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“I'ry,” Madeline protested
“You've lost weight, Maddy…and that isn't healthy for a girl in your predicament”
They shared a gaze of“How did you know?” Madeline asked
“How could I not know?” Mrs Florence rejoined with a touch of wry sadness “Nothing else could put that look in your eyes I gather your family isn't yet aware?”
“No,” Madeline said, her voice strained “And I don't think I'h to tell them I feel…very much alone, Mrs Florence”
“Come inside, my dear, and we'll talk”
Enthusiastic cries and applause followed Logan as he strode offstage It had been a successful perforh he hadn't played the part to his satisfaction He had tried to su required for the part, but all he had been able to dredge up was a halfhearted effort
Scowling, Logan ignored the cast and crew ain his attention He entered his dressing roo it to the floor As he headed to the washstand, a flicker in the ht his attention He turned quickly, startled to see an old woman seated in the corner
She regarded hih she was a se with regal pride One veined hand, laden with jeweled rings, was clasped around an elaborate silver cane Although her hair was a soft shade of peach, it was clear that at one tileamed with keen interest as she stared at him
“They told me I could wait for you in here,” she said
“I don't receive visitors inroom”
“An adequate perfor his brusque statement “Polished and fairly well-paced”
Logan s who the hell she was “This isn't the first time of late that I've been damned with faint praise”
“Oh, you were quite satisfactory as Othello,” she assured him “Any other actor would have called it the perforo I was privileged to see you in the sao I nificent You have a singular talent, when you wish to use it I've often thought it a pity that you and I couldn't have acted together, but ”
Logan stared at her intently Her red hair, her vaguely familiar face, her reference to the theater…“Mrs Florence,” he said questioningly She nodded, and his brow cleared This wasn't the first tih no one had ever been quite as forward as this particular lady Taking her hand, he raised it to his lips “It is a great honor to make your acquaintance, madam”
“You are aware, of course, that we have a htful woman, is she not? When she started in the theater, she was a protégée of mine”
“Yes, I know,” Logan said, pulling a striped brocade robe over his bare chest He reached for a jar of salve and a towel, and began to wash off the sheen of bronze paint that had given him the necessary swarthiness for Othello “Mrs Florence, I'm accustomed to a few minutes of privacy after a perforreenroom—”
“I will stay here,” she said firent personal matter There's no need to be modest onrooms before”
Logan suppressed an ade into his dressing rooainst the heavyto wipe his face and throat “Speak your piece I'll try to overcome any fits of modesty”
She ignored his sarcasm and spoke incisively “Mr Scott, youher brief tenure as a Capital Theatre employee, Miss Madeline Matthews leased a room at my home”
The naan's chest He felt his face harden “If that's all you've coest that you leave”
“Miss Matthews ca from her family's estate in Gloucestershire,” Mrs Florence continued “She is sleeping at ht add that she is quite unaware of my decision to visit you—”
“Enough!” Logan dropped the face towel and headed to the door “When I return, I want to findroom empty”
“Do you think you're the only one who's been hurt?” she asked crisply “You're an arrogant young cur!”
“And you're a , madam”
Mrs Florence seeed by the insult “I have infornificance to you, Scott Refuse to hear ret it someday”
Logan stopped at the door with a sneer “I'll take my chances”
Mrs Florence folded both hands over the head of her cane and regarded hi your child Does thatsilence, see to relish the upheaval she had caused
Logan fixed his gaze on the wall The beating of his heart beca Madeline had concocted to manipulate him further
He shook his head blindly “No It ”
“I see” The elderly wo eyes “You knoill happen to Maddy In a family such as hers, the only recourse is for her to have the baby in secret, and give it away to strangers Either that, or she'll have to leave her parents andfor herself and the child as best she can I can't think you would be pleased by either option”
He forced hi “Let her do as she wishes”
Mrs Florence clucked softly “You would deny all responsibility to Maddy and her baby?”
“Yes”
Her expression took on an edge of contempt “It seems you're no different from your father”
Logan's shock gave way to a spurt of baffled rage “How the hell do you know Paul Jennings?”
One of her hands lifted froestured to hi”
“Go to hell!”