Bryn gulped down her coffee and accepted the hand that gripped hers to lead her across the room.
Somewhere during the next hour she became convinced that he was a sadist, and that his drumming was a ritual to summon the devil, who rewarded him with superhuman energy and endurance.
They rehearsed on the staircase for an hour; then the other dancers arrived, and they rehearsed for another hour. She was able to breathe for ten minutes when he donned an infantry uniform so that they could take the shots of him playing on the stairway in the thick mist rising from a large block of dry ice.
Then they were dancing again. Shots were taken of Mick at the piano, Andrew with an old acoustic guitar and Perry with a fiddle. Bryn loved the fiddle music, but she only heard it for a few minutes, because then Tony led her away because he wanted to see what would happen if they tried working six steps up the stairway instead of five.
It felt awfully high for her to trust someone enough to be able to fall back blindly into his arms.
Too high.Bryn looked up the staircase and swallowed, trying to allay her fear. Why did the idea of heights make her so shaky and breathless? She couldn't fall in front of Lee; she just couldn't.
"Is it too high? I promise you that I can catch you, but if it makes you uneasy, say so."
"No..." she murmured. It was obviously a lie.
"Bryn--" He was touching her, she realized. His hands were on her shoulders, and he was looking into her eyes, not unkindly at all. "A phobia about heights isn't anything to worry about. We can go back Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
down a step."
For a moment she was caught by the tawny gold of his eyes, feeling horribly ashamed of herself. After last night, after the things she had said and the way she had acted, he was showing her both sensitivity and kindness. I could care for him, she thought. I could really care for him....
She gave herself a little shake. "No, the six steps will be fine." She hesitated, slipping from his hold and looking up the stairway again. "I'll be all right. But...thankyou."
At least she had seen his arms in action. She knew they were strong.
The gentling she had felt toward him faded as the morning slipped by and his energy continued to be boundless. He didn't ask of others what he wasn't willing to do himself, but in a matter of hours her feet, legs--and everything else--were hurting.
Bryn rehearsed with Lee, then with the other dancers. It seemed to be never-ending.
Somewhere in midst of all the action she had a chance to whisper to Barbara. "I think he's trying for the perfect crime: mass asphyxiation of twenty dancers!''
Barbara laughed, but then Barbara hadn't been required to give up her break time to work on the stairway. "He is a perfectionist, isn't he?"
Perfectionist, hmmm! Bryn thought. It was onlynoon.
But her time was coming soon.Very soon. Byone o'clockthe dancers and cameramen had been released. Bryn stood on the lawn beside the golf course of theTimberlane Country Club and stared across the velvety green expanse to thewhitecapped mountains beyond.
Bryn had loaded her Canon with a roll of 1000 ASA film, and now she checked the view she had just approved through the lens. The setting was good. All the band's equipment was being moved onto the green, and there would be nothing but sky and grass and the mountains and--
And the flaring neon light for the Sweet Dreams hotel, a rather tawdry spot that embarrassed the country club by having the audacity simply to sit on the opposite side of the road.
"Damn!" Bryn muttered. She moved the camera,then moved herself. No matter what she did, the building and the parking lot would show when she took long shots, but she could probably avoid the neon lights. And the hotel would be so far in the background that everything about it would be minuscule.
Bryn sighed. She would have to warn Lee. Then it would be on his shoulders....
"How's it look, kid?"
Bryn spun around to smile as Barbara approached her. Barbara never looked ruffled. With her short blond hair, near regal height and perpetual calm, she could come from a laborious dance workout and look as if she had been sitting around drinking mint juleps.
"Pretty good, Barb, but look. Follow that slope down and you'll see the--"
"Ah, yes!The of ' Sweet Dreams hotel. Den of water beds, mirrored ceilings and smutty cable!" Barbara Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
laughed. "Is it really going to be a problem?''
"I don't think so.As long as I don't catch the lights. It will be pretty far in the background, but I thought I ought to warn Lee, and see if he wants to choose a newspo --''
"Oh, no!Bryn, don't do that! The maitre d' is already going crazy because he has that politician who's running for the senate coming in for one of those big money luncheons."
"Barb, you're the one who told me Lee Condor is a perfectionist."
"He is,he is. But you just said the hotel would be completely in the background. Look how far away it is!"