The Great Scot by Donna Kauffman

production up from London raced around the car. “I can get that for you, Mr. Marchand. We have a lot reserved in the back of the hotel for you.”
    â€œMore money, right? Bastards always want more money.” Tommy barely glanced at the assistant. “Keys are in it. Make sure they get back to me or Tanya, a.s.a.p.”
    The young P.A. nodded and all but leapt into the leased Range Rover, but Tommy wasn’t paying him any attention. “The exposure his little inn will get from our involvement will keep him booked up for years, but no, they always want more money.”
    Erin didn’t bother to point out that it was no “little” inn. Tommy had seen the exterior shots she’d taken. “Actually, he accepted our initial lease offer.”
    Tommy paused, then started looking around for someone to start moving his mound of baggage. “Good. Where’s Tanya?” he demanded, already distracted. He snagged the arm of the nearest person he could reach. “Find Tanya for me. She was supposed to meet me in the lobby at one.”
    Erin could have mentioned that he’d just barked orders at a hotel employee, not a staffer, but there was no point in it. Besides, the hotel was small enough that she assumed the bellman probably knew where Tommy’s number one assistant was anyway. Especially given that she’d probably been the one barking orders at them until now.
    â€œThis place better be worth the hassle, MacGregor, or your ass is the first one I’m selling down the river to the suits.” His satellite phone chirped to life. He ignored it. “I want to hear about these concessions. The isolation of this location from any major city support puts a major cramp on our already constrained budget. And I don’t need to remind you how far behind schedule we are.”
    â€œGlenshire can easily house the cast and site crew. And I’ve worked out an agreement with the hotel in Glenbuie to accommodate the rest.
    â€œFine, fine.” Once Tommy agreed to something, he didn’t want any additional info. In typical fashion, he moved directly to his next point. “I need at least two trailers on set, in addition to the production trailers. Did you work that out?”
    Erin mentally scrambled to figure out how to meet that demand. “It will be a bit cramped for space, but there is a rear utility entrance and courtyard. It means having production trucks a little closer to the house, but there isn’t any other space. You’ll have to be creative with camera angles in terms of shooting around them, but there isn’t much back there that you’d likely want to use on camera anyway.”
    Tommy nodded, satisfied. For now. His phone went off again and he ignored it again. “Concessions. What did we give in on?”
    Erin forced herself to stay relaxed, calm, as if this were no big deal. Hard to do when she knew damn well he was likely to pop an artery. “Mr. Chisholm is going to stay on property.” She lifted a fast hand. “I did everything in my power to get him to agree to move off site. And it isn’t to say that we won’t get him to change his mind once he sees what it’s like living with the chaos.” Though, privately, she doubted anything would budge him. She was a tough negotiator, but he’d been tougher. “He didn’t ask for more money, so we banked there. But he stood firm on this. I fought him on it, but it was clear this was a deal breaker. He’s protecting four hundred years of his heritage and there is no way he’s—”
    â€œYou know I hate having to contend with the owner, Erin. It wastes considerable time and money. We can’t be babysitting him and still—”
    â€œWell, see, you won’t have to.” Where was Tanya when she needed a good interruption anyway?
    â€œMeaning?”
    â€œHe doesn’t want to be directly involved in the actual process any more