“I must remember that you take commands well.” Frank held out a clawed hand to her palm up. “Are you starving, dear Beauty?”
The verbal foreplay of the beast crackled with heat on the stage. Tom suppressed a glow of pride. He’d practiced with Frank, emphasizing body movement and tone around his shifted state to deliver the sultry double entendres.
Gabriella, ever the not so innocent, looked at his hand and then at him in coquettish mirth. “Not so much, Beast.”
Frank bowed low, emphasizing the ruff that flowed down from his head into the waistband of his clothes, a thick pelt of inviting fur.
“Then let me whet your appetite with a dance.” Frank drew Gabriella up from the table, her skirts flaring as they took center stage.
One of Gabriella’s students manned the soundboard and started the tango. The sweet tone of strings rose and filled the room. Frank rested a hand at Gabriella’s back, and she closed her fingers around his outstretched paw. They’d finished the first sweeping turn when Celia stepped out from behind the table.
“I can’t do this. It’s weird.” She stomped off the stage.
Frank dropped his hands from Gabriella. He turned to Tom, his soulful eyes pleading.
Tom rocketed from his chair to intercept Celia. “What’s wrong?”
She turned back to Frank and pointed. “That. It’s… I don’t know what it is. But it shouldn’t be seducing a woman.”
Behind her, Frank had begun his shift. He stood now, a regular man, bare chested, barefoot in shorts next to a fuming Gabriella. His shoulders bent in as if trying to protect himself or make himself look smaller.
Tom tilted his head to the side. “So how would this be different if Frank was using makeup or a mask? He’s still a human underneath.”
Gabriella stormed down from the stage and turned a frowning Celia around to face Frank again. “Look, Celia. He’s a human being. With human feelings.” Gabriella got in Celia’s face, lowering her voice. “How would you feel if someone called you an ‘it’?”
Celia backed up. “This is wrong. I’m out.” She threw up her hands and grabbed her bag, dashing down the stairs.
Frank and the other players migrated down to the front of the stage.
“I can’t believe her.” Gabriella’s face flushed, and she crossed her arms, pacing as she seethed.
Danny patted Frank on the back. “It’s Celia that’s wrong, dude.”
Reina shook her head. “Don’t listen to her, Frank. It was her ignorance speaking.”
“True.” Campbell spoke up from the wings.
Emma came onstage to give Frank a hug. “We’re all with you, Frank.”
“I’m sorry, Tom.” Frank only had eyes for Tom. His quiet apology amid all the other cast’s reassurances made Tom’s lips thin. She had no right to undermine him like that. No right to treat Frank like that.
“Can we get someone to replace her this late?” Aimee asked.
“I know a couple of people,” Stan offered, leaning against the table.
“We could shift around a little, have the other invisible servants take up the slack.” John flipped through his notebook, looking at blocking. “Here’s the only scene where all four servants are moving, and you could reblock this to give Celia’s movements to Stan and Aimee.”
“We’re game,” Aimee called out.
“Yeah,” Stan echoed.
“That’s an idea.” Tom stared at Frank. “Frank, are you okay with that?”
Frank had his hands on his hips and looked down at his bare feet. “I’m fine with it if you are.” His soft voice twisted something in Tom’s chest.
“Hey, Frank, do you mind coming over here? I’d like a private word.” Tom motioned to the rest of the cast. “Take five, everyone.” The other members of the cast broke up into groups to run lines and blocking or make phone calls.
Tom waited until Frank came over to the side. When Frank joined him, Tom wanted to grab him in a hug, but mindful of the rest of the cast, he only reached out to touch Frank’s arm.
“Are you okay?” Tom pitched his voice low so it wouldn’t carry.
“I’m fine.” Frank’s answer came out a little too fast for Tom’s liking.
“If you’re not, it’s okay. We can stop this play right now if this is too much.” Tom swallowed after the words left his mouth. It would be hard to save Annie’s shop if Frank backed out. He couldn’t bear it, though, if this play hurt Frank. Not when he wouldn’t be here to defend him.
