Resonance Read Free

the top of his head.
    ‘Very well, Joseph,’ said Mr Simmons. ‘Thank you for letting me know that you are here.’
    ‘Thank you, sir,’ Joe said, turning to go.
    ‘Joseph!’
    In the gloom of the hallway, Joe sighed and hung his head. Simmons was all right, but he always had to have a little something to say. ‘Yes, sir?’
    ‘Be sure you don’t entice Miss Kelly to dawdle; she has quite an amount of work to do.’
    Joe gritted his teeth around another ‘Yes, sir’, took one last look at the American, and headed off down the corridor. Entice her to dawdle, he thought. As if either of us had all day to be sitting on our arses doing nothing …
    The sight of the theatre did not improve his temper.
    The proscenium arch and the stage itself had already been replaced. But the harsh smell of burnt wood and smoke lingered, and the orchestra pit was still a blackened hole. There was so much work to be done before the theatre could open again. The loss of business had hit the theatre cabbies hard – no one knew that better than Joe – but it was the artistes who would suffer most, being out of work this close to the lucrative Christmas season. It was such rotten luck.
    Joe was just climbing the steps to the stage, his mind on the artistes, his brow furrowed with worry, when a fortuitouscoincidence of time and weather stopped him in his tracks. First the sun came out, streaming through the uncovered skylights and flooding the stage with all its wintry brilliance. Then Tina stepped from the wings. Her arms were filled with the skirts and bodice of some elaborate costume, the heavy brocade sprinkled all over with gold and silver sequins. As soon as she left the shadows, the sun reflected off her, like in a kaleidoscope, and the gloomy interior came alive with a million dancing spangles of light.
    Tina paused onstage, gazing upwards. Her face was all aglitter – her dark eyes, her strong jaw and nose, her loosely gathered mass of dark hair, all dazzling and bottom-lit with radiance from the dress.
    ‘You look like a mermaid, Tina,’ said Joe softly. ‘You look like you’re standing at the bottom of the sea.’
    She turned to him in surprise, laughed, and ran to crouch at the edge of the stage. She was so close, her face so luminous with those golden scribbles of light, that Joe found himself momentarily short of words. ‘You’re … you’re all glittery,’ he managed at last.
    ‘So are you.’
    He indicated the shimmering costume. ‘It’s lovely.’
    ‘It should be! It’s taken me days to sew. Her Ladyship is waiting for the final fitting now.’
    ‘It would look much nicer on you,’ he said, glancing briefly into her eyes.
    Tina laughed again, and shook the stiff brocade. ‘This is an eighteen-inch waist, Joe Gosling! I’d need to be wired into a corset just to look sideways at it. The day I do that to meself, you can drown me in the canal.’
    Joe huffed fondly. ‘You fiery radical. Here, look what Ibrought you.’ He lifted his lunch-pail. ‘Mutton stew from Finnegan’s!’
    Tina’s smile twisted a little with an anxiety she couldn’t quite hide.
    ‘It’s all right,’ he assured her. ‘A coach-load of toffs gave me a shilling-and-six tip last night. Mr Trott was too drunk to even notice. Mickey’ll get his cut of me wages on payday as usual, and never be any the wiser there was more to be had.’
    Tina reached for his arm. ‘Joe, why don’t you just get out of there? Get yourself some nice lodgings, with a nice landlady, who’ll make a fuss of you? There’s no need to be staying with that … with Mickey, now your mam is gone.’
    He gently twisted his arm until she let go. ‘I’m not ready.’
    ‘Joe. You’re seventeen . When will you be ready?’
    That stung – Joe was surprised how badly. Did she think he hadn’t the courage to leave? He almost blurted his plan at her there and then, almost shouted it. But in the end, he just glowered. ‘Do you want to share me dinner or not?’ he