When Horatio joined his new friends for a feast around the campfire, Ives said quietly, "In a moment a chorus of girls will come out and dance. Cleo will lead the line."
Brilliantly costumed and jingling with coin necklaces, the girls pranced onstage. Cleo was a lively wench with a pretty face and a saucy eye. As she raised the tambourine over her head, which did impressive things to an already impressive figure, she glanced up at their box and grinned at Ives. She looked like the delightful answer to a young man's prayer.
Then the chorus fell back a few steps and another Gypsy girl spun onto the stage to dance a solo. Her appearance produced a wave of applause. The newcomer was not a great beauty, but she had in full measure the indefinable quality that makes the best performers able to rivet the attention of everyone within sight.
The girl pivoted and leaped joyously across the stage, her skirts rising to reveal a delicate gold chain around one shapely ankle. As the tempo increased, her skirts floated higher, allowing tantalizing views of her calves and an occasional glimpse of a knee. She had truly superior legs.
When the girl glided to a halt, her gaze met that of the enraptured Horatio. The two stared at each other. She had an elegant profile, as pure as a Greek coin--
Lucien inhaled sharply, paralyzed by shock so intense it was physical. It wasn't possible, it bloody wasn't possible. Tightly he asked, "May I borrow your opera glass?"
Ives handed the glass over obligingly. The magnification proved that Lucien's eyes had not betrayed him. The long limbs and classic profile were unmistakably Jane.
His knuckles whitened around the opera glass. The woman he had thought to be a reserved, idealistic bluestocking was an actress. An actress, moreover, who was not the least bit shy about exposing an indecent amount of her lovely body to a theater full of strangers.
He handed the opera glass back, allowing only mild curiosity in his voice. "Who is the solo dancer?"
"That's Miss James-Cassie James. She plays Anna, the romantic interest. She's very good, isn't she?"
She was more than good; she was stunning as she whirled back into action. There was a glow about her that lit up the stage, eclipsing the other actors.
As mesmerized as Lucien, Horatio rose from the campfire and began dancing with Anna. Flirtatiously, she tossed her black hair and flounced the foaming layers of her skirts as she danced, her hem going higher with every turn.
"Any moment now, we should see the famous tattoo," Ives said softly. "Watch for it above her right knee."
Sure enough, her skirts swirled high enough to expose a design on her inner thigh just above the knee. The sight provoked a deafening roar of male approval from the audience.
Anna obligingly flounced her skirts again, provoking more shouts. Lucien wanted to grind his teeth. "What is the tattoo, a flower?"
"No, a butterfly."
Ives handed back the opera glass, and on Anna's next kick Lucien was privileged to view a frivolous black-and-scarlet butterfly etched on the silken flesh of her inner thigh. He wanted to swath her in a cloak that would cover her from chin to toes. He wanted to wring her untrustworthy neck. He also wanted, rather desperately, to press his lips to that teasing, maddening butterfly, then let them drift higher____________________
Feeling on the verge of suffocation, he closed his eyes until he could breathe again. As he opened them, the curtain was descending for the interval. He turned to his companion. "Tell me about Cassie James."
"Taken with her, were you?" Ives grinned. "Well, they say she's destined to be as successful in comedy as Mrs. Jordan was. She started on the stage in London three or four years ago, I believe, but had only minor parts so she went to the provincial circuits. Two years ago I saw her in the Theatre Royal in York in a production of She Stoops to Conquer, and she was excellent. The manager of the Marlowe decided Cassie was ready for London, so he hired her for this season and wrote The Gypsy Lass for her. Both she and the play have been a great success."
Lucien didn't give a damn about her theatrical triumphs. "Does Miss James currently have a protector?"
"Not that I know of. I think she's the sort who prefers having a variety of lovers."
"Details, please."
"You really are interested, aren't you? Sorry, but I honestly don't know who has bedded her-she's fairly discreet for an actress. In York I saw her in the green room being rather brazen with some colonial-a Canadian, I think, or perhaps an American, but I have no idea what his name was." Ives thought a moment. "Nun-field was after her. I was with him the night she made her London debut this past September. He acted just as you're acting now."
Lucien's feeling of suffocation returned. "Did he succeed with her?"
"I don't think so, but again, I couldn't swear to it. I know he was prepared to offer her a very generous carte blanche."
Lucien wondered how many men "Jane" had lain with while acting like a distressed gentlewoman with him. Acting. That was the key. It explained the wigs, the makeup, the ability to assume different personalities. Even Ives, who knew Cassie James, rising comic actress, hadn't recognized her when he had made that drunken advance to Sally at the George and Vulture.
The only real question was why had she been stalking the Hellions. One nauseating possibility was that she was Nunfield's mistress and had been spying on the group at his request, either for information or because the two of them found the idea perversely amusing. Or perhaps they had been lovers, and he had dismissed her, and now she was seeking some kind of revenge.
One thing was blindingly clear: once again, she had made a complete fool of Lucien.
The interval ended, and the next act of The Gypsy Lass began. Romance blossomed between Anna and Horatio, and they were on the verge of a Gypsy wedding. Then the Duke of Omnium appeared and begged his son's forgiveness for believing the wicked lies told by the cousin.
After reconciling with his father, Horatio asked Anna to be his bride, offering her luxury and a future as the next Duchess of Omnium. Tears in her eyes, she declined the offer because of her humble birth, saying she was unworthy to be a duchess.
As the two lovers were about to separate forever, the King of the Gypsies made a grand appearance, accompanied by the whole chorus of tambourine-thumping opera dancers. The king explained that Anna was really the daughter of an earl who had been stolen as an infant because of her exquisite beauty. Her breeding established as suitably aristocratic, Anna accepted Horatio's offer. The play ended with the whole cast, including the Duke of Omnium, dancing merrily around the campfire.
As Gypsy lore the play was ludicrous; Lucien made a mental note to tell Nicholas to see it, since his friend would find the depiction of the Rom uproarious. But as entertainment it worked, and Cassie James was the best part.
After the cast had made its bows and left the stage, Ives said, "I'm going to find Cleo now. Do you want to go down to the green room with me, or shall we say good night here?"
Lucien stood and lifted the cloak he had tossed over an empty chair. "I shall accompany you to the green room. I cannot tell you how much I am longing to meet the talented Miss James."
Chapter 12
The green room swarmed with exuberant actors, actresses, and their friends. The after-performance tumult always made Kit uneasy, so she held court with her back to the wall. A dozen men stood in a half circle in front of her, offering extravagant compliments and vying for her attention.
She had become adept at the suggestive banter that gentlemen enjoyed. When one admirer said, "You were like an angel tonight, Miss James," she replied mischievously, "If that's true, the angels had better reform."