Weep No More My Lady Read Free

She slept past noon. When she woke up, she felt rotten. I gave her aspirin and she went back to bed. I phoned Ted for her. He was in his office. He asked me to tell her he’d come up about seven o’clock that evening.”
    Elizabeth felt her voice quaver.
    â€œI’m sorry to have to keep going, but try to think of this as a rehearsal. The more prepared you are, the easier it will be for you when you are actually on the stand.”
    â€œIt’s all right.”
    â€œDid you and your sister discuss the previous night?”
    â€œNo. It was obvious she didn’t want to talk about it. She was very quiet. She told me to go to my place and get settled. I had literally dropped my bags home and rushed to her play. She asked me to call her around eight and we’d have dinner together. I assumed she meant she and Ted and I would have dinner together. But then she said she wasn’t going to take his ring back. She was through with him.”
    â€œMiss Lange, this is very important. Your sister told you she was planning to break her engagement to Ted Winters?”
    â€œYes.” Elizabeth stared down at her hands. She remembered how she had put those hands on Leila’s shoulders, then run them across Leila’s forehead. Oh, stop it, Leila. You don’t mean that.
    But I do, Sparrow.
    No, you don’t.
    Have it your way, Sparrow. But call me around eight, okay?
    The last moment of being with Leila, of putting the cold compress on her forehead, of tucking the blankets around her and thinking that in a few hours she’d be herself again, laughing and amused and ready to tell the story. “So I fired Syd and threw Ted’s ring, and quit the play. How’s that for a fast two minutes in Elaine’s?” And then she’d throw back her headand laugh, and in retrospect it would suddenly become funny—a star having a public tantrum.
    â€œI let myself believe it, because I wanted to believe it,” Elizabeth heard herself telling William Murphy.
    In a rush she began the rest of her testimony. “I phoned at eight. . . . Leila and Ted were arguing. She sounded as if she’d been drinking again. She asked me to call back in an hour. I did. She was crying. They were still quarreling. She had told Ted to get out. She kept saying she couldn’t trust any man; she didn’t want any man; she wanted me to go away with her.”
    â€œHow did you respond?”
    â€œI tried everything. I tried to calm her. I reminded her that she always got uptight when she was in a new show. I told her the play was really a good vehicle for her. I told her Ted was crazy about her and she knew it. Then I tried acting angry. I told her . . .” Elizabeth’s voice faltered. Her face paled. “I told her she sounded just like Mama in one of her drunks.”
    â€œWhat did she say?”
    â€œIt was as if she hadn’t heard me. She just kept saying, ‘I’m finished with Ted. You’re the only one I can ever trust. Sparrow, promise you’ll go away with me.’”
    Elizabeth no longer tried to check the tears that welled in her eyes. “She was crying and sobbing. . . .”
    â€œAnd then . . .”
    â€œTed came back. He began shouting at her.”
    William Murphy leaned forward. The warmth disappeared from his voice. “Now, Miss Lange, this will be a crucial point in your testimony. On the stand, before you can say whose voice you heard, I have to lay a foundation so that the judge is satisfied that you truly recognized that voice. So this is how we’ll do it. . . .” He paused dramatically.
    â€œQuestion: You heard a voice?”
    â€œYes,” Elizabeth said tonelessly.
    â€œHow loud was that voice?”
    â€œShouting.”
    â€œWhat was the tone of that voice?”
    â€œAngry.”
    â€œHow many words did you hear that voice say?”
    In her mind, Elizabeth