The Girl From Summer Hill Read online

  Casey saw Kit walking toward the exterior doors. “Excuse me, I have to ask Kit something.” She practically ran to him. “You have to give Olivia’s daughter-in-law, Hildy, the role of Lady Catherine de Bourgh. She thinks she’s so pretty—which she is not—that she should have been chosen for Jane. She also thinks she’s young enough—which she is not—to be Lydia. So now she’s going to try for Elizabeth, but she won’t get it. Who she is perfect for is that snobby, arrogant, bad-tempered Lady Catherine. If you, as the director, can reach Hildy’s true personality, you’ll have a great character. And best of all, if you give her that role, Olivia will audition for Mrs. Bennet.”

  Kit gave a bit of a smile. “Organizing the world, are you?”

  “Just a few people. Do you agree?”

  “Yes,” Kit said. “Should I flatter this Hildy’s ego?”

  “Do anything you have to do to get her off Olivia’s back.”

  Kit frowned. “What does that mean?”

  “I’ll tell you later. Just give Olivia the Mrs. Bennet role. That will help in many ways.”

  “I’d always planned for her to have it,” Kit said. “Now, speaking of help, where is Tatton? I thought you were going to pick him up with the pies.”

  Casey bared her teeth. “I did bring him here, along with five pies. He ate one of them—so he says. But who knows what he actually did, since he was upstairs in my bedroom. And don’t look at me like that! I have no idea what he was doing up there. He’s the King of Entitlement so I’m sure he thought that because he owns the place he has a right to go anywhere he wants. He showers on my porch, eats the food in my house, and does whatever he did in my bedroom.”

  Kit was watching her with interest. “I don’t think most women would object to young Tatton being in their kitchens. Or for that matter in their bedrooms.”

  “Whatever he is onscreen is not how he is in real life. Besides, I like to think women have more sense than that. To answer your question, I did my job and brought him here. Ask Jack where he is.”

  “Jack left the building twenty minutes ago. I can’t believe he abandoned young Gisele for that long.”

  Turning, Casey saw the young woman in one of the seats. Already, there were two men sitting by her. “You think Jack and Gizzy could really make it together?”

  “How much do you think Jack is like the characters he portrays in the movies?”

  “You mean a reckless daredevil who risks his life every time he steps out the door?”

  “That’s about it,” Kit said.

  “I don’t know, but since you’ve conned Jack into spending the summer here, it’s my guess that Gizzy is going to make sure that we find out. Oh, look! There they are now.” Outside in the bright sunlight were Jack and Tate. Jack looked happy, as though he was glad to be alive, but Tate was scowling. “I find it impossible to believe that women like that man.”

  “Think not?” Kit said, then his voice boomed out. “For today’s reading of Elizabeth, the actor Tate Landers will play Fitzwilliam Darcy.”

  For a moment everyone in the building froze in place. It was like a sci-fi movie where a space traveler could stop time. A breeze whipped papers about, a bird called from outside, but inside, the people did not move so much as an eyelash.

  Then, suddenly, it was as though the world started turning again, and the level of activity was like a dozen helicopter blades starting at once. World records were set in speed-dialing as every phone was attacked. It was a wonder the state’s cell towers withstood the stampede.

  “He’s here!” screamed a voice into her phone. That was the only sentence that could be heard clearly. In the next second everyone was excitedly shouting into a phone. The voices of the people, male and female, as they called sisters, cousins, friends, spouses, everyone they knew, reached a decibel level that only a few merfolk could hear.

  Kit looked down at Casey, his eyebrows raised as though to say, “I told you so.”

  She waved her hand toward the entrance. Tate and Jack were now in a fake boxing match. “Boys!” she mouthed to Kit, not even trying to be heard over the cacophony around them. Turning, she started back toward Olivia at the food tables.

  But before she reached her, the room was filled with the sound of cars, trucks, and vans coming to an abrupt, screeching halt. Gravel was sent flying. In seconds, women ran inside, wearing clothes that ranged from dirty jeans to an evening gown with the price tag hanging off the low-cut bodice.

  Minutes later, Jack had disappeared with Gizzy, but Tate was near the far wall with Kit. Around them were several women holding out scripts for Tate to autograph and staring up at him in adoration.

  Kit looked across their heads to Casey with an expression that pointed out that some women did indeed like Tate.

  Casey gave an exaggerated shrug. “Who can explain taste?” she seemed to reply.

  “We’re closing the food service down.” Casey was standing by the tables. “Let people help themselves.”

  “Are you leaving?” Olivia asked.

  “No. You and I are going to see the show.” Casey rummaged inside a grocery bag under the table. “I sent Josh out for these.” She pulled out two big bags of popcorn. “I thought that maybe there’d be fireworks when Kit announced who would help with the auditions, but this beats all my expectations. You and I are going to watch this fiasco in comfort.”

  “Surely with an actor like Tate Landers, things will run smoothly.”

  “Ha!” Casey said. “As far as I can piece together, Kit has used charity to shame the guy into performing. But Landers has made it clear that he doesn’t want to do it. If these Elizabeths are half as bad as the Lydias this morning, I want to see his distaste and arrogance.”

  Olivia was looking at her in shock. “What in the world did that young man do to make you dislike him so much?”

  “Let’s see. Where do I begin? Bawled me out for sitting in my own house. Told Jack he thought I wasn’t pretty enough for him. Broke into my house and ate one of the pies I made for my friends. And if all that weren’t enough, I think he did something in my bedroom that made him take his shirt off and throw it onto my roof. Is that enough reason to dislike him?”

  “I should say so!” Olivia said. “Come on, let’s go and watch, and if he does a bad job we’ll throw popcorn at him.”

  “Just so it isn’t a pie. He’d like that too much.”

  Laughing, they went down the aisle to take seats by Kit at his desk.

  The walls were lined with women who wanted to try out for Elizabeth, each one wearing varying degrees of fear and hope on her face. There was a two-page printout of the scene they were to use for the auditions, where Darcy says he wants to marry Elizabeth in spite of the fact that she is totally unsuitable to be his wife.

  “None of them looks like she’d say no to him,” Casey said. “From the way they keep glancing at the curtain, I think they’re all hoping he asks them for real.”

  “I have to say that, even at my age, I was ready to run away with Mr. Landers when he played Heathcliff.”

  “You’ve seen his movies?” Casey asked.

  “Of course. You haven’t?”

  “No,” Casey said. “I’ve only seen him, and that was more than enough.”

  “But shirtless, he is—”

  Casey snorted. “I’ve seen him with clothes and without them, and it’s still no.”

  “How in the world—?”

  “Quiet on the set,” the stage manager shouted, and the curtain went up.

  A young woman Casey had seen around town but didn’t know was sitting at a desk and writing with a quill pen. She had on one of the prop dresses that had been used for the Lydia auditions, and she looked good.

  From the right, Tate walked onto the set—and a collective sigh went through the auditorium. He wore a Regency suit, and from the way it fit it seemed to have been custom made for him. His tight trousers smoothed down over his heavy thighs and into tall boots. A vest clung to his flat stomach, and a black j