by Lyn Gardner
Eel was astonished by Olivia’s unexpected confidence, and Alicia and Jack, who’d been sitting quietly in the corner reading the papers, glanced at each other and smiled. Unlike Eel, Olivia never talked herself up.
“Big head,” said Eel affectionately. She frowned. She touched her bandages and frowned again. “Swollen head?” she said.
“Yes,” said Jack. “You had a swollen head, Eel. Remember, you were hit by a van.”
“I know that,” said Eel crossly. “Swollen head,” she said again as if struggling to remember something else. “Gran! It was you. You were telling me not to get a swollen head. I remember now.”
“Yes, Eel, that’s right,” said Alicia cautiously. “I did say that.”
“But I did get a swollen head, didn’t I? When I got knocked down.”
“Yes,” said Alicia neutrally. “I suppose you did.” There was a small silence and then Eel said, “But that wasn’t what you meant, was it? You were telling me not to get a swollen head about something else.”
Alicia looked helplessly at Jack. There was a tense silence in the room.
Then Eel suddenly said, “Matilda! I’m going to play Matilda in the West End! That’s it. Emmy is too. Why hasn’t she mentioned it? That’s why I wasn’t to get a swollen head.” She grinned broadly. Then her face fell. “But I did. I did get a swollen head. And it was all my friends singing Matilda that helped wake me up, wasn’t it? I remember now.”
“Yes,” said Alicia, gently moving over to the bed and taking Eel’s hand. “That’s right, darling.”
Eel beamed. “I’m going to be a great Matilda.”
Alicia frowned. Jack sat down on the bed and put his arm around Eel. “We’re not sure that’s going to be possible, Eel. Not after the accident. Not with your leg.”
Eel stared at him and her face crumpled. For a moment it looked as if she would cry. But then she said, “I expect you’re right. I won’t be able to play Matilda with Emmy.” The others looked at each other. They were surprised at how calmly Eel was taking the devastating news. “It’s sad,” continued Eel, “but I’ve got to be realistic. I can’t do it. Not this time round anyway; it’s too soon. But I’m sure they’ll let me be one in the next batch. In fact, I know they will. I really was very good, you know.”
“But, Eel,” said Alicia urgently, “you can’t be sure that your leg will heal in a way that will make that possible.”
“Look, Gran,” said Eel. “I know that this injury has probably finished off any thoughts of a ballet career. I’m probably never going to be a prima ballerina assoluta. It’s more than a little upsetting, but I’ve been trying not to show it. But if you think I’m going to allow a little thing like a broken leg stop me appearing in the West End, you really don’t know me very well at all.” She pointed at the crutches. “Help me up, please. I need to speed up my recovery. Start getting as strong as I can rather than lying around in bed and letting my hard-won muscles waste away.”
“I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” said Alicia doubtfully.
“Oh chill, Gran,” said Eel. “I’m not going to let a white van, a knock on the head and a broken leg ruin my life. That’s not my story. I won’t let it be. I’m going to write my own happy ending. At least, I’m going to do my best to write it.”
“Oh, my gorgeous girl, I hope you can,” said Jack.
“Of course she can,” said Olivia. “Eel’s best is completely unbeatable.”
Alicia and Jack went to talk to Fran, promising Eel that if Fran approved she could have a go on the crutches.
Olivia reached in her pocket. “Do you want to borrow my iPod, Eel?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” said Eel, holding out her hand. “Do you think Tom will lend me his speakers too?”
“I’ll ask him.” Then Olivia added, “Eel, how can you be so certain that it will all be all right and that you will play Matilda?”
“I can’t be totally certain,” said Eel. “You can’t be certain about anything. But you just have to make the best of what happens, and sometimes good things do come out of bad things.”
“So what good things have come out of your accident?”
“Well, for a start you and Dad are friends again and…” She tailed off. “Maybe I shouldn’t say.”
“Say what?” demanded Olivia.
