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

Leaning heavily on her stick, she made her way to Maiden Lane and the stage door. It was open. She looked inside. There was a gaping hole where Bert’s office used to be. She took a step forward, but stopped at the sound of voices. Two men were joking and laughing, as if nothing had happened. Her hands were shaking and her heart hammered in her chest. She turned away, steadied herself on the doorframe, and focused on the road. A shuddering breath escaped her throat. She was looking at the place where Bert and Nancy were killed. There was nothing to see.

In a daze she walked to the spot. The road looked the same as it had before. She walked on to the pavement on the far side and sat down. There was no trace of that day left. Nothing to show for her tragic loss. The only evidence that anything had happened on that terrible, terrible day was a couple of ill-fitting kerbstones. Grief took hold of her as it had then, and she began to tremble.

‘Are you all right, Miss?’ a young man asked.

‘What?’ Margot looked up from the pavement.

‘Let me help you,’ he said, kneeling down beside her and taking her hands in his. ‘It’s dangerous to sit so close to the road,’ he continued, helping Margot to her feet.

‘Thank you.’ The young man picked up her stick. She took it and smiled. ‘You must think I’m a fool,’ she said. ‘I have no idea why I… One minute I was crossing the road from the theatre,’ Margot looked across at the Albert’s stage door, ‘and the next…’ Tears filled her eyes.

‘Can I walk with you to wherever it is you’re going, Miss Dudley?’ the young man asked, holding Margot’s elbow to support her.

Margot looked at him. ‘Do I know you?’

‘No. But I know you. Mostly from the newspapers, but I brought my mum to see you in a show last year, on her birthday. Well,’ he said, a shy blush spreading across his cheeks, ‘I’d better go.’

‘What’s your name?’

‘Harry. Harry Ward.’

‘Thank you for helping me, Harry. When the theatre re-opens come to the stage door and ask for me, or tell--’ Margot swallowed hard, ‘tell the stage doorman when you and your mum would like to see a show, say you’re my guests, and I’ll leave complimentary tickets for you at the box office.’

‘Thank you, Miss Dudley,’ Harry Ward said, beaming. ‘Mum’ll love that.’

Margot watched her young helper walk away, and after one last longing look at the Prince Albert Theatre’s stage door, she set off in the same direction.

As she approached the Church of St. Saviour she heard organ music and a choir singing. She limped down the steps that she had fallen down in 1940, when she first came to the theatre, and saw the door was open. Quietly she slipped into a pew at the back of the church and listened to the Gloria.

Except for a new door, which had elaborate brass hinges, the outside of the building was unremarkable to look at. Tall and narrow, it looked as if it had been crammed in between the other buildings on the lane as an afterthought. Except for the large crucifix, the vestibule was dark and plain. But the interior was magnificent. The walls were covered in colourful tapestries and gilt-framed paintings. The wooden pews were relatively simple, but the pulpit was elaborately carved. Beyond the choir stalls the ornate altar was decorated with silver candlesticks and vases of flowers. In the middle beneath the east window was an ornate silver cross. Margot closed her eyes and was calmed by the fragrant scents of lavender furniture polish and incense.

She sat in the beautiful church listening to the choir rehearse for some time and wondering what she should do about Jenny. She had been furious with her the night she arrived home from ENSA and saw how she looked at Bill. And now, after finding out that the house she said she lived in hadn’t been bombed, she wanted to go home and throw her out, challenge her in front of Bill and show him what a conniving liar Jenny was, as well as a potential husband stealer. Margot went over and over what she should do and decided that, since Jenny was studying to be a First Aid Nursing Yeomanry driver – and was bound to pass their first aid exam because according to Bill she was brilliant – she’d be leaving Tommy's in the not too distant future.

The real reason Margot decided not to tell Bill about Jenny while he was working with her was in case she ‘accidentally on purpose’ let slip to him that Margot didn’t want children until she’d achieved her ambition. She wished she’d never confided in Jenny, but she had, so-- No. She wouldn’t confront her. There was a much better way to control the lying little bitch.

Margot kicked off her shoes. She shouldn’t have gone out, at least not in high heels. ‘Is that you, Bill?’ she called, hearing the door open. Throwing her shoes in the bottom of the wardrobe, she slipped her feet into her slippers.

‘It’s me – Jenny. Bill’s locking the bike. How are you feeling today? Better?’

‘Much. You?’

‘Me?’ Jenny’s cheeks flushed. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Well, with you losing your home in the blitz. I wondered if you were still upset about it. It must have been terrible for you. If you want to talk about it,’ Margot said, ‘I’m always here. They say talking helps. So let me help you, Jenny. Tell me how you felt when you arrived home this week and found the house you lived in had