Page 97 of Kiss Me at Christmas
“Evaline.” Harriet smiled. “How lovely to see you. We weren’t expecting you today.”
“So I see!”
The doors to the building next door opened and James appeared, allowing the cacophony of the five-to-elevens music club—Sonja’s Semibreves—to flood into the already noisy foyer. Clearly, he had been alerted to the grande dame’s arrival too.
“Evaline!” he called jovially over the sound of cymbals crashing and a rubber mallet streaking enthusiastically along a xylophone. The old woman looked him up and down, taking in his jeans and knitted sweater, the corners of her mouth twisting downward in displeasure. “What a lovely surprise,” he continued. Harriet could tell that he was caught off guard, but he was covering it well.
“Asurprise, I am sure, though I doubt you find mypresencelovely. I seem to have found you in the middle of a chaotic episode.”
“Oh, good lord no, it’s always like this!” trilled Prescilla, floating through the foyer at speed, flapping a book of sheet music. “You should see it when it’s busy! Snacks are on the way, chaps and chapesses!” she called, taking the grand staircase two steps at a time.
Evaline had the look of a woman being silently electrocuted.
“Who are all thesepeoplein my theater?” she demanded.
Harriet chanced a glance at James, who seemed to have decided to embrace the situation rather than manage it. He grinned mischievously as he made his way to her side and said through gritted teeth: “I think the jig is up, we may as well come clean.”
Oh my god, he’s going to get himself fired!Her mind spun wildly as she tried to think of ways that she could explain all of this and paint James as a hapless victim of her overzealous community spirit.
But before she could articulate her excuses, he took hold of her hand and with the other made a wide arc of the foyer, and said, “Welcome to your community hub, Evaline!”
Evaline’s eyes squinted like she’d just bitten down on a Sour Patch sweet. Her nostrils flared as she sucked in a deep breath, but James didn’t give her a chance to speak.
“Over here, we have the Relic Hunters.” He gestured toward them, deep in discussion about the items on their finds table, and waved. “Can you talk us through what you’re doing today please, guys?”
Cassidy, who had been sitting with a long cream petticoat spilling out over her lap as she sewed, stood.
“Sure. So, we’re detectorists, and usually once everycouple of weeks we get together and show our finds and discuss them, but since we’ve joined the theater, we’ve pretty much become part of the furniture.”
“A very welcome and vital part of the furniture,” Harriet added, smiling.
“Thanks,” said Cassidy. “I think we’ve found our kin among the folks here. You’re welcome to come over and have a look at our most recent finds, if you like.”
“What I would like—” Evaline began, but Harriet, seeing that she was about to say something disagreeable, cut her off.
“And because we’re all multitaskers here, they are also lending a hand toyourproduction by knocking up some costumes, alongside the Lonely Farts and some of the women in Hesther’s group. Josef and Dhruv are up in the kitchen now, baking snacks to keep us all going for practice tonight. It’s all hands on deck if we are to meetyourtight deadline.”
“The Lonelywhatdid you say?” Evaline spluttered.
“Farts!” James grinned. “Okay, then; thanks, guys!” James gave the Relic Hunters a thumbs-up, and they went back to their artifacts and their needles and thread. “And over here…” He motioned to the area near the old box office, which had been set up with a trestle table and chairs. “We have some more of our Lonely Farts Club members.”
Winston looked up and smiled. His beard and hair were a mass of tight gray curls and his eyes always twinkled with merriment.
“Excuse us,” he said. “We are in the midst of a rather thrilling game of dominoes.”
Kingsley waved one of the cream tiles. “Ernest is painting backcloths with Farahnoush, and the last time I saw Harry he was helping to stop the wobble on Scrooge’sbedroom window. We’re rather scattered about the place at present.”
“The Lonely Farts are invaluable members of the team,” said Harriet, smiling fondly at Kingsley. “The youngsters in particular have really benefited from their wisdom.”
“People are always saying that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks, but they never take into account the old tricks that we can teach the new dogs.” Winston winked at her.
“Quite right,” said Harriet. She turned to Evaline, still sitting monarchlike on her throne. “This experience is beneficial in so many ways to all of us.”
“I’m sure I’m delighted to be accommodating a huge portion of the proletarian populace in my theater so that they canfindthemselves,” Evaline snipped.
Harriet felt her cheeks redden with embarrassment. James looked equally mortified.
“I think you’ve been living up in your high tower for too long,” Kingsley said calmly. “You seem to have forgotten your manners.”
