Talia sighed heavily, and Sophia started to feel a little bad for her. She shouldn’t even be the one having this conversation. It wasn’t a screenwriter’s or producer’s job to run interference with local authorities, but Talia had been so much more than any one title could convey on this project. She’d fought for every detail of this film from long before even Sophia came on board. Now that she’d finally gotten on set, she should’ve been able to hand over the arguing to someone else, and yet here she was, having to basically fall to her knees before some blond-haired, blue-eyed, genetic poster girl for superior breeding.

Sophia’s resentment rose in her again.

It was bad enough the two of them were even there instead of being able to trust the crew to get the pre-filming parts right. It was bad enough their interns couldn’t get the dates right. It was worse that she’d spend the next few months of her life taking direction from a pretty boy, playboy, rich boy director who lacked any genuine artistic vision. She didn’t need some pretty girl, playgirl, rich girl to make them grovel for the privilege of doing so.

And now that Victoria had regained her composure, she carried all the confidence she’d lacked when Sophia held her hand pinned to that silly sword. Then again, money could cut as sharply as any blade, and this woman was likely more comfortable wielding financial power anyway.

“The fact of the matter,” Talia said calmly, “is we’re here now. We’ve flown principal cast and quite a bit of equipment across the ocean.”

“Then you can fly it back again in three months,” Victoria said, not unkindly, but with no room for compromise.

“The seasons won’t be right for the story, the cast has other commitments, the budget already spent, and I understand you don’t see any of those things as your problem, but there has to be some other way to make this work,” Talia pleaded. “Please, Emma has told me so many wonderful things about you.”

“Emma?”

“Yes, Emma Volant and I have been friends for years.”

Victoria’s demeanour changed so quickly Sophia had to blink a few times to make sure she was still looking at the same woman. Her ladyship shed all pretense in a single second as she threw her head back and stared skyward, as if she could somehow see through the high-vaulted ceiling and straight into heaven. All the tension fell from her shoulders as she rolled out her neck and ran her fingers through long, blond hair. When she returned to them from wherever her mind had gone, even her facial features had transformed, lips, cheeks, eyes, all lifted on a smile so open Sophia’s breath hitched in her throat.