3

 

Eva spent the first week of December inside on her own as much as possible. Felicity had mentioned the panto at every opportunity. This morning she had put the four tickets on the pin board in the kitchen for today’s matinee.

Eva didn’t want to go. She had no intentions of going, no matter what anyone said. She even went as far as praying for rain. But the day of the panto show dawned bright and sunny, if a little chilly, and by two o’clock, the blue sky was annoyingly cloudless.

Her mother breezed into the room. “Time to put your coat on, Evie.”

“I’m not going.”

“Oh, yes, you are.”

Eva scowled and folded her arms. “Oh, no, I’m not.”

Her father chuckled from the doorway. “Are you two practicing already?” he asked. “Come on, I don’t want to be late and parking is going to be horrid. Town will be full of Christmas shoppers. I thought after the show we could go to dinner in one of the stores and maybe look at getting a new tree and decorations.”

Eva caught the jacket he tossed her and stifled the objection to the thought of going shopping. “We have a tree.”

“That tree is older than Felicity. It’s high time we had a new one. And you can help chose the decorations and lights for it.”

OK, Dad was treating her as if she were a child so maybe she was acting like one. She shrugged into her jacket and tugged on her woolen hat. “Must we?”

“Yes, we must”

Eva didn’t speak the whole ride to the Adelphi Theatre. Despite her father’s overcrowding concerns, they managed to find a space on the ground floor of the multi-story car park in a disabled space. Being in the chair did have the occasional advantage, but parking was the only one she could appreciate.

The car park was cold, and Eva shivered as her father pushed the wheelchair across the concrete. The sound the tires made annoyed her, a rubbing, clicking sound that grated on nerves that were already at a breaking point from having to leave the house.

Memories of the last time she’d been in a theatre assailed her, knotting her stomach and tightening her chest. If she could get up and run, she would. She didn’t want to be here.

The tall building loomed ahead of them, and she was propelled up the ramp at breakneck speed as her father found that hilarious. Perhaps he should sit in this chair and be pushed at stupid speeds everywhere. See if he liked it so much then. Just the thought made her smile a little.

They had seats in the front section, and Eva’s chair slotted into an empty space on the end of a row. She sighed. Talk about making it obvious.

Felicity looked at her. “What’s up? And don’t say ‘nothing.’”

“I wasn’t expecting this,” she said quietly. She looked at the seat next to her and then back at the wheelchair. “When you said seats for the show I thought…”

Her sister frowned for a moment. “Oh,” she said, the penny dropping. “I’m sorry, Evie, I didn’t think. Tell you what, next time I’ll get four seats, and we’ll lose the wheelchair in my office. I would do it now, but it’s a full house.”

“It’s the opening show. And a full house is a good thing, isn’t it?” She wasn’t going to add there wouldn’t be a next time.

“Yes, but this year it’s Matthew Lyell. He’s pulling in the crowds. April is even talking about extending the run if we can.”

Eva looked at the program on her lap. She closed her eyes, trying to deal with the raw emotions flooding her. A mix of grief and anger at Sue’s death, panic at being out of the house and her comfort zone, embarrassment at being in public in this chair, and the usual butterflies that seeing Matthew Lyell’s photo anywhere gave her.

The lights dimmed and Eva found her heart beating in time with the orchestra. She wanted to hate this, but couldn’t. As the pantomime got underway, she found herself caught up and transported with Wendy and Peter Pan to Neverland. And when Captain Hook appeared to rapturous applause, she found herself clapping with the rest of the audience. She booed and hissed and sang the ridiculous song about a cow and the number of legs it had, or didn’t have.

She wondered whose idea it had been to have a pantomime cow on board the Jolly Roger as she knew there wasn’t one in the book. But she had to admit it was a brilliant touch, with plenty of fresh milk jokes. She ate ice cream in the interval and even found herself smiling at her father’s awful puns.

After the panto finished and the actors vanished back behind the curtain for the last time, she looked at her sister. “Thank you. You were right. It was fun.”

Her sister winked. “Oh, no it wasn’t…Yeah, actually, it was and you’re welcome. Want to come see my office?”

“Sure.”

Felicity stood and maneuvered the wheelchair towards the stage entrance. “We’ll go this way.”

Eva looked with undisguised interest at the stage as they got closer. The tech crew was cleaning up and preparing for the next performance.

“Miss this?” Mum asked.

“A little. Mind you, TV and film work is vastly different from stage work. But I can’t go back to it, not matter how much... You can’t do makeup sitting down.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t, that’s why.”

