The Duchess of Drury Lane Read Free Page B

your maidenly blushes. I am fully aware that you find me irresistible.’
    ‘Shall we begin?’ I said, deliberately cool.
    Hester sat in the corner, barely glancing at the script she held in her hand as she watched open-mouthed the ‘love scene’ performed before her eyes. I do not care to recall the number of times he insisted we go through it, far more than was strictly necessary. And on every occasion came ‘the kiss’.
    ‘No, it still isn’t quite right, you must sink into my arms, lean back when I hold you. Like this.’
    ‘Like some fainting virgin?’ I caustically remarked.
    ‘Exactly. Is that not what you are?’ His good eye fixed me with a challenging glint, but I managed to slide from his arms with some of my dignity still intact.
    ‘I think that’s enough for now, don’t you? I feel confident we know this scene well enough, and I’m in need of a rest before the first performance. Thank you for sparing the time to help me.’ I was invariably polite, although fearful of seeming to encourage him, and pointedly avoided joining in his banter. ‘Before we go, there is just one matter I wish to discuss with you.’ I cast a quick glance across at Hester, who instantly jumped up to start tidying away the props that we’d used, deliberately keeping herself busy as we had agreed. ‘I wondered if I might ask a small favour.’
    ‘Your wish is my command,’ he simpered, taking my hand, the moistness of his lips leaving an imprint of his lingering kiss long after I had gently withdrawn it.
    I quickly explained about Lucy and the need for money to pay for a physician and medical care. ‘I wouldn’t ask otherwise, but we have no way of raising the necessary funds, so a small loan would be most appreciated. Well, not too small. Physicians are expensive and times have been hard for Mama recently. Twenty or thirty pounds perhaps?’ I timorously suggested, thinking of the creditors whose accounts we also needed to settle. ‘I will, of course, pay back every penny, perhaps in regular instalments if that would be agreeable?’
    He smiled. ‘I am so sorry to hear of your sister’s illness, and only too happy to help. We can discuss the exact terms later.’
    Perhaps, I thought, Richard Daly was not so bad after all. But I had no wish to repeat that ‘love scene’ save on stage.
    To my great relief, by the following year of 1779 I learned that Daly was engaged to Jane Barsanti, a leading actress of note whom he was to marry, which meant he’d be unlikely to trouble me again, or so I thought. She was a widow, her former husband, Lyster, having died. I guessed he’d left her sufficient funds to add to her attractions, certainly so far as Richard Daly was concerned.
    Once she was his wife, he offered to take the Smock Alley lease off Ryder’s hands. Our poor beleaguered manager clearly had mixed feelings on the matter. While still struggling to maintain both theatres Ryder was nevertheless aware that with money behind him, Daly would prove a powerful rival. He therefore put up little resistance.
    ‘I am sorry to see it go, but have done all I can think of to make it pay,’ Ryder mourned. ‘I’ve engaged at considerable expense the finest that the London stage has to offer in such actors as Mrs Abington, Sheridan and the Barrys, all to no avail. You are welcome to it, Daly.’
    ‘He does not mean it,’ my mother whispered. ‘Poor Ryder fears Daly will bankrupt him, for it is true what he says, Dublin cannot sustain two theatres.’
    Perhaps Mama was right in her surmise as Ryder made a sudden decision to put on a comic opera, as if in a last valiant effort to survive.
    ‘I intend to stage The Duenna , but we’ll switch all the characters, making men play the ladies’ parts, and vice versa. It will be a completely transvestite performance and we’ll call it The Governess . It will be a travesty and a delight.’
    I was given a leading role, dressing as a man in the character of Lopez, and although I