“No.” Frank’s eyes had a worried slant to them, but he shook his head. “But could we use this play to help educate people more about my condition? If I’m going to let the whole town in on my secret, I’d like the performance to be a vehicle to start the conversation.” He caught Tom’s gaze, the earnestness in his features so sharp they pierced Tom. “I want to make sure the next time someone like Celia meets someone like me, they aren’t as quick to judge.”
You and me both. Tom clapped him on the back, the gesture morphing into a comforting stroke.
“Okay. I think that’s a good thing. I want that too.” Tom restrained himself from letting his hand linger on Frank’s skin. “I also want you to double down on your warm-up exercises for your mouth and practice enunciating your lines. If you need help, I’m glad to work with you, and I know Gabriella and John are too.”
Frank nodded. Tom grinned, and it stretched his mouth a little too much at the sides. They would make this play work. And he’d leave this town more tolerant than when he arrived if it killed him. He clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention while Frank trotted back onstage.
“Okay, everyone, let’s continue the run through of act two. We’ll stop if we need to figure out a new configuration for the invisible servants.”
Chapter Seventeen
The crew had left the dining room set onstage, and Annie asked to use it for the interview. So when the reporter arrived, they all trooped upstairs and sat at the table as if they were having brunch at the beast’s castle.
Frank perched on the edge of the chair Tom had pulled out for him. Annie’s tea service, a prop in the play, held a fresh pot of tea for the interview with the local newspaper reporter.
As Annie passed out the delicate china cups, Serena Waller from the Waycroft Falls Clarion opened her laptop.
“I wanted to thank you for giving me such a scoop, Ms. Meyers. The Clarion is excited to be covering your benefit performance.” Serena took a sip of tea.
“My pleasure, Ms. Waller. Are you certain you don’t want any sweetener?” Annie offered a lump of sugar between her silver tongs.
Serena Waller’s eyes sharpened. “No. I’d just like to get to the interview, if that’s okay with you.” She turned cold, assessing eyes on Frank.
“Mr. Braden, I heard you have a rare genetic disorder?”
Frank swallowed at the bold question. His inner wolf lay down in his mind and stayed silent. “Uh, yes. I’ve got Galen’s syndrome. A lycanthropy curse passed down like a mutation along my genetic line.”
“And you can shape-shift? Into a wolf?” The reporter typed on her laptop.
“Yes. Although I won’t be a wolf onstage. I’ll be halfway.” Frank looked to Tom. Didn’t he want to jump in here?
“He’s got to say his lines. Frank is also the playwright for this production. He adapted the tale for the stage.” Tom flashed his Broadway smile with all the teeth. He winked at Frank. Frank was grateful for the reprieve.
“Interesting. Back to your condition, Mr. Braden. When you turn into a wolf, are you in all ways a wolf? Full fangs, claws, instincts?”
“Um.”
“He’s a human,” Tom interrupted again. “He looks like a wolf, but he’s still a person inside.”
The reporter’s shrewd gaze narrowed on Tom. “And how do you know for sure, Mr. Davidson?”
“Well.” He motioned to Frank. “He’s told me so himself. And I’ve seen him shift numerous times.”
“As have I,” Annie adde
d.
“So he’s more like a dog?” The reporter’s sly look belied the innocence of her question. Frank clammed up. She was just winding them up now.
Tom jumped to his defense. “That’s offensive, Ms. Waller. You don’t try to pigeonhole people by their medical conditions.”
“Forgive me.” She tapped on the keyboard, jutting out her chin as she looked down her glasses at the screen. “I’ve never met someone with Galen’s syndrome.” She didn’t look apologetic.
“Now you have.” Frank spoke up. “I hope my being in this play will bring the condition into the open a little more.”
“And bring in money as well?” Serena Waller placed a finger on her cheek.
Annie broke in this time. “This is a fund-raiser to help open the new performance area of the Little Dorrit Bookshop. I can provide you with historical information on the building. It’s one of the oldest sites in town, and I want to make sure it’s here for years to come.”
