He folded the script and stuffed it into his waistband.
Mr. Nobley approached her, his smile grim. He was still wearing his full Regency suit. A servant handed him his character’s toga costume, and he promptly tossed it over his shoulder onto the floor.
He squinted at her. “You are going to enjoy this, aren’t you?”
“Extremely,” she said. “And the greater your discomfort, the more intense my delight.”
“Silence!” Mrs. Wattlesbrook entered the room, glaring at the staff. “I expect total and complete attention for our esteemed players. And now,Home by the Sea!”
Miss Charming wore her brightest pink evening dress along with a pair of wire wings covered in pink nylon. They wiggled up and down as she walked. She stepped between the footlights and the backdrop, put her hand up in the air, and declared her opening lines with far more confidence and far better memorization than Jane had expected.
charming:
’Tis spring when I, the fairy queen, Dancing here upon the green In my silkworm-woven dress Spy five mortals in distress. Here first a shepherd with his crook; He loves a maid who loves a book.
east:
I am loath to trouble you, fair maid, but do you have a jar of water to share?
heartwright:
There is a stream over yonder hillock.
east:
Would you care to stroll with me there?
heartwright:
No, I am busy reading.
Time for Jane’s entrance. Mr. Nobley walked into the glow of the footlights first, carrying a prop sword and looking excessively grumpy. Jane followed behind, holding her hands under her chin to convey longing. She felt absolutely ridiculous and was loving every speck of it.
charming:
Next a soldier who ne’er knew love; His lass coos for him like a dove.
jane(unsure?):
?C-coo. Coo.
nobley(flatly?):
I live for war.
jane:
Oh why will not my childhood friend notice that I am his destiny?
nobley:
I must attend . . . to war.Cripes, who wrote these lines?
charming:
Last a poet who sighs alone, His broken heart becoming stone.
andrews:
