Scarlet Rose

Chapter 42

The first interval on the play had started. The bar had been full of people, having drinks, discussing the play. Everyone was mesmerised. Barrymore had been magnificent in the role of Hamlet.

"I think Claudius and Gertrude were right to put Hamlet's friends to spy on him." Archie said as they had sat down the table at the bar. "Hamlet clearly is turning mad."

"Or his mother and uncle had ulterior motives?" Terry replied. "Hamlet was the Prince after all."

The women were swooning over Barrymore. As Hamlet he was completely enthralling. Especially over his love for Ophelia.

"Can really someone turn insane because of love?" Marion asked but she was already dreaming.

"Passion can drive a man do things they never thought of doing." Terry turned towards them, voicing his opinion. His stare stood for a moment on Candy's face before he looked at Marion.

"Looks like you have lived such passion by the way you say this, Terry..." Archie commented. Isabel caught his eyes. His heart beat fast. Could she be this elusive true love for him? They only knew each other for a couple of months. What Archie felt for Isabel was all too consuming. Could it be just the move to London? The freedom he felt for the first time in his life? Under the table, his hand slipped between her thighs. He relished feeling the smoothness of her skin under his fingers. He could feel the goosebumps he caused her by his caress. She coughed and he smiled.

"That is personal matters Cornwell." Terry replied, taking a drag from his cigarette. Candy felt her face warm. She knew too well the madness Terry had descented when they had broken up.

"I'd love to have that experience." Marion said, looking straight at Terry.

"You are romantic, Marion." He said back. "Becoming insane by love is good for the theatre but in reality...it destroys you." He took another drag from his cigarette before stabbing it out in the astray.

"What's your opinion Miss White?" He turned all of sudden to Candy who had kept quiet. "Do you believe in all consuming love?"

"To the point of insanity." He added.

She stumbled. Words seemed to her like hurdles. He had caught her completely off guard the moment her mind was reliving the time she saw him trying to act while on a drunken stupor under that dirty theatre tent in Rocktown. She remembered how she willed him to pull himself together through a blur of tears.

"Love can destroy and love can revive." She said in the end, "But even the biggest fires with time can turn just to embers and die."

"Is that so?" He replied, raising his brow. She was pushing him to the edge. Nothing he felt with her was half-measured. When he tasted her lips, he thought he could die right there and then and he wouldn't regret the life he had. And now, everything she said was a challenge directed to him. Testing his control, finding his limits.

"I think it's time to go back." He announce to their group. They all got up. The interval was almost over. Candy rushed to the stairs first. He caught up with her.

"You must enjoy all that, right?" He asked her, the anger evident in his voice.

"What do you mean?"

"Those innuendos..." He explained.

"If you don't like my answers, stop asking me those questions, Terry." She turned and said back to him.

Marion was approaching. "By the way...if you'll be kissing her tonight like the other time...since I'm not the only one kissing whomever as you accused me, find a more discreet place than a room where everyone can walk on you." She let her anger control her voice. Feelings she had pushed down since that night she caught them, in the dining room. He really hadn't expected that. She had been right. The moment Marion got by his side, he had regretted everything he had said inside the car. It was too late. They arrived at the box. Candy had already sat down and was looking at the theatre programme she had left on her chair.