Chapter 16)
"Asrai!" Ned entered the little room and was rewarded with a tremulous smile from the pale girl. "Not nervous are you?" He asked.
"No. I just don't like stuff on my face." She said with a moue of distaste.
"Well this isn't something you'll notice, but it helps the audience see your features more clearly." Ned told her. "I expect you've applied cosmetics before, most females have experimented with it, this is more dramatic."
"No pun intended I suppose?" She tilted her head at him wryly and took the pencils he held in his hand. Looking down at them she frowned. "No purple?" With a shrug she took a black liner and began to outline the corners of her eyes. A rabbit's foot tinted pink she used on her cheeks. Setting them on the small table she examined herself in the mirror. "Not too awful."
"No." Ned grinned. "But you'll want to do your lips as well."
"Not until I'm into my dress." Asrai shook her head. "I don't want to stain it." She smiled slightly. "And Faith has this habit of kissing me."
"Ohhh…your dark haired admirer?" Ned grinned leaning forward. "She has a name even?"
"A name and a sharp dagger if you don't back off Alleyn." Faith said pointedly from the doorway. "And an even sharper sword if you don't get out of the room while she changes clothes." The exotically dark haired girl looked gorgeous in her tight black leather but definitely as dangerous as her threats sounded.
Ned rose. "I do attempt to imitate a gentleman." He said dryly. "Call if you need help Asrai."
"You shouldn't be alone with him." Faith commented as he left. "He wants to take you to bed."
"Please." Asrai rolled her eyes. "He knows I'm too young."
"He didn't the other night." Faith's eyes narrowed.
"He was drunk." Asrai pointed out. "He's not now." She stood up. "And I have no intention of letting him seduce me." She scowled. "My mother would have kittens, and I'm not interested in him like that."
"The reason its called seduction babe, is because the girl is seduced." Faith told her. "That usually means she's not really aware she's being led into an intimate situation."
"And what about you?" Asrai said pointedly. "What do you call what you're doing to me?"
"Getting to know you." Faith was undaunted by the other girls slightly accusing tone. "And if I seduced you, your mother wouldn't be able to object because you'd still be a virgin when we were through." She tossed Asrai the gown. "Now get dressed, I'll help you with the hooks." She turned and closed the door behind her.
"The natives are restless." Ned told Henslowe. "Asrai's not ready yet, but it will take all the time until her entrance until she is. The gown just got here. She'll have to be laced into it and the sleeves put on…its perfect but she'll need all the time she can get.
"Well…we have to stall them." Henslowe said desperately. "We need to entertain them somehow."
"How?" Ned gestured to the stage. "We don't have a farce to perform."
"Music soothes the savage beast." Faith said calmly, her silent approach causing them to jump when they heard her speak.
"The only one who can sing is Asrai." Ned pointed out. "And she can't go onstage yet."
"So she doesn't." Faith shrugged. "No one does, except Henslowe."
"Me?" Henslowe asked in horrified accents.
"Yes." Asrai came up behind Faith, moving just as silently as the other girl had. She wore her tunic and the skirt of the gown which she held up with one hand. "Tredorian knows the song, so do you Master Henslowe. Just go and tell him to begin when you announce it. Then leave the stage, and we'll both sing, from within the wings." She looked around. "The acoustics of this theatre are excellent. We'll be heard quite well."
Henslowe looked at her as if she as mad and then looked at Ned. The actor shrugged. "It's not as if we have much choice. We've got to do something." He turned. "I'll go speak to Tredorian."
The restless mutterings of the impatient audience quieted as Henslowe came out onstage. "Ladies and Gentleman, most honored royal patrons. I welcome you to The Curtain, where tonight The Admiral's Men will perform Master Fenneyman's production of Tredorian's lamentable tragedy of Romeo and Juliet." He bowed at the applause this announcement produced. "We are however experiencing a slight delay, and in an effort to stay your impatience we offer this small entertainment. Music hath its charms. I give you, 'And So It Goes'."
He left the stage and in the wings Tredorian heard Henslowe begin to play a sparse tune on the spinet. On the proper note, the playwright's gentle tenor rose from his throat and floated to the audiences' ears.
"In every heart there is a room
A sanctuary safe and strong
To heal the wounds from lovers past
Until a new one comes along."
As his voice drifted off Asrai's contralto fluted sweetly from her lips.
