Summer Season on the Seafront. Katie Ginger

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СКАЧАТЬ took a deep breath and shot it out through his nose. ‘Oh, all right.’

      ‘Ooo! Tell me what?’ Lottie replied, kneeling in front of them.

      ‘Nathaniel Hardy is staying at our cottage. Incognito. For the next couple of weeks.’

      ‘Are you having me on?’ All three slowly shook their heads. ‘Yes, you are. Why would he be staying with you?’

      ‘Oh, for heaven’s sake,’ said Cecil. ‘Don’t any of you read the papers?’ Sarah repressed a smile. ‘Because of this.’ He showed Lottie the newspaper headline. Lottie’s reaction was the same as Sarah’s, only Lottie managed to keep her mouth closed.

      ‘I don’t believe it,’ she said.

      Conner’s voice sounded from the stage. ‘Can we get started everyone, please?’ As the play’s director, he was keen to begin rehearsing.

      ‘Well, it’s true,’ said Gregory, standing up and removing his jacket. ‘And not a word to anyone. Nothing can appear in the paper.’

      ‘I know,’ said Lottie, whose day job was photographer for the local paper, the Greenley Gazette. Gregory and Cecil walked past them and began climbing the small set of steps at the front of the stage. Sarah stared at Lottie for a moment, then they both burst out laughing.

      ‘What are you doing later?’ she asked Lottie. An idea had occurred to Sarah. A very naughty idea.

      ‘Nothing. Why?’

      With a nonchalant shrug she said, ‘No reason. I just thought we might take a walk by Gregory and Cecil’s house and, you know …’

      ‘Secretly peer in the windows?’ finished Lottie.

      ‘Maybe.’

      Lottie grinned. ‘Definitely.’

      ***

      Rehearsals got underway and Sarah, frustrated that the lines just wouldn’t stay in her head, read them again from her book. ‘“I might call him A thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so noble.”’

      ‘No, dear,’ said Gregory kindly. ‘You sound like you’re on the intercom in the supermarket. “Clean up in aisle five”,’ he mimicked, holding his nose. ‘You need to emote. What’s wrong? You played Jasmine so well in the pantomime. I know you can do this.’

      He was right. For some reason she was struggling with the part of Miranda, especially the bits where Miranda fell in love. The idea that it was something to do with Vince, her ex, or her general single status, kept flitting around at the back of her mind but she ignored it and ploughed on. She found it much easier to sing. She’d joined the Greenley Players last year by showing off her singing. It had been hard overcoming her vomit-inducing stage fright, but she’d done it, showing them she had a pretty decent voice. Acting had been surprisingly fun in the panto but this was proving hard, hard work.

      ‘Och, leave her be,’ said Debbie, their local mad Scottish artist. ‘She’s doing a fine job.’ Sarah smiled at her just as Cecil checked his watch for the eighty-third time, clearly desperate to get back home and see their visitor. Then it was Luke’s turn. He was playing Caliban, and had been trying different voices and styles since the beginning of rehearsals. He began his lines, breathing heavily between each word as if he’d just legged it all the way to the theatre. But rather than having the dramatic effect he was hoping for, he was coming across as horribly asthmatic. Sarah stifled a giggle while Gregory bit his lip and looked at Conner, waiting for him to tackle this one.

      ‘Umm … Luke,’ Conner began nervously. ‘What, umm, what are you … doing?’ He ran a hand over his long, gelled black fringe.

      ‘Oh,’ Luke replied, colouring slightly. ‘I thought I’d try something different.’

      Mrs Andrews was the first to say, in her usual undiplomatic way, what everyone else was thinking. ‘You sound like Darth Vader.’

      ‘With a cold,’ offered Gregory. ‘I’d try a different technique, dear.’

      ‘I thought you did it brilliantly before,’ said Conner. ‘Let’s stick with that.’

      At least it was better than Luke’s first attempt, which had involved some sort of lisp and a lot of spit spray. Rehearsals eventually finished for the day with Sarah stumbling over one of her lines again as Mrs Andrews tutted. For some reason she just couldn’t get the hang of this damn play. Maybe it was because the Greenley Players had been going for over a year and they were expected to be good – she was expected to be good. There was so much more pressure this time around.

      ‘Sarah, darling, you really need to stop mumbling and fudging your lines,’ said Mrs Andrews, tottering in her heels down the staircase at the front of the stage. ‘You should enunciate, dear, like I do.’

      ‘Yes, I know,’ replied Sarah. It just wasn’t worth getting into right now. Not only was she too eager to sneak over to Gregory and Cecil’s cottage, but her body couldn’t seem to decide if it was recovering from her hangover or not. One minute she felt fine, the next nausea swept over her, making her throat close over. She just wanted to get out in the fresh air.

      Everyone said goodbye and Sarah watched as Gregory and Cecil raced off mumbling something about extra shopping including champagne and scallops. But from what she’d read she couldn’t imagine Nathaniel Hardy would be that interested in eating fancy food. She wouldn’t be if she’d had an affair and been found out. Chance would be a fine thing, she mused. The closest she’d ever got to marriage was a drunken proposal from a pervy fiddle player old enough to be her dad when she was at a wedding in Ireland years and years ago. Unsurprisingly she’d said no. Her heart twinged at the memory of her dad and she focused instead on the last time she’d seen Nathaniel Hardy on TV being suave and sexy.

      ‘Ready?’ asked Lottie, slinging her bag on her shoulder.

      Realising she had been staring into space, Sarah quickly gathered up her copy of The Tempest and various multi-coloured pens she used for making notes, shoved them into her handbag and smiled. ‘Let’s go.’ The excitement was bubbling up in her stomach – or the Alka Seltzer was getting to work – she wasn’t sure which.

      ‘Where are you two off to?’ asked Sid.

      ‘Nowhere that concerns you,’ replied Lottie playfully. ‘You go home and I’ll be back soon. You can peel the potatoes if you like. We’re just going for a walk.’ Sid shrugged, probably assuming it was girly stuff and nothing he’d be interested in anyway. ‘And here, you can lock up today.’ Lottie threw the keys and Sid caught them just before they skewered his right eye.

      ‘You’re trusting me with the sacred keys?’He gasped and Lottie scowled. She’d always been very protective of the theatre as it was her nan’s dying wish that she save it from being sold off. For the last year she’d fought hard to make that happen and amazingly, had succeeded.

      As they left the theatre, walking in single file through the small revolving door, the sunshine was blinding. Squinting, Sarah reached into her bag for her sunglasses. The sounds of tinkling crockery and chattering voices escaped from the busy pubs along the seafront where people were enjoying their easy Sunday lunches. The town was more alive at this time of the day and Sarah took a deep breath trying to separate СКАЧАТЬ