“No such word as can’t,” Felicity said. “There are ways around it. Anyway, these are the dressing rooms. And this is the after-the-opening-show party.”

The room was full of all the cast members, most still in costume and makeup, drinking coffee and eating fish and chips. As Felicity introduced Eva, they were all too happy to sign her program. She was only missing one signature, but he wasn’t there.

Felicity looked around. “Has anyone seen Matthew?”

“He’s having makeup issues,” half the pantomime cow told her.

“OK.” She looked at Eva. “Then let’s go find him and get the last signature you need.”

Before Eva could hardly draw breath to argue, Felicity had whisked her from the room and down the hallway.

Eva glanced at the door in front of her. A star hung at an angle with Matthew Lyell written on a card beneath it.

Felicity straightened the star and knocked on the door. “Mr. Lyell?”

“One minute,” came the reply.

Eva glanced at her sister. “He’s busy. It’s fine.”

“Just wait a minute, like he said.”

The door opened. And there he was, wig off, hair covered in a hair net, his makeup untouched. He still wore the black silk knee length breeches, white socks, and black patent shoes with gold buckles. His long red coat was tossed on a chair by the mirror, and his white shirt open at the neck, with the bunch of lace in his hand. His intense gaze took them in, before he smiled. “Hi.”

Personally, Eva concluded he was tired and really didn’t want to be bothered right now. He must hate all the attention and constantly being hounded purely because of who he was…is.

“You remember Eva, Mr. Lyell,” Felicity said. “I’m giving her the backstage tour.”

His smile changed, somehow almost becoming less forced, and he held out a hand. “Of course I do. How are you?”

Eva shook his hand. “Fine.”

“You look a lot better than the last time I saw you, aside from a quick glimpse of you in church on Sunday.”

She glanced at her reflection in the huge mirror. “Oh?”

He caught her look. “You were barely awake, wired to who knows what, and covered in bandages and bruises.”

“Oh, yeah.” She looked down at herself. “This is hardly an improvement.”

Felicity coughed, a sure sign she was annoyed again. “Could you sign her program, please?”

“Sure.” Mr. Lyell reached out and took the booklet and pen. He signed over his picture. “Did you enjoy the show, Eva?”

“I did.” She noticed he even pronounced her name correctly, something not many people remembered to do, even after they’d heard it.

“Rick said you were having makeup issues…” Felicity said.

He shrugged. “It’s nothing.”

Eva frowned at his hand and pointed. “What’s that?”

A red mark covered the back of his hand. He glanced down and tugged his sleeve down to cover it. “It’s nothing. Just a rash.”

Eva glanced up at her sister and then back at him. It wasn’t ‘nothing’, especially with makeup issues, but she didn’t have the right to ask. Oh, well. He could only say no. “It looks more than nothing. May I see?”

He hesitated. “OK.” Slowly he held out his hand.

Eva took his larger hand in her smaller one. His skin was soft and warm. She looked at the mark, realizing she was right. It was a clump of raised dots. “It’s an allergy rash.”

“Really?” He rubbed the side of his face. “What to? I haven’t changed anything. And it has only come out in the last day or so.”

Eva watched him. “It could be the makeup. Does it itch?”

“Yeah—like crazy. It’s been driving me nuts since the makeup girl put it on.”

Felicity nodded. “You should take it off. Evie, why don’t you give him a hand?”

“I—”

Her sister cut off her protest. “Yes, you can. She’s a trained makeup artist. She’s worked on heaps of film and TV shows. And won awards for her work.”

He smiled and pointed inside his dressing room. “Come in.” He moved over to the chair in front of the mirror and spun it around. “How much lower do you need me to put the chair? Or is there somewhere else you’d like me?”

“Ummm…” Flummoxed, Eva struggled to get her brain in gear long enough to think coherently. Where would she like him? A stupid question which only brought stupid responses to her mind and none of them repeatable in his presence. “Maybe lower it a little.”

She ignored the way her face burned at the prospect of touching him, instead focusing on maneuvering her chair across the increasingly tiny room. She could almost feel the walls closing in on her.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. She’d worked on hundreds of actors, some of whom she’d admired. So why was this one man so different? Yes, she had a crush on him. No, he wasn’t going to like her back. She was a nothing, a no one…she couldn’t even walk, and sure wasn’t pretty. So not the type of girl he’d go for. Not in a million years.

