Away From the Spotlight (54 page)

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to make you feel that you couldn’t share this part of your life with me.  You can, you know.”

“I do
now
.”

Will handed his keys to the valet attendant at the base of a long staircase that led to the grand entrance of the stately home. 
Will
kissed me before
leading me through the large open doors
.

I leaned over to ask as we walked inside, “Out of curiosity, why is the wrap party here?”

“I think he likes to show off his house.”

Our host was standing in the foyer with his elegant wife, greeting the arriving guests with
a nod since he had
a cigar in one hand and a drink in the other.  As we a
pproached him
, he made a particular effort to s
peak to
Will. 

“Well done, Will.  Well done,” he said.  He put his cigar in his mouth and pulled out another one to hand to Will.

“Thanks,” Will said
,
a little embarrassed
,
and I was curious as to why.

When Will
introduced me
, o
ur host and
then
his wife kissed me on both cheeks.

As we walked away, I whispered in Will’s ear, “He seems to really like you.”

“I guess so.”

“What was he saying ‘well done’ about then?”

“You.”

“What?”

“I made the mistake of telling someone about my plans for us.  It got around pretty quickly.”

“So they all know we’re engaged?”

“Yes.”

I really hoped that no one would make a big deal about it tonight.  I didn’t want to be the focus of attention at all, particularly not in th
at
august crowd.

To the left of the foyer of the great house was a
large rectangular
room that likely
was
originally meant to be a ballroom.  There were paned doors at the far end of the room that opened onto a terrace. 
B
eyond the terrace,
there were
massive tents over
the grounds to the side of the house
decorated
with twinkling lights
,
white cloth-covered
tables
with floral center pieces,
and
ornate
chairs
surrounding the tables.

Everywhere you looked, there were people.  Although I imagined that a
film
crew could be quite large, I was still amazed by the size of the crowd, even though I kn
e
w that it was multiplied by
guests of the cast and crew
.

As we headed through the crowd, I was amazed at how popular Will was.  We stopped every few feet as we were greeted by both cast and crew.  Will seemed to be on equal terms with
everyone
. 
That didn’t
surprise
me
.  There was a lot of backslapping and a few hugs
when
Will introduced me as his fiancée.  I tried to pay attention, but there was no way I was going to
remember
all the names.

It took us quite a while to make
it across the crowded ball room and out to the terrace. 
The terrace
wasn’t as large as the one where we had gotten engaged, but I could tell that Will was reminded of that day as I was. 
Despite the crowd, we walked over to the railing overlooking the grounds and kissed almost like we had the day we were engaged.
  We leaned away from each other to find a lot of people staring and I blushed.

Although I felt a little shy and out-of-place, I
enjoyed myself
.  I learned a little bit about
All Castles Are Grey
and it sounded like
an Oscar-caliber film.  Everyone talked about how
excellent
Will’s performance was and they appeared to mean it.  When he would receive these compliments, he would respond, “I was inspired,” and
would
look at me.

Later, when we finally sat down at a table
under the tents
with
others from the
principal cast, I leaned over to Will and said, “So I inspire you to be a dork, huh?”

Will laughed.  “I guess you could say that. 
A
ctually, you inspired me because I want you to be
as
proud of me as I am of you.”

“I
am
proud of you. 
I’m marrying you aren’t I?”

“Yes, and I couldn’t be happier.”  He took my hand and squeezed it.

We stayed
l
ate that night at the party
, slow dancing to the romantic music into the wee hours.  It
was our
last night in England together and neither of us wanted it to end.

I was sad and quiet
on
the
morning
that
I was going to have to return to reality.  I was pretty much packed and ready to go so there wasn't much I had to do before lea
ving.  Although Will had
packed
somewhat
before I returned to England, he had a few things to add. 
While he did that,
I sat in the living room alone with my thoughts, sav
or
ing the memories of my time with Will.

We
plann
ed
on dropping
Will’s
car off at his parents and having lunch there before we had to be at the airport for our four o'clock flight.

As we walked through the large crowd of paparazzi on our way to the car, we were asked questions
about our
engage
ment
and when we planned on getting married.  Either my attempts to hide my ring didn't work or the information somehow
got
out.  I figured
I
would
buy
a paper at the airport and find out what happened.  In any event, we didn't answer the questions as we
slowly made our way to the car.

