The Golden Butterfly by Sharon Gosling

Author:Sharon Gosling [Sharon Gosling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788951197
Publisher: Stripes Publishing
Published: 2019-12-16T16:00:00+00:00

There was a moment of absolute silence. Then Clara gave a high laugh.

“That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard! How completely ridiculous!”

“No, it’s not,” said Luciana. She kept her eyes on the magician, who was standing in silence, still watching her. “Magicians use disguises all the time. Philpot Danvers even said so, when we came to see you perform. They use them as part of their act. Some even go as far as living their whole lives behind a mask to make their performances work. That’s what you’ve done, isn’t it? Except your deception is even greater than that. You’ve made everyone believe you are a man called Adolphus Merritt. But you’re not. You’re a woman. A woman called Adeline Morrell.”

Clara laughed again, a short, desperate sound. “Oh, enough of this. Go on, get out of here. We’ve got a show to prepare!”

“I’m not leaving,” Luciana said. “You’ll have to carry me out and throw me into the street if you want to get rid of me. Because I know I’m right. Aren’t I?”

There was another moment of silence. Then Merritt spoke.

“What gave me away?”

It was clearly a woman’s voice. Luciana blinked in surprise even though she’d been expecting it. Behind her, she heard Charley gasp. Luciana studied the magician’s face. “The eyes,” she said. “And the mouth. I recognized you the first moment I saw you on stage, I just didn’t know why. It’s your nose, isn’t it? It’s fake. That’s where the mask is.”

Merritt sighed. Then he reached up and ran the fingers of one hand down his nose. He grasped it and yanked, hard. Clara gasped out a “No!” as it came away.

“There,” said Adeline Morrell, holding up the ruin of rubber for Luciana and Charley to see before tossing it to the floor.

“Adeline, what have you done?” Clara cried, darting for the door and leaning hard against it, as if to be sure no one else could come in and see Merritt’s unveiling. “Why didn’t you just send them away? Now we are finished!”

“Oh, Clara,” said Adeline Morrell. “The game is up. There’s no point pretending otherwise. It was up the moment Luciana knocked at our door.” Morrell looked at Luciana with a sad smile. “Well, well. Now you know the truth, and I am sure you must have questions.”

“Yeah,” said Charley, finding his voice. He waved his hand at Morrell’s black suit and tails. “I’ve got one. Why?”

Adeline put her hands on her hips and laughed. “A question only a lad could ask.” She looked at Luciana. “I’ll let you answer that one, my dear.”

“Because women aren’t allowed to do magic,” Luciana said quietly. “They’re only allowed to be assistants.”

“Exactly right.” Morrell looked down at herself. “And to be honest, a sharp suit has always seemed far more stylish to me than a corset and a cumbersome gown. It’s so much easier to move in, for one thing. But I could never get the voice right, so I decided to forego it entirely.”

“There’s the eyes too,” said Luciana.

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