“Oh, well,” said Eel. “You are as blind as a bat about these things, so I’d have to help you out sooner or later. It’s Dad and Fran. There’s definitely something going on. I can tell. They give each other these little sidelong glances and both studiously try to ignore each other when they think anyone is looking their way. It’s a dead giveaway. So maybe it was all written in the stars. I had to get run over so Dad could find a wife. Fran’s lovely. She’d be perfect for Dad and for us. And the bonus would be that there would always be someone on hand to patch us up when we need it. Fran said she has never come across a family who are quite so accident-prone.”
Olivia was surprised to find that what Eel was telling her didn’t come as much of a shock. Fran was lovely. She was very pretty, but also so kind. There was something familiar about her too. Almost motherly. Eel fixed her sister with a stern stare. “I reckon all that’s needed is for someone to give Dad a little nudge, and Cupid should do the rest.”
Olivia swallowed hard.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Tom was waiting at the stage door for Olivia. They were going to see Eel at the hospital together after the second Romeo and Juliet dress rehearsal had finished. Tom had brought the speakers that Eel wanted.
Olivia suddenly appeared on the stairs and beckoned Tom up.
“Come and see my dressing room,” she said, pulling him up the stairs, laughing. Her face was flushed with what Tom recognised as a post-performance glow. She looked so beautiful that Tom could hardly breathe. They reached the white door that said “Miss Olivia Marvell”, and Olivia pushed it open.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” she said. It was run down and the eau-de-Nil paint was peeling on the walls, and the mirror was tarnished, but like all dressing rooms there was something magical about it. Olivia had already added her own touches. She’d put fairy lights around the mirror and arranged photographs of Jack, Eel and Alicia on her dressing table. There was also one of her mother playing Juliet and, next to it, the big one Tom had given her for her birthday.
“It’s there to remind me that I’m a tightrope-walker as much as I’m an actress,” said Olivia.
Tom smiled.
And then Olivia added, “And to remind me of you.”
Tom couldn’t have been more surprised if she’d given him an electric shock. He suddenly felt awkward. What was Liv trying to say? Did she mean that she wanted to be reminded of him as a friend? Or was there something more? He felt as if she might be talking in some code that he didn’t quite understand. He didn’t want to make an idiot of himself.
Olivia’s eyes were dancing. “Tom, I want to say thank you. If it hadn’t been for you, Eel might still be in a coma. It was such a brilliant idea, and it wasn’t just clever, it was absolutely the right thing to do. It’s why I love you so much, Tom McCavity.” And she stood on tiptoe and brushed his cheek with her lips.
Tom froze for a minute, before he remembered something. “I’ve got a gift for you,” he said shyly, and he produced a tiny bunch of lily of the valley from his rucksack.
“Oh, Tom, they’re so beautiful!” Olivia held them to her nose and drank in their aroma. She suddenly looked at him. “My birthday! The lily of the valley posy! It was from you?” Tom blushed and nodded. “I should have known. Thank you. They were perfect, just like these are.”
She saw Tom looking wistfully at the photograph of the two of them on the high-wire. “We look so young,” he said.
“I know,” said Olivia. “It’s not even two years ago but it seems like so much has changed since then.” She looked at the photo again. “I loved doing Romeo and Juliet with you, Tom.” Then she added fervently, “Whatever hap
pens in the future, Tom, you’ll always have been my first Romeo.”
When they arrived at the hospital, they found themselves in the middle of an argument.
Eel was sitting in a wheelchair and insisting that she wanted to go to the first preview of Romeo and Juliet. Alicia was standing over her with her arms crossed, saying that it was completely out of the question. Jack said that he thought perhaps the doctors would agree to let Eel go if they asked, and Alicia turned on him and pointed out that his daughter was only just out of a coma and he was being irresponsible. Then Jack walked out of the room because he knew that otherwise he might say something very rude to Alicia.
Olivia followed him and found him at the end of the corridor.
“Dad,” she called. He turned and smiled, and his eyes crinkled at the corners as if he’d spent the day in the sun, not a hospital room.
“I’m sorry, Liv,” he said. “I know your gran’s just anxious. She was so certain we had lost Eel that she can’t help but be overprotective of her. But I think it might do Eel good to go to the preview. It might do us all good to get out of the hospital for a few hours.”
Olivia took his hand. “Actually, Dad, maybe there’s a way to get Eel to the preview and stop Gran stressing out about it.”
