‘Where is your sister, by the way?’ Thea asked. ‘I thought she’d be at the last rehearsal with Andy, Layla and George.’
Bridie nodded. ‘Kate couldn’t make it because Mum asked her to go over to discuss Dad’s retirement party.’ Bridie rolled her eyes. She wished her sister had been at the rehearsal too. She’d missed her.
‘Your sister could give you a run for your money on the stage.’
‘Marjorie – really,’ Mabel chided her. ‘You don’t have to say everything that comes into your head.’
‘Well, it’s true,’ said Marjorie.
Bridie smiled. ‘Honestly, I don’t mind at all. I’m just as surprised as anyone.’ She smiled at Layla.
Layla had persuaded her mum to audition for the play. It was only a small part, and Kate had tried to get out of it. But in the spirit of trying new things – and she did have plenty of time on her hands in the evenings and weekends – she’d auditioned and surprised everyone with her lovely singing voice. She was also a natural dancer, amazing everyone, most of all herself. Bridiehad grinned at her, and said, ‘See, you take after Dad – a natural performer.’
Bridie sat chatting as she watched Barney running from one person to another, wagging his tail, unable to contain his excitement. He didn’t know who to go to first for fusses. He hadn’t been attending the rehearsals. He was still a pup and needed quiet time for naps. And he rather did like to be the centre of attention.
She watched him shaking in excitement. The theatre was no place for Barney just then. She thought how her dad was going to be very surprised, when he did eventually see his dog, at how much he’d grown in the last few weeks. It had been a stand-off. Bridie was refusing to visit her parents. Her dad was avoiding Cobblers Yard – and Aldeburgh in general.
‘Barney – down!’
Of course he’d suddenly gone deaf, certainly to her voice, but not to everyone else who called him over to give him attention.
Mabel was just insisting on making Bridie another very strong coffee when they heard a siren.
William said, ‘That sounds like a fire engine.’
Maisie turned to her brother. ‘It could be an ambulance or a police car.’
William shook his head. ‘It’s a fire engine.’
‘But how do you know?’
‘Because I’m a boy, and we know this sort of thing.’
George sat nodding at William.
Lili butted in, admonishing him for saying that.
Bridie just smiled at the sweet little boy who, although he wasn’t blond like the traditional star of the show, more than made up for it with his beautiful singing voice and his amazing acting. He made everyone cry when he sang the songs. He made the perfect Oliver.
Her eyes drifted to his exceptionally talented sister, Maisie. She wasn’t just talented; she was a prodigy. Bridie imagined it made a huge change for William’s hidden talents to be taking centre stage – quite literally.
Bridie smiled at Reggie who was looking adoringly at William. Reggie had had to be coaxed out of acting retirement to play Fagin. Bridie couldn’t imagine anyone else playing that role. She was Nancy, and her sister was one of Nancy’s friends who worked in the local pub.
There was one part they’d filled that Reggie had said would have been perfect for her dad – the role of Oliver’s grandfather – but that position had now been filled by one of Reggie’s friends.
Bridie still couldn’t believe that opening night had almost arrived. But it was bittersweet. The show marked the beginning, and the end, of her time there. She knew that now. Everybody had commented on what a performance Bridie had given in the rehearsals. Was it any wonder? She was playing someone who had been hurt by the person whom she thought she loved.
Although her situation wasn’t the same as Nancy’s – Jack hadn’t physically hurt her – she felt that he might as well have; her heart still felt bruised and battered, made worse by the fact that he was still trying to sabotage her play.
And she felt even worse still now after realising that all along it wasn’t Jack she’d been in love with; he’d just muddied the waters, and kept her from seeing clearly who her true love had been all along.
‘When will it stop?’ Bridie had asked Oliver, on the way back to Cobblers Yard, thinking of the sabotage. She didn’t want to bring it up again, but it was playing on her mind.
‘On opening night. It’s a sell-out show. Then there will be no going back. No amount of sabotage is going to stop us,’ he’d said.
Another siren passed by out in the high street. ‘Wow, unusual to hear that around Aldeburgh,’ commented Joss. ‘Must be quite a fire, if they need two.’
‘Might not be fire engines,’ commented Maisie.
