His eyes skimmed the crowd but there was no sign of the petite waif with the copper-gold hair. Frowning, he headed for the show director’s office. “Where is she?”
He had to shout above the din inside the room which was so full of people he could hardly find the director in the crowd. “The girl who fell on stage. Where can I find her?”
At his words Ali Messam extricated himself from the mass of bodies surrounding him and pushed to the front of the room. “Mr. Davidoff. My humblest apologies, sir.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest and gave Reed a look of deep regret. “It was my fault. One of the models suddenly fell ill and I was forced to grab whoever was available. That dress, it had to be shown. Do you not agree?”
“Yes, yes.” Reed frowned, his eyes searching the room. He had no interest in the ‘whys and wherefores’. He just wanted to find the girl. “Now where is she?”
Ali lifted his shoulders and shook his head. “I do not know, Mr. Davidoff. After she fell down she ran back to the dressing room and then she disappeared.”
“How can I find her, then? What’s her name?”
“I do not know that either.” Ali lowered his brows. “But if I may say so, sir, it will make no use to find her. This girl, she has nothing. You should have seen the clothes she was wearing. What sense would it make to sue?”
Reed glared at the man who was beginning to try his patience. “What’s her name, dammit? And don’t tell me who I can and can’t sue.”
Ali jerked back, obviously surprised by Reed’s aggressive tone, then he gave a curt nod. “Let me get you the list,” he said and turned away. In less than a minute he was hurrying back with a clipboard on which a sheet of paper was secured. He shoved it under Reed’s nose. “We hired forty-three temps for this show, some as models, some as dressers, some as make-up artists. I believe she must have been one of the dressers. Definitely not a model.”
Reed’s eyes skimmed the paper. “So which one is she?”
The man looked distressed. “I don’t know. I just grabbed whoever was closest at that moment. I didn’t ask her name. Maybe when she comes to pick up her check...”
“And when’s that? A week or two down the road? Not good enough.” Reed snatched the clipboard from the director’s hand. “Find her and bring her to me.” With that he turned and walked out of the room, leaving Ali Messam staring open-mouthed after him.
Reed strode through the milling crowd and headed back to the stage. Maybe someone in that area could tell him where she’d turned. Or maybe she hadn’t even left. Could she still be there, hiding behind the heavy curtains? A stretch, he knew, but he was willing to give it a try.
When he got to the now deserted stage there was no-one to be seen. But there, lying to one side on the catwalk lay the gold slipper that the runaway model had abandoned. Someone must have kicked it to the side and out of the way.
Reed walked down the runway and bent to pick up the slipper. Now he understood. These slippers were way too big for a girl as tiny as the one he’d seen on stage. No wonder she’d stumbled in them.
He turned it over in his hand, realizing that a way-too-big abandoned slipper was of absolutely no use to him in this situation. All he had to go on was a list of names, possibly an address that he could only hope was her real one, and the hope that she’d show up in a week to collect her pay.
Reed gave a grunt and turned to leave the platform, the gold slipper still in his hand. He knew he should just let this thing go. What girl was worth all this trouble?
But as his mind went to the memory of her guileless face, the cascade of golden hair floating behind her, he knew he couldn’t.
He couldn’t explain it but he knew he would not stop until he’d found her.
CHAPTER TWO
Golden was almost halfway home before her heart stopped slamming against her ribs and slowed to its normal rhythm. Finally, she was beginning to breathe easier. She still couldn’t believe what had just happened to her. She’d never been more humiliated in her life.
How do you get from accepting the simple job of putting clothes on models to ending up on a catwalk in front of an audience of thousands? She, who’d always been shy and reserved, suddenly pushed into the limelight – literally. If she’d only known, she would never have even shown up. But then how could she have anticipated this? It could have happened to anybody. She was just in the wrong place at the worst possible time, a time that made her the perfect target for a drive-by recruitment for the runway.
But never again. As desperate as she was for the money she was still not planning to go anywhere near that place, not even to collect the thirty-five pounds they’d said each temp would get. And, as much as she hated it, she had to admit it – she was desperate...
Since leaving sixth form and then doing a two-year diploma in business administration all she’d been able to find were odd jobs, none of which provided more than the minimum wage. She knew she was at a disadvantage, twenty years old and fast approaching twenty-one, not having entered a bachelor’s degree program. She needed to get moving on her plan but how could she leave for the university of her choice when it was almost a hundred miles away? That would require her boarding on campus and that would never do. How could she leave her mother behind?
Golden gritted her teeth as she thought about it. She would just have to hang in there a little longer, maybe just one more year. She had to keep trying to convince her mother to make that big step toward independence. It was the only thing that would save them both.
By the time she drove along the gravelly road and parked in front of the country house where she lived with her mother and stepfather it was already almost ten o’clock at night. Tired and hungry she climbed out of her twelve year old Vauxhall Corsa and closed the door gently behind her. She didn’t want to wake her mother and she definitely didn’t want to risk the wrath of the man who now fancied himself her guardian.
As quietly as she could Golden turned the key in the lock and pushed the front door open. Typical creepy old house, the heavy mahogany door groaned as she pushed it open. Holding her breath she paused, listening for the sounds of approaching footsteps, but when all she could hear was silence she let out her breath and pushed the door all the way in.