“I don’t wish her ill.” Kate turned her attention back to her ledger and Silas made his exit. However, after the door closed, Kate almost collapsed.
Doubt seemed to be her constant companion lately.
Too often, she thought of Brandon.
She missed him. Her life had lost its luster and he’d been more of a steadying influence than she’d realized. Now, here was Jess of all people receiving acclaim.
Kate wondered what Brandon would have to say about this turn of events. She knew he would reassure her and tell her to keep going—which was hard to do when one discovered her heart was somewhere else.
Not for the first time did she think she might have made the wrong choice that last night in Maidenshop. London was hard. The challenges were larger than she had anticipated. She wasn’t afraid of them... she just questioned how important they were. What had once seemed vitally important now paled to the memory of havinghimclose to her.
And, when there were a thousand details in her mind and everything seemed too confused and difficult, she relieved the pressure by dreaming about what was going on in Maidenshop. Probably the same thing that happened every Wednesday in the village, or every Thursday, every Friday. Such was the simple life, and she missed it. The village was surprisingly close to her heart. “But you wouldn’t have known what it had meant, if you hadn’t tried this,” she reminded herself, speaking aloud.
And there was no turning back now. She’d put everything she owned into this one endeavor and her pride would never let her back away.
Brandon’s set pieces garnered a good deal of interest around the theater. Mr. Arnold, Drury Lane’s manager, studied the drawings and took a personal interest in the way they were being built. “Ingenious,” he kept saying. “Did you do these?” he asked Silas.
“No, sir. A Mr. Brandon Balfour created them.”
“Ingenious.”
Mr. Arnold rarely spoke to Kate. She sensed his tacit disapproval of her was for no other reason than she was the one making decisions—and she was a woman. She seemed to make him uncomfortable. Every time there was something to discuss, he always went to Silas first.
That changed the Friday before the performance.
They were in the rehearsal hall. Kate had just finished putting her actors through their paces when she discovered Mr. Arnold watching her from the doorway.
She walked to him. “Yes, sir?”
“I didn’t know if you have seen this.” He offered her a page ofThe Morning Chronicle.She didn’t understand why anything in today’s paper should interest her when she was so busy, until she noticed an article titled,The Cruel Miss Addison Feared My Talent: An Interview with the Golden Goddess.A subtitle claimed,Actress attempts to destroy younger version of self.
“What?”Kate skimmed the article. She had spoken loud enough she’d alerted Silas and the others that something was wrong. They came to read over her shoulder.
“This is ridiculous,” Kate murmured.
“Unfortunately, it makes for rather salacious reading,” Mr. Arnold said. “People enjoy rivalries. You know, good versus evil. I hope that you are the evil one doesn’t put the audience off.”
“What is this about, Kate?” Silas demanded.
Kate faced her actors. “It is Jess. She has a story here about how I conspired for the affections of the ‘Duke of W’ and she had to perform miracles to save him from a misalliance. All the while, she makes herself out to be a defenseless waif.”
“Jess?” Nestor laughed his retort. “Wolves couldn’t pull her down.”
“Well, according to this article,I’mthe wolf.” Kate waved the paper at them. “She claims that I was threatened by her youth and beauty and will do anything to destroy her. I sound like an ogre. And the reason I went after the Duke of W? I hate the nobility. She even says she is motherless and saw me as the mother figure she’d always wanted. I’m notthatold.”
“And don’t breathe a word of this to her mother in Crewe,” Silas said.
“Perhaps that her mother lives in Crewe isn’t true,” Kate suggested. “Maybe she made up a mother for us? Or made up being from Crewe?” She looked down at the paper in her hands. “This is all lies and yet there is just a hint of truth. Anyone reading it would think I am some she-devil. She says I purposely followed her to London to open a play to compete with hers, that I wish to destroy her. She even claims I encouraged Arlo to elope with the vicar’s daughter because I hate the church. This is outrageous, overly dramatic nonsense.”
“I suspected it wasn’t true,” Mr. Arnold said.
“I don’t know what to do about this,” Kate admitted. “She is blackening my name with half-truths.”
“While she is the innocent little bird. Do you want me to talk to her?” Silas asked.
“Or me?” Nestor chimed in.
“I want to ignore the whole thing,” Kate replied.
