Midnight in Everwood(94)
Ida stared at Marietta.
Theodore stood up. ‘Do you mean to inform me that you refused his hand?’
‘I did. And I do not hold any regrets on the matter. Mother, I told you that I should not be able to accept Drosselmeier’s offer, that I could not marry the man. You ought to have taken it seriously,’ Marietta said. She could not now tell them of his advances against her, even if she wished. Though no one could find her guilty of any crime, she desired to avoid the suspicion it would invite upon her.
‘Oh, Marietta, of all the reckless acts—’
‘I do not believe it reckless to stay true to one’s intentions,’ Marietta told her mother.
‘Your decision, your attitude, displeases me,’ Theodore said quietly, in a tone that once would have inspired fear in Marietta. Now, it merely rankled.
‘That is no longer my concern,’ she said. ‘Now if you will excuse me, I must ready myself for this evening’s performance.’
Chapter Forty-Six
Backstage that evening, Marietta sought Harriet and Victoria out. ‘Have you received news from the Company?’ she asked.
Harriet nodded. ‘We have both been accepted.’
Victoria wrinkled her nose. ‘Though I shall most definitely not be accepting their offer of residency. I doubt the contents of my wardrobe should fit within those ghastly tiny rooms.’
‘So speaks a woman with the luxury of declining such an offer,’ Harriet scoffed.
Marietta smiled, smoothing her dress down. The palest lilac with rose-pink sequins encrusted on the bodice, it sparkled like pink champagne. Frothing chiffon capped her shoulders and a dainty silver tiara marked her for the role of Aurora.
‘What of you? How was your audition?’ Harriet directed her shrewd gaze onto Marietta.
‘It was fine.’
Victoria’s frown creased her powder. ‘And what of your results?’ Her whisper was loud, prompting Harriet to gesture at the velvet curtains. Behind, a ballroom’s worth of people were gathering, finding their seats as the ballet dancers in the prologue silently took up their positions. Marietta, Harriet and Victoria were in the wings, awaiting their introduction in the first act.
‘And in the new year, I shall be moving into one of those ghastly tiny rooms.’ Marietta laughed.
Harriet raised her eyebrows. ‘Is that so?’
Victoria let out a theatrical gasp. ‘Oh, Marietta, you are renouncing your fortune for your dancing? How romantic.’
‘There’s nothing romantic about a lack of money,’ Harriet said. ‘Honestly, Victoria. But Marietta—’ she beamed ‘—that is wonderful news. Do let us know if there is anything we might do to ease your transition.’
Marietta’s smile was warm honey, sweet happiness. ‘I was wondering if we three might reconvene for afternoon tea at your convenience. I have been in a mood of contemplation these past days and there is much I should like to share.’
Victoria exchanged a look with Harriet. ‘How curious. We would enjoy that but mightn’t you give us a clue?’
‘If we are all to dance together with the Company, I thought it might be nice for us to become more acquainted with each other,’ Marietta said, a little awkwardly. At first, Dellara and Pirlipata’s companionship had brightened her days yet by the end of her time in Everwood, they had become much more. A sisterhood. Marietta would not spend her time in the Company mourning their presence but would honour them by forging new friendships. She had learnt much about sharing herself with others and had no desire to devolve to her lone, closed state of being. Life held many challenges in store for her yet but she did not have to face them alone.
‘It would be our pleasure,’ Harriet said and Marietta’s warm honey-smile spread, setting her spirits a-glow.
The music started. The curtains drew back, revealing Drosselmeier’s glittering set to the audience, who gasped and clapped upon witnessing its moving mechanisms. Marietta, Victoria and Harriet proceeded to watch their peers dance out the prologue. It was interposed with mimed storytelling that unravelled the scene of Aurora’s christening and the fairy-tale gifts bestowed upon her. Marietta’s smile turned wistful; she would have longed to glimpse Dellara’s face on learning what constituted a fairy in this world. She was far more likely to sympathise with Carabosse.
Their turn arrived.
Marietta burst onto the stage, her steps playful and light, interspersed with pas de chats; quick, leg-flicking jumps, the carefree glee of a young princess at her birthday party written into the choreography. Her limbs like liquid poetry and starlight. Dancing soothed Marietta’s aching loneliness, her yearning for Legat, Pirlipata, Dellara. Of another world she could no longer access. She had taken time to examine the grandfather clock earlier and it was sealed shut. Until, and if, she happened upon another door, she was confined to this world alone.
Ribboning across the stage in a string of piqué turns, her arms fluttering, she reached out to embrace the night. Shifting into cha?nés; faster, tighter turns, Marietta kept spinning, her love of dance consuming her, secure in the knowledge that she had made the right decision.
Harp strings, sweetly plucked, signalled the beginning strains of the Rose Adagio.
Marietta concealed her deep breaths beneath a smile as she approached the fur-cloaked figures of the queen and king, filling her lungs before the challenging variation. The one that had defeated her, sent her falling in the midst of her audition. Yet Drosselmeier could never set eyes on her again; she herself had ensured that. She had been her own knight in armour, scaling the heights of her tower and setting herself free from Drosselmeier’s dark mechanisms at play.