"I spoke to you in cautious tones
You answered me with no pretense
And still I feel I said too much
My silence is my self defense."
Tredorian began again, taking a deep breath as his words grew more fervent and mournful.
"And every time I've held a rose
It seems I only felt the thorns
And so it goes, and so it goes
And so will you soon I suppose."
Asrai sang her words regretful as his voice faded.
"But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake
So I will share this room with you
And you can have this heart to break."
Their voices joined together and they sang with power and strength.
"And this is why my eyes are closed
It's just as well for all I've seen
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows
So I would choose to be with you
That's if the choice were mine to make
But you can make decisions too
And you can have this heart to break
And so it goes, and so it goes
And you're the only one who knows."
Their voices didn't bell or fade on the last note, but simply held it for the proper beat and with as little ceremony as the song itself, let the music end.
From behind Asrai a single whisper said. "Wow." And the girl turned to see Faith regarding her with a proud smile. The applause broke a moment later and peeking through the curtain the Watcher could see the royal family applauding as enthusiastically as everyone else. With a grin Faith tugged at Asrai and the two of them hurried back to the small room to get Asrai into the rest of her gown.
Sam oblivious to any voice but his own floundering tones went on gargling as Henslowe took a deep breath and thanked the audience for their patience. With a sincerely nervous smile he promised the play would begin in five minutes.
"Places everyone." Peter rushed about backstage, whispering the time. "Places!"
Henslowe smiled grimly and strode with soft feet to Wabash who was still stuttering through the first line. Tredorian as Henslowe had bade him was standing next to Wabash. He looked at Henslowe with despairing eyes. "We are lost."
"No, it will turn out well." Henslowe reassured him yet again.
"How will it?"
Henslowe shrugged. "I don't know, it's a mystery." He clapped Wabash on the shoulder, turned him and send him through the curtain.
Sabine watched curiously as a man in doublet and hose came out onto the center of the stage. He looked about and then began. "T…t…t…t…two…" With a slight frown the queen wondered if he would make it through the line without bolting from the stage but then he surprised her, speaking as though born to trod the boards, "Households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whole misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife…"
Asrai tore her tunic over her head and clutched it in front of her as the door opened. "Get out!" She hissed as Henslowe stuck his head in. In support to the princess' unspoken threat Faith pulled her dagger and made as if to aim for Henslowe. The nervous man pulled back and softly shut the door.
"Oh sweet Selena…smile…please smile." Asrai pleaded as she pulled the thin white shift over her head. The full sleeves would be full on her upper arm and gathered beneath the sleeves of the bodice from her elbow to her wrist, with only a tiny ruffle so nothing hid her hands. Letting the skirt loose allowed Faith to smooth the shift under it so it would hold the shimmering golden silk only a little away from her legs.
Quickly they laced waist of her skirt and tugged at the shift until it hung evenly beneath it, a hint of white beneath the gold at the hem. Asrai turned and looked at the bodice with a groan and a resigned nod of her head. She'd have to be laced into the bodice like a noblewoman, up the back, but not so tightly she couldn't breathe properly.
"Faith, hurry, oh hurry." Asrai whispered desperately as she listened to the lines of the play ticking by like the minutes on a clock. With fingers moving like lightening the dark haired girl laced up the bodice and then held out one sleeve. Maneuvering her hand and arm though the golden strips of the slashed upper sleeve and holding the edge of her shift sleeve with her fingers wasn't easy but somehow the princess managed. Hurriedly Faith laced the back of the sleeve, tightening it around Asrai's forearm after she laced it to the bodice. As fast as possible they performed the same feat on the other arm and spent a few minutes evening the shift around Asrai's wrists and fluffing the white of the shift about her upper arms.
Faith turned the girl to face her and surveyed her critically, pulling the ruffle of the shift above the bodice so it barely revealed that Asrai had cleavage. "You want to look young, but of marriageable age baby." She explained when Asrai blushed at the amount of flesh showing.
Asrai nodded distractedly. "My hair." She whispered. "Do you have a comb?" Faith shook her head and, while Asrai unbraided her hair, rummaged through the room finally coming up with a long toothed comb. Asrai snatched it with a smile of apology and thanks, rolling the sides of her hair high over her ears and binding the locks tightly with her clasp. Tears nearly came to her eyes as she thrust pins in to hold the thick curls in place but when she looked in the mirror the effect she wanted was achieved.
