Fates and Traitors Read Online Free PDF

sent him what she had thought was an amusing account of the debut performance of an original drama full of swordplay and double-crosses and bold speeches. “Edwin is to be a cabinetmaker.”
    It pained Mary Ann to admonish Edwin for his harmless playacting, but Junius was adamant that no more of his offspring should follow him onto the stage. When Edwin absorbed the edict in silence, regarding her sorrowfully with his large, dark, hauntingly expressive eyes, Mary Ann hastened to tell him that he could read Shakespeare as much as he liked, as long as he did not perform.
    Not surprisingly, tempering Junius’s decree failed to cheer Edwin—but it did provoke a small, triumphant grin from John Wilkes, which he tried unsuccessfully to conceal. Mary Ann wished John did not enjoy his elder brother’s disappointment, but she understood the impetus. Edwin always relegated John Wilkes to the least significant roles in his productions, performing bit parts with hardly any lines or clanging a triangle between acts. And yet she could not bring herself to scold John Wilkes for his resentment. She knew she shouldn’t have a favorite child, but she could not help herself—John Wilkes was hers. She did her best to make sure his siblings never suspected.
    One day while Junius was home on a brief respite from touring, he came down from the attic wearing a black hat, fringed prayer shawl, and a quizzical expression. “Darling,” he asked, “is my Shylock robe in your sewing basket?”
    â€œNo, I don’t have it. Does it need mending?”
    â€œNo, but I need it and it wasn’t in any of my costume trunks.” Junius looked around the room as if hoping to find it misplaced on a bookshelf or armchair. “A few other pieces were missing too. I hope I didn’t leave them in Richmond.”
    â€œFather?”
    Junius and Mary Ann turned to find John Wilkes in the doorway, hands clasped behind his back, eyes wide with innocence. “Yes, son?” Junius replied, his frown softening. John Wilkes was his favorite child too.
    â€œDo you mean the black robe with the shiny spangles in the front?”
    â€œYes, that’s the one. Do you know where it is?”
    â€œI don’t want to get anyone in trouble—”
    â€œSpeak, boy,” Junius thundered.
    â€œEdwin said he needed it for
Richard the Third
.” John gestured vaguely over his shoulder. “The Tripple Alley Players are putting it on right now.”
    â€œThe Tripple Alley Players?” echoed Mary Ann.
    â€œEdwin’s theatre troupe. Him, Stuart, George, Sleepy, and some of the other boys perform in the basement of Barnum’s City Hotel on Calvert Street.” John looked from his mother to his father and back. “Didn’t you know?”
    Junius seized John by the upper arm. “Lead on.”
    John gulped and nodded as his father propelled him from the house.
    Before long, Junius returned in a fury, yanking a tearful Edwin along by the scruff of his shirt, which Mary Ann quickly recognized as his father’s Shylock robe, cut down to resemble King Richard’s armor. John trailed along after them, his hands thrust in his pockets, his expression alternately merry and contrite.
    Junius had interrupted the play at its climax, he told Mary Ann after he had thrashed Edwin soundly and sent him off to bed without supper. The hotel janitor, hired as the troupe’s doorman for a cut of the profits, had challenged Junius for the admission fee, but Junius had shoved past him and had stormed into the makeshift theatre just as Edwin was desperately offering his kingdom for a horse. When his outraged father burst into the room, Edwin bolted for the window, but Junius grabbed his legs when he was only halfway through, rendering the boy ideally situated for a spanking. Edwin’s wails attracted a passing policeman, who seized Edwin by the arms, believing he had captured a young burglar. Thus