Serena turned to Annie, her smile a blade against her lips. “There are entrepreneurs in town interested in this property, correct?”
“Yes.” Annie’s mouth flattened. “However, as of right now, I own the deed, and I’m working on getting the site on the State and National Historic Register so it can be preserved.”
“What about all the detractors that say the downtown area could use more modernization, say a strip mall to bring in revenue from outside the city?”
Tom’s face froze. Frank gritted his teeth. They all knew who she was talking about. Dick Majors had made no secret of the fact that he had plans for the downtown area, and they involved chain stores and parking lots.
Annie’s expression grew brittle as she answered the question. “I believe there is a place for things like that. For example, we have a large shopping mall the next town over, which already provides opportunities for people looking to shop for their favorite brands.” Annie tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “However, we have a unique situation here in Waycroft Falls. My new performance venue could spark other creative endeavors that will take our city in a more artistic direction while also preserving our rich history.”
“By exploiting Mr. Braden’s medical condition. Isn’t that what you called it, Mr. Davidson?”
Annie’s cheeks grew red as she attempted to hold in her temper. “Serena, I know you didn’t grow up here in Waycroft Falls, and I don’t know why you took the job of reporter at a little local newspaper, but I’ve lived here all my life. When I invited you here for an exclusive interview with me, the playwright, and the director, who is an actor on Broadway in New York, I thought you’d want to report on something that was being done to help our town. However, your questions are coming across as tabloid fodder. I know our hometown paper doesn’t condone yellow journalism, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t mean the words like you were saying them.” Annie rose as graceful as an antebellum debutante. “I think you’ve got all the details. If you have any follow-up questions, be sure to email them.”
When Tom and Frank sprang up beside Annie, Serena Waller had no choice but to close her laptop and stand as well or remain seated with all of them looming over her. She shoved her computer back in her bag and sailed down the steps and out of the bookshop.
“I mean this in the sincerest way possible.” Annie crossed to the window to make sure Serena had left the shop. “Bless. Her. Heart.”
“Do you think she’ll write up a positive piece after that interview?” Frank bit at his finger. He knew the crappy interview wasn’t his fault, but he still felt like it was. The article would feature his Galen’s.
“Don’t know. What I do know as the production’s marketing director,” Annie straightened her shoulders and pretended to flip her short hair, “is that I am going to set up more interviews and reach out to the Galen’s Syndrome Society. It wouldn’t hurt to have a little information about your condition in the program. If you wouldn’t mind, Frank.”
Both Annie and Tom turned to Frank, waiting for an answer. He swallowed. That wouldn’t be a bad thing. Giving the theater-goers more information to take home with them might even help.
“It’s fine with me.”
“Great.” Annie pulled him into a hug. “I’m so excited about all this. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Frank, for helping save the shop.”
Frank’s face heated. Tom enveloped them both in a hug and said in a falsetto, “Best play evah!”
Frank chuckled. Serena Waller might have gotten the proverbial Southern bless your heart, but he was the one who felt blessed.
Chapter Eighteen
“That hellcat.” Annie shoved the newspaper onto the counter, opened to the arts section. Serena Waller’s article on the upcoming play started with the headline, WEREWOLF DRAMA HOPES TO BLOCK PROGRESS DOWNTOWN.
Frank sighed and pushed the paper back to her without reading it. “We knew this would happen.”
“Especially when I told you Serena Waller had dinner with Dick and two other council member cronies last Sunday.” Molly, the other part-time employee nearing retirement age, passed with books in her arms to reshelve.
“Well, lucky for us, I also did a phone interview with the Constitution.” Annie slapped the larger paper on the counter beside the local one. “We’re on the second page of the Lifestyle section.” She flipped to the page. The headline for this story read, HISTORIC BUILDING RAISES FUNDS AND AWARENESS WITH NEW PLAY. Frank skimmed down the copy, noting that it focused on the preservation of the building but had a nice paragraph or two about Galen’s syndrome.
