘I’ve changed my mind about that cup of tea,’ a shy voice interrupted her. Kay blinked her delicious daydream away and saw Gemma standing in the doorway.

      ‘Of course,’ Kay said with a smile, and she couldn’t help thinking that her daydream wasn’t quite so outrageous after all and that she and Gemma were going to be friends in no time.

      She led Gemma through to the kitchen.

      ‘You’ll have to excuse the mess. I’ve not been here long and wanted to get the bedrooms done first.’

      ‘They’re lovely,’ Gemma said.

      ‘Thanks. This will be too when I get round to it.’

      ‘So have you always run a B & B?’

      ‘Oh, no!’ Kay laughed. ‘I’ve only just bought this place. I’ve just done office work up until recently.’ She filled the kettle with water and switched it on. ‘I – well, I came into some money,’ she said. ‘Unexpectedly.’

      ‘Oh!’ Gemma said and she smiled. ‘Oh,’ she added, seeing Kay’s face.

      Kay nodded. ‘I’m afraid a very sweet friend of mine died.’ She sighed. ‘I still can’t believe it. The last few months have been so strange and I sometimes can’t believe that I’m here leading this new life.’

      ‘You mean you’ve not always lived here?’

      ‘No. I moved down from Hertfordshire, but after my mother died and then my friend, I really didn’t have anything keeping me there. I mean, there are a few friends I’ll miss and some of my work colleagues but I didn’t really feel I belonged there any more and I felt it was the right time to make a move.’

      Gemma’s face softened. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said. ‘You’ve been through a lot.’

      The kettle boiled and Kay got two floral mugs out of the cupboard and made the tea, noticing that Gemma liked hers with milk and one sugar – just like her.

      ‘It’s hard some days,’ Kay said at last as they walked back through to the sitting room with their tea. ‘I can’t help feeling a bit lonely. I walk around with all these thoughts in my head like, I must tell Mum this or Peggy will laugh when I show her this. But then I remember they’re not here any more.’

      ‘Oh, Kay!’ Gemma said, leaning forward in the chair she’d sat down in.

      ‘It’s all right,’ she said. ‘I mean, it’s easier with me living here. If I was still in my old town, I’d be reminded of them everywhere I went but it’s different here. Everything’s new.’ She looked out of the window. The sky was darkening and the lamps had come on. ‘But I still find it all impossible to believe. It’s horrible to think that I can’t pick a phone up and talk to them. I can’t ask their opinions about things any more. All that’s been taken away from me and I wasn’t ready for it.’

      Gemma put her mug of tea down and leant forward to take Kay’s hand in hers.

      Kay blinked her tears away and then waved her hand in front of her face. ‘I’m okay,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about me. I didn’t mean to be miserable. You shouldn’t be sitting here, listening to me wittering on. You should be down at the pub with the others.’

      Gemma shook her head. ‘I’m not into all that. They’ll all be drinking too much and bitching about the business. It’s not me.’

      ‘No,’ Kay said, ‘it wouldn’t be me either. I’d rather curl up with a good book.’ She picked up her copy of Persuasion and showed Gemma.

      ‘You’re reading Persuasion?’

      ‘It’s one of my favourites. It’s why I chose to move here.’

      ‘And then the whole cast descended on you!’

      They sat quietly for a moment, sipping their tea.

      ‘Well,’ Gemma said at last, ‘thanks for the tea. I think I’ll go and do a bit of swotting.’

      Kay looked quizzical.

      ‘It’s what Beth calls learning your lines,’ Gemma explained. ‘She’s always teasing me that I’m swotting again but I can’t help it. I need things fresh in my mind.’

      Kay smiled and watched as Gemma left the room. She was one of the sweetest people Kay had ever met and she was going to make a wonderful Anne Elliot, she thought.

      Suddenly, Kay got very excited at the thought of being able to watch some of the scenes being filmed. She had a front row view of the Cobb for a start and she wondered if Teresa would let her get even closer whilst they were filming. Maybe she’d be asked to be an extra! Or maybe nasty Beth would twist her ankle during the scene on the Cobb steps and Kay would stand in for her, doing such an amazing piece of acting that Teresa would be completely bowled over and recast Kay as Louisa Musgrove. And, during that wonderful scene where Louisa jumps down the steps into Captain Wentworth’s arms, she’d look deep into the blue eyes of Oli Wade Owen and he’d fall madly in love with her.

      It would be a small wedding with six hundred guests, Kay thought, and a few helicopters from rival magazines flying overhead trying to get a shot of Oli’s bride. They’d become media darlings – their every move photographed.

      She shook her head. It was so easy to get carried away and daydream – it was one of the little quirks from

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