After demonstrating for a few minutes more, Sarah invited them all to take a turn sewing the binding to the back of the quilt. Dylan volunteered to go first, unexpectedly and so eagerly that everyone laughed from surprise. The usual conversation and teasing and banter broke out as they watched him have a go at it, the needle like a tiny sliver pinched between his broad, weathered fingers. Julia watched Paige surreptitiously as the younger woman took her turn, relieved to see her enjoying herself, the morning’s dreadful revelation apparently forgotten for the moment.
The company had finished binding two sides of the Chandelier quilt when delicious aromas began drifting into the ballroom from the banquet hall. At noon, Gretchen praised them for their very good work and announced that after lunch, they would reconvene at the quilting frame. “You can spend the rest of the day quilting the Nine-Patch if you wish, and part of tomorrow morning too,” she told them.“Thanks to this morning’s lesson, you’ll know how to bind your quilt when you finish it back home.”
“You mean at Julia’s home,” Olivia said, tossing a grin in her direction. “Hope you have a quilting frame, because you’re playing hostess again.”
“I’ll borrow one from the props department,” Julia replied.
“I can help with that,” said Louis. “I have a key.”
“And I have a truck,” said Dylan.
“Youaregoing to ask permission first, right, Miss Julia?” asked Paige, feigning alarm.
“Of course,” said Julia innocently as the company filed out of the classroom. “That was the plan all along.”
“And yet a heist would be so much more fun,” said Olivia, sighing.
Chef Anna’s lunch buffet was another culinary triumph, but Julia barely tasted a morsel. She wasn’t seated at Paige’s table, but she was close enough to overhear when Paige’s cell phone rang. She watched uneasily as Paige quickly rose and hurried into the foyer, the phone pressed to her ear. Louis hurried after her.
It was surely Paige’s agent on the line. Julia turned back to her salad and moved it around with her fork, her heart thudding with dread.
When Paige returned, she looked both incredulous and deeply wounded. Louis had his arm around her shoulders as if to bear her up.
“What did your agent say?” asked Ellen. “Did she find out why the director changed his mind?”
“She couldn’t get him on the phone,” said Paige. “Obviously he didn’t want to talk to her. She did hear an awful rumor, though. It’s just a rumor, but she says it’s from a very credible source.”
“What rumor is that?” asked Julia, keeping her voice steady.
Paige inhaled shakily and spread her hands, fresh tears springing into her eyes. “The director spoke to one of the producers ofA Patchwork Life, and that producer urged him to cast someone else.”
“What?” Olivia exclaimed.
“That can’t be right,” said Ellen, shaking her head. “I can’t imagine any of them doing such a thing.”
Paige shrugged and sank into a chair, slumping forward and bracing her hands on her knees. “I can’t either. I thought they were happy with my performance in the season five finale. Why would they have signed me for season six if they weren’t?”
“Actually, I’m the one who signed you for season six,” said Ellen. “But Paige, I promise you, none of our producers have ever expressed any dissatisfaction with you in my hearing, not once, not ever.”
Paige’s bleak expression told them that this was no consolation. “Then why ruin my chance to land this role? They hardly know me. Why interfere?”
“I think a better question is ‘Who?’?” said Olivia, eyes narrowing.
As the outraged company debated who among the studio executives could have done such a terrible thing, and why, Julia braced herself for their condemnation—until she realized that they had forgotten she was one of the executive producers. She held perfectly still, willing herself into invisibility, as other names were brought up and voices rose in indignation and anger. Then she chanced to look across the circle and her gaze fell on Lindsay, who also stood in silence, regarding her with stunned uncertainty.
Thoroughly wretched, but unwilling to let someone else take the blame for her mistake, Julia waved her hands for their attention. “It wasn’t any of them,” she said, and when no one looked her way, she raised her voice to be heard over the din. “Listen to me. I said, it wasn’t any of them.”
The company fell silent and turned to look at her. “How would you know that, Julia darling?” asked Nigel.
She took a deep, steadying breath. “Because it was me.”
16
“I’m the executive producer who spoke to Stephen Deneford,” Julia confessed as her friends and colleagues stared at her, stunned and disbelieving. “But it didn’t happen the way Paige’s agent said.”
“Whatever you said, it obviously wasn’t good,” said Olivia sharply.
“I just—I said Paige is a lovely person and an extremely talented actor and she’s been a wonderful addition to thePatchworkcast. Deneford asked me if I’d have any qualms about casting her as a lead in a movie, if there were any red flags he should know about. I told him of course not, and that he’d be lucky to get her.” Julia cast a beseeching look around the circle of appalled and angry faces. “I swear that’s what I said.”
