Applause (The Dudley Sisters Saga Book 2) by Madalyn Morgan (best authors to read txt) 📕

a derelict building and hid behind the door. It was a man that was following her, she could tell by his voice, and he was near. Should she stay where she was and hope whoever was out there would give up and go away, or should she run into the building? She didn’t want to go further in; it was pitch black in there and she could hear water pouring onto what sounded like a corrugated iron roof. If the water pipes had been damaged, the gas ones might have been too. She heard the man call out again, and this time she recognised her name. ‘Margot? Are you there?’

Leaning forward, Margot looked between the rusty hinges of the door and the frame. The man was sitting on the oil drum. He sat sideways on to her and half hidden by shadow, but then he turned and looked in her direction. He was holding her shoe. ‘Margot?’ He sounded like Bill, but… ‘Please God,’ she whispered, ‘please let it be Bill.’ Margot held her breath, not daring to reply. She watched the man stand up and walk away. At the entrance of the yard he stopped, turned and bellowed, ‘Margot? Margot?’

‘Bill! I’m here!’ Margot ran from the building. Managing to avoid a dozen dangerous objects she fell into her husband’s arms. ‘I was so frightened,’ she said, trembling.

‘All right, all right, you’re safe now.’ Bill wrapped his arms around his young wife and rocked her. ‘Shush… I’ve got you.’

‘Oh Bill,’ Margot said, collapsing in tears, ‘I thought you were the Nazis.’

‘You silly goose,’ he said, lovingly. ‘What would Nazis want with you? He handed Margot her shoe. ‘Come on. The bike’s round the corner. Let’s get you home.’

Margot kicked off her other shoe, picked both up by their heels, and threw them into a pile of rubbish. Trembling from the cold, she looked up at Bill, her eyes sparkling with fear. ‘I was being followed, Bill. We need to get out of here now!’

‘That imagination of yours will get you into real trouble one day.’ Bill bent down. ‘Put your arms around my neck and hold on tight.’ He picked Margot up as if she was a doll and she leant her head on his shoulder. His coat was wet and cold. She didn’t care, she was wetter and colder. Bill held her tightly. ‘Nazis indeed!’ he said, kissing her on her forehead. ‘It’s a good job you’ve got me to look after you.’ Bill carried Margot out of the gate and along the avenue to his motorbike. ‘It’s a bit wet,’ he said, and they both laughed.

Bill put Margot down and after mounting the bike he put out his arm for her to hold, and she climbed onto the pillion seat. ‘Next stop Hampstead,’ he said, kicking the stand from beneath the bike.

Margot looked back into the darkness, relieved that it was her husband’s footsteps that she’d heard and not someone out to do her harm. As she turned to face the way they were going, she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. In the shadows, coming from where she had been hiding, she saw a match flare. A second later there was a red glow. It brightened as if air was being sucked through a cigarette.

Margot tightened her arms around Bill’s waist and in a hoarse voice cried, ‘Get us out of here!’ As they drove away, Margot laid her head on Bill’s back. She felt safe for the first time since she’d left the theatre, five hours earlier.

CHAPTER TEN

Kat’s dances had been modified several times over the last few months. She no longer did high kicks. Nor did she perform pirouettes, or stand on her points when she was the black swan in the tableau of Swan Lake. And her costumes had been let out as much as they could be. Some even had the same, or contrasting, fabric sewn in at the sides.

‘There’s nothing more we can do, Miss Kaplinski,’ Mrs Horton said. ‘The seams won’t hold for much longer. They’ll split one of these nights and then what shall we do?’

Kat looked at the strained stitching on her costume and nodded. She knew, as wardrobe did, that it was time she hung up her dancing shoes.

‘If it wasn’t that fabric was so hard to get,’ Violet said, ‘we might be able to make new costumes, but--’

‘It isn’t hard to get,’ Mrs Horton said, ‘it’s impossible. And even if it wasn’t, I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to conceal Miss Kaplinski’s condition for much longer.’

Kat laughed. ‘My condition will no longer need to be concealed, Mrs Horton. Thank you for all the work you have done to keep my secret, but this week will be my last as a dancer – at least for a while. My doctor says that although I no longer do strenuous work on stage I must rest more. I will tell Mr Goldman and the director tomorrow. I think they will understand.’ Standing sideways on to the mirror, with one hand on top of her tummy and the other beneath it, Kat proudly exaggerated her baby-bump and everyone laughed.

On Kat’s last night the show was a great success, although the company, backstage staff, and orchestra were aware that some scenes were a little subdued. The tradition when one of the Prince Albert’s leading ladies leaves was for Anton Goldman to join the cast on stage for the last curtain.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he began. ‘It is with sadness that tonight we say goodbye to one of the Prince Albert Theatre’s leading lights.’ Anton turned, smiled at Kat, and offered his hand. Kat, smiling graciously, joined him. Slowly Anton led her to the front of the stage, bowed, and then stepped back, leaving her on the apron to enjoy the applause. A couple of minutes later a