Jacob spun around on the front step.
“At the time, I wanted them to sayyes,” he burst out. “If you prefer, I can dash off a letter right now detailing all the ways you are not the sort of person those in power usually lend a public stage to, and that they ought to rethink their decision. At which point, he will cancel the whole thing. Is that what you want?”
“No,” she admitted in a small voice.
Without Jacob’s aid—and a few crucial omissions—Viv wouldn’t have this opportunity at all, and she knew it. Her stage debut might not be unfolding the way it did in her dreams, but she was intelligent enough to know that now that it was done, the only path was forward.
“All I wanted was to give you a chance,” Jacob said tightly.
“I know,” she said. “You took a risk mentioning my gender at all. The female playwrights who do exist do not much resemble me.”
“Your gender is not the risk. Suffrage is. The subject matter of your play may endanger the theater’s future. Ordinary civilians are being massacred on the street for wanting the right to vote. Participating in this performance may be seen as the equivalent of taking up arms against the government and the aristocracy.”
That was true, too. Putting on a pro-suffrage play written by a playwright of any color or sex would be wildly polemic, to say the least. The theater manager wasn’t doing a simple favor in the name of nepotism. He was committing an act of sedition.
This one-night performance could very well alienate the wealthier half of the clientele. The manager could be ruined, and his entire theater forced to close permanently, all because a few stage actors had dared to repeat words Viv had written.
Her play had more than potential. It hadpower.
All thanks to Jacob using his own privilege, and measuring how far he could push on the first step. He’d given her a three-hour show. It was up to her to make the most of it.
Mr. Randall opened the front door. “Welcome home. There are cinnamon-raisin cakes in the oven.”
Viv appreciated the innocuous new subject to latch on to. She realized she and Jacob had been standing on the front step arguing for several minutes. The butler must have waited for a lull in the debate rather than awkwardly interrupt them.
“Whatever you’re paying him, it isn’t enough,” she murmured to Jacob.
“I gave the entire household a raise in salary last week.”
“And we’re always open to more.” Mr. Randall winked at Viv. “You’re welcome here any time, Miss Henry.”
She grinned at him.
“Shall I ring for those cakes?” the butler asked.
“I don’t have time for a biscuit,” said Jacob. “I have to get Hippogriff and Zeus to Elizabeth and Stephen.”
“Shall I go with you?” Viv asked.
His deep brown eyes warmed, and he offered her his arm without hesitation.
Zeus turned out to be an enormous mastiff who weighed twice as much as Viv. Nonetheless, he seemed to think he was a tiny lapdog.
Jacob grinned at her from the opposite side of the carriage as they navigated the narrow dirt roads. “Zeus likes you! You still have all your limbs. Well done.”
“He’s drooling a puddle into my skirts,” she said repressively, the severity of which was ruined by the fact that she hadn’t yet stopped petting him. Every time she scratched behind the mastiff’s ears, his tongue lolled out of his mouth and he whacked Jacob in the legs with his strong beige tail.
“Remember,” Jacob said as the carriage pulled up at an overgrown field across from a busy warehouse. “We’re not to stay. We’re only to ensure the animals are in place—”
“I remember,” Viv said. “It was a fifteen-minute carriage ride, and you explained the plan in great detail. Hippogriff will fly home on his own, and Elizabeth will handle Zeus.”
“Whatever you do,” he added, “don’t go anywhere near Stephen. Or go anywhere Stephen might have also gone. Around him, cushions might be filled with poison darts and the floor might turn to lava.”
She gave the mastiff another scratch. “Will Zeus be safe?”
“He’ll be the only one left standing,” Jacob promised. “Stephen won’t even need his machines.”
“Then why go through the trouble of sneaking them in and installing them?”
