LITMIR.BIZ

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her back, waving her fan about restlessly. Nicholas moved his head aside to avoid being poked in the nose. Her hand was so close he could see her fingertips pressing lightly into her palms forming slightly whitened indentations.

      ‘I have never seen the role of Ursula so well performed,’ another woman’s voice said. ‘I could not but believe that all this was really happening. I was on the edge of my seat when you were at the mercy of that terrible man.’

      ‘But then Denver came and saved you!’ Penny said. ‘Hurrah!’

      ‘Thank you, Miss Nicholson. You are all so very kind,’ Angela said, modulating her voice now so that it was slightly deeper than Isabel’s. ‘I cannot thank you enough for saying such laudatory remarks about my performance. It is only such praise as yours that gives me the courage to step out onto the stage.’

      Nicholas was fascinated by how Isabel’s bare neck rose above her bare shoulders, her pale skin gleaming in the lamplight of the dressing room, her dark brown hair coiled around her head in a spiral pattern held in place by white and green gemstone hairpins. He was breathing as silently as he could through a wide open mouth, his head turned sideways to avoid breathing onto Isabel’s hand.

      ‘We have resisted the insistence of all your admirers that we come and witness your performance for ourselves, and how much we have lost in not coming to see you before now!’ Isabel said.

      ‘But you are here now, and surely that is what counts, Lady Grangeshield.’

      ‘And we shall surely be here again, Miss Ashton,’ Isabel continued. ‘What will your next play be?’

      ‘The Kingdom of Happiness, Lady Grangeshield, I believe.’

      ‘Ooh,’ Penny squeaked, ‘that is my very favourite play of all!’

      ‘That is such a wonderful play,’ Sophie said. ‘Isn’t it, Izzy?’

      ‘I have never seen it,’ Isabel said. ‘But I am indeed fortunate to have something to look forward to in the future.’

      ‘How can you never have seen The Kingdom of Happiness, Izzy?’ Penny burst out in astonishment.

      ‘Circumstances,’ Isabel said briefly as if all the complexities of her explanation would be irrelevant. ‘And when does The Kingdom of Happiness open, Miss Ashton?’

      ‘The fifth of August, Lady Grangeshield,’ Miss Ashton said.

      ‘I am pleased to hear that it is to happen so soon,’ Isabel declared. ‘I do not have long to wait.’

      ‘And I so much look forward to seeing you if you are so kind as to visit me again. It was so wonderful for you to have visited me tonight,’ Miss Ashton said.

      Nicholas was reminded of how Lady Starfeld had brushed him off, but her visitors simply ignored Angela’s hint that they leave now. ‘But how did you come to take to the stage, Miss Ashton?’ Sophie asked.

      ‘I was a lady’s companion after the death of my mother, Miss Nicholson, and Mr Ansel Horado was so kind as to allow me to enter the Kerrick Company some five years ago.’

      ‘That is so brave!’ Penny exclaimed. ‘How very brave of you, Miss Ashton!’

      ‘No, Miss Earlson, I have never had any reason to fear. Everyone has been so kind to me. Surely to be brave means to have a reason to fear. But you know this, of course. I am taking up so much of your time only to tell you what you already know.’

      Another hint for them to leave, Nicholas noticed, but Angela’s visitors appeared to completely miss it.

      ‘But your greatest triumphs are surely off the stage, Miss Ashton,’ Isabel suggested in a neutral tone. She took her fan out of Nicholas’s sight, and from her posture he guessed that she was holding it in both hands as a schoolteacher holds a cane. He noticed that her back had straightened. It was as if she were preparing for battle.

      ‘It is kind of you to see me as having triumphs, Lady Grangeshield,’ Angela said with unruffled calm.

      ‘You are so thin, Miss Ashton,’ Isabel continued with friendly concern. ‘Do you manage to eat enough?’

      ‘I eat wonderfully well, thank you, Lady Grangeshield.’

      ‘If you do ever need to eat, Miss Ashton, I will instruct my servants to prepare you some food. They will make a spacious place available for you in the servants’ quarters where you may eat in comfort. You have only to ask, Miss Ashton, and I will see that it is done.’

      ‘There is no need to take so much trouble, Lady Grangeshield. But I can only thank you for expressing such a warm and generous impulse.’

      ‘But you are so thin,’ Isabel persisted. ‘And you hardly have breasts. You are flat-chested, Miss Ashton. I am sure that it must be the result of poor nutrition.’

      ‘Your concern for my welfare moves me deeply, Lady Grangeshield. But I assure you that I eat very well, and your concern is misplaced.’

      Nicholas couldn’t tell even the least irritation in Angela’s voice. It was as if she simply hadn’t noticed Isabel’s deliberate provocations.

      ‘Do you have a medical condition, Miss Ashton?’ Isabel asked in a tone of the sweetest sympathy. ‘Your face is that of a skeleton. The bones all show! I know the best doctors in town. I will foot the bill for your medical expenses, I assure you. You have only to ask for my assistance.’

      ‘I am in perfect health, thank you, Lady Grangeshield.’ From the sound of Angela’s voice, there seemed to be not the slightest crack in her composure. ‘But it is so kind of you to be so concerned about me.’

      ‘I hope you are not too proud to seek help, Miss Ashton,’ Isabel said, her concern appearing to have grown. ‘Please do not feel so ashamed by your notoriety that you dare not seek assistance.’

      ‘I never hesitate to seek assistance, Lady Grangeshield, I assure you. But I need none.’

      ‘But the lifestyle you lead, Miss Ashton, is surely not conducive to good health. Good health is dependent on a sound mind and body and where does that leave you? Why do you refuse my help, Miss Ashton? I do not understand. I reach out my hand to you and you only bite it.’

      ‘I cannot tell you how welcome your kind intentions are, Lady Grangeshield, but surely you must understand that your concerns are entirely misplaced.’

      ‘But you are as skinny as a rake, Miss Ashton. You obviously do not eat properly, you do not have proper medical attention, and yet you say that my concerns are misplaced! Surely you will surmount your pride and seek my help before it is too late! Or do you insist on throwing my concern for your welfare back in my face as you have done until now?’

      ‘Your concern for my welfare is such a blessing as I have never before received, Lady Grangeshield. But the hour grows late, and surely I am keeping you from the rest of your evening?’

      ‘Not at all,’ Isabel said reassuringly, ‘you are not keeping me from anything at all but the opportunity to help you! You have refused my offer of nutrition, you have refused my offer of medical assistance; well, all that is left for me to offer you, Miss Ashton, is moral guidance. But perhaps you will refuse that as well?’

      ‘I can only thank you for your kind offers of assistance in all these matters, but the hour grows late and we all must be moving on. I can only thank you for having visited me tonight.’

      ‘Your gratitude is surely feigned, Miss Ashton.’

      ‘The time has come, Lady Grangeshield, for me to bid farewell to you and your companions, but I would like to say that I would be only too happy to see you again.’

      ‘But how can you be happy to see us again when you are so unhappy to see us now?’

      ‘Lady Grangeshield, it is not my fault that the Club of Appreciation voted as they have. You must take up the choice they have made with them, not with me. In the meantime,

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