Chapter 1 #2
“Perhaps you need more time to think about my proposal,” Madeline said. “In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you would consider giving me a job. I have many skills that could be useful in the theater.”
“I’m certain you do,” he said dryly. “But none that I require.”
“I’m educated in literature and history. I also speak fluent French, and I can sketch and paint quite well. I would be willing to sweep, mop, scrub…anything that needs to be done.”
“I’m light-headed, Miss Ridley. I’m not certain if it’s from loss of blood or sheer amazement…but in any case, you’ve been quite entertaining.” Scott got to his feet, the color having returned to his face. “I’ll have someone recompense you for the loss of your scarf.”
“But I—” she began to argue.
A small crowd of people swarmed onto the stage as various members of the theater company were alerted to the accident.
“It’s nothing,” Scott said, seeming annoyed by their worried exclamations.
“No, I don’t need help walking. There’s nothing wrong with my legs.
” He went toward the greenroom, surrounded by carpenters, musicians, painters, dancers, and actors, all of them determined to help him.
Madeline stared after him. What a remarkable man he was.
He seemed like royalty, although most monarchs and princes probably weren’t blessed with his good looks and magnificent build.
She was positive that Scott was the right man to have an affair with.
Surely it would be nothing less than extraordinary: a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
True, he hadn’t seemed overly eager to bed her…but she wasn’t finished yet. She would wear him down with her persistence. She would devote every minute of every day to making herself indispensable to him. She would become whatever he wanted in a woman.
Thoughtfully Madeline went toward the wing, where broken china lay scattered next to the overturned prop table.
There was probably endless work to be done at the Capital Theatre.
She wondered if there was someone else she could approach about a job.
After straightening the table, she began to pick up a few shards of china.
A woman’s light, melodious voice drifted to her from a few yards away. “Be careful, child. You’ll cut yourself. I’ll have someone sweep that up later.”
Madeline placed the china on the table and turned to behold a golden-haired woman several years older than herself.
The woman was stunningly beautiful, with an aristocratic face, blue-green eyes, and a warm smile.
She was also several months pregnant. “Hello,” Madeline said, approaching her curiously. “Are you an actress?”
“I have been in the past,” the woman admitted readily. “However, I’m currently limited to the position of comanager, until after the baby’s birth.”
“Oh…” Madeline’s eyes widened as she realized that the woman could only be the Duchess of Leeds, the well-known actress who had been paired on stage with Mr. Scott in everything from lighthearted comedy to Shakespearean tragedy.
Although the Duke of Leeds was reputedly quite wealthy, he apparently did not choose to stand in the way of his wife’s love of the theater and her flourishing career.
“Your Grace, it’s an honor to make your acquaintance.
Please forgive the trouble I’ve caused—”
“I wouldn’t worry,” the duchess reassured her. “Accidents happen all the time around here.” She stared at Madeline speculatively. “I believe I overheard you asking Mr. Scott for employment.”
“Yes, Your Grace.” Madeline blushed, wondering what else the woman had overheard, but her expression was bland and guileless.
“Come with me to my office…what is your name?”
“Madeline Ridley.”
“Well, Madeline, you’re not the usual kind of girl who comes looking for work in the theater district. Well-dressed, obviously educated…have you run away from home, child?”
“Oh, no,” Madeline said. It wasn’t strictly a lie, since she had run away from school, not home, but she still felt uncomfortable at the deception. She struggled to word her reply carefully. “Circumstances have made it necessary for me to find work somewhere…and I hoped it could be here.”
“Why the Capital?” the duchess asked, leading her backstage to the administrative offices.
“I’ve always had an interest in the theater, and I’ve heard and read a great deal about the Capital. I’ve never actually attended a play.”
“Never?” The woman seemed astonished by the idea.
“Only amateur productions at school.”
“Have you aspirations to be an actress?”
Madeline shook her head. “I’m certain I have no theatrical talent, and I wouldn’t like to perform in front of anyone. The very thought makes my knees weak.”
“A pity,” the duchess commented, entering a small office containing a gleaming mahogany desk piled high with folios and notices. Boxes filled with books and papers lined the wall. “A girl with a face like yours would be quite a draw for the Capital.”
