Blood Will Have Blood Read Free Page B

can just feel Darien suffer. Did you notice?”
    â€œNo,” said Spraggue truthfully. “Maybe it’s just a technical thing.”
    She flashed him a quick smile. “Honestly, I don’t know why he ever cast me!”
    A tall straw-blond man executed an elegant pirouette in the aisle, leaned languidly against a chair. “A man with Darien’s reputation for the ladies, especially the younger ladies, and you can’t imagine why he cast you? Isn’t that sweet!” He had a tenor that threatened to lisp.
    â€œShut up, Greg,” said Georgina. “You’re just jealous.”
    â€œOoooooh,” said Greg. “Is that supposed to mean that you think I harbor disgusting perverted desires for the old man?”
    Georgina giggled. “Relax, Greg. Darien’s got the hots for nothing but his show.” She sighed deeply. “Don’t I know it?” She turned back to Spraggue apologetically. “You haven’t met Greg yet, have you? Greg, this is Michael Spraggue, our new Seward.”
    â€œDelighted!” Greg leaned gracefully over and shook Spraggue’s hand with a light, cool grip. “How lovely to have actors to work with a week before opening! Not that the stage manager hasn’t done a bang-up job reading your lines, but she is female —and definitely not an actress . So hard to establish rapport with a nonentity. Gregory Hudson is the full name. I play Jonathan Harker, stalwart husband to Mina, our leading lady.”
    â€œCaroline Ambrose,” Georgina filled in helpfully.
    Greg laughed, a high tenor squeal. “She makes me feel so inadequate —so inexperienced. After all, she’s had five husbands in real life, while I —”
    â€œStill bad-mouthing my fellow star?” Spraggue hadn’t seen the redheaded woman approach. Now that she stood next to him, he wished she’d go back up to the top of the aisle and start again. She deserved to be watched. Alone or in a Miss America pageant, here was a knockout. Spraggue decided on a career as a connoisseur of suntan-oil commercials.
    The redhead smiled and touched his hand. “I’m Emma Healey,” she said. “Arthur told me where to find you, Michael. But I think I would have recognized you even if he hadn’t warned me. From your film, the British one—”
    â€œI thought no one saw that.” Spraggue answered her smile.
    â€œI did. Very good.”
    â€œThanks. It was a long time ago.”
    Emma’s voice was terrific, low and warm. She turned away but Greg held her, a possessive arm firmly around her waist. Spraggue stared. Maybe he had summed up the lanky pretty-boy too quickly.
    â€œWhat was that you said about fellow star, Emma dear?” Greg said. “Caroline Ambrose, your equal? Come off it, darling. Who has the private dressing room? The coach? The suite at the Ritz-Carlton? The orchids delivered daily?”
    â€œThose have nothing to do with the show,” protested Emma.
    â€œBut they have a lot to do with the Caroline Ambrose mystique.”
    Georgina dropped into the seat next to Spraggue. “Do you really think she sends them to herself?” she asked slyly.
    Spraggue shrugged. “I thought they emanated from some former husband or other.”
    â€œDivorced or the one they say she killed?”
    â€œIf he’s dead, Georgie, I doubt they’d even let him in the flower shop.” Greg leaned over and patted Georgina on the head.
    Emma laughed. “Oh, Georgina, have you been reading the fan mags again?”
    Georgina blushed. “Well, they do say terrible things about her. And she has been married five times. How old is she, anyway?”
    â€œOld enough to play Dracula,” said Greg.
    â€œThen how did she get the part?”
    Greg winked at Spraggue. “Listen to our ingénue prattle!” He spoke to Georgina as if she were a slow two-year-old. “ Old friends , darling.