Victoria Connelly - The Perfect Hero - The perfect summer read for Austen addicts!

How quickly she’d got used to her new life on the coast. She loved waking up to the sound of seagulls. Their raucous cries were the most efficient of alarm clocks and she always tried to get a quick walk along the Cobb before breakfast, taking in the bracing sea air and watching the ever-changing moods of the sea.

She’d bought a map of the area and was learning all the names. To the west of the Cobb was Monmouth Beach and, further along, Pinhay Bay. But her favourite place was still Lyme. She loved the view across Lyme Bay to the great hulk of Golden Cap and, on a very clear day, it was possible to see as far as the Isle of Portland.

There was so much she wanted to see and explore too. All of the places had magical-sounding names like Gabriel’s Ledge and Black Ven along the coast and, inland, villages with names like Wootton Fitzpaine and Whitchurch Canonicorum.

She loved the street lamps along the front in Lyme Regis that were shaped like ammonites. She loved the shiny mud of the harbour which reminded her of the bitterest chocolate and she loved the evenings when the sea and the sky turned the palest pearly blue and it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. In short, she loved everything . But her favourite thing was the Cobb. She’d looked at it and walked along it, photographed it and worshipped it from every angle, admiring the sloping sweep of it, sketching it in her pad over and over again, determining to paint it one day soon. It seemed like a living thing to her and she desperately wanted to capture that energy on paper.

But what she loved most about the Cobb was how welcoming it seemed to be – how everyone could walk there from toddlers with grandparents to the dozens of dogs who came to Lyme with wagging tails and lolling tongues.

It was at the end of a particularly long day of ripping out old shelves and painting walls that there was a knock on the door. Kay had been sitting in the living room at the front of the house. Although it hadn’t been decorated yet, it looked jolly enough with her old sofa and a couple of armchairs and she was already beginning to feel quite at home there.

She’d just been rereading a few of the Lyme Regis pages from Persuasion and wondered who on earth it was calling. She hadn’t been in Lyme long enough to make any friends and she hadn’t yet opened Wentworth House for business. Kay walked down the hallway and unlocked the door. There was a slim woman standing on the step. She looked about forty years old with an unsmiling and careworn face.

‘You are a bed and breakfast, aren’t you?’ the woman asked, desperation in her voice.

‘Well, I guess I am,’ Kay said.

‘Good,’ the woman said. ‘It’s just possible that you could save my life.’

Kay didn’t quite know what to say to that as she’d never saved anyone’s life up to this point but, before she could respond, the careworn woman had invited herself in and was talking ten to the dozen.

‘I’m Teresa Hudson. You’ve probably seen some of my films. Passion of a Lady , Two on a Tower – that sort of thing. I’m a director. We’re making Persuasion here in Lyme and the whole cast and crew are with me. How many rooms do you have?’ she asked, bustling about and poking her head round the door. ‘It’s very small, isn’t it?’

‘Five,’ Kay said. ‘I have five rooms, all en suite.’

‘Five? Twins, double?’

‘Three double, two twin but the twins aren’t quite ready. We’ve been redecorating and I wanted to—’

‘I’ll take them. I’ll take all of them. Doesn’t matter if they’re ready. We’re a bit desperate, you see. We’ve been staying at The Three Palms up the road but a burst pipe’s made a few of us homeless and there’s absolutely nowhere left in town. I’ve got production assistants running up and down the streets hammering on doors. It’s ridiculous. But somebody mentioned this place only it didn’t look very promising from the outside.’

‘Well, I’ve just moved in,’ Kay said, feeling it necessary to explain but annoyed that she had to. This was, perhaps, the rudest woman she’d ever met.

‘We’ll want breakfast and dinner. No lunch. We’ll be eating early and late, okay? Now, let me see the rooms.’

Teresa didn’t bother to wait for Kay to lead her upstairs but made her own way, opening doors and peering inside.

‘Nice,’ she said. ‘Small but nice. Paint smells a bit strong.’

‘We’ve just decorated,’ Kay said. ‘As I explained.’

Teresa nodded and got out her mobile from her jacket pocket. ‘Les, it’s Teresa. I’ve found somewhere. Parking?’ she said. ‘Is there parking?’

‘Not far away,’ Kay said, pointing in the direction.

‘Yes, there’s parking nearby. You know what Lyme’s like.’ There was a pause and Teresa frowned. ‘Well, hurry up and finish eating and then get yourselves down here. Marine Parade. It’s a place called—’ She stopped and looked at Kay with raised eyebrows.

‘Wentworth House,’ Kay filled in.

‘Wentworth House,’ Teresa repeated with a wry smile. ‘I know. It’s fate,’ she said, snapping her phone shut. ‘Right, I’ll choose myself a room.’

Kay watched in total bemusement as her first guest disappeared up the stairs.

‘Extraordinary,’ she said to herself.

Things got a bit chaotic after that. The next time Kay opened the door, she came face to face with a droopy sort of a man who was stubbing his cigarette out in Kay’s new terracotta pot. He didn’t say anything, only nodded and pushed into the hallway where he hollered, ‘TERESA!’

Kay jumped.

‘Les!’ Teresa shouted back, appearing on the landing. ‘Everyone with you?’

‘They’re on their way. I’ve got Gemma, Sophie, Beth and Oli. The others are okay at The Palms.’

‘Their rooms okay?’

Les nodded.

Before Kay had time to hear more, there was another knock on the door.

‘Is this Wentworth House?’ a young woman with a pretty heart-shaped face and blonde curly hair asked.

‘Yes, it is.’

‘I’m Sophie,’ the woman said. ‘Sophie Kerr.’

Kay frowned. She’d heard the name before. Recognition suddenly dawned as she ushered her inside. ‘You were in The Solitary Neighbour !’

Sophie nodded. ‘I was. How sweet of you to remember. That was years ago!’

Kay smiled. The Solitary Neighbour was a gothic Victorian made-for-TV movie – just the sort of thing that Kay lapped up – and Sophie had played the heroine.

‘So you’re in this production of Persuasion now?’ Kay asked, hoping she didn’t sound too star-struck.

‘Henrietta Musgrove,’ Sophie said. ‘The boring sister who doesn’t get to jump off the Cobb and nearly break her neck in the name of flirtation.’

Kay laughed.

‘To be honest, I don’t mind. At least I don’t have to risk an injury doing stunts like Beth will be.’

‘Beth?’ Kay asked.

‘Somebody mention my name?’ a voice called and Kay and Sophie looked round to see the red-haired actress entering the bed and breakfast.

‘BETH JENKINS!’ Kay all but screamed.

Beth batted her eyelashes. ‘Oh, a fan!’ she said.

‘I can’t believe it! I just can’t believe it. I’ve just been reading Persuasion – look!’ Kay ran into the sitting room and came out holding the book.

‘Well, how funny!’ Sophie said.

‘I had no idea it was being filmed here.’

‘Yes, well, one has to slum it occasionally,’ Beth said, looking up and down the narrow hallway. ‘My last job was filming in a villa in Marbella. Stunning views. Simply stunning. Got to top up my tan and everything.’

‘Yes, but Jane Austen heroines are meant to be pale and interesting,’ Sophie said, ‘and not look like an old leather handbag.’