but above all else he was struck by the presence of Angela on stage: her radiant beauty, her imperiled innocence and the occasional evocative costume combined to form a lasting impression on his youthful senses. He was, in short, star-struck. He even felt a little nervous as he made his way backstage to see her as if he were walking a narrow bridge above an abyss. He was guided to Angela’s dressing room by a wide-eyed boy who was himself star-struck to be in the company of the nemesis of Jolly, and then Nicholas found himself knocking on Angela’s dressing-room door. He entered on hearing Angela call out.
She was sitting in front of a mirror, wiping at her face with a cloth in her hands.
‘Mr Raspero!’ she said with pleasure, ‘how wonderful to see you again.’
‘I hear that all the time, but I never tire of it,’ Nicholas said with a smile, closing the door behind him. ‘You were magnificent, Miss Ashton. Congratulations on your performance!’
Angela looked as if no-one had ever paid her such a compliment before. ‘It is so very kind of you to say so, Mr Raspero. I cannot say how much your words of commendation mean to me.’
‘You were amazing, Miss Ashton,’ Nicholas continued in the same vein. ‘I was thrilled, moved, excited and dazzled by your performance.’
‘You are much too kind,’ Angela protested, still looking as if no-one had ever paid her so much praise. ‘I will blush if you continue with such unmerited endorsements of my poor performance, Mr Raspero. I must beg you to stop before I am too much reminded of my own unworthiness to receive such accolades.’
‘All right,’ Nicholas agreed as if reluctantly, ‘but only if I can sit down.’
‘Oh, Mr Raspero!’ Angela burst out. ‘Where are my manners? Please, sit down.’ She gestured to the side, where there was a bench fastened to the wall covered in red velvet cushions. Nicholas closed the door and sat down.
‘And how have you been, Mr Raspero?’
‘Chugging along, thanks. And yourself, Miss Ashton?’
‘Everything is going well for me, Mr Raspero. In no small measure due to you.’
‘Your success on and off stage is due to your own ability, Miss Ashton.’
Angela said nothing, resuming wiping at her face with the cloth in her hands. Nicholas looked steadily at her in the mirror stealing glances at him. At that moment there came a knock on the door.
‘Come in,’ Angela called.
The door opened, shielding Nicholas from the view of the person standing in the doorway.
‘Ange,’ a man’s voice said, ‘there’re some people here who want to see you.’ Nicholas thought the voice sounded like Mr Ansel Horado, the actor who had played Bernard the Yeoman in the play. ‘Lady Grangeshield, Miss Nicholson, Miss Earlson, may I present Miss Angela Ashton. Miss Ashton, may I present Lady Isabel Grangeshield, Miss Sophie Nicholson, and Miss Penelope Earlson.’
Isabel entered the dressing room sideways, facing Angela all the while, not realising that anyone was sitting behind her. Nicholas could see her bare shoulders above the strapless low-cut dress she was wearing. He heard Isabel say, ‘How very interesting to meet you, Miss Ashton.’ Her voice was pitched high, but with a musical sound to it that gave it depth.
Isabel was standing so close to Nicholas that he could have reached out and pushed her in the small of the back. Her wide skirts were brushing his knees. Nicholas straightened his back as straight as straight could be in order to pull himself back as far as possible into the wall. Her presence was overwhelming. He could smell her perfume, he could see every curl in her carefully coiled hair, her right arm hung by her side holding her fan pointing downward; he could see the curves of her biceps and forearm. Nicholas tried to relax so that he could breathe more easily.
‘It is very kind of you to say so, Lady Grangeshield,’ Nicholas heard Angela reply. He noticed that her voice sounded different, and then he realised that she had pitched it to sound like Isabel’s.
‘Your performance was astounding,’ he heard another woman’s voice say from near the door. ‘I cried when that cruel man left you all alone in the forest. I cried, I assure you.’
‘You are much too kind, Miss Earlson,’ Angela said. ‘I am overwhelmed by such praise.’ Nicholas noticed that she was still using Isabel’s voice.
Isabel moved her arm behind 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
