Chapter Eleven

Bethany was going too and she waited until Seth got in the back seat and then climbed in. He tried to get her to go first but she resisted. There was a man already sitting in the front seat of the Jeep. He turned around to talk with them as they got in.

“Hi Seth; got a full day ahead of us.” He looked at Bethany. “Hi. Sorry, we haven’t met. I’m Jonathan Barry.”

He smiled at her, obviously appreciative of her looks.

Bethany never really noticed this stuff when she was working. She did catch the pointed look Seth gave Jonathan.

“This is Bethany. She’s my personal trainer.”

Bethany nodded at Jonathan Barry.

He grinned at them both, in turn. “It seems a tad unusual for a personal trainer to come on set.” His tone of voice was laden with amusement, interest, and innuendo.

Bethany smiled at him in a professional and friendly way.

“Maybe to the untrained eye, Mister Barry, but I need to see what Mister Carbery does physically on set, in order to write him a valuable program of fitness.”

Jonathan Barry raised his eyebrows at Seth, who smiled and shrugged as if he was an innocent party in the said fitness regime.

They talked about the film shoot.

* * * *

As the vehicle turned the bend in the road and the set came into view, Bethany gasped. There, before her lay what looked like a real medieval castle surrounded by a moat. In various places dotted around the fields were other sets—a village street, a strange half-town with fronts and no backs. Another castle, rather slighted with great holes in the walls, loomed further away. A camp of medieval style tents with colored pennants and banners flying in the breeze was a little further away, Bethany saw people standing around there.

They drew up some way off at a marquee. Both Jonathan and Seth got out of the Jeep as the driver turned off the engine. Bethany looked around at the sets, which were even more intriguing up close. Seth turned and reached out a hand to help her, when she jumped down on the other side of the vehicle and walked quickly around to his side.

He nodded slightly at her and she followed him into the marquee.

He walked straight to a deck chair and sat down. A motherly woman came along with a painter’s palette in her hands and a belt around her ample waist, containing slots with brushes. She and Seth exchanged greetings.

Bethany watched as the woman skillfully and very quickly put makeup on Seth’s face. Bethany frowned, puzzled. She couldn’t see much difference, just a hint of dark shadows under his eyes, eyeliner, and his lips were a tone more pink.

Another woman came along and ruffled Seth’s hair forward with some kind of setting product she sprayed onto her hands. That was it. He stood up and walked to Bethany.

“Wardrobe,” he said and smiled.

Bethany followed him further into the marquee where it seemed all hell had broken loose. People frantically dashed up and down rows of cloaks and outfits. A young man with his long hair held back by a red, polka dot Alice band came to Seth at a run. She noticed he wore an all-in-one denim jump suit.

“Black outfit in the first cubicle, Seth.” He looked Bethany up and down with a calculating expression.

“Sorry. I have no instructions about you.” He turned to get help for her.

“No, it’s okay. I’m not an actor,” Bethany told him as she fished her pass out of her pocket and waved it at him.

The young man nodded and walked off. Bethany watched him go and then looked around. In that short space of time, Seth vanished. It occurred to her if anyone really wanted to harm him, they easily could.

Bethany thought about what Jake said. She thought about the letters. Both Seth and the makeup artist received the same letter. She recalled the exact wording. You are close to the end. I will get you when you least expect it.

It sounded menacing enough, but for them both to get it and have no close connection was weird. Bethany wondered how Jake was feeling. She needed him to investigate. She wished she had brought her netbook.

She looked along the side of the marquee where a rail was set up. Curtains on silver rings divided the area into what the wardrobe assistant referred to as cubicles. Seth appeared from behind a curtain close by and Bethany broke into a smile.

He was dressed head-to-foot in black. His knee length boots and even his weapon scabbard was black. His already lovely green eyes, enhanced by makeup, looked a bright, flashing, emerald. He walked quickly to her.

Bethany scrutinized his eyes, noticing the very fine line of black kohl along the bottom lash. “Seth, your eyes.”

He nodded and smiled so that she needn’t finish speaking.

“Contacts…I just put them in. Well, I didn’t; Paul did. I can’t do it.” He grinned and waved a hand at an older man who was going into another cubicle carrying a white tray with little plastic boxes and small bottles rattling around. Disposable gloves stuck out of his back pocket.

Bethany smiled. “It’s like a factory—put the person in one end, another comes out at the end of the line.”

Seth nodded. “Yeah. Okay, I’m reporting to the AD now and that’s it. You won’t be able to come on set with me. I’m in the main castle and you’ll be over a hundred yards away.”

Bethany nodded and disappointment washed over her.

Seth’s features softened.

“I would love to kiss you right now.”

She smiled. “I’d like to kiss you.”