“Oh yes?” asked Jack.
“Ask Fran to go with you.”
Jack was suddenly very still. “You mean, as a nurse?”
Olivia held his gaze. She swallowed hard. “No, I meant as your date. But it would stop Gran worrying if Fran was there.”
“Oh, I don’t know…” he began.
“Come on, Dad,” said Olivia. “Don’t you remember the conversation we had after your coming-home party? I’m giving you my blessing; it’s time we all moved on.”
Jack smiled at her, and the years fell away. “Oh, Liv…” he said.
Olivia put her hand up. “Just go and ask her. Now.”
“OK,” he said with a grin. “I will. But of course, she may turn me down flat.”
“I somehow don’t think she will,” said Olivia. “Not with Eel to reckon with…”
Kasha and Abbie climbed the stairs to her father’s office and carefully put the business accounts back on the shelves in the right order. They didn’t want Tyler to guess what they’d been doing. Tyler was in Germany for two days on a business trip. He’d told Abbie and her dad, Pete, he was going there to do a deal that was going to make them all rich.
“Trust me, Pete,” he’d said. Abbie had said nothing. She was beginning not to trust him at all. Something was going wrong in the business, but her dad couldn’t work out what it was. He said that as far as he could see everything in the accounts was in order. “That boy works like a demon,” he told Abbie. “Won’t even take a pay rise. He really cares about you and me. Says we’re the only family he’s got and he wants to make sure I’m set up for my old age.”
Abbie wasn’t so sure. Tyler had been very keen to get his hands on the money Abbie had been paid for The Way Through the Woods. He’d said that he would invest it for her and make sure she got a good return. “I’ve got the Midas touch,” he’d told her. Her dad had been keen too. Said it was good to keep it all in the family. But Abbie had told them firmly that her agent had set her up with her own accountant, who’d already advised her how to invest the money.
Abbie knew that her dad had taken a back seat since his stroke and had let Tyler bear the burden of the business. He hadn’t really worried too much about what was happening as long as the money kept on coming in. He made sure that he saw the accounts every month and they always seemed to be in order. Which was all the more reason why he had been taken aback when the bank had rung him up to say they were worried about the business’s overdraft. But Tyler told him it was just a blip in the cash flow – some people had been slow in paying, but he was on their case and there was nothing for Pete or the bank to worry about. He would have it sorted very soon.
“Tyler’s a good boy,” said Pete. “I’m glad I gave him a chance to prove himself after he got into all that trouble when he was younger. I just wish Hamo would have more faith in him. You know, Tyler said that he attacked him in the street! I saw the cuts on his face.”
Abbie had bitten her lip. That wasn’t what Livy had told Kasha. She’d seen the text. According to Livy, it was almost certainly Tyler who had attacked Hamo, and Livy wasn’t a liar.
Her dad was still trying to reassure her. “Abbie, you’re not to worry about it,” he said. “It’s my problem. You just need to concentrate on getting well so you can do your movie next year. I can’t say I’m sorry you’re not doing Romeo and Juliet with Kasha Kasparian. I know he’s a nice boy, but I don’t want you mixed up with his family and that brother of his.”
Abbie sighed. How was she ever going to break the news to her dad that she and Kasha were madly in love?
Now, in her dad’s office, Abbie and Kasha stood back and looked at the files.
“Nobody would know that they’ve been touched,” said Kasha.
Abbie nodded. “I’d hate Tyler to think I’d been checking up on him. And clearly I was wrong to think that he has anything to hide. If Jon’s accountant thinks everything’s in order, then I guess it must be. I feel like such a horrible person for doubting him. If Dad knew what I’d done he’d be furious.”
“Still, it is odd though,” replied Kasha. “I spoke to Hamo again and he’s adamant that Tyler’s up to no good.”
Abbie shrugged. “Well, we’re all wrong. Tyler is clearly doing his best. Although the accountant said there was no reason for the business to be overdrawn, judging from these accounts. Maybe the bank made a mistake? I’ll find a way to discreetly suggest that Dad takes it up with them again.” She gazed round the little office. “I’d be so sorry to see this place go. It was so much a part of my childhood.”
