Page 58 of Kiss Me at Christmas
“Billy, can I have a quick word?” Harriet asked quietly. He shrugged and followed her to the side of the stage. When they were out of earshot, she said, “I know it’s hard, but please try not to antagonize the other actors.”
“She started it, snobby cow.”
“I know, but equally you are quick to take offense. You need to learn to rise above these things or you’ll have raged yourself into a heart attack by the time you’re thirty.” Billy made to protest, but she cut him off. “Please, for now, let’s give her the benefit of the doubt. We’ve literally just met these people. They’re probably as wary of us as we are of them.”
“Is this how it’s going to be from now on? You taking their side all the time?”
“That is not what I’m doing, nor will I. You lot are my top priority. But in the interest of actually making this production, we need to work together and that means swallowing down some of our annoyances.”
“Right. We’ll just let them walk all over us, then, yeah?”
Harriet narrowed her eyes at her charge. “All I’m asking is that you take a breath before you speak. They have experience that we need.”
Billy grumbled but grudgingly agreed to try. Harriet could feel a hot flush rising up through her body, prickling over her collarbone and up her throat.Not now!
As more chairs were ferried up onto the stage, widening the circle, Harriet excused herself and sought refuge in the makeshift coffee room to gather herself. She ripped off her first and second cardigans as though they were on fire, followed by her cotton Liberty print scarf, which felt like boiling lasagna sheets draping over her décolletage. Leaning on the counter with one hand and fanning herself with a copy of the play with the other, she looked up at her reflection in the mirror. A crimson-faced version of herself stared back, her throat puce and glistening. She was out of her depth with this play malarkey; Gideon’s arrival was liable to shine a spotlight on her ineptitude. Was she really up to this? Every part of her was sweating, even her earlobes. She hiked up the hem of herlong linen pinafore dress and began to fan beneath it—no lady-garden anywhere deserved to be this hot.
“Ahem!”
Harriet whirled around to find Toad of Toad Hall himself standing in the doorway.
“Sorry to disturb your, um, ruminations,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
She pulled the book out from under her pinafore and went back to fanning her face, which was now blushing on top of sweating.
“No need to apologize, I was simply taking a moment to regroup.”
“Ah, yes. Good idea. I was wondering how you intend to proceed?”
“Oh. Um.”Gawd! I don’t clucking know!“What would be your suggestion?”
“Far be it from me to tread on your delicate little toes,” he wheedled.
His slippery charm was making her nauseous. She pasted on a smile and imagined vomiting on his shoes.
“Please, tread away.”
“Well, if it were me,” he began faux humbly, “I would begin by putting together the cast. Really, nothing can progress until we know who within the production is who. The scenery and even the costumes can get away with being stylistically barebones, but the cast must be fully flesh.”
She shuddered at the way he rolled his tongue around the wordflesh.
“Right. Yes. Let’s do that,” she agreed.
“Excellent!” The hand rubbing went into overdrive. “Let’s get this show on the road…or should I say, the stage!” He chortled. “Come, come, good woman, Charles Dickens awaits us!”
“You go on ahead, I’ll be out in two minutes.”
Gideon bowed and left the room. Harriet pressed first one and then the other cheek against the cold brick wall for a full minute each before heading back out to the stage.
Gideon clapped his hands, and the chatter around the circle quieted. Leo had left his drawings to join them. The famous five sat close to each other, but Sid had plonked himself between two doting women—Odette, whose long white-and-smoky-gray plaits did not look like they belonged with her impossibly smooth complexion, and Prescilla, who wore a pale-pink-and-mint-green sari with a granny square cardigan and held a Chanel handbag on her lap. These women were hell-bent on pinching Sid’s cheeks and feeding him chocolate eclairs; his gleeful expression implied he felt he was winning at life.
“Time is of the essence, good people,” Gideon began. “Therefore, auditions will be held tomorrow morning at eleven o’clock sharp! Mallory!” He held out his hand, and Mallory pulled a clipboard out of a voluminous carpetbag and handed it to him. He took it without thanking her and waved it in the air. “Here is the signup sheet. Use it, please. No slot, no audition. The cast list will be ready to view on Monday evening and will be non-negotiable.”
Harriet raised her hand. “Just one moment, please, Gideon. Tomorrow is Saturday and my students have jobs and commitments on the weekends; morning auditions may not work for them.”
Gideon looked affronted, as though he couldn’t imagine anything more important than auditioning. Before he could formulate a comeback, she addressed her students.
“Guys, would early evening auditions work better for you?”
