Seductive Viennese Whirl (30 page)

"You've never thought of starting it up again?"

"I've thought about it, sure, but it's too much work. A fantasy."

The door opens and McManus comes in, ruddy faced and wrapped in his Barbour jacket. Eva follows, her face aglow. She keeps her mittens on, although the room is pretty warm.

"Morning Kate!" says McManus, sitting down beside me.

"Did you sleep all right?"

"Not really," he says. Join the club. "The mattress was a bit lumpy."

"So sorry about that," says Alex. "But the last time I looked this wasn't the Savoy."

McManus looks uncomfortable. "Don't think I'm not grateful. I am. I'm surprised you didn't kick me out after I whacked you one."

Alex shrugs. "Forget about it. Coffee?" Eva slides in next to McManus.

"Yes please."

While Alex is pouring it out McManus says, "Actually, I could murder a drop of your Veltliner, if there's any going."

"Me too," I say, because I'm more nervy than ever, what with all the coffee I've drunk. I need to take the edge off my jumpiness.

Alex pulls two bottles out of the fridge. He walks over to the pile of dirty glasses in the sink, rinses one under the tap and hands it to McManus.

"I'll do them," I say, getting up quickly, because I feel guilty for having done nothing around the place, apart from complain about the state of his furniture and drink his wine.

While the men are getting acquainted, Eva sidles over to me at the sink. She starts drying the glasses, which is highly suspicious because I've never seen Eva dry anything before. The weird thing is she keeps her mittens on. She's making me even more nervous because I keep thinking she's going to drop a glass.

"You're in a good mood. I take it everything's back on with McManus?"

"You could say that."

"What about his little fling?" I say, raising an eyebrow.

"You mean Lola? That was nothing. They're just friends."

"They say the camera never lies," I say.

"He was just rubbing suntan lotion into her back. And anyway, you know as well as I do he's not exactly stud of the year. I can't imagine anything actually
happened
."

She's getting a bit uptight so I decide a change of subject is a good idea. "How in God's name did McManus trace you?"

A glass slips from her grasp. I catch it just in time. Her cheeks are all flushed with excitement.

"Apparently, he popped into the flat a couple of weeks ago, while I was at work, to collect some shoes he left under my bed – so he says anyway. He still had the key to the flat. I forgot to ask for it back. Well, of course, he found some letters from the Count, and flew into a rage about it. He's been stewing about it ever since."

"And that's - what, a good thing?"

"Oh, very much so."

She nudges me.

"What about you two then? I counted the bedrooms, and it looks like you and Alex have been getting rather cosy."

"Don't be an ass. We slept in separate beds."

"But you like him don't you? Don't pretend you don't. So why don't you just go for it for once?"

She's making me feel all squirmy and uncomfortable. How can I explain that it would never work out, not in a million years. I shrug. "Just because."

"Because he's not Ben?"

I grab the glasses and take them over to the table.

"Oh Eva," says Alex. "I just remembered, I didn't pay a doctor's bill that was sent here for some hospital treatment you received. Now, where the heck did I put it? God only knows why it was sent here." He goes over to a chest of drawers and starts rifling through them. "Ah here it is."

"I'll pay it, of course," McManus says, taking it from him. "But I can't believe you never told me you were hospitalised." He puts his arm around her waist and pulls her down beside him on the bench. "What happened?"

"Jeez, I don't really remember. I fainted in the toilet and when I came to I had a tube in my arm."

"Kate?"

"It was food poisoning I think. They just put her on a drip for a bit. But it did mean we missed our flight."

"Yes, Kate was wonderful," Eva gushes. "And she had to buy us tickets back to London. Oh bugger, I promised to pay you back for those, didn't I?"

"I'll take care of that," says McManus, getting out his checkbook. "How much was it for?" I tell him and he starts scribbling away. Thank God McManus is back, I think, feeling very mercenary. The money will make a dent in my Visa debt, at least.

He hands me the check and I kneel down and deposit it in my duffel bag, which is lodged under the table. I'm just pulling out my toiletry bag while McManus says, "You know, I've just had a word with Alex and I think he should damn well supply the wedding with his wine. The cellar at the Schloss is crammed with the stuff apparently."

