It took them an hour to get through Act Three to the end, and then Carole offered more coffee. ‘I’d offer you a proper drink, Olly, but alcohol might affect your concentration. We’ll have a proper drink when we’ve done the whole play.’
When Carole opened the door on her way to the kitchen, her Labrador Gulliver nosed his way in to inspect the visitor. After he’d been hustled out by his mistress, Jude asked Olly whether he had a dog.
‘No. Did have. When I was married.’
‘Oh?’
‘Yes. Divorced – what? – three years ago.’
‘Children?’
‘Two. I don’t see them as much as I should. My wife – ex-wife – is not very cooperative about access.’
‘I’m sorry.’ And Jude could see the appeal of SADOS as a displacement activity for someone like Olly Pinto.
Carole returned with the coffee pot and recharged their cups. ‘Feeling a bit more confident now, are you, Olly?’ she asked with surprising gentleness.
‘Yes, I am a bit. It makes me realize that, if I really do concentrate, I can drill the lines into my head.’
‘Exactly.’ When she had refilled the coffee cups, she announced, ‘I think we should go back to Act Two now. You were shakier on that than Act One.’
‘All right,’ said Olly, not exactly welcoming his fate but reconciled to it.
‘Then we’ll rattle through Act One at the end.’
So Act Two it was. And the build-up of concentration in the one-to-one setting still seemed to be working. Olly got more of the lines right than he had on any previous occasion. And he didn’t lose his temper when Carole patiently dragged him back out of the realms of paraphrase.
So there was unaccustomed cheer in the sitting room of High Tor when they’d finished the Act.
‘I think,’ said Jude, ‘you should open a bottle now, Carole. Olly’s earned it, and I’m gasping. And he knows Act One pretty well. Lubricated by a glass of wine, he’ll rattle through it, no probs.’
Carole looked dubious. Her upbringing had set her resolutely against the idea of bringing forward a promised treat. But she acceded to Jude’s suggestion. ‘White wine all right for you, Olly?’
‘Lovely. Thank you very much.’
While Carole was in the kitchen, Jude said, ‘We were very honoured to be included in Elizaveta’s “drinkies thing” on Saturday.’
‘So you should be. That really puts you in the charmed circle. But I’d be a bit wary.’
‘Oh?’
‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch – or a free drink with Elizaveta Dalrymple. The fact that she invited Carole and you means she wants something from you.’
‘What could we possibly have that would be of any use to her?’
‘Information, usually. Reports from the front line of Devil’s Disciple rehearsals.’
‘I thought she was getting those from you.’
‘Someone like Elizaveta can never have too many sources.’
‘Do you think she’ll actually come to the production?’
‘Come to see The Devil’s Disciple? Tricky diplomatic one for her. It’s a SADOS production and, now Freddie’s gone, Elizaveta is the spiritual leader of SADOS. So she should support it. On the other hand, she’s had this big bust-up. She stormed out of the show, apparently because of things Ritchie said to her – though in fact it was because she’d fallen out with Davina.’
Jude was surprised Olly was shrewd enough to have worked that out. In fact, she was surprised how much more intelligent and congenial he was that evening than he had ever been at rehearsals. When he wasn’t showing off, he was actually rather nice.
‘Anyway,’ he resumed, ‘the one thing Elizaveta wouldn’t want to appear is churlish. The thought of a SADOS production going ahead without her seeing it would be anathema to her. Also, she’d want to be there to see how bad the production is.’
‘Do you think it’s that bad?’
‘No, but Elizaveta would as a matter of principle. She’d also be convinced that she would have played Mrs Dudgeon infinitely better than you’re playing it.’
Jude grinned. ‘She might be right.’
‘Well, who knows? All I do know is that Elizaveta will be there – almost definitely on the first night – and afterwards she’ll say that the production was absolutely mahvellous, and your performance was particularly mahvellous.’
‘So, what – she’ll book a ticket for the first night?’
‘Oh no, it won’t be as straightforward as that. There’ll be some drama involved. Elizaveta will let it be known through her grapevine that she won’t be going to the show, that it’d be totally against her principles to go. And then a friend of one of her friends will drop out and she’ll be offered the ticket at the last minute and – surprise, surprise – she’ll be there. May not be exactly what’ll happen, but something along those lines.’
‘You seem to have a very good understanding of how Elizaveta Dalrymple works.’
‘I’ve observed her for a long time. And I know she can be a monster, but she’s also lively and fun, and if I hadn’t got my relationship with Elizaveta and SADOS, I wouldn’t have any social life at all.’
The confession was so honest, so potentially sad, that Jude couldn’t think of anything to say. She was quite relieved that Carole returned that moment with a bottle of Chilean Chardonnay, three glasses and a bowl of cashew nuts.
‘Olly was just telling me about the deviousness of Elizaveta.’
Carole snorted. ‘Well, I’ve only met her the once, at her “drinkies thing” on Saturday. But I don’t think anything I heard about her would surprise me. She seems the archetypal Queen Bee.’
Olly nodded. ‘That’s about right.’
‘Or,’ suggested Jude, ‘while Freddie was still alive, the archetypal Lady Macbeth.’
‘Well, of course, she did play the part for SADOS,’ said Olly.
‘I know. I saw the photo at her house.’
‘Of course you did.’
‘I was just wondering, though,’ Jude went on, ‘whether she ever played Lady Macbeth in real life …?’
Carole looked across at her neighbour in some confusion. She couldn’t understand the new direction in which the conversation was being taken.
Olly also looked a little uncomfortable, but for different reasons. ‘Not sure I like this discussion of “The Scottish Play”. Bad luck, you know.’
Characteristic of an amateur actor to know all the theatrical superstitions, thought Jude. But what she said was, ‘Only bad luck inside a theatre, Olly. Fine everywhere else.’
‘Ah.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Maybe we should get started on Act One.’
But Jude was not to be diverted. ‘I was meaning – did Elizaveta ever act like Lady Macbeth, controlling her husband, getting him to do things she wanted done?’
Olly Pinto grinned and nodded. ‘All the time. Freddie was nominally in charge of everything at SADOS, but Elizaveta was very definitely “the power behind the throne”.’
The tension in Carole relaxed. Now she understood where Jude was going with this, she started to watch with interest.
‘And how does she use that power now she hasn’t got Freddie to wield it through?’
‘You mean how does she get other people to do things for her?’
‘Exactly.’
‘Oh, she just becomes more Elizaveta than ever, really turns it on. She can be extremely persuasive. I mean, this business about whether or not she attends the Devil’s Disciple first night, I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up somehow being involved in that. I’ll get one of Elizaveta’s “little phone calls”.’
‘That’s how she organizes things, is it?’
‘Oh yes, still the old-fashioned phone. I get quite a few calls from her, though fortunately she’s taken on board the fact that she can’t ring me at work. God knows what she’d be like if she ever started using email or texts.’