Will and I were both quiet in the car on the ride to Shepperton. 
I worried about what lay ahead for us.  England had been too perfect.  I knew I shouldn't borrow trouble, but I had always believed that this was
all too good to be true. 
How will
we survive the paparazzi in the U.S.?  How w
ill
we survive what was likely to be a brutal work schedule for me as I had to prove myself at my firm?  How wer
e we going to survive the three-
month
separation for the
Midnight 4
location shoot
?  When we mapped out our life together, would we find that we wanted the same things?
These were the questions that were
nagging at me
on the ride to Shepperton.

Every once in a while during the drive, Will would grab my hand
,
look over
, and
smile at me in an
attempt to cheer me.  I
tried to respond
appropriately
, but neither of us engage
d
in
much
conversation.  I imagined that he was worried about the fact that our engagement
was now public
and what we had to look forward to
upon our return to
L.A.

When we arrived at Will's parents
’
ho
me
, I tried to put up a cheerful front for them.  I didn't want them to think that I was anything but blissfully happy at my engagement
to their son
.
  W
hen Margaret greeted us, I smiled brightly as she gave me a very warm welcome.  Iain joined us shortly thereafter with a similarly warm welcome.
Margaret was very excited to show us something and asked us to be seated in the living room
.

"I have an engagement present for you.  It's not ready yet, but I am too excited not to tell you about it now.  I have commissioned a local artist to create a painting of a p
hoto
I have of the Thames at Shepperton."
 
She showed us the picture.  It was very scenic.  "I thought I would send it to you in California so that you would have a reminder of us here."

I realized at that moment that Margaret must have recognized that Will would not be returning to London to live permanently.

"It's beautiful.  What a wonderful gift.  Thank you."  I loved the thoughtfulness and effort that went into the gift.  It must have shown in my eyes because when I looked at Will, he looked like he couldn't be happier about
the fact that it made me happy.

"Thank y
ou, Mum.
"  Will hugged
his mother.  I followed suit.

Margaret
b
eamed when she realized how happy she had made us. "I don't imagine I will
be able to send
it to you for a while, but I wanted you to plan for it when you start looking for a place to live together in L.A.
”

I hadn't thought about that. 
What
are
we going to do when we g
e
t back to L.A.?  W
ill
we continue to live in the Palisades with Stephen and Colin? 
Do
I get my own place until we g
e
t married?
  These added to all the
other
questions I had been
contemplating
of on
the
way
to Shepperton
.  I was a planner.  It went against the grain
not
to have dealt with these details.  I knew I had to
relax
though.  I had only been engaged a few days.
I pushed aside these though
ts as we got up to have lunch.

Over l
unch
,
Margaret
started to venture into wedding planning territory and I wasn't ready for that yet.  Will saved me on a number of occasions by changing the subject.  Margaret
was tenacious though and
kept returning to the subject. 
The discussion was finally interrupted when the car
arrived to take us on the
short journey
to Heathrow.

In the end, all I could agree to was that we would do something both in California and in London.  Margaret seemed happy
with a partial victory for now.

Arriving at the airport,
W
ill and I
met up with Pam at the
airline
check-in
counter and
then
made our way
together
through security to
ward
the
First Class L
ounge.

I excused myself
from Will and Pam
for a moment
and
venture
d
into one of the shops in the terminal with the excuse that I wanted mints.  I actually went to look at the papers and, sure enough, a picture of Will and
me
w
as
on the front cover
of a tabloid
under the caption, “Will MacKenzie Engaged.”  I didn’t open it or buy it
,
but
,
in keeping w
ith my alibi
, I
bought a roll of mints.
  I didn’t
mention to
Will
what I had seen
.

Will found out sooner rather than later
as c
opies of
the
tabloid in question were
sitting on
a few
empty seats
in the
lounge
and
were hard to miss
.  I
couldn’t help but notice
the
defeat
ed look
in
Will’s
eyes after he s
aw
our picture and the caption.  He must have decided that he would not let it get to him for my sake because I could see
the
effort
he made to
chang
e
his expression to a happy one.