The Girl From Summer Hill (Summer Hill 1)

He picked up a copy of the script, flipped through it, and handed it to Casey. “Let’s do this scene.”

“But this is where Mr. Collins proposes to Lizzy,” Casey said. “Who will play him? Jack?”

“I am wounded,” Jack said. “I can play a loser but ol’ Landers can’t?”

Tate stepped to the edge of the stream and to Casey’s astonishment, he poured handfuls of cold water over his head. He ran his hands over his long hair to slick it down, then his body slumped. When he turned back to them, the handsome hero was gone. In his place was a sleazy man who had a bent back and eyes that moved around a lot. He looked Casey up and down in such a lecherous way that she stepped back from him.

He gave her a creepy little smile and began telling how his patroness, the condescending Lady Catherine de Bourgh, said he must marry so he had chosen Lizzy. “?‘I will overlook your lack of dowry and I will make no demands on your father. And my further concession is that after we are married I will not remind you that your station in life is much inferior to mine.’?”

“My what?” Casey’s upper lip curled into a sneer.

“Psst! ‘You are too hasty, sir,’?” Gizzy quoted.

Casey knew she was in a play, but she couldn’t make herself remember that the odious creature in front of her was a man she was beginning to like. Her delivery of the refusal to marry him showed her revulsion. When he said he knew she didn’t mean her words, she told him again, this time in a tone that was unmistakable.

Tate’s eyes turned cold and seemed to glitter with animosity. He told her that her lack of income, as well as her failure to be a great beauty as her sister was, would ensure that she would never get another offer of marriage from any man.

His words about her sister’s beauty and her lack of proposals hit too close to home. It was as though he was throwing what she’d told him about her personal life back in her face. “Why, you—” She was too angry to be able to think of a clever putdown.

Tate stood up to his full height, picked up her hand, and kissed it.

—

“Did you get that?” Jack whispered to Gizzy.

She looked down at the video on her cellphone. “I did.”

Casey was smiling as she rolled out the pie dough. It had been days since the trip to the estate sale, and it had been a glorious time. She and Tate and Jack and Gizzy had become a happy foursome.

Well, maybe not a real foursome, as there were big differences between the couples. Jack and Gizzy were lovers; Casey and Tate weren’t.

But the discrepancy hadn’t caused problems. When Jack and Gizzy’s physical actions became too much, Tate and Casey would walk away.

They’d all had a very busy few days. Casey had a lot of cooking to do to prepare three meals a day, plus she’d had a children’s party and a dinner for eight to cater.

One afternoon, they’d all crowded into Casey’s kitchen and iced cupcakes. After the cake and snacks were done, Tate helped her put them into his truck and he drove her to the party. He’d stayed in the cab, his head down, while Casey unloaded.

“Is that…?” the child’s mother whispered. Everyone in Summer Hill knew Tate was in town and that he and Casey were the leads in the play.

“Of course not,” Casey said, but she’d never been a convincing liar.

When she slipped into the seat beside Tate, she said, “It’s like being around a criminal on the run from the law.”

“The price you pay. So where to now?”

“Back to the stage, I guess.”

They both groaned. For days, Kit had not seemed able to get over his bad mood, and he’d directed them with scowls and complaints.

It hadn’t helped that Casey was by far the worst actor. She found it nearly impossible to laugh with Tate, then ten minutes later be onstage and treat him with disdain. Even though she’d read Pride and Prejudice a couple of times and had seen every film production, she’d not thought about how oblivious Lizzy was to Darcy’s growing love. Kit’s idea was that Tate had to let the audience see that he was falling for Lizzy.

This meant that every time Casey so much as glanced away, Tate gazed at her with love. When she spoke one of Jane Austen’s famous lines, Tate stared at her blankly, but the second she turned her back, the audience saw Tate’s face soften. Sometimes he smiled in a dreamy sort of way. Other times, his whole body leaned toward her, as though in surrender.

Casey wasn’t supposed to see, but she did. One time she whipped around and saw his eyes so full of warmth and longing that she reached out her hand to him.

“Stop!” Kit yelled. “Acacia, you are not to look back. Lizzy is not to see what Darcy is feeling. You are—”

He broke off because Olivia had put herself in front of Casey. She didn’t say anything, just stood there and glared at him. But that was all it took to make Kit back down.