There was only one script David remembered that had a baptism scene. "You wouldn't remember the name of the script?" he asked. "Was it The Sinner?"
"Could be."
"If it was, that's the script Cord had written especially for Rina Marlowe before she died."
"I don't care who it was written for." Irving smiled. "You gotta see that test. You'll flip. I sat through it twice. And so did everybody else in the projection room."
"I’ll look at it tomorrow," David said.
"I’d like to see it, too."
David looked at Rosa. He smiled. It was the first time she'd ever expressed any interest in a picture. "Come down to the studio at ten o'clock," he said. "We'll both look at it."
"If I didn't have an important meeting," Irving said, "I'd be down there myself."
David tied the sash of his pajamas and sat down in the chair near the window, looking out at the ocean.
He could hear the water running in the bathroom basin and the faint sound of Rosa's voice, humming as she rinsed her face. He sighed. At least, she could be happy in her work. A doctor didn't have to survive a war of nerves in order to practice medicine.
The door clicked open behind him and he turned around. She looked at him, a musing expression on her face, as she stood in the doorway.
"You had something to tell me?" He smiled. "Go ahead."
"No, David," she replied, her eyes warm. "It's a wife's duty to listen when her lord and master speaks."
"I don't feel much like a lord and master."
"Is anything wrong, David?"
"I don't know," he said and began to tell her the story, beginning with his meeting with Sheffield the night she had called. She walked over to him and put her arms around his head, drawing him to her bosom. "Poor David," she whispered sympathetically. "So many problems."
He turned his face up to her. "I’ll have to make a decision soon," he said. "What do you think I ought to do?"
She looked down at him, her gray eyes glowing. She felt strong and capable, as if her roots were deep into the earth. "Whatever decision you make, David," she said, "I feel sure will be the right one for us."
"For us?"
She smiled slowly. This new-found strength, too, was what it meant to be a woman. Her voice was low and happy.
"We're going to have a baby," she said.
16
The bright sunlight hurt their eyes after the dark of the screening room. They walked along silently toward David's office, in one of the executive cottages.
"What are you thinking, David?" she asked quietly. "That test make you sorry you're married?"
He looked at her and laughed. He opened the door to his cottage and they went past his secretary into his private office. David walked around behind his desk and sat down.
She seated herself in a leather chair in front of his desk. The thoughtful expression was still on his face. She took out a cigarette and lit it.
"What did you think of the test?" he asked.
She smiled. "Now I understand why she's driving all the men crazy," she answered. "The way that sheet clung to her when she came out of the water was the most suggestive thing I ever saw."
"Forget that scene. If it weren't in the test, what would you think of her?"
She dragged on the cigarette and the smile left her face. "I thought she was wonderful. She almost tore my heart out in that scene where all you saw was Jesus' feet walking, the bottom of the Cross dragging along as she crawled in the dirt after Him, trying to kiss His feet. I found myself crying with her." She was silent for a moment. "Were those real tears or make-up?"
David stared at her. "They were real tears," he said. "They don't use make-up tears in tests."
He felt his excitement begin to hammer inside him. In her own way, Rosa had given him the answer. He hadn't felt like this since he'd first seen Rina Marlowe on the screen. They'd all been too blinded by the baptismal scene to see it.
He pulled a buck slip from the holder on his desk and began to write on it. Rosa watched him for a moment, then walked around the desk and looked down curiously over his shoulder. He had already finished his scribbling and was reaching for the telephone.
Jonas-
I think it's about time we got back into the picture business. Let me hear from you.
David
"Get me McAllister, in Reno," David said into the telephone. He looked up at Rosa and smiled. She smiled back and returned to her chair.
"Hello, Mac," David said, his voice firm and forceful. "Two questions you can answer for me."
A feeling of pride began to run through her. She was glad she'd come down to the studio. This was a facet of her husband she had never known before.
"First," David said into the telephone, "can I sign an actress to a contract with Cord Explosives? I have specific reasons for not wanting to sign her with us. Important reasons." David relaxed slightly.
"Good. Next question. I have some film I want Jonas to see right away. Can you get it to him?"
He waited a moment. "Can't ask for anything more than that. I'll have the film at your L.A. office in two hours. Thanks, Mac. Good-by."
He pressed down the bar on the telephone and raised it again. "Miss Wilson, get me Jess Lee in printing and developing, then come right in here."
He held onto the telephone and reached for a cigarette. He put it in his mouth. She leaned across the desk with a match. He drew in on the cigarette and smiled at her.
"Jess," he said, as the door opened and his secretary came in. "I’m shooting down a buck slip to you. I want you to photograph it on the title card and splice it onto the end of the Jennie Denton test, right away."
David covered the mouthpiece with his hand. "Take that buck slip down to Jess Lee yourself," he said to the secretary, indicating the paper on his desk. She picked it up silently and walked out.
"I know it's a wild test, Jess," he said into the phone. "Make up one print with my buck slip and shoot it right over to Mr. McAllister's secretary at Cord Aircraft. It's got to be there by noon."
"You've made up your mind?"
He nodded. "I'm playing a long shot," he said. "If I’m wrong, it won't matter which of them wins. I lose."
Rosa smiled. "There comes a time like that in every operation. You're the surgeon, you hold the knife and the patient is open before you. According to the book, there are many things you can do, many ways you can go. But you have only one way to go – the right way. So you make the decision. Your way. No matter what the pressures are, no matter what the books say. You have to go your own way." She looked at him, still smiling. "Is that what you're doing, David?" she asked gently. "Going your own way?"
He looked at her, marveling at her insight and knowledge. "Yes," he said unhesitantly. "I'm going my own way."
He had never thought of it quite like that. She was right, though. He was on his own now.
Jennie was sitting at her desk in the living room, writing checks for the monthly bills, when the door chime rang. She heard the Mexican woman waddle past her on the way to answer it. She frowned, looking down at the desk.
She'd been a fool, she thought bitterly, letting herself be talked into that screen test. She should have known the John was only shooting his mouth off. Now they were laughing their heads off all over Hollywood. At least four other Johns had called her up, sarcastically congratulating her on her screen test. They'd all seen it.
She had known she wasn't an actress. Why the hell had she fallen for the gag? Just like every stage-struck kid that came out here. But she thought she was too wise. She'd never fall into a trap like that. Then she'd gone for it, just like all the others.