Page 21 of The Girl with the Irish Secret
‘You’d want to be,’ Vi remarked. ‘Sit down and I’ll get some coffee. Or do you prefer tea?’
‘Coffee would be great,’ Leo said. ‘I had a burger and chips in town so don’t bother making me anything to eat.’
‘I wasn’t going to,’ Vi said, laughing. ‘But I could open a packet of ginger snaps if you like.’
‘Amazing,’ Leo said with a glint of laughter in his eyes. ‘I’m touched that you’d do that for me.’
‘Relax there on the sofa while get the coffee and stuff,’ Vi said and went into the kitchen. She was delighted to see Leo again.She had liked him from the start and had been touched by his kindness during the photo shoot. He was the only one of the film crew she felt comfortable with – except for Jack Montgomery, but that felt more like a flirtation she didn’t quite know how to handle. With Jack, she had been excited and slightly nervous, but Leo made her feel completely at ease.
Leo was wandering around the room when she came back with the coffee and biscuits, and turned from the bookcase as she put the tray on the little coffee table. ‘Some great books here,’ he said. ‘I haven’t seen such an eclectic library in a while. Poetry, detective stories, nature books, romance and history. Have you read them all?’
‘No,’ Vi said as she settled on the sofa and pulled her legs up under her. ‘Those are books my sisters left when they moved out. Lily likes detective stories and romance, Rose read a lot of poetry at some stage and Noel, her husband, is the nature and history buff.’
‘And what are you interested in?’ Leo asked as he joined her on the sofa.
‘I read everything,’ Vi said. ‘But I do love a good romantic comedy, I have to confess. And a cosy detective story is great too.’
He nodded. ‘I like that kind of book from time to time too.’
‘I also like a good horror story,’ Vi said. ‘Stephen King and so on. But never before going to sleep.’
‘I know what you mean,’ Leo replied. He leaned forward and studied Vi for a moment. ‘How about doing a horror film? Would you like that?’
Vi giggled. ‘Oh yes, I would. That would be such great craic. How about you? Do you like doing makeup for that kind of movie?’
‘Love it,’ Leo said. ‘Then I can really lay it on. I could make you up like a zombie. Black-rimmed eyes, dark lips and withyour pale skin you’d be perfect. I’d paint a drop of blood beside your mouth too.’
‘That would make me look like a vampire,’ Vi said, laughing again. ‘But hey, why not? That’d be a hoot.’
‘Pity Kathleen didn’t do any of those movies,’ Leo remarked and picked up his mug of coffee. ‘She was mostly in romantic stories.’
Vi nibbled on a ginger snap. ‘Hmm, yes, but she was also in some historical dramas likeJane EyreandA Tale of Two Citiesby Dickens. I thought she was terrific in those. I hope I get to wear some of those costumes in the biopic.’
‘You might,’ Leo said. ‘That was around the time she met Don.’
Vi nodded. She drank her coffee and looked at Leo. ‘If you could go back in time to any period, what would it be?’
‘Oh,’ Leo said, looking thoughtful. ‘Paris in the nineteen twenties, perhaps. Have you seen the Woody Allen movieMidnight in Paris? The guy in that story went back in time and met all those authors and painters. Wouldn’t that be something?’
‘Nah,’ Vi said. ‘I don’t think so. I’d go to London in the sixties. That was a fun period. The music, the clothes – what an amazing time it must have been. Some of those film stars and the musicians, wow.’
‘Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney,’ Leo said. ‘Of course, they’re still alive.’
‘In those days they would have been real rebels, I bet,’ Vi remarked.
‘Maybe we’re better off now, though,’ Leo suggested. ‘The past looks great in movies but I’m sure real life was full of negatives, just like it is for us.’
‘Yeah, I suppose.’ Vi took another ginger snap. ‘But it would be cool to go back and meet Kathleen, I have to say. I’d be ableto ask her a few questions and then get back in the time machine and know exactly how to play her.’
‘Now all you have are the old movies.’ Leo put his mug on the table.
‘I have to watch more of them to get a real feel for her. But there is one thing I will find very difficult,’ Vi said, changing the subject.
‘What’s that?’ Leo leaned back on the sofa, looking at Vi with interest.
‘The smoking. In all those movies, everyone smokes, including Kathleen. It’s as if lighting a woman’s cigarette was a flirty moment.’
Leo grinned. ‘Oh yeah, I bet it was. You get in very close, light the cig and then gaze into her eyes with a smouldering look that says more than a million words. Then she gives a sultry look back and blows out the smoke through those red lips. Very suggestive.’