Madeline blinked in confusion at the compliment.
She had always considered herself to be moderately attractive, but nothing more.
There were many girls with better figures than her slender, modestly endowed one…
girls with far more striking features than her light-brown eyes and honey-brown hair.
Her mother, Agnes, had always said that her eldest daughter, Justine, was the beauty of the family, whereas Althea was the most clever.
Madeline, the youngest, had no special distinction.
Madeline had always been aware that she should have been a boy.
Childbirth was difficult for Agnes, and the doctor had made it clear that her third baby would be her last. In spite of willing the child to be a son, Agnes had experienced the greatest disappointment of her life when a third daughter had appeared.
Madeline had always felt that it was her fault.
If only she had possessed some extraordinary gift that might have made her parents glad to have her… but so far she had been very ordinary.
The duchess gestured for Madeline to sit in a chair near hers. “Tell me what skills you possess, and I’ll consider the matter of your employment.”
They talked for a few minutes while a tea tray was brought from the greenroom.
The duchess spoke quickly and smiled often, her boundless energy contagious.
It would have been easy for a woman of her celebrity to intimidate others, but instead she was warm and unaffected.
In Madeline’s sheltered life, she had never met a woman like the Duchess of Leeds.
There had only been her mother, and the teachers at school with their lectures on propriety, and her friends who knew no more of the world than she.
“Madeline,” the duchess said, “you can see from my condition that I’ll be limited in my activities during the coming months.
I would like an assistant to fetch and deliver things for me, and keep my office neat…
there are so many tasks that no one ever seems to have time for.
Your skill at needlework may also be useful to Mrs. Lyttleton, the woman in charge of creating and maintaining costumes.
And although Mr. Scott steadfastly denies it, we have needed someone to reorganize the theater library for years. ”
“I could do all of that and more!”
The duchess laughed at her enthusiasm. “Very well. Consider yourself part of the company.”
Madeline’s gasp of pleasure was cut short by the thought of Mr. Scott’s reaction when he discovered her working there. “Won’t Mr. Scott object?”
“I’ll discuss the matter with him. I’m perfectly within my rights to hire anyone I like. If you encounter problems with Mr. Scott or anyone else, come to me.”
“Yes, ma’am. That is…Your Grace.”
There was a flicker of laughter in the duchess’s blue-green eyes. “Don’t let the title intimidate you, child. In spite of my position outside the Capital, here I’m only an assistant manager, and Mr. Scott reigns supreme.”
Madeline had never heard of such an unorthodox arrangement: a noblewoman actually working in the theater. The worlds of the aristocracy and the theater were irreconcilable. She wondered how the duchess managed to traverse them.
The duchess laughed, reading her thoughts. “Most of my peers believe I do an injustice to my rank by continuing my work here. The duke, bless him, would be quite happy for me to leave the theater, but he understands that I couldn’t do without it.”
“If I may ask, Your Grace…how long have you worked at the Capital?”
“It’s been five or six years now.” The duchess’s face softened in reflection.
“How elated I was when Logan hired me to be a member of the company! Every actor and actress in London wanted to be trained by him. He had developed a more natural style of acting than had ever been practiced before—now it’s widely imitated, but then it was extraordinary. ”
“Mr. Scott has quite a presence,” Madeline commented.
“And he knows it,” the other woman rejoined wryly.
She poured more tea into Madeline’s cup and gave her a speculative glance.
“There is something I should warn you about. Most of the women who work at the Capital sooner or later imagine themselves in love with Logan. I advise you not to fall prey to the same temptation.”
Madeline’s cheeks burned. “I suppose it would only be natural…a man with his looks…”
“It’s not only his looks. There is a remoteness about him that excites women—each imagines that she can be the one to finally make him fall in love.
However, the theater means more to Logan than any real person ever could.
Of course, there is a constant parade of women through Logan’s life. But never an affair of the heart.”
That would certainly make things convenient. If Madeline’s plan succeeded, she could sleep with Mr. Scott and leave with no emotional entanglement.