"Wedding? What wedding?" I say, standing up quickly and banging my head on the underside of the table.

"Mine, dumbo," says Eva, slipping off a mitten to reveal a rock the size of a small Caribbean island.

What with all the tension of last night, and my sleepless night, I burst into tears.

"Oh Eva, that's wonderful," I say, hugging her. And then nothing can stop her. She's rambling on about her wedding plans. I feel all warm and brimming with generosity. I mean, if this doesn't prove love conquers all, what does? I was such a dunderhead to keep trying to set her up with Alex. But even despite all my meddling they still found each other.

Later on, she and McManus traipse upstairs, no doubt to indulge in another five minutes of blissful sex. Alone with Alex, my stomach takes a nosedive.

"I should go to the bathroom and wash my hair," I say, clutching my toiletry bag and scurrying towards the bathroom.

"Actually, that shower's bust. The pipes are a mess. I guess you'll have to wash your hair right here."

"What do you mean?" I say, scanning the kitchen for a shower that I might have overlooked. But there isn't one.

He pulls a stool up to the kitchen table and tells me to sit. I do as he says. I place my toiletry bag on the table and wait.

He fills a jug with hot water and brings it over, along with a bowl. I pour the jug over my head and start lathering up my hair. When I'm sure I can't hear his footsteps anymore I allow myself to relax a bit. I'll just wash my hair and then we'll get out of here. I'm not sure if Alex wants us to stay for lunch. He invited us, but that's only because it's Christmas and you can't exactly kick out a bunch of unwanted guests on Christmas Day, now can you? Because, despite his hospitality, that's all we are, unwanted guests. I feel like the stupidest person alive, coming all this way to see a Count that didn't exist apart from in the dark recesses of my imagination. And Alex being so nice, it makes it all a thousand times worse, because pretty soon I'm going to have to say goodbye and head back, back to London and my crummy job and the reality of losing Eva. For good. Not that I'm not pleased for her, I am, but, it's just so damned hard to think of the future without her, to think of any future at all. And before I know it, I'm sobbing.

"Are you all right?" It's Alex. Damn. I didn't here him come back into the room.

"Sure," I say brightly. "Got some shampoo in my eyes."

He hands me a towel, staring at me in that disconcerting way of his that makes my skin go unpleasantly tingly, like I'd just been rolling in a bed of nettles.

"Thanks," I say, taking it from him and wiping my eyes. He's screwing the top back on the shampoo bottle. It's that Furrific stuff with the photo of a dog on the front, but he makes no comment.

"Are you finished?"

"God no, I still need conditioner."

"Why don't you just relax, and I'll finish you off?" he says, emptying the bowl of soapy water into the sink.

"Well, okay," I gulp, while he's filling the jug up at the tap and bringing it over, cool as a cucumber, as if washing strange women's hair in his kitchen were a daily occurrence.

And soon I'm bent over the bowl and he's humming away, totally unaware of the sensations he's generating as he rubs the conditioner into my hair. I stifle a sigh as his fingers come to rest at the base of my neck and begin to knead the two knots of excruciating tension there, until they gradually start to unravel. Meanwhile, my whole body is unravelling, so that by the time he's done until I'm as limp as a week old lettuce leaf.

And now his magical fingers are trailing up to my scalp, and starting to work it in small deft circles. More water. He gives my hair a last run through with his fingers before placing a towel on my head. As his forearms brush my back he unwittingly flicks on a little pilot light in my loins.

And then a gust of cold air blasts the room, blowing out the pilot light.

"We must check this place out, my friends," shouts Ravi, holding the front door open to let in Anil, Shamila and the rest of his crew, all bundled up in bright hats and scarves. "If we are to start shooting tomorrow.

"We are all very excited to see so much snow," says Ravi, clapping his hands in ecstasy while the others look morosely out the window at the glittering heaps of white stuff. They look like they'd sell their mother to be back in sweltering Bombay.

"Ah Alex, good sir, could I possibly trouble you to prepare us some vegetable soup? The restaurants in Alpenbach are all shut and we are starving,"

"Sure," says Alex, giving me a raw sexy glance, which makes my insides collapse. "Since I'm going to be busy cooking, why don't you show them round?"

