Page 18 of Songs and Spun Gold
She couldn’t voice it. It was impossible.
“Do—do you think it could—I mean, are there ever—” She twisted her hands in her lap, barely stopping herself from twisting the beautiful dress instead. “Do the nobility ever join the cast?” she asked in a rush.
The pitying look the other girl gave her spoke volumes. “No, Katy. I’ve only known commoners to be on the stage.”
Nodding, Katy tried to smile. It was tremulous at best and likely closer to a grimace. “Of course. I was only curious.”
She turned her face back to the stage and attempted to pick up what she had missed, but her mind struggled to focus. She had known it was impossible before she had asked.
And yet…
His voice. His gestures.
She knew them.
Shaking her head, she crossed her arms over her chest and gripped her biceps to keep from fiddling with the river stones on her wrist. Even if, by some miracle, she foundhimagain,nothing would change. He’d stopped coming to Flussendorf. He hadn’t told her how to contact him. He’d never even said goodbye.
Whether because of his parents or his own wishes, he clearly had no interest in a relationship with her. And who could blame him? The very idea of a nobleman and a poor miller’s daughter was preposterous.
As the story progressed, so did Katy’s mood. And by the end, when the cast sang a cheerful, light-hearted piece while Lars and Astrid danced together, her heart soared along with it.
She would never achieve anything if she gave up in the face of “impossible.”
The members of the cast bowed while the crowd cheered. Individual members stepped forward to accept accolades. Any minute now, the curtains would close a final time. If she had to guess, the audience members would then all rise from their seats and make it impossible to maneuver.
“Katy?” Angelika said, startled, as Katy shot up out of her seat.
“I’ll be back,” she assured her friend. “I want to see if I can find someone.”
Angelika twisted in her seat. “The understudy is a regular actor, Katy. You need to give this up! And you can’t leave—”
Ignoring Angelika’s protests, Katy darted out the back and hurried down the passage to the stairs.
~
The lower levels of the theater lacked the ornate touches of the main level and auditorium. Katy wandered down the narrow hallway, her fancy slippers – also borrowed from Angelika – making barely a sound on the wooden floor.
The candles at intervals along the wall cast strange, flickering shadows, but Katy wasn’t bothered. According to theusher she talked to, she would find the dressing rooms somewhere down this hall. And in one of the dressing rooms, she hoped to find a young man with the most wonderful voice she’d ever heard.
A rustling noise in one of the deeper shadows caught her attention. She stepped forward, peering into the darkness. “Hello? Is someone there?”
She thought she saw something move, too high up to be a cat. Taking another step nearer, she reached out a hand. “Hello?”
Suddenly, a door swung open behind her, the hinges groaning loudly in the silent hall. She spun around, hand over her heart, to see a tall figure backlit by the candelabra in the room behind him. He tilted his head, watching her for a moment.
“Are you lost?”
“What?” she gasped, still trying to convince her heart to return to its normal speed. “Um…no, I—I was just looking for—”
She could feel her cheeks heating. What was she doing down here?
“Why don’t you step in here for a moment?” He stepped back and gestured behind him with the wet cloth in his hand. “I like to see a person’s face when I talk to them.”
Enter a room with a strange man in a dark, seemingly deserted basement…
“Actually, I should go back upstairs.” She took a hesitant step backward. “My friend will be wondering where I ran off to.”
“I don’t bite.” His face was still mostly in shadow, but she could hear the grin in his voice. “Do you know the way back?”
