Read A Slight Miscalculation for Free Online

being chained and left for that monster.”
    “Oh, I’m afraid you are rattled, sir. I’m so
sorry about all of this, Mr. Middleton. You’ve mistaken me. My name
is Jane.”
    Alarm bells worsened the
din in his head. Worthe abruptly stopped. Jane?
    “Mr. Middleton? Oh, sir. Mr. Middleton?”
    “Yes?”
    Worthe turned. Too suddenly. He groaned. He
hadn’t made that answer. Another chap stood in the open doorway
behind them, dressed like quality, foot tapping impatiently. “I’m
here to see Hestia,” he announced.
    Andromeda looked between them. “You’re
Middleton?” she asked the other man. “Then who—?” She eased Worthe
down on a long, low sofa. “Never mind, now.”
    Dionysus’s handmaid returned with ice
wrapped in a cloth and Andromeda . . . No, not Andromeda. “You said
your name was Jane?” he rasped.
    She nodded and pressed the ice to his aching
head.
    Worthe waited for anger to push back in, but
it was no match for the disappointment churning up from his gut.
His Andromeda must be Jane Tillney.
    “Sit a moment, please?” she asked. She
turned to the other man. “I’m sorry, sir. Hestia Wright has been
called away, and Callie Grant with her. I’m helping out as I can.
Won’t you come in? She told us of your play, though, before she
left, and that you are looking for girls to travel with your
company.”
    “Aye. Six girls to act as a sort of Greek
chorus,” Middleton answered, his head bobbing enthusiastically.
“Just a line or two each, nothing difficult. Bit parts only, they
will deliver commentary on the action from the heavens above. But
they’ll be counted full members of the company.”
    “And you’ll be performing first at Sadler’s
Wells?”
    He nodded. “A couple of weeks to perfect our
performance and then we set out. Late summer is prime for a
travelling company. We’ll be back before the weather turns.”
    He ran an eye over the girls. They had
grouped together, listening avidly. “I’ve others interested.
Auditions are Thursday. I see you’ve heard you must provide your
own costumes.” He sighed. “I do wish you’d come up with something
different than the rest. Ah, well. Make them good. I imagine
they’ll be the deciding factor.”
    He bowed low to Jane and grinned at the
others. “Until Thursday!”
    The din that exploded in the room once he’d
left had Worthe clutching his head again.
    “Did you hear that? We need better
costumes!”
    “Miss Jane will help. She’s got us this
far.”
    “I’ll carry wine instead of grapes!”
    “He said there’s more wanting the spots.
Probably there’s no use in even trying.”
    “Oh, dear,” Miss Tillney said.
    “Now listen here, you lot!” Worthe winced
again as Diana brandished her bow and raised her voice. “We’re
doing this! I went with Middleton’s company last year. He does a
proper job. No hedge inns or hayseed barns. Only sizable village
fairs and towns with assembly rooms.” She glared around her.
“Hestia got me the chance and it was the first time I made my own
money and got to keep it. All of it,” she said with a significantly
raised brow. “I got a few more roles besides, when I come back.
And,” she paused to be sure of their focus, “We went out with seven
last year and only four returned—‘cause three met nice, young
farmers with harvest blunt in their pockets and an eye for a wife
to occupy the winter.”
    A moment of dead silence quickly gave way to
a cacophony of shrill exclamations. Worthe looked up to find Jane
smiling fondly at the lot of them.
    “Surely you’re not running away with the
troupe?”
    “No.” She smiled. “Can you hold the ice
yourself now, Mr.—Wait! I still don’t know your name!”
    “But you are Miss Jane Tillney?”
    She nodded.
    “And this place?”
    She frowned. “You don’t know Half Moon
House? Hestia Wright’s infamous home for women in need?”
    “I don’t get to Town often.”
    “Hestia and this place are known the world
over.”
    He