He took a deep breath. “I don’t know whether he ever told you the story, but I’m the one who got Toby started. I knew he was going to be a big star the first time I saw him.” He saw that he had her full attention. “I handled a lot of important clients then, Jill. I let them all go so that I could concentrate on Toby’s career.”
“Toby’s talked to me about how much you’ve done for him,” she said.
“Has he?” He hated the eagerness in his voice.
Jill smiled. “He told me about the day he pretended that Sam Goldwyn telephoned you and how you went to see Toby anyway. That was nice.”
Clifton leaned forward and said, “I don’t want anything to happen to the relationship that Toby and I have. I need you in my corner. I’m asking you to forget everything that happened between us. I apologize for being out of line. I thought I was protecting Toby. Well, I was wrong. I think you’re going to be great for him.”
“I want to be. Very much.”
“If Toby drops me, I—I think it would kill me. I’m not just talking about business. He and I have—he’s been like a son to me. I love him.” He despised himself for it, but he heard himself begging again. “Please, Jill, for God’s sake…” He stopped, his voice choked.
She looked at him a long moment with those deep brown eyes and then held out her hand. “I don’t hold grudges,” Jill said. “Can you come to dinner tomorrow night?”
Clifton took a deep breath and then smiled happily and said, “Thanks.” He found that his eyes were suddenly misty. “I—I won’t forget this. Ever.”
The following morning, when Clifton arrived at his office, there was a registered letter notifying him that his services had been terminated and that he no longer had the authority to act as Toby Temple’s agent.
30
Jill Castle Temple was the most exciting thing to hit Hollywood since Cinemascope. In a company town where everyone played the game of admiring the emperor’s clothes, Jill used her tongue like a scythe. In a city where flattery was the daily currency of conversation, Jill fearlessly spoke her mind. She had Toby beside her and she brandished his power like a club, attacking all the important studio executives. They had never experienced anything like it before. They did not dare offend Jill, because they did not want to offend Toby. He was Hollywood’s most bankable star, and they wanted him, needed him.
Toby was bigger than ever. His television show was still number one in the Nielsen Ratings every week, his movies were enormous money makers, and when Toby played Las Vegas, the casinos doubled their profits. Toby was the hottest property in show business. They wanted him for guest shots, record albums, personal appearances, merchandising, benefits, movies, they wanted they wanted they wanted.
The most important people in town fell all over themselves to please Toby. They quickly learned that the way to please Toby was to please Jill. She began to schedule all of Toby’s appointments herself and to organize his life so that there was room in it only for those of whom she approved. She put up an impenetrable barricade around him, and none but the rich and the famous and the powerful were allowed to go through it. She was the keeper of the flame. The little Polish girl from Odessa, Texas, entertained and was entertained by governors, ambassadors, world-renowned artists and the President of the United States. This town had done terrible things to her. But it would never do them again. Not as long as she had Toby Temple.
The people who were in real trouble were the ones on Jill’s hate list.
She lay in bed with Toby and made sensuous love to him. When Toby was relaxed and spent, she snuggled in his arms and said, “Darling, did I ever tell you about the time I was looking for an agent and I went to this woman—what was her name?—oh, yes! Rose Dunning. She told me she had a part for me and she sat down on her bed to read with me.”