Serial Monogamy by Kate Taylor Read Free Book Online

was Mr. Dickens, come all the way from London, and needing conversation.
    “Shall I ring for some tea, Mr. Dickens? It’s almost eleven. I’m sure my sisters will be here any moment,” she said, trying gamely to play the role of the gracious hostess in the unprepossessing surroundings of the boarding house’s front parlour. They had only arrived the day before yesterday and she was not at all sure that either the landlady or her maid of all work would respond to a bell, although there was a small brass one sitting on the mantel.
    “There is no hurry, child. No great hurry. I suggested to your mother we might all drive into the country for a picnic lunch.”
    “That would be lovely. Such a beautiful day,” she said, not indicating that her mother had already told herof this plan before she had hurried back to the theatre to see if the manager and, more importantly, his helpful wife might not join them and so provide a second chaperone for the girls. The previous evening, the manager had been effusively grateful when he had been introduced to the writer after the curtain, so the couple seemed likely to agree. Nelly already had her bonnet and gloves at the ready on the hall table.
    “Oh, quite beautiful. Indeed.” Mr. Dickens leaned back in his chair and smiled at her. She smiled back and pondered what to say next; this was just the sort of situation in which she relied on her older sisters to take the lead; Fanny was always so clever and Maria had got on famously with Mr. Dickens when they were performing his new play together in Manchester, and had clearly impressed him. Indeed, Nelly secretly suspected it was largely thanks to Maria’s captivating talents that the great man had bothered to stop in Doncaster to watch them all perform at the Theatre Royal on his way south from a walking holiday in Cumbria.
    For her own part, she had thoroughly enjoyed the performances in Manchester the previous month and found Mr. Dickens easy enough to talk to when there was theatre business to be done, the discussions of blocking and voice and lighting and costumes that she had known all of her life. Indeed, the whole experience had been joyful and friendly; she had only a minor role in the main event but did appear in the little farce that closed theevening in which Mr. Dickens himself played an old man ridiculously in love with his young ward. Nelly played the ward and found her co-star not the least bit grand, despite his fame; there was much chatting and easy laughter during rehearsals and after the performance. Now, however, that he appeared not as a colleague with work at hand but as a gentleman paying a courtesy call, she felt much less sure of herself.
    “I hope you enjoyed last night’s performance,” she tried again.
    He laughed.
    “I enjoyed your performance.”
    “Oh, but Maria is really far more gifted than I. Her singing was so lovely; I do envy her her voice,” Nelly said, trying to stick with the topic that she supposed interested him the most.
    “Your sister is a remarkable performer, but I don’t think you need envy her in any regard,” he replied.
    He sat there, saying nothing, smiling benignly at her. The silence lengthened, but it did not seem to bother him for he just kept smiling. Nelly was thinking hard about what to say next when her mother came into the room. “Oh, there you are,” Mrs. Ternan said to Nelly with some annoyance. “I thought you had gone with your sisters.” She then remembered herself. “Mr. Dickens. How do you do. So kind of you…”
    “I didn’t know where they were, Mother,” Nelly replied over top of Mrs. Ternan’s belated niceties.
    “It’s my fault, Mrs. Ternan,” Mr. Dickens said, advancing to take her hand. “I sent her sisters off to the High Street to fetch us a picnic before Miss Ellen had appeared. You must forgive me; in my eagerness to depart on our excursion, I decided we should not waste any time.”
    Nelly felt caught out and wondered why he hadn’t