The man looked at Aradella like she was crazy. “Her?! Are you mad? She’s too ordinary looking to be a princess. What color do you want your crown?”
“What?” Aradella asked.
Bree said, “Remind us of the story.”
Again, the man groaned. “Sheisn’t too bright, is she?” He nodded at Aradella. “But then, with a face like hers, she doesn’t need to be, right? The plot is that you, the maid, are so jealous of the princess’s great beauty and the man she’s to get that you want to kill her.”
Aradella was still trying to understand. “ButIam the ugly one.”
The man rolled his eyes. “It looks like the casting is perfect.” He spoke to Aradella slowly and clearly. “You’re beautiful but dumb. That won’t be too difficult for you, will it, sweetie?” He nodded toward Bree. “As you can see,sheis ugly, but she’s very smart. Got it?”
Aradella still didn’t fully comprehend. “But she’s the beautiful one.”
“Not here, baby. Here we like unique, not something that looks like an Empyrean robot. We—” He didn’t finish because he was pushed aside by a large woman who was followed by two young women carrying heavy dresses.
The woman looked Aradella and Bree up and down, then gestured for the other two women to remove their outer clothes. Since they were both princesses, they were used to this and didn’t fight it. With the speed of lightning, the young women were corseted into dresses that had very low-cut tops. While the cousins didn’t resemble one another in any other way, they were both well-endowed.
“My goodness,” Bree said. She was popping above the neckline like bread on its second rise.
“You got it, flaunt it, honey,” the wardrobe woman said.
One of the young women rapidly put makeup on Aradella. “You should let them grow out.” She meant Aradella’s pale eyebrows and lashes.
The older woman looked at Bree and sighed. “She’s hopeless. There’s nothing you can do with her.” No makeup was applied.
Bree did her best to ignore the little smirk that Aradella gave her, but didn’t succeed. She wondered how much she could take before she betrayed her promise to Kaley and let Aradella have it.
Outside, the audience was arriving.
The man on the auditorium seats was frowning. “Ethel, if I see this play one more time, my eyes will fall out.”
“They said they have new girls so it’s bound to be different,” his wife said.
“Is it still two girls fighting over the same man?”
Ethel gave a heavy sigh. “Bart Ollen. Oh yes. He is perfection in a man.”
Under his wife’s direction, he put the cushions down on the hard stone seats. She knew he hated the play so she’d brought his favorite cheese and beer. By the end of the performance, he’d be smiling—and she’d get to fantasize about Bart.
Behind the stage, out of sight of the audience, Bart Ollen waited for his cue to enter. He had on a loose white shirt and trousers so tight his bulge could be seen. So what if it was a tiny bit padded? The women loved it.
The stage manager—Bart could never remember his name—was listening to the play that had started. The princess and her maid were talking. Whatever was being said made the stage manager have an odd look on his heavily painted face.
Bart straightened his costume. He liked that he had a bit of time before stepping onto the stage. The two women were toargue about how the beautiful princess was to get the fabulous man—meaning Bart—while the maid would get nothing. The jealous maid was so angry that she would try to kill the princess. That’s when Bart was to enter. The audience would gasp at his rugged manliness, then Bart would save the princess. He liked to surprise the people who went to see him regularly by changing the script a bit. Sometimes he’d murder the maid and sometimes he’d just banish her. It depended on if he was sleeping with the actress playing the maid. One way he got the women was to hint that he was thinking of completely changing the ending. He’d murder the princess then run away with the maid. Of course that was a lie, but sometimes it was necessary to say to get what he wanted.
But today seemed different. “What’s going on?”
The manager’s made-up eyes were wide. “I have no idea. Both of these girls are new, but I gave them a script. I think I did, but then who doesn’t know the plot of this play? But they’ve gone so far off it, I don’t know what they’re doing.”
“It’s the audience that matters. What’re they saying?”
“Nothing. They’re silent. I can’t tell if they hate it or love it.” He pulled back a corner of the curtain. “See if you understand what’s going on.”
A woman’s voice loudly said, “You’re about to have an affair with a married man!”
“That’s the girl playing the princess,” the manager said.
The other woman, the maid, spoke, her voice angry. “I am not! But why shouldn’t I since I’m missing out on all those men in Selkan? ButIam not the problem. You put the entire island in jeopardy, but then, you’ve always done whatyouwant.”
