Countess Dracula Read Online Free Page A

sell the story of her pure romantic heart. If she even had a heart – he had yet to glimpse it.
    Not that Nayland hadn’t benefited from the arrangement, of course. Attached to hers, his reputation had risen just as high, his fortunes swollen as large. It had been a sensible business arrangement and one that he had entered into willingly, because at the time he hadn’t had the slightest feeling for Elizabeth. It was a constant source of self-disgust that now, after years of abuse and infidelity, he had fallen in love with her. What sort of idiot did that make him?
    There was the distant sound of birds in the trees and Nayland looked towards the hills, watching as something took to the sky and soared towards the horizon. He envied it.
    The doorbell rang and he got to his feet, the false smile he dropped into place on his face brilliant through years of practice.
    He heard Patience open the door. That sound was followed by the garrulous voice of Fabio, their manager. The last person he wanted to see.
    Fabio wore his ethnicity like a badge, claiming to have Sicilian blood and the ear of every unsavoury crime lord in the country. Nayland didn’t believe a word of it. Fabio was corrupt enough, of course – he worked in Hollywood – but Nayland didn’t believe a real criminal would have the patience needed to deal with him. Five minutes, Nayland thought, that’s all it would take in the company of genuine mobsters before someone reached for a gun and put everyone out of their misery.
    ‘Hey, Frankie!’ Fabio shouted, holding out his short arms. To Nayland he looked like a beetle trapped on its back in the sun, his massive belly the greater part of him. Nayland accepted the hug. The manager buried his face into the actor’s chest like a frightened child seeking comfort.
    ‘So glad I caught you on your own first,’ he said in a stage whisper. ‘Where is she?’
    ‘Busy.’
    ‘Then we can talk?’
    Nayland nodded and led him back out to the garden. On the way, Fabio ordered something to drink from Patience as if she was his servant, not Nayland’s.
    They sat at a small table by the pool, Nayland trying to soak up the calm around him and cancel out Fabio’s whine.
    ‘Chester’s been calling again,’ he was saying. ‘He really wants you for the picture and it’s perfect for you. You play a policeman in a little town … I don’t know where the hell it’s supposed to be … Bavaria, fucking Transylvania … you know, whatever set’s still standing at Universal. Horse-drawn carts and old guys with their pants tucked into their socks. Something’s draining blood from the local maidens and it’s your job to hunt them down.’
    ‘Sounds great,’ Nayland replied with heavy sarcasm.
    ‘Hey, it’s work and the audiences love this shit. They’ll get in Lugosi or Atwill or Karloff or one of those guys and they’ll be screaming in the aisles. That’s what the people want these days, you know? Mad scientists and vampires.’
    ‘I don’t like that kind of picture.’
    ‘Who cares? I’m not asking you to watch the fucking thing, I’m asking you to be in it. Take the cheque, damn you – they’re few and far between these days.’
    ‘What happened to all the romantic leads?’
    ‘They went to the younger and brighter guys. Come on, Frankie, you know this – don’t make me go through it with you.’
    ‘I’m not old.’
    ‘In Hollywood terms you are, Frankie. Besides, you know it’s not just about your age. Your name isn’t what it once was.’
    ‘Because of Elizabeth.’
    ‘Because of Elizabeth, and if you insist on staying here …’
    ‘You’re the one that said we should be married in the first place.’
    ‘That was then. Years ago. Aeons. Whole generations have passed. Back then it was the thing to do, then she began having her … problems.’ Brutal as Fabio could be, he knew better than to be too blunt in front of Nayland. ‘At which point she became poison. You should have been out of this