“Oui, Mademoiselle,” our conductor said in his ridiculous accent. It may be mean of us, but we’d often shared a giggle over his over the top French-ness; both of us were convinced it was fake.
“Belle, its two hours until airtime.” My heart skipped a beat at the sound of David’s voice, silly I know, but somewhere along the lines, I appeared to have become a romantic. I was going to blame it on Jack’s influence; I’d never met anyone with quite so much romance in them before him.
“Thanks, David.” At that moment, John approached, and Belle turned her attention to him, leaving me and David alone for a moment. [TS11]He leaned over and kissed my cheek, leaving me disappointed that he was technically at work[TS12], and we couldn’t do anymore.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” I said back [TS13]and trying to make the most of the calm before the inevitable storm.
“Masquerade,” I heard John say loudly, obviously answering Belle’s irate question. I scowled. That scene was a lot of work for the five minutes of air time we were going to get. David gave me an apologetic look. He knew exactly how much me and Belle didn’t want to be putting on that scene.
“Belle, can I have your help getting everyone into costume?” I was going to need at least a little help to get everyone ready; there was a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it in.
“Sure, what do you want me to do?”
“I need you to check the guys have got their suits and masks on properly, you know what they’re like.” She nodded, before setting up camp near the door to what would be the green room on opening night. This was what I liked about working with Belle; she knew what needed doing and did it without a fuss. It helped that she was managing most of the staging, too, and I noticed that she called the two guys playing André and Firmin first; a good call considering that they were on stage before anyone else.
Nearly two, incredibly hectic, hours later, I flopped into the seat next to a worried looking Belle, so we could watch the performance. She was muttering under her breath about something, but as far as I could tell, she had no idea that she was even doing it. To my surprise, the whole thing seemed to run seamlessly, well apart from Jack and Merry’s small wobble, but only we seemed to have noticed that; if they could correct themselves that smoothly while the show was running, then we’d certainly be in with a shot at the title.
Beside me, Belle bunched her fists as it came towards Jack and Merry’s big kiss, taking me by surprise. She’d admitted that she got jealous sometimes, but I’d thought she was over that. A crash sounded from the stage, signalling Henry’s entrance as the Phantom and I almost glowed with pride as I watched him. Not about Henry himself; sure, he was a nice enough guy, but we weren’t what I’d call friends exactly. [TS14]No, I was proud of my costuming. Like Belle had her visions for the show, before we even knew we were doing The Phantom of the Opera, so had I. [TS15]After all, the pair of us had loved the show for years and seen it countless times, on stage and on film. The biggest concept I’d had was that of dressing Raoul and the Phantom in the same costume, just in different colours, or with slightly different detailing. Luckily, John was the kind of director that let me run with my ideas, and I was pleased to see just how well it worked. Of course, that was all helped by how much Jack and Henry looked like opposites anyway. Jack was tall, toned and blonde, whereas Henry was dark haired, shorter and broad. It worked really well for their parts, and even better with their costumes.
The final note rang out, and the cast took a quick bow, being cheered on by the crew, both our own, and those that came with the TV show. Like David, most of TV crew had been with us since the beginning, and unless they were asking us obvious interview style questions, they tended to just slot in with the rest of us. As far as I knew, there was at least one relationship between a TV crew member and one of our troupe. Other than me and David that was.
The moment attention turned back to John, and whatever he was prattling on about, I hopped to my feet, rushing towards where Merry had left the stage.
Chapter 13
“You ready?” David asked as he unpacked his camera equipment, starting to set up for the big night.
“Hopefully,” I answered. I wasn’t quite sure how I felt. Previously, our productions had always had an excited atmosphere around the theatre, but this one was different. Then again, I guess that there was more riding on this performance than on any of our previous ones. I wasn’t even that sure what the ‘prize’ was, or if there even was one, but the idea of having my costumes on national TV was kind of freaking me out a bit. And that was driving me a little bit mad. What costume designer didn’t want that? But the self-doubt was starting to creep in. I mean, I hadn’t even finished college yet, and now there were potentially millions of people about to judge me.
“You’ll be great,” he said. I snapped out of my introspection, having completely forgotten that David was there.
“It’s not me that has to be great,” I reminded him, conscious of the fact that a lot was riding on the cast members also doing a good job. Almost as much as was riding on some of Belle’s effects. I knew that she was particularly nervous about the chandelier drop at the end of the first half, and with good reason; we’d yet to test it, and if it went wrong then it could mean complete disaster. As well as no chandelier for the rest of our week’s run.
David kissed me softly, before leaving to do whatever it was that he did before a live show. He’d tried to explain it to me, but all the technical terms went right over my head; probably much like it did for him when I went on about fabrics and patterns.
Several quick [TS16]costume fixes later, it was almost show time, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the cast had managed to dress themselves. It may not sound like a big deal, but I could almost swear that some of the guys dressed themselves in the dark, and there were a couple of the girls who were just as bad. I had to fix a couple of ties, but nothing more major than that.
