Page 95 of A Contracted Spouse for the Prizefighter

“Lil …”

“Listen, I’m allowed to say such things, cos I was one meself and it takes one to know one!”

“I hope the other acts warm up to us soon,” Theo sighed, casting a glance over her shoulder. One of the dancers who was staring back at her looked hurriedly away.

“Fat chance!” Lil snorted. “We’re too popular with the paying public, my dear. Everyone else will be jealous as hell.” Lil sounded vastly smug about the fact, and really, Theo thought as they emerged into the auditorium and took their place at the shadowy side of the stage, she could not be too cut up about the fact they weren’t popular with their fellow entertainers. Not when they were already the audience’s darlings.

Larry the compere was running through a few gags, but he had lost the crowd as soon as they took their place beside the stage steps. The murmuring started, and though she tried to ignore it, Theo could see people pointing and jostling each other. “Lil and Perce!” were the names she heard repeated over and over again, increasing in volume.

“These are the ones I was tellin’ you about, Mother!” Theo heard one woman hiss excitedly in the front row. “You’ll love this!”

Theo felt her chest swell with pride. She glanced across and saw Harold already seated dutifully at the piano. This was what she had longed for all those years. All her practice, all her wishing had finally come to fruition. She was a male impersonator at last. And she was appreciated.

“That one!” someone announced nearby. “Ooh, ‘e’s my favorite. Ain’t ‘e lovely?”

“That’s a woman, you fool!” her companion pointed out.

“I know that you great berk! No man could be that pretty, more’s the pity!”

“And now, I’ll stop denying them the stage, for I know full well you’re all clamoring to see them once again,” Larry said with his oily charm, gesturing toward them. “Without more ado, I give you the Lovely Lily Longdon and Piccadilly Percy himself!”

Theo first handed up Lil and then ran up the stairs behind her as Harold launched into a spirited rendition of their signature chorus and all was right with her world for the next golden half hour. Performing at The Eagle made her ecstatically and blissfully happy. She drifted back offstage and afterward could barely remember what she and Lil had chattered about as they changed out of their costumes.

A knock on the door revealed Eddie’s blunt features again. “There’s some urchin out here,” he said doubtfully. “Says as he’s a friend of yours, Miss Dabney.”

“Albert?” Theo called out. “Is that you?” To her surprise, Albert did not elbow Eddie out of the way and immediately appear in the doorway but instead loitered bashfully in the corridor until he was ushered inside. “Never fear, we’re all decent,” Theo assured him with a smile.

Dragging his cap off his head, the boy cast a fleeting glance at her face before coloring hotly. “I seen your act,” he muttered hoarsely.

“You came to see me?” Theo was both startled and delighted. “Who did you come with? Your brother or some of your fellow paper boys?”

“Me bruvver,” Albert answered. “Only he don’t believe we’re friends,” he started hotly. “Says I’m tellin’ tales and not to pull his leg!”

Theo looked at his flushed, indignant face. “Well, that is a good deal too bad of him!” she pronounced. “Where is he? Have him brought here at once and I shall put him straight on our friendship of long standing!”

Albert’s expression brightened. “Would you tell him, miss?”

“Gladly!”

Albert broke out all smiles. “’E’s round the corner at Dog and Duck,” he said eagerly. “’Im and ‘is friends. ‘E said to bring you along and he’ll stand you to a mug of rum punch. Only ‘e said it as a jest like,” Albert added bitterly. “And they all laughed like ‘e’s a proper wag!”

“Well, we shall go there forthwith, and I shall set them to rights,” Theo pronounced. Albert instantly perked up and Theo drew down her paletot from its peg.

Lil crossed the room and opened the door. “Eddie!” she shouted up the corridor. “Come back ‘ere luv. Only Miss Dabney requires an escort for ‘alf an hour.”

Theo was surprised, for it was only four o’clock and still light out. Seeing her raised brows, Lil said quietly, “Don’t want to get on the wrong side of that ‘usband of yours again, do I?”

“Clem’s not even here,” Theo pointed out. “He has business this afternoon in Clapham.”

“I don’t care if he’s at Buckingham Palace,” Lil responded dryly. “He has a disquieting habit of finding things out. He also would not like you consorting with unknown men in rowdy drinking places. You take my word for it.”

“I been out wiv Miss Theodora an ‘undred times wivout no chaperone!” Albert muttered resentfully.

“She wasn’t married then though, was she?” Lil retorted smartly. “I mean to make sure she avoids the pitfalls I fell into.” A wistful look passed over her face which Theo knew meant she was thinking of the husband who had left her.

Theo, having pulled on her gloves, reached for Albert’s hand and gave it a consoling squeeze. “Never mind, Albert. We both know you are all the chaperone I require, but we had better respect Clem’s feelings on the subject.”

She had been expecting the boy to put up a spirited argument, but to her surprise, he acquiesced at once, mumbling in agreement and she rather wondered if he was not a little under the weather for he was very red in the face.