The Fascination by Essie Fox

Author:Essie Fox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orenda Books
Published: 2023-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

OH NO, HE ISN’T … OH YES, HE IS!

‘Kezi, will you look?’ Tilly’s voice was overwhelmed by shrieks of laughter from the crowd standing around us in the bar. Her fingers grabbed my wrist, urging me to turn and see … well, who? Who could she mean? Among the members of the cast, or their families and friends, nobody struck me as deserving such excitable behaviour.

Although we’d left the Theatre Royal, we were still in Drury Lane, only a hop, a skip and jump (and now and then an icy skid) along the snow-slushed pavement. And weren’t we glad of Captain’s arms to steer us safely through the crush milling around the backstage exit. On past the broughams and the cabs, and the hawkers with their barrows, until we reached some glass-etched doors, a quick ascent up marble stairs, and then the splendour and the warmth of this new palace of delights.

For a while, I stood there blinking, throat raw with cold, gasping for a breath. Goodness knows how Tilly managed keeping up with Captain’s strides, but despite her shorter legs she didn’t seem the least bit winded. So, perhaps it was just me, being less used to all the people in the busy London world, even though I’d come along to watch the panto several times since the Boxing Day delight.

The raising of the curtain never failed to send the tingle of shiver through my spine, as did the Doric columns of the theatre’s entrance foyer, which seemed to me to be a temple with statues erected to the literary gods of Shakespeare, Garrick, Dean. What my sister must have felt to tread the stage on which their words had been orated in the past, to find herself smack bang and centred in that abracadabra magic! And when she’d soared into the air and flew above the audience, how proud I’d felt – and terrified. I swear, my heart was in my mouth, for if those wires should chance to snap …

But Tilly never fell. She flew as if those wings were really growing from her back. Up she soared into the gods and looked as if, given the chance, she would have liked to carry on. On through the roof, to join the stars that lit the skies of London town.

That last night, when all the clapping and the cheering had subsided, Captain left his position at the piano in the pit and came to fetch us from the box – where we’d been joined by Ulysses. He’d trailed behind as Captain led us through the maze of passages, until we found ourselves backstage, where Martha and me went on alone into the dressing room where Tilly would be changing. Not a room of her own. She had to share it with the girls who played her troop of dancing fairies, and what a racket that entailed. All the giggling and screeching going on night after night would have driven me insane. But one look at Martha’s veil,

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