Gabriella, dressed in a smart suit and not the sweeping costume of Beauty that Frank was accustomed to, swept in from the street and made a beeline for Annie. “There’s a pair of squabbling children out there, accosting my husband. If you want the meeting to start on time, someone needs to break it up.”
Frank came out from behind the counter. “I can go.” He knew his height and physique often intimidated people into backing off. He rarely had to do anything other than just stand there.
Gabriella caught his arm. “Not you, Frank.”
Annie rolled up the sleeves of her cardigan. “Time to go save the mayor.” And she dashed out the door.
A few minutes later, Frank heard raised voices coming nearer. Then Mayor Englebottom darted in with Tom behind him.
“This is a mistake, Mayor. If we save this property, it will stick out like a sore thumb when we modernize the downtown area.” Dick Majors followed them to the door, but Gabriella barred him from entering.
“Mr. Majors, this is a private meeting between Mrs. Myers and my husband. If you’d like to speak to him, you’ll need to make an appointment at his office or during regular council meetings.” Her syrupy voice dripped Southern charm and steel.
Annie shoved past Dick and into the store. “Never seen the likes of a grown man bleating like a sick calf,” she muttered as she escorted the mayor to the stairs.
“And him.” Dick pointed a finger past Gabriella’s shoulder at Frank. “I know now what you are. You’re not even human.” He spoke down to Gabriella, who hadn’t moved from her position in the doorway. “Do you know he threatened me? He’s an animal, through and through. Everyone will see that if you do this play. They’ll all see.”
Gabriella shoved Dick off the threshold and then closed the glass door in his face. She spun around.
“Excuse me, Frank. I’m going to join my husband upstairs.”
Frank realized that Annie and Tom and the mayor had already retreated to the performance space on the third floor. Dick glared at him from outside the plate-glass window but didn’t come in. Frank was glad. He didn’t want to have another bad encounter with the man while Annie was trying to save her store.
“IT’S INTIMATE, BUT I think it will be an asset not only for the shop but also the town.” Tom ushered the mayor into the performance area.
Mayor Jerry Englebottom took in the small thrust stage and the risers of chairs waiting for an
audience. “This looks nice.”
Gabriella claimed her husband’s hand and sighed. “It’s perfect for the venue.”
Tom surveyed the finished performance space. The rich wood of the layered stage and the wooden folding chairs gave a vintage feel to the small theater. The old-fashioned key Annie had presented to him on the first day had been used as the pattern for the stage floor. They’d incorporated a few elements from the original library, including the big windows and a framed display of books donated to the library by Jedidiah Banks himself.
“And technical rehearsals are tonight?” Jerry stepped onto the stage, inspecting the lighting above him.
“Fingers crossed.” Tom bounced on the balls of his feet.
Jerry glanced at Annie. “Well, as you know, the town council had a closed-door meeting yesterday. It was close, but tentatively we’ve elected to approve your request to have the Jedidiah Banks Library Building declared a historic site of the city.” He patted his wife’s hand, and Gabriella kissed his cheek. “Mind you, it doesn’t come with any grant monies, but it will provide you protection from an immediate teardown order due to eminent domain. There are a few stipulations the council would like to make, such as pursuing recognition on the state and national level and oversight on future renovations and upgrades.”
“I’ve already spoken to Dinah at the historic preservation society, and she’s putting me in contact with some state agencies that can help with funds and paperwork.” Annie beamed, hugging John.
“And one other matter. Despite some rather loud opposition, the town council is, at the state’s request, forming a Local Arts Agency.” Jerry turned to Tom. “It’s a new position, but we’ve had several people recommend that you head that up, Tom.”
Tom sputtered. “Me?”
Annie poked his arm. “You wouldn’t have to worry about Marcie growing up before you see her again if you stayed.”
“It’s a city position, required to work closely with local school and community art programs, help the town council cultivate new funding models for the arts, maybe even set up an art show during the Halloween Bat Festival.”
Wolf Around the Corner Page 16