Ten minutes into the first half, and I was getting kind of bored. I was stationed by the door of the green room, and the assistant I’d had at the beginning of the night had been pulled off to deal with some set changes. And so, I was left alone, with only the distant sound of the show, and the occasional costume change to keep me company. It seemed I’d done my job a little too well, taking the stress out of some of the costume changes by having base costumes, like Merry’s corset-style top. Naturally, I hadn’t actually put her in a corset, even if restricting her like that had been incredibly tempting at times.
A loud cheering came from the direction of the stage and I jumped to my feet only moments before I was swept into David’s arms.
“Put me down!” I laughed as he swung me around. “Seriously David!”
“Sorry, it just went so well.” He set me down gently, a huge grin on both of our faces.
“You’re not even part of the troupe,” I said before realising how horrible that sounded. David stuck his tongue out at me in a surprisingly childish way, just making me laugh more.
“Am too. Belle said so.” I’d have to give him that one, she had told him something like that a couple of weeks ago. I looked around for my best friend, not leaving the comfort of David’s arms, but also not seeing her anywhere. Which was odd. I’d have thought she’d be here to greet Jack straight off the stage. I broke apart from David, and started asking the cast and crew if they’d seen her, and yet no one had. Finally, I spotted Jack, who was wearing a worried expression that probably matched mine.
“Have you seen her?” [TS17]Jack asked.
“No, is she not in here?” He looked around frantically, but I suspected that he already knew that she wasn’t.
“I thought maybe she was watching from the wings,” I tried, though I knew exactly where she was supposed to have been watching from. John had taken all of the backstage crew through the arrangements earlier in the day.
“Where is she?” He asked. [TS18]
“I don’t know,” my voice cracked slightly, and before I kne
w it, he was pushing out of the green room and running through the maze of corridors that made up the theatre, shouting Belle’s name. With each passing minute, I was getting more and more worried, and even though I could hear David trying to follow us, I couldn’t spare a moment to let him catch up.[TS19]
Jack skid to a halt in front of me, and I almost crashed into him. “Jack?”
“I thought I heard something,” he held up his hand and we both listened, a faint shout coming from deeper in the theatre. We both set off running, Jack still shouting Belle’s name. He pulled ahead slightly, and it wasn’t until I heard the relief in his voice that I began to calm down myself. I turned the last corner to find Jack cradling a crying Belle in his arms.
“Oh God, what happened?”
“I don’t know,” Jack replied softly, as he stroked Belle’s back in soothing motions.
“Toby,” she croaked and I heard Jack inhale sharply. I’d never truly liked Belle’s ex, but his antics more recently [TS20]had cemented my opinion more than ever.
“I’m going to kill him,” the words were out of my mouth before I’d even thought about it. I tried to regret saying them, but it just wasn’t happening.
“No, he’s not worth that,” Jack’s voice was still soft, and I appreciated what he was doing for Belle. She needed someone like him. Someone that would see she was beginning to freak out, and stand by her while it happened.
“You don’t understand, Jack.” Anger was building up again, and all the resentment I felt towards Toby began to bubble to the surface. “Last time he hurt her she ended up in hospital,” I half shouted, almost instantly regretting it. I’d never even talked to Belle about what happened that summer, but when I’d got that call from the hospital, I’d experienced the dual emotions of relief and horror. On the one hand, I got my best friend back. On the other, she had to be seriously injured for that to happen. [TS21]
“What?” I could tell that he was surprised, otherwise he’d never have been so curt.
“He pushed her down the stairs. She won’t tell me why.”
“He pushed me?” Belle’s muffled voice surprised us both, and reminded me why we were really here.
“That’s what the paramedics thought,” I made a concentrated effort to soften my voice, and slunk to the floor next to the two of them. I vaguely wondered where David had got to, but we knew the theatre better than he did, and I had more important things to worry about than finding him right now. “You had concussion and a broken arm, Belle. That’s not normal from a fall down the stairs.”
“I don’t remember falling,” she whispered.
“It’s okay, he won’t hurt you again,” he spoke to Belle, but gave me a stern look at the same time. He was probably worried that I’d keep talking and end up upsetting her more.
“He didn’t hurt me this time.”
“What did he do then?” I struggled to keep the venom out of my words, but seeing her like this had brought it all back and it was difficult to ignore.
“He scared me a little. I ran. I tripped.”
“Are you hurt?” Jack asked and she nodded.
“My ankle.”
“Want me to carry you back up to the theatre?” She nodded again, and I helped support her as Jack got to his feet.
“The show!” Belle cried, and Jack chuckled. I could understand; only Belle would be thinking of the show at a time like this.
“It went amazing; your staging is all anyone can talk about.”
“And it’s driving Merry crazy.” This time I did manage to make my words seem lighter. Though that was in part down to the fact that I enjoyed seeing Merry squirm. I didn’t have any patience for the woman.
We passed the walk back up to the theatre by filling Belle in on what had happened during the show. Or at least, Jack did. I hadn’t actually had time to find out much about it, except that her chandelier trick had worked perfectly.
