You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
was in the room - to remember to periodically break the spell, to sometimes look up and away. When<br />
she did, she saw that Cynthia Kirby was also on the balcony level, also looking down at the dancers,<br />
and that she too had fixed her gaze on Ella and Konstantin. The lady in waiting had seen it all: their<br />
conversation, followed by this, followed by these tight powerful swirls of the formation and Ella’s<br />
head, thrown back too far for balance, thrown back in a type of ecstasy.<br />
I don’t like this Mrs. Kirby, Tatiana thought. She has never wanted something that she knows<br />
she cannot possess, never sinned nor broken rules and she has no compassion for those of us who<br />
have. I bet her eyes have never closed, not even when she danced or when she made love. I doubt<br />
they close when she sleeps.<br />
The theater was often chilly, kept deliberately cool for the benefit of the performers and Tatiana<br />
always brought one of her large silk scarves with her when she came to rehearsal. She reached down<br />
to her bundle and pulled out the red one, draping it loosely around her shoulders. Konstantin looked<br />
up again, spied it, and smiled, not at her but at something above her.<br />
She had two scarves, one red and one white. They were not only a means of keeping warm<br />
while she waited her turn to dance, but also a signal. The white one said no. But the red one said<br />
yes, that she would meet him later.<br />
7:20 PM<br />
“Do you like the velvet britches, or the satin? Which ones show my legs to their best<br />
advantage?”<br />
It was two hours after the rehearsal had ended and Tatiana and Konstantin were lying in a heap<br />
of bright colored clothes, costumes that needed cleaning. The pile of discarded finery was relegated<br />
to the darkest and most hidden corner of the prop room and they had trysted here many times before.<br />
It was a luxuriously quiet and private place, for once the rehearsals were over, the dancers and<br />
musicians always emptied the theater en masse, leaving it with that strangely exaggerated emptiness<br />
that only comes after a flurry of activity has departed.<br />
It never failed to surprise Tatiana how quickly the bubble could burst.
Change language