"But my hair's all wet, and besides, I'll get lost."

"Nonsense." As he hands me the keys and explains a bit about the layout of the Schloss I'm plunged into a state of confusion, because, Oh God, this is actually much worse than I expected. What with all that massaging my neck business I'm thinking he might actually be so lonely that he became attracted to the first female specimen that crossed his path. Which happened to be me. Oh shit.

I quash the thought rapidly, and slip between Anil and Shamila, who are warming themselves by the fire. When my hair is partly dry I pull a hat over it.

As I lead them across the snow to the side entrance of the Schloss, Ravi is rambling on about his plans for filming
Captive Heart
, but all I can think about is the way Alex's fingers felt stroking my scalp.

"Good news," says Ravi. "
Vienna's Pearl
has now found distribution in the UK."

"Oh, I'm so glad." I try and drag my mind back to what he's saying.

"Since it is in cinemas my bloody phone does not stop ringing. That film star, Lola Hemmings. You know her?"

"A little."

"She keeps calling, says I must give her the part of the evil one in
Captive Heart
. But she is all wrong for it. The only person who can play it is Eva."

"Steady on, she hasn't agreed yet," I say, trying the keys one by one in the keyhole. Finally one opens the door. I flick a switch, which illuminates a long hall. The crew follow us down it, maroon brocade wallpaper, hung with old paintings that have seen better days, and into what must have been the ballroom. It has a balcony running halfway up the wall as Alex described in one of his letters. A stucco pattern of leaves and grapes can still be seen on the walls, and here and there fragments of gold leaf shimmer. The place smelts musty and damp.

"This is quite magnificent," says Ravi, oblivious to the clouds of plaster dust that puff up in front of him at every step. "It will be a most wonderful backdrop to one of the greatest dramas of our times! Now, let us go and look at the magnificent tower."

We all traipse up flight after flight of circular stairs until we are in the room at the top of the tower. While the walls are bare, it seems to be in fairly good repair.

"Oh yes, I can see it now, in its final glory," he gushes. "It will be a perfect ladies' boudoir." Shamila looks unimpressed.

We all traipse back across the snow to our soup. I suppose you could call the soup Christmas dinner, or maybe not, since no one else has mentioned Christmas, because there's too much going on, and because Ravi and his gang obviously don't celebrate it. It's certainly a sharp contrast to the dreary affair I usually have at mum and dads (you know the scene). Last year, while the family was assembled around the table, they asked me the usual questions: Why I'd been stupid enough to let Ben slip through my fingers (I hadn't told them how it all ended, so naturally they assumed it was my fault), and why I didn't own so much as a flat screen TV, never mind a home or a car. I told them it was because I wanted an uncomplicated life, which didn't go down too well. Mum sighed a lot and said, ‘You can't gad about forever. When are you going to settle down, like Laurie?' Was there ever a phrase more deadening to the soul than ‘settle down'? Auntie Ida was there and spent a large part of the day sobbing. She laid into them both, saying they should be grateful they had two beautiful daughters, while she had none (her daughter was killed in a train crash two years back, I told you, right?). And although I felt for Ida, I didn't know where to put myself, what with all that raw emotion. So no, I don't miss Christmas with the family, not at all.

When Eva and McManus have had enough of fondling each other and have come down from the bedroom, Ravi rushes up to Eva and pulls her out of McManus' embrace.

"My dear, I am ready to offer you a marvellous opportunity," he gushes. "Do sit down beside me." She slips in beside him. He waits until she's slurped down a few spoonfuls of soup and then tentatively asks, "You will be in my film, yes?"

"I don't know about that. I can't do any of that singing or dancing you lot go in for," says Eva.

"That will not be a requirement. Yours is a non-musical part, the evil sister. This film will push new boundaries. After this, Indian cinema will never be the same again."

Eva looks at him blankly.

"What do you mean?" I say.

"We will be adding some extra spice."

"You mean porn?" Eva says, dropping her spoon in her soup.

"But my dear, you are insulting me. Ravi does not do porn." He shakes his head adamantly. "To me, the female body is the highest form of art."

"I don't believe this," says Shamila. "I hope you don't think
I'm
going to take my clothes off."