Faith smiled and regarded Asrai's shaking hands and took up the lip rouge, carefully applying it to the other girls lips, darkening the pink slightly around the edge so her mouth was clearly defined and edging the color inward. "Be good now baby." She whispered and sent Asrai out of the room.
Henslowe waiting, pacing silently with Burbage watching from against the wall. He looked up in relief as Asrai exited her makeshift dressing room and stood still in shock for a moment. "Is it all right?" Asrai mouthed worriedly and looked over her shoulder at Faith.
Henslowe simply grinned and put his hand over his heart in a theatrical gesture worthy of Ned at his most romantic. Asrai made a face at him and quickly the man guided her to her place in the wings. It was nearly time.
Tredorian stood offstage, leaning against a wall, listening to Sam gargle. It was nearly time for Juliet's entrance. Ralph was calling…
"What, lamb. What ladybird. Gods forbid. Where's this girl… What Juliet!"
Sam at this took a deep breath and moved towards the stage, only to be caught around the waist by Henslowe. There was a gasp from the crowd as Asrai entered, her sweeping skirts and golden hair proclaiming her arrival as much as her words. "How now, who calls?" Her like had never been seen onstage before, not a boy, but not a typical actress either. In the royal box, several gasps of shocked recognition were heard.
Ralph as the nurse was forced to take a deep breath and reply in shock. "Your Mother."
"Madam, I am here, what is your will?" Juliet said quietly, as an obedient daughter would. And just like that, Asrai was gone, only her physical resemblance hinting to her stunned family that this was their missing child.
Amon watched enthralled at the dancers upon the stage. The pure, delicate golden child and the dark young man with eyes burning passionately were dancing as if they could not gaze away from each other. Their words were soft and yet reached his ears as if winged. Slowly the other dancers grew more distant, as if these two were in a world of their own.
He watched as the young Romeo gave Juliet her first kiss, saw the passion and joy bloom on the girls face and the hesitant reply. Romeo took his kiss back again, more lingeringly and the king could only sigh as they were interrupted. His sympathy was with the lovers as they learned each other's identities, learned too late and too soon.
Sabine smiled at the loveplay in words, as Juliet on her balcony and Romeo below, proclaimed their love for each other. Romeo climbed higher and higher, until along with the love in his words, he pressed a kiss to Juliet's lips again, even as she tried to bid him farewell. "O, wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied?" He pleaded and was rewarded with a look of hesitant inquiry and slight suspicion.
"What satisfaction canst thou have to-night?" She asked, her brow furrowing slightly.
"Th' exchange of thy love's faithful vow for mine." Romeo returned proving his motives not moved by lust alone.
Benvolio observed idly, "By my head, here comes the Capulets."
"By my heel, I care not," Mercutio declared casually.
The king watched as the scene seemed to go downhill from there, as Romeo, only an hour after his marriage was challenged by Juliet's cousin and in an attempt to prevent bloodshed, allowed Tybalt to mortally wound his dearest friend. Amon's eyes were damp he found as the dying Mercutio cried. "A plague a both your houses!"'
By some trick of fate, Ned found himself staring straight into the royal box as he gave his final speech. His eyes fixed upon the king, whose face was so familiar and then upon the queen, a regal slender woman with golden hair and violet eyes. Violet eyes… he could feel himself going pale as death even as he uttered his final line. The sensation of blood draining from his face and his heart faltering in shock gave remarkable credence to his lines.
With Benvolio he stumbled offstage and caught himself in the wings. Catching sight of Asrai he mouthed the words and then pointed out at the audience and towards the royal box, "You…you…" he barely breathed as he spoke. "You…"
Asrai frowned fiercely. "Shush!" She told him and quickly pushed him further back into the wings.
"Don't you shush me! You shush you!" Ned retorted illogically. "You…you're…"
"Entering from the opposite side of the stage in two minutes!" She told him. "Shhh…" And she hurried off with silent footfalls.
Ned put his head in his hands with a groan. "I'm a dead man." He whispered.
Onstage an enraged Romeo fought the murderous Tybalt and avenged his friends death to his own misfortune. Benvolio exhorted him. "…away, begone…"
Romeo seemed stunned at what he had done and finally cried before he ran off the stage, "O, I am fortune's fool!"
Backstage Ned shook his head at Tredorian and muttered to himself. "Fortune's fool indeed. As are we all." The writer stared at him curiously but Ned simply rolled his eyes and sought his place offstage.