‘Sorry.’ Her amber eyes were filled with sincerity and his shoulders relaxed at the sight.
‘It’s OK.’ He shook his head, regretting his loss of temper.
Upstairs, in the hall, the rest of the cast exchanged sly smiles, having heard the exchange. It was blatantly obvious Emma brought out the best in Felix. Polly was awaiting her cue to enter the kitchen. Once Emma scurried back up, Felix called ‘action!’ and she made her way down the stairs to make her entrance.
‘Morning, Lady Scarlett,’ curtsied the maid.
‘Morning, Jilly,’ she replied, then turned to the basket on the table. ‘Is that a fresh delivery?’
‘Yes, m’lady, it was the last order cook made,’ said a tearful Jilly.
Lady Scarlett’s eyes narrowed in thought.
‘Hmm, when did cook make the order?’ she questioned.
‘Oh, err… I’m not rightly sure, m’lady.’
‘Think, Jilly, it’s important,’ urged Lady Scarlett, leaning on the kitchen table.
‘Could this be a clue, m’lady?’ asked the awestruck maid.
‘It certainly could be,’ came the reply, as the camera closed in on Polly’s face.
‘And cut!’ exclaimed Felix.
At last they all gave a sigh of relief and made their way up into the hall to get a drink.
‘Naughty you,’ chided Polly gently to Emma, whilst making herself a cup of tea.
‘I know!’ hissed Emma. ‘I can’t believe I forgot to put the coffee machine out of sight.’
‘Glad it wasn’t one of the crew,’ replied Polly, ‘Felix would have gone ballistic.’
Emma gave a roguish look, but didn’t comment. She wasn’t really sure how to play Polly any more. Whilst now knowing who ‘the mole’ was likely to be from Felix, she still felt a little dubious revealing too much about her relationship with him. It was personal, after all. Instead, Emma changed tack and moved the conversation onto her singing the theme song for the drama.
‘That’s amazing!’ trilled Polly, truly pleased and impressed. ‘I know it’s going to sound fabulous with your voice.’
‘I hope so,’ replied Emma modestly.
‘Oh come on! It can’t fail but be a hit,’ Polly said sincerely.
Felix joined them, smiling at overhearing the tail end of the conversation. He was super proud of Emma and wanted the world to know how talented his girlfriend was.
‘Emma was just telling me about her singing the theme song,’ said Polly, facing him in delight.
‘I know,’ he nodded, ‘and she absolutely nailed it.’ The admiration in his voice was evident. He put an arm round Emma and gave her a quick squeeze. Again, this caused one or two side glances among those nearby witnessing the act of intimacy. Polly decided to come straight out with it. She was growing tired of all this namby-pamby, pussyfooting around.
‘So, are you two an item, or what?’
Emma looked a touch taken aback and remained speechless. Felix, however, took full control of the situation effortlessly.
‘Yes. We are,’ he stated with force, a little too loudly for Emma’s liking. She’d been at pains to keep their relationship on the quiet so far, but asked herself, why? Felix certainly wasn’t staying hush-hush about it. The opposite in fact. She looked up into his eyes and grinned happily. Then, on impulse, reached up to kiss his lips. There, that showed them. Nobody could be in any doubt now.
