Invisible(52)
Fred Warner had come from New York for a few days to watch the shooting of the film, and was happy with the way it was going. Antonia had no complaints, she was the most un-diva-like actress he had ever met.
“That’s because I’m not an actress,” she teased him when he complimented her. “I’m a screenwriter trapped in the life of an actress.” He laughed. She never let him or Hamish forget that she had other aspirations, and acting wasn’t her dream. But she was good at it nonetheless, and Fred was impressed by the time he left.
When they wrapped in September, Fred asked her what her plans were, and she said she was going to do some writing while Hamish was involved in post-production.
The night he finished post-production in November, he came home with a boyish grin and put a package on the table. The box was about the size of a shoebox, and she was excited to open it, and found another box inside the first one. She kept opening until the fifth box, and had a small black velvet box in her hand. She looked up at him with wide eyes. She hadn’t expected anything from him. He dropped to one knee next to her as she opened it and saw a beautiful antique oval fifteen-carat diamond ring nestled in the box. She looked at him with tears in her eyes.
“Antonia, will you marry me?” There had been no one to ask except Antonia herself. She’d had no further contact with her father and doubted she would again. So he asked her, and she whispered “Yes,” and put her arms around him and pressed him to her, as he stood up and held her tightly in his arms, and then put the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly, as though it had been made for her. It was an exceptionally pretty stone, with lovely lights in it despite the antique cut. It was French, made by Cartier at the turn of the last century.
Hamish was double her age now, she was twenty-two, and he was turning forty-five. The press rapidly caught on when they saw the ring, the next time they went out together, and their engagement was announced. She had called Jake and Lara to tell them as soon as he gave her the ring. And when she saw news of it in the papers, she wondered at times if her mother read about her in the press and if she was proud of her. She had no way of knowing.
Lara told Brandon when she got the call, and he made no comment. His heart was hardened against Antonia, and took no pleasure in the news of her engagement.
Hamish and Antonia got married in a tiny chapel in London, in secret with twenty close friends around them, and they had their simple wedding dinner at a friend’s home, in order to avoid the press. She would have liked to have Lara and Jake there, but it would have created a problem with her father if Lara came. And Antonia didn’t want him there. And Jake had a small part on a daytime soap on TV, and couldn’t get away. It all went off beautifully, and they went to Paris for their honeymoon and stayed at the Ritz.
Her wedding ring was a plain, narrow gold band. She loved the simplicity of it, sometimes she just stared at it. She was still stunned by the turns her life had taken, and in each case what had led her to the next step. She felt at peace and no longer worried about the future, and wasn’t haunted by the past. Hamish had made up for everything that had happened to her. She tried not to think about her father. His bitterness had poisoned him, and she felt sorry for Lara, living with him.
Hamish dove into a stack of scripts when they got home from Paris. He was looking for something for her. He was thrilled with the way the film with her supporting role had turned out, and hoped she’d win an award for it. But he was hungry to start a new project, and finally found one in January. It was a screenplay that had been adapted from a book he had read and loved, and he thought the adaptation had been well done.
He contacted the author’s agent, and found that it was available to option, and he had Antonia read both the book and the screenplay while he negotiated a price. There was a wonderful role in it for her as a young wife in Victorian times, struggling for a voice of her own, which she achieves by writing a book in secret under a pseudonym. The book becomes a bestseller and her husband leaves her at the end of the novel. The movie was full of her conflicts and struggles, and it spoke to Antonia. She was excited at the prospect of playing the part, which was why Hamish had picked it among all the others. He thought Antonia would play the young wife brilliantly. It was a character she understood. The young woman in it was from an aristocratic family and under tremendous pressure to follow tradition, stay in her place, and remain silent. In a way, not so different from Antonia’s struggles with her father, although for different reasons.
He was able to buy the option for the screenplay, and began putting together a cast. The project moved quickly, and was scheduled to begin shooting in August. Antonia kept busy writing until then. Jake had just gotten a small part in a Broadway play, and she was excited for him too.
She worked with her drama coach again to prepare for the part, and put a great deal of thought and historical research into it. She was enjoying acting more than she had thought she would, and her writing meant a great deal to her too.
* * *
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By the time they began shooting the film at a chateau in France in the countryside, Antonia knew the main character like her own heart and soul, and Hamish and the other characters brought out a depth of feeling that she didn’t know was in her. Only Hamish wasn’t surprised. He still said that she was a born actress with a special gift.
And when Jake’s play folded in September after a short run, he flew over for a few days to visit and watch her on the set. He was enormously impressed too, and when they ate a dinner of bread and cheese and paté one night, while Hamish was checking the dailies, he questioned her about the direction her career was taking. She had been so adamant about not being an actress and now it was the whole thrust of her work.