This Rough Magic by Mary Stewart Read Free Book Online Page A

heard anything so silly in my life. Why in the world should
he
go round getting savage with a rifle? He might pick off a few theatre critics – I can think of one who’s been asking for it for years – but not that dolphin! It’s just not possible.’
    ‘D’you know him?’ Godfrey Manning’s tone was abrupt and surprised.
    ‘I’ve never met him, he’s way out of my star. But I’ve known stacks of people who’ve worked with him, and they all adored him. I tell you, it’s not in character. And if you ask how I know that, let me tell you I’ve seen every play he’s been in for the last ten years, and if there’s one kind of person who can’t hide what sort of man he is under everything he has to do and say, it’s an actor. That’s a paradox, I suppose, but it’s true. And that Julian Gale could kill a living creature straight out of a Greek myth – no, it simply isn’t
on
. Unless he was drunk, or went raving mad—’
    I stopped. The look that had flashed between them would have wrecked a geiger-counter. There was a silence that could be felt.
    ‘Well?’ I said.
    Godfrey cleared his throat awkwardly. He seemed uncertain of how to begin.
    ‘Oh, for goodness’ sake, if she’s going to be here for a few weeks she’d better know,’ said my sister. ‘She’s almost certain to meet him sooner or later. I know he only goes to the Karithis’ place, and to play chess withsomeone in Corfu, and they never leave him alone the rest of the time, but I met him myself at the Karithis’, and she may come across him any day in the grounds.’
    ‘I suppose so.’
    She turned to me. ‘You said this morning that you wondered why he disappeared like that after he’d retired. You knew about the car smash three or four years ago, when his wife and daughter were killed?’
    ‘Oh, lord, yes. It happened just the week before he opened in
Tiger Tiger
. I saw it after it had been running about a month. Lucky for him it was a part to tear a cat in, so he was better than ever, if possible, but he’d lost a couple of stones’ weight. I know he was ill after he left the cast, and rumours started going round then that he was planning to retire, but of course nobody really believed them, and he seemed quite all right for the Stratford season; then they suddenly announced
The Tempest
as his last appearance. What happened, then? Was he ill again after that came off?’
    ‘In a way. He finished up in a nursing home with a nervous breakdown, and he was there over a year.’
    I stared at her, deeply shocked. ‘I never knew that.’
    ‘Nobody knew,’ said my sister. ‘It’s not the sort of thing one advertises, especially if one’s a public person like Julian Gale. I only knew myself because Max Gale said something to Leo when they rented the house, and then a friend of mine told me the rest. He’s supposed to be better, and he does go out sometimes to visit friends, but there’s always someone with him.’
    I said flatly: ‘You mean he has to be watched? You’re trying to tell me that Julian Gale is—’ I paused. Whywere all the words so awful? If they didn’t conjure up grotesque images of Bedlam, they were even worse, genteel synonyms for the most tragic sickness of all. ‘–Unbalanced?’ I finished.
    ‘I don’t know!’ Phyllida looked distressed. ‘Heaven knows one doesn’t want to make too much of it, and the very fact that he was discharged – if that’s the word – from the home must mean that he’s all right, surely?’
    ‘But he
must
be all right! Anyway, you said you’d met him. How did he seem then?’
    ‘Perfectly normal. In fact, I fell for him like a ton of bricks. He’s very charming.’ She looked worriedly across at Godfrey. ‘But I suppose these things can recur? I never thought … the idea wasn’t even raised … but if I’d thought, with the children coming here for their holidays and everything—’
    ‘Look,’ said Godfrey briskly, ‘you’re making altogether too much of