“Guys,” David stage whispered from one of the theatre doors. We made our way to him and he slipped his arm around me instinctively. I leaned back into him, grateful for him in a way that I don’t think I had been before. Maybe it was seeing the way Jack had just been with Belle, but I realised that I hadn’t been wishing for someone like that for myself recently. [TS22]And I hadn’t been wishing, because I knew that I already had that someone. Sure, I didn’t need the same kind of support that Belle did, but I needed my own. “I told everyone you’d gone home, they were asking for you.”
“Thank you.” I leaned up and kissed him on the cheek.
“Thanks, David,” Jack said, smiling at him as he slipped past and out of the door, Belle still snuggled up in his arms. I watched them go, conflicting emotions warring in me.
“What happened?” David asked quietly. Looking around to make sure that no one else could hear us, I filled him in with as much as I could, missing out the parts of the story that weren’t mine to tell. It’d taken Belle nearly three years to tell anyone, including me, any of it, and I wasn’t about to break her confidence by telling David. Even if I did love him.
By the time I’d finished, he was frowning, and the look on his face just made me love him all the more. Nothing had happened to me, or to David, and yet here he was feeling bad about it. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She’s with Jack, she’ll be fine.”
Chapter 14
I lay in David’s arms, snuggled up on the sofa in my flat, with some stupid action film playing on the TV. Belle and Jack had gone to visit his parents for the night, and we’d taken advantage of the time alone.
“David?” I asked nervously. I knew that we had to have this conversation, but I didn’t want to. I might not want to admit it aloud, but I was kind of worried about where it would go.
“Mmm?”
“What happens now?” He pushed up so that he was half-sitting, and I moved so that I could look at him. It wasn’t the comfiest of positions, but I wasn’t about to move again if I didn’t have to.
“What do you mean?”
“Well the show’s over, and…” I trailed off, not really sure where I was going with this. Our troupe had been going for years, and would continue for years, but it wouldn’t quite be the same. Belle had told John that she was quitting, even if her staging had won us the top prize. I’d still be staying on, but that was because I still needed the experience. Even so, that wasn’t what I was worried about.
“And what?” I looked away, unable to look into his confused gaze.
“What happens with us?” I mumbled reluctantly.
“Well, I was hoping that we’d carry on as we are for a bit. Then maybe move in together, once you’ve finished college and we know where you’ll be working. After that, well I guess we’ll wait and see.” He had a dreamy look in his eye, one that I’d always associated with women talking about weddings. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes and I wiped them hastily, hoping he hadn’t noticed. From the look on his face, I hadn’t been successful.
“You’re serious?”
“Of course I’m serious, why wouldn’t I be?”
“But what about work?” I worried my lip between my teeth.
“I’ve always been based around here. But it’s not like TV jobs are specific to a town or city,” he shrugged, like it really wasn’t important. “Plus, we know Jack’s sister now. We’re sorted for jobs in the entertainment industry.” He winked and I giggled. He had a point there. Jack’s sister, Jill, was a recruiter. She’d already found Belle a placement[TS23] with an up and coming film studio, so David probably had a point. And yes, her name was really Jill. Apparently, their Mum had an odd moment when deciding what to name her twins.
“I guess so.”
“I know so. Now, quit worrying, and let us be us.” He pulled me back around and I snuggled back into his chest, a content feeling rising through me. I hoped it never went away.
Epilogue
4 years later…[TS24]
“May I have this dance?” David bowed slightly and I laughed.
“Of course.” He pulled me into his arms, and we swayed in time with the slow song that was playing.
“You’ve outdone yourself with the dress.” He smiled down at me, before we both glanced over to where Jack and Belle were dancing, sappy grins on their face. Not that I blamed them; I’d seen the photos of our own wedding day, and we’d had similar looks on our faces in all of them. [TS25]
I think that of all the things I’ve ever created, Belle’s dress was my favourite. It fit tight to her body, with a short train and small silk roses decorating the diagonal strap. It was pretty much exactly what she’d described when we’d talked about it, and I was over the moon with how it had turned out. It was also one of the only things I’d made in months, apart from the bridesmaids’ dresses that me and Jill were wearing. I’d had to take a step back when I’d fallen pregnant with our son, Jeremy. But I couldn’t complain, he was the best thing that ever happened to me. [TS26]
David spun me around, the movement making me feel carefree for a change. Today, I didn’t have to worry about anything but having a good time. At least, not until it was time to take Jeremy off of Belle’s parents. From the looks on their faces, I’d say they were anxious to have some grandchildren of their own. I should probably give Belle a heads up later.
“I love you.” Despite the fact that he told me every day, it still made my heart soar every time I heard it.
“I love you too.”
Thank you for reading
Thank you for reading You Know I Do! If you’ve enjoyed it, could I please ask you to share a short review on amazon! If you’d like to keep up to date with my new releases, then you can sign up to my mailing list via my website (www.authorlauragreenwood.co.uk). If you want to read Annabelle & Jack’s story, then you can find it here in What Lies Beneath the Mask! What Lies Beneath the Mask and You Know I Do happen at the same time, and their stories intertwine. The third book in the Curtain Call series, Do Without You, will be set in a different theatre, but will happen during the same competition year!
You Know I Do (Curtain Call Book 2) Page 6