Kasha squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry, baby, but I’ve got to go. It’s the first preview tomorrow and I need my beauty sleep. You need to get some rest too. The hospital said you had to look after yourself, Abbie. We don’t want you going into a diabetic coma.”
“Honestly, Kash. You don’t have to worry about me so much. I can look after myself.”
“I’ll take you home,” said Kasha. “Will you come to the theatre tomorrow before the preview?”
“Of course,” said Abbie. “Livy might be playing Juliet, but you’ll always be my Romeo.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Tom walked along the road whistling. He had just finished a one-to-one high-wire session with Pablo. He could feel the sun on his arms. He felt incredibly happy. He was so looking forward to the first preview of Romeo and Juliet tonight. He, Aeysha, Georgia and Katie were going together; Olivia had got them all tickets. Jack, Alicia and Fran were bringing Eel in a wheelchair. And they all planned to go round to the dressing room to see Olivia after the performance. Tom felt really excited. It wasn’t just the thought of seeing Olivia play Juliet, although he was certain that she was going to be a remarkable one. His excitement was more about his and Olivia’s relationship. He sensed a change in her. Maybe playing Juliet had made her more attuned to the possibilities? They had always been such great friends, almost from the very first moment they had had a conversation with each other in the little rehearsal room at the top of the Swan where Olivia introduced him to high-wire. But he felt as if they were now poised on the brink of something new, and that both of them knew it, but neither knew quite how to make the first move. Maybe tonight after the show would be the moment when he could make his feelings clear to Olivia. If not, he could wait. He was good at waiting.
Kasha dropped a kiss on Abbie’s nose and whispered, “Parting is such sweet sorrow.” They were together in his dressing room. It had been brilliant for them when the production moved into the theatre; it meant that they now had a chance of some private time together. Not that the dressing room was all that private. People were always in and out. But it felt cosy and safe, not like in the big outside world. Kasha was really looki
ng forward to the run of Romeo and Juliet because it would allow him to spend more time with Abbie. They were making plans. They were going on holiday together after the run was finished and then Kasha was going on his US tour as arranged and Abbie was going to make Joan of Arc. After that – who knew? They’d both be eighteen. Maybe they would even get married…
“Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again,” said Abbie, matching Kasha quote for quote.
“I reckon at about quarter past ten, after the show tonight,” said Kasha with a grin.
“’Tis twenty years till then,” said Abbie dramatically. They both broke into helpless giggles.
“What’s your seat number?” asked Kasha.
“D21,” said Abbie.
“I’ll direct my entire performance to D21,” said Kasha.
“Don’t you dare, Kasha Kasparian. Jon would have a fit. Direct it to your Juliet.”
“You are so professional, Abbie Cardew. I love that about you. But look, you’d better go now. I’ve got to get ready.” Abbie felt a pang – he wanted her to leave – but she knew that Kasha was busy and his mind would be turning towards tonight’s performance. She would be a distraction if she stayed any longer.
“That’s OK,” she said. “Gives me a good excuse to go shopping. Covent Garden, here I come! See you later, Kasha, and break a leg!”
They hugged, and Abbie blew a kiss as she left the room. She passed Jon on the stairs and they had a quick chat. Abbie thought Jon seemed embarrassed, as if he thought she might be upset because it could have been her playing Juliet. But she didn’t mind at all. She had no particular yen to be a classical actress. In her heart she knew that Livy would make a better job of Juliet than she ever would.
She was surprised to see so many photographers outside the door. It was only the first preview. Maybe Romeo and Juliet was going to be bigger than any of them imagined. She put on her dark glasses, pulled down a hat and pushed her way through the throng. Nobody recognised her. She thought it was funny that just a few weeks ago she had been the centre of attention because of The Way Through the Woods, and now nobody recognised her. Fame was fickle, although she knew that if Joan of Arc was a hit, her life might change completely. She smiled to herself: if any of the scrum of press outside the stage door knew that she and Kasha were in love they would have been chasing her down the street. But they didn’t have a clue, and that made Abbie very pleased. She hugged her secret to herself and headed towards Covent Garden, thinking how it really was time she bought herself a new dress. After all, she didn’t go to a West End premiere every night of the week!