Page 37 of A Wish Upon an Earl
Guilt stabbed at Sarah.She’d been so wrapped up in her own feelings she’d lost track of her friend.Straightening her shoulders, she looked between her two friends.“Tell me everything.”
Perhaps considering Rose would give her insight into her own situation.And even if it didn’t, it was the best distraction she could think of, because Jack had still not arrived for dinner.
13
The next day, Jack flexed his fingers in the metal gauntlet as he waited just outside the music room.
He’d donned the full suit, the helmet tucked under his arm as he waited to make his grand entrance.
They’d had to practice a great deal last night and most of this morning.
By the time he’d arrived at rehearsal, late, Sarah had already been up in the tower practicing her lines with Sir Henry.
Any other man might have made him jealous, but he’d had a chuckle at the thought of his ally, Sir Henry, bellowing out the lines of the prince.
Sarah, however, had been unusually quiet, and her long looks and exaggerated silences had made him wonder what she’d been thinking, but he’d hardly had a chance to ask.
One run-through of the lines and they’d have to begin setting up their makeshift staging in the music room, and then do a final rehearsal in the new location.
He’d wanted extra practice lifting a person down.The last thing he wished to do was hurt Sarah again, but she’d hardly looked at him today as they’d rehearsed, and when he’d leaned in to practice their kiss, she’d given him her cheek.
The scandal of the Bumbling Knight he could handle but, if in addition to that, Sarah publicly rejected him.That was going to be painful.
He winced within his helmet as he remembered it was exactly what he’d put her through five years ago.He let out a slow breath.
He’d take whatever lumps he got today, knowing that he’d only gotten what he’d given.
Hearing his cue, he pulled on his helmet and made to enter the room.He even managed to open the door with relative grace as he stepped into the doorway.
A gasp filled the air as he stepped into the music room, chairs arranged in neat lines.Several people pushed back their chairs, but the other cast members began to whisper.
Which made sense.They knew who played the prince and, therefore, who hid under the helmet.
But he didn’t care about any of them.
He looked up to the tower, his gaze meeting Sarah’s wide eyes.Her mouth had formed a tiny O, and she pushed up a little straighter on top of the armoire.
Sir Henry’s narration boomed over the crowd.“Enter our fair prince, hunting in the woods when he happens upon our singing Rapunzel high up in her tower.”
Sarah still stared at him, missing her cue to begin her trill of notes.
He cleared his throat, but she still didn’t start, the silence stretching out over the crowd as she looked frozen on top of her tower.“Hark,” he called out from the back of the room, still in the doorway.“Is that a fair maiden I hear?”He allowed another pause to fill the room.“Singing?”
“Oh,” Sarah said as she drew in a large breath and began a scale.Her voice flowed over the crowd, and with a smile, Jack began walking down the center aisle.
Half the crowd turned to her while the other half fixed their gazes on him, likely afraid he’d send them flying from their chairs.
But he made it down the aisle and in front of the tower without incident, a grin pulling at his lips.Not that anyone could see it with the metal cage about his head.
“Who sings that beautiful song,” he called.
“Oh dear sir, you should not be here.I am trapped by a witch and no good can come of your presence.”
“But I am a prince,” he replied.“A witch is no match for me.”
The play went on, the crowd enjoying his acting within the suit.They clapped and called and cheered when he finally bested the witch.
And then it was time.
