Page 39 of The Claiming of the Shrew
Leah found it very hard to believe that he had any talent at all. That being said ... he did have a point that Maggie tended to give parts to the known talent rather than giving new people a chance.
“Look, I know how you feel,” she said, trying to push the butterfly net away with the dinosaur mask in what was starting to feel like the world’s dumbest duel. “I’mstuck backstage too, and I hate it and I’ll probably never be a star, but you know what I do? I just do my job, because I’m part of the team. You don’t see me going out of my way to wreck things for everyone else. They all worked hard on this play,weworked hard, and it’s not fair to ruin everyone else’s hard work just because you’re a jealous twit.”
Hmm, maybe that could have been more tactful.
Ralph reversed the net and swung the handle at her. That looked more dangerous than the soft end. Leah yelped, went shrew again, and plopped into a pile of soft stuff. This time she went all the way down, what felt like a long ways. Sniffing at her new surroundings, she realized she had fallen into a box of costumes; she smelled cardboard and tulle.
“Get back here, shrew! Ack!”
With the box muffling her surroundings and blocking her view, Leah couldn’t be sure exactly what happened, but she was pretty sure the loud banging noise that followed was the door slamming open.
And then came the best sound of all, Fawkes’s voice snarling, “Where the hell is Leah?”
FAWKES
Maggie wasn’tin the campground, and her trailer didn’t smell of Leah in the slightest—but none of that mattered when the lights went on in the costume trailer and someone started yelling about shrews.
Fawkes outdistanced Hester by quite a ways, even in bare feet with the robe flapping around him. He wrenched the door of the trailer open, startling someone he vaguely recognized from the bonfire a couple of days ago. Ralph? Something like that. The guy was standing holding a long-handled net, and he could think of only one reason for that.
“Where the hell is Leah?” Fawkes demanded. He couldn’t see her anywhere. But there were a million places for a shrew to hide in here. He stopped just inside the door, afraid of accidentally stepping on her, and leaned forward—the trailer wasn’t large—to grab Ralph by the collar.
Fueled by fury, Fawkes hauled him out the door and flung him down the steps. He hit the ground with an “oof!”, losing his grip on the net.
“Where is she? Where’s Leah?”
“Whoa, hey!” Hester arrived at a run. She was already dialing on her phone and speaking into it. “Mauro, I need you in the campground. There’s a situation.”
“If you’ve hurt her, nothing’s going to save you,” Fawkes snarled, planting a bare foot on Ralph’s chest. He was still wearing nothing but a bathrobe.
“I’m here!” Leah’s beloved voice called from inside the trailer, slightly muffled.
Fawkes abandoned Ralph, leaving him to Hester to deal with. He plunged inside, and found a naked Leah, at least he hoped it was Leah, trying to thrash her way out of what appeared to be a giant pile of tutus and other loose, gauzy fabric, with a big green thing bobbing around on top. The green thing, he realized, was an oversized mask in the shape of an absurdly caricatured dinosaur head with a goofy look on its face.
Fawkes helped her pull it off. Leah’s real head emerged from it, hair tousled and cheeks flushed.
“Fawkes!” she said. “You’re here!”
Fawkes scooped her up without thinking. Leah clung to his neck and kicked her legs and kissed him fast and hard.
“That sounded awesome! I wish I’d seen it with my actual eyes! My shrew is losing its mind, by the way. I’m starving. Do you have food? Ralph sabotaged the sets, I need to find Maggie—Oh my gosh, I’m naked.”
All of this spilled out of her in a rush as soon as their lips parted. Fawkes was still hung up on having Leah in his arms, alive, but the naked part he could at least do something about. He looked around, grabbed the nearest thing that was big enough to cover her (he had no idea what it was; it looked like a sparkly curtain) and wrapped it around her.
“Thanks,” Leah said as he carried her out of the trailer. “That was great. Nice save. I was going to get out on my own, you know. And I’m not kidding about being hungry.”
“I know you would have.” Fawkes held her tighter. She was a very wonderful double armload, warm and alive and wiggly in his arms, clinging to him securely for all her bravado.
Ralph remained down on the ground, with Hester brandishing the butterfly net in his face. Several other members of the theater troupe had begun to arrive, drawn by the commotion, with robes thrown over their sleepwear. None of them were Maggie.
“How did you find me?” Leah asked, clinging to Fawkes’s neck.
“Well, the yelling was a tipoff. But we were already investigating by smell.” Fawkes glanced back at where Ralph was being pinned by several of the larger and stronger members of the crew, including Halstadt. “Did you say he’s the saboteur?”
“Yes! He confessed to me. He wanted the Hook part. Someone needs to tell Maggie.”
“Leah,” Fawkes said. “Maggie is the jewel thief.”
“What?” Leah turned to look up at him. “Maggie thedirector? Why on Earth?”
