Read Like a Wisp of Steam for Free Online Page B

she told him, "The leading lady resigned when the director wouldn't change the ending, and she took all the other actors with her. I worked in Black Veil company for a while, Servant and Harlot mostly, but started going to theatre auditions as well. I was lucky enough to be at the right one. The pay is a pittance, but as you can see, the playhouse is packed. We're good for a full season, if the city watch doesn't shut us down."
    He started to say something professional about the production, but instead he changed his mind. "Miss Alwyx, you were extraordinary up there. I believed every word."
    "Thank you, Mister Donal." Her smile was different, no longer a child's.
    Emboldened by the new possibilities that smile opened, he quickly said, "The Oyster Club isn't far from here. Would you care to join me for a late supper?"
    Her umbrella tapped against his walking stick. "That wouldn't take a miracle."

An Extempore Romance
    Jason Rubis
    Quite out of nowhere, Mary Ann said, "He's in love with you."
    Amelia Lessington, down to her girdle and bloomers but still struggling with her boots, looked up and frowned. "What?
    Who's in love with me? What on Earth are you on about?"
    The chimera, motionless by the dressing-room door, regarded Amelia with unblinking yellow eyes. She stood with her hands behind her back, like a child prepared to give a recitation. There were some unusual features concealed under her skin—she'd hardly be worth calling a chimera otherwise—
    but on the surface, except for her strange feline gaze, she looked like a pretty, petite girl of eighteen or so.
    "That daguerrographer. He's been making sheep's eyes at you all day, from the moment you shook his hand. I shouldn't wonder he's written you a sonnet by now. That's what men in love do, you know."
    "Ah. Well, I'm glad to have the benefit of your extensive experience in matters of the heart. After all, you've been out of the vat, what, a whole month now?" Amelia extended a long leg. "Make yourself useful and help me get this bloody boot off."
    "English ladies don't use words like 'bloody,'" Mary Ann pointed out. But she readily went on her knees, deftly undoing the buttons on her mistress's boot.
    "No, and they don't show bare feet and bare legs to the loving English menfolk, either."
    "Why are you doing it, then?"
    "Times change," Amelia grunted, bracing herself on the chair's arms as the boot came off her foot. "Besides, it was Edward's idea. It'll be charming for these pictures he's insisted on having for the new books. It's a bid for my lost girlhood, all in keeping with my professional reputation as spinner of childhood dreams; barefoot innocent days of youth, that sort of thing. Of course, when I was a girl my feet weren't so crabbed and ugly."
    "Your foot is still pretty, I think," Mary Ann observed, turning it in her hands. She poised a fingernail over the damp sole and turned an innocent face to Amelia's stony glare. "Is it ticklish?"
    Amelia allowed herself a tight smile. "Try it and I'll have boiled chimera for tea. My last three Mary Anns weren't half so cheeky, you know. I should have had a Wellington instead."
    Mary Ann kissed her foot, running her tongue-tip along the underside of her toes. Amelia shuddered, not unpleasurably.
    "Stop that. We've got business to attend to."
    "Later?"
    "Perhaps, yes. If you behave during the shoot." Inside, however, she was thinking, Definitely yes . It had been a long time since her last go-round and the unaccustomed feeling of skin exposed to cool air excited her. It's nothing to be ashamed of, she told herself. Lots of people use chimerae for intimate purposes. It wasn't, after all, as though they were human beings. Still, she hadn't planned on using this Mary Ann for that purpose. And, more to the point, it was cock she craved, not tickles and kisses, however artfully administered.
    Perhaps she would give herself a treat at Cullen's after this ordeal was over.
    "Get that other boot off now, and let's go." She