“We’d better head inside before the clouds really open up,” I said, happy to have the distraction.
Without waiting for him to answer, I got up and ran to the house, up the stairs and to my room.
*****
THAT EVENING, AFTERfinishing with his trotting in the rain scene, Ricky came to find me in the drawing room. Still damp, with his hair plastered to his head, he came to me, laughing. He was clearly pleased with himself.
“Did you have a chance to see me?”he said, excited like a boy who’d hit a homerun during a baseball game.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t. I’d hoped to see you, but I had scenes of my own to work on.”
He shrugged. “That’s okay.”
“How’d it go?”
“Thanks to you, everything went great. I was great. We did a few takes, you know...from this angle and that. Too much rain, not enough rain. My hair’s out of place and looking wonky. Things like that.On one of the takes a splattering of mud came out of nowhere and smacked me in the face.”
I laughed at the visual.
“Needless to say, they had to clean me up a bit then get me back on that horse. Yep. I’m quite proud of myself.”
“As you should be.”
“Keely couldn’t stop complimenting my regal stance atop that horse. And it wasn’t even Buster. It was a whole new horse. One I’d never met before. But I kept cool, and everything went as it should. Even the rain cooperated in the end. Can you believe that it stopped just moments after Keely called ‘cut’?”
“You seem to be on a winning streak.”
He pulled a chair up close and sat across from me, drying his hair with the small towel in his hands. His damp shirt clung to his skin, his muscles fully on display. He looked better than he ever had.
“Careful not to get a chill,” I warned.
“No chance of that. I’m all heated up inside.”
“Good.”
“Did you hear the great news?”he said as he set the towel down.
“We have an extra week to shoot the movie?”
“Don’t count on that. No. Matthew and Susie.”
The blood drained from my face as I stared at him. I’d seen the ring. I’d felt that initial sting. But I’d also sensed a certain reticence from Matthew, as if something was holding him back from actually giving the ring to Susie.
Despite the million-pound ring, I clung to the faint hope that this proposal simply wouldn’t be.
“They’re getting engaged, Darling. They’re getting engaged.” He seemed disappointed by my lack of enthusiasm. “I thought this was the type of thing girls got all excited about.”
“I’ve seen them together a lot lately. But it still seems rather sudden, don’t you think?”
He shrugged. “I’m happy for Susie. She deserves a guy like Matthew. She has a certain air about her and marrying a somebody like Matthew, you know, an aristocrat of sorts...as close to royalty as she’ll ever get...”He let out an amused snort. “In a way, she’ll become royalty herself...at least on a small scale.”
It was one punch in the gut after another. I couldn’t stand it anymore. If he continued to talk, continued to go on and on about the loving couple, I would throw up on him.
“Seeing them so happy together, it really makes me think,” he went on, oblivious to my discomfort. “I’d like to find the same happiness that Susie has found.”
“What are you saying?”I said with a dry smile. “You want to marry Matthew?”
He looked at me with a straight face then burst out laughing. “That’s not exactly what I had in mind. No, I was thinking of you. Of you and me. Susie is happy with her aristocratic Brit, and I’d like to settle down with my own British honey.”
