A Golden Cage by Shelley Freydont Read Free Book Online Page A

Deanna’s white nightgowns, step out of the dressing room. She stopped, then melted back into the dressing room, where, Deanna didn’t doubt for a second, she was all ears.
    â€œIt isn’t me.” Amabelle stood suddenly and walked to the table next to Deanna’s bed. She picked up the copy of Loveday Brooke Deanna and Elspeth had been reading before bed.
    â€œI liked this one,” Amabelle said, beginning to recover. But I like Kate Goelet better.”
    â€œMe, too,” Deanna agreed.
    â€œYour mama lets you read them? And with your maid?”
    â€œNo. I have to hide them at home. . . . But not here.”
    â€œMy mama would never let me have any fun.”
    Deanna bet she wasn’t any stricter than her own mother was. Not only did she have to hide her reading material, but every idea, plan, opinion, or desire she ever had. Until her mother had been forced to take Deanna’s sister to Switzerland for the cure.
    Since coming to stay with Gran Gwen, she’d been part of conversations that her mother would never have allowed. Learning about things a young lady shouldn’t know. Wore clothes she would consider unacceptable, like the new lighter, more comfortable tennis outfits and the scandalous bathing costumes.She’d even bought a bicycle, against her mother’s express wishes, though fortunately, the letter forbidding her to buy one had come too late. She’d even joined a bicycling club that met every Saturday afternoon. Cycling was all the rage among the more modern cottagers.
    Now she was talking to a bona fide actress. Well, almost bona fide. And it was time she probed a little deeper into why Amabelle had come.
    â€œMrs. Ballard says that the theater is one of the only places that women earn as much as men.”
    Amabelle shrugged. “I guess. But being in the chorus doesn’t pay all that well for either men or women.”
    â€œBut if you work hard and—”
    Belle sighed. “The leading actors have a better time. They get real parts and are courted by patrons, taken out to dinner. People send them gifts. They are treated with deference and get called great artistes. The chorus?” Amabelle shrugged again.
    Deanna really hoped she had a better repertory of gestures if she planned longevity in the dramatic arts.
    â€œSome people stay in the chorus their whole lives.” Belle was beginning to sound like the vapid young ladies Deanna spent every afternoon with.
    â€œBut you get to dress up in costumes and pretend to be somebody else. And meet interesting people.”
    Amabelle had begun to relax, but now the blood rushed from her face and she gripped the tapestry in both hands.
    Deanna shot a desperate look toward the dressing room. Amabelle looked like she might bolt, wearing nothing but a see-through gown that made Deanna blush for her.
    Elspeth bustled into the room. “I bet there are all sorts of handsome young men in love with you,” she said matter-of-factlyas she pulled Amabelle to her feet and relieved her of the tapestry.
    She only gripped it for a moment, then allowed Elspeth to pull off her costume and replace it with Deanna’s nightdress.
    â€œI—” She shot a look at Deanna. It was obvious that she was surprised at Elspeth’s familiarity. “Yes, very handsome . . . and some not so.” Amabelle turned to let Elspeth button up the front buttons. It was a gesture more natural than any of the others she’d made that night.
    As soon as Elspeth closed the last button, Amabelle tried to hide a huge yawn behind the back of her hand.
    â€œYou’re tired, miss,” Elspeth said, dropping back into her role as maid. It occurred to Deanna that Elspeth might make a good actress, though she’d never suggest it. She needed Elspeth by her side.
    Elspeth saw Amabelle to her room down the hall. She returned a few minutes later with a knowing, “There’s a man