Poppies for England by Susan Scarlett

Author:Susan Scarlett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dean Street Press
Published: 2022-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

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Dulcie swallowed her breakfast quickly. It was a fairly nice morning, she would go to the theatre. She would tell Tom she had come to practise. To give an air of truth to this, she would put on her blocked shoes. It would give her an excuse to hang about a bit. What should she ask him to do? It did not really matter much what as long as they were alone together. She stuck her head out of the window, she could hear her mother and Muriel calling to each other from their two chalets. In the distance she could see the back of her father and Alfred strolling off to have a look at the sea. Betty would be sure to be out with her junior campers; Nella was the catch. She was so crazy on her dancing she might turn up at the theatre, but probably she would go away if she saw she was there, talking to Tom. Talking to Tom! How stupid it was how she felt when she thought about him. Even imagining herself coming on to the stage and finding him at the piano sent a prickly feeling down her spine. She would ask him to come for a walk, or perhaps to take her out in a boat, he had been a sailor and would be sure to be good at boats. It did not look as though there would be a matinée to-day, it was fine, it would be grand to be alone in a boat, the only thing was she was sure to be sick. It would be difficult to enjoy being alone with Tom if she was being sick. Still, a boat was the best idea. She had seen lots of couples going out in boats, and once they were away from the beach they were by themselves, with nobody popping up and saying, “May I come, too?” A boat really was the only place she could be sure of getting anybody to herself. She wondered she had not thought of it before.

There was no stage door-keeper to the theatre. One of the stage-hands unlocked the stage door early in the morning and they all had keys to their own dressing-rooms. Dulcie went into her dressing-room to change her shoes. Then she sat on her theatre basket, one shoe half off, her eyes staring in the direction of the stage. She heard Tom’s voice, not the voice she was accustomed to, rather casual, a little bored, but warm and friendly. “How are the vocal chords this morning? Come along and let’s hear.” There was a pause. “What will you sing?” Dulcie opened her door and peered on to the stage. She could not see who he was talking to through the crack. Who had he got hold of? Some camper? He smiled over his shoulder. “It’s a nice morning, what about your favourite? Come and sit on the piano where I can see you.” Nella came into view.

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