Page 29 of The Claiming of the Shrew
Leah stared at her in wide-eyed disbelief as her train of thought went off the rails, bounced on its side a few times, and let out a sad hissing sound. “What?” she said.
“What?” said several other people in the hallway.
“Now wait a minute!” came Joy’s indignant voice from the back of the crowd. Evidently she had been drawn by the screaming as well.
Maggie gripped Leah’s arm. Fawkes made a low noise like a growl.
“You’re Gloria’s understudy,” Maggie said. “All of us know that you want that role. No one else on the crew has any reason to want to see our star harmed—except for you.”
“What—I—she’s not even harmed!” Leah protested. “She’s just orange!” In retrospect, as the words emerged from her mouth, this probably wasn’t the stunning rebuttal of her innocence that she’d had in mind.
“And none of this started until you showed up,” Maggie went on.
“What?” Leah protested again. She couldn’t seem to come up with a valid defense. She was too shocked.
Fawkes seemed torn between glaring at Maggie and giving Leah curious looks. He mouthed something at Leah, which she was pretty sure was “Did you?”
“No!” Leah snapped at him.
Maggie grasped Leah by the arm. Fawkes bristled.
“We need to talk in private,” Maggie said.
“It’s fine,” Leah said to Fawkes, who looked like he was one move from turning into a raccoon and flinging himself at Maggie to claw her eyes out. “I mean, it’s going to be fine—” Maggie was towing her along; she was separated from Fawkes in the crowded hallway. She considered turning into a shrew and running, or rather dragging herself, away, but there was too much of a chance of being stepped on. “Meet me later!” she said desperately in Fawkes’s direction. “In your—no—in Joy’s room!”
“Arrange your trysts later,” Maggie said sharply. She stopped just inside the door of her room, and Leah tried to look innocentand definitely not like she had been in this room just a few hours earlier.
“Now,” Maggie said. “Explain yourself.”
Leah scowled at her. “I have nothing to explain, because I didn’t do it. I was with Halstadt all evening.”
“Yes, but where were you before that? You’ve been out most of the day.”
“I was with Fawkes. He’s my alibi.” But she actually hadn’t been with him all day, had she? There was a rather significant chunk of time when she was by herself, while Gloria was down at dinner.
A perfect time to break into her room and mess with things.
Damn it.
Okay, so who else was free during that time?
“And where wereyouthis evening?” Leah demanded.
Maggie’s angry defensiveness surged. “On set! Don’t try to cast blame on me. Why in the world would I want to wreck my own production?”
“Why would anyone?” Leah shot back. “Why would I? Why are you blaming me?”
She wondered briefly if Gloria could have dyed her own hair to cast blame on someone she didn’t like—Leah, say—but discarded that thought immediately. Gloria’s brain simply was not that twisty. Also, Gloria would never in a million years have come up with a plan that involved messing with the two things she loved most in the world: her hair, and her starring role.
But whoever had done it knew that would be the way to hurt her most, Leah thought. Hmmm.
Meanwhile, as Leah’s thoughts pinged along at shrew-speed, Maggie was talking again. “I can’t prove you did it, though you’re certainly the prime suspect, but as of now, you’re out of the production. I don’t want you walking around in the set area without someone else from the crew with you.”
“What?” Leah stared at her in astonished hurt. “I’ve been with the company for years. These people are my friends.”
“If you’re innocent, you’ll be cleared. For now, if I see you unescorted in the crew area, you’ll be asked to leave.”
Leah found, to her horror, that she was choking back tears. The unfairness of the accusation galled her. She wanted to scream, cry, throw a fit.