He sat on the chair and lowered it as far as it would go. Then he leaned it back so his head was almost in her lap. “How’s this?”

Eva caught her breath as his gorgeous blue eyes gazed up at her. “That’s…” She cleared her throat. “That’s fine.”

Felicity put the box of wipes and several jars of cream at her side. “I have no idea which is which,” she said.

Eva eyed the jars, automatically knowing which one to reach for. “This one for now.” She slowly and gently began to remove the makeup. It had been plastered on far too thickly, even for a stage production.

“How long have you been doing makeup?” he asked her.

“All my life,” she said. “Started with dolls and went from there. Went to college, did hair and beauty, but preferred this to cutting hair.” She paused, still unable to believe that she was sat here, Matthew Lyell’s head in her lap, whilst she was touching his face.

Oh, grow up, Evie.

“So whose makeup have you done?”

Eva detailed the A-list actors she’d worked on. “Most of them were pretty nice, but a couple…” She looked down at him. “But of course, what is said between makeup artist and actor is pretty sacrosanct.”

He grinned. “Of course. And I make it a rule never to be rude to them. Just in case they take their revenge and send me out looking stupid—with clashing eye shadow and orange lipstick or something.”

She chuckled. “It’s tempting at times; believe you me, Mr. Lyell.”

His eyes twinkled and his lips kept the smile that was purely for her. “Please, call me Matthew.”

She held his gaze, her heart pounding so loud she was sure he’d be able to hear it. “OK, Matthew.”

His smile echoed in his eyes.

Eva turned back to her work. Dismay cluttered her thoughts as she finally removed the last of the makeup. His skin was red and blotchy, his right eye slightly puffy, and a rash had started to form across his chin and forehead. “You can’t use this makeup again. Have a look.”

He sat upright and glanced in the mirror. His face fell as he ran his fingertips over his face. “What…” Matthew’s voice tailed off in dismay and shock.

“Have you ever reacted like this before?”

“Once, years ago, but never this bad.”

Eva looked at Felicity as she cleaned her hands on the baby wipes. “You’ll need to replace all his makeup with hypoallergenic stuff as soon as you can; if possible before the next performance. I can give you the brand and so on.”

“Thanks, Evie. I’ll make sure we have it for tomorrow’s performances. But what do we do for tonight? Everywhere will be closed by now.”

“Umm…” Eva thought quickly, looking over the bottles and jars. She picked one up. “Use this as a base and tell your makeup girls to go easy on the layers. It was way too thick, never mind anything else. Less is more.” She assessed Matthew. “And you’ll need to take it off as soon as you come off stage, before you change out of your costume.”

He nodded. “Will do.” He rubbed his face. “It itches.”

“It will. Calamine lotion or E45 should help with that. Don’t use aloe vera because it’ll make it worse. You also need to avoid scented soaps until it clears up.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” She picked up her program from the side. She wasn’t going to admit how good it had been to get out or even to get her hands dirty again and do some work.

For a few minutes, she’d forgotten the chair and the fact she couldn’t walk. It had just been her and him and the job she loved doing. She wondered if quitting had been the right decision for an instant. Then, she shook her head. Of course it was. She couldn’t keep going outside. Something might happen.

Matthew caught her hand. “Eva, would it be possible for me to have your address?”

She bit her lip, biting back the gasp, as warmth shot down the entire length of her hand, then looked at him. “What for?”

“Because I’d like to see you again. Take you out for coffee. Just to say thank you.”

“There’s no need…” Are you mad? Her inner voice all but screamed at her. He’s asking you out here and you’re saying no?

“There’s every need.” He hunkered down in front of the chair.

Was that a deliberate move to stop her leaving? Or was it simply so he was at her height? Either way, it had the same effect. Her heart melted into a pool of wax, and she was helpless in his gaze and the river of fire flooding from his hand, down her arm and straight to her core.

He smiled at her, fingers gently stroking the back of her hand. “Please?”

“OK, as you asked nicely…” Eva swallowed. “Fifty Raggleswood Crescent. It’s in—”

“I’ll find it,” he said. “Is tomorrow morning all right? I need to be here for one, so how about ten thirty?”

“I’ll see you then.” She swallowed hard.

He smiled. “Looking forward to it.”

Heart racing, blood pumping in her ears, Eva struggled to comprehend what was going on as Felicity wheeled the chair from the room. Matthew Lyell wanted to have coffee with her. It wasn’t a date, she knew that…but…

Matthew Lyell…me…coffee…