The Dark Lady's Mask Read Online Free PDF

selling London property, so Master Holland told Papa. He had purchased several tenements in Billingsgate, and he swore to provide Angela with every comfort.
    Though Papa had never warmed to Master Holland, he could not put his finger on any convincing reason why Angela shouldn’t marry him, especially since she was so smitten by him. How could Papa stand between the girl and her true love, particularly after blaming himself for her humiliation with Lord Hunsdon? So he swallowed his doubts and gave his reluctant blessing.
    Mother saw to it that the couple wasted no time. The banns were spoken at church on three consecutive Sundays.
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    O N A GLITTERING F EBRUARY morning, Angela’s wedding day dawned. With all the relations squeezed into church for the ceremony, Mother brimmed with joy, swearing that Angela was out of trouble’s way forever.
    â€œNow it’s only you I need worry about,” Mother whispered, stroking Aemilia’s curls. “But surely Master Holland and Angela will look after you.”
    Aemilia smiled, sharing her mother’s jubilance. Then she gazed over to Papa on the men’s side of the church. Of the entire crowd, he alone remained somber.
    Mother shook her head to see him so humorless. “Anyone would think he was watching a funeral.”
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    I N THE B ASSANO PARLOR , packed with guests, Aemilia joined the cheers as Angela and Master Holland sipped posset from the silver-plated bridal cup.
    All the Bassano kin had gathered and the Johnson relations on Mother’s side as well. While her uncles played galliards and corontos, Aemilia tried to amuse her four-year-old cousin Ben by leading him in a dance.
    Over the music and merriment, she heard Papa ask Mother, “Why did none of the groom’s family come to the wedding?”
    Mother dismissed his grumbling with a wave of her hand. “They live so far, over Bristol way. Surely they’ll send gifts.”
    Aemilia turned her gaze to Angela, laughing and spinning in her bridegroom’s arms.
    Mother tugged Aemilia close and whispered, “One day you will marry and be as happy as your sister.”
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    T HEIR HOME SEEMED so sad and silent without Angela’s singing and virginals playing. How Aemilia longed for her sister, yet they heard not a word from her in the days following her wedding, and visiting her was no simple thing, for now she lived on the other end of London. Mother said they must leave Angela and Master Holland in peace for a fortnight before calling on them, that Aemilia should be happy for her sister instead of pining for her.
    Angela’s wedding had cost Papa deep in the purse. Not only had he paid for the festivities, but he’d also presented Master Holland with her dowry of one hundred pounds. Since it was not his way to beg his brothers for a loan, he sought to earn extra money when he wasn’t at court.
    As it happened, James Burbage’s public theater had just opened in Shoreditch, a short walk from their home. The theater was all anyone could talk about, for it had cost Burbage seven hundred pounds, an unheard of sum, and yet he expected to turn a profit from it. A second public theater had opened in the Liberty of Blackfriars, but that was reserved for the nobility. The Shoreditch playhouse was built to pack in as many of the common rabble as could pay a penny to get in the door. Farmhands and dairymaids, brewers and draymen from the surrounding countryside streamed in. Mother complained about the noise and the many undesirables congregating in their district and relieving themselves in their hedges.
    Robert Dudley’s acting troupe, Leicester’s Men, was putting on the very first play, and they required musicians, providing an ideal opportunity for Papa and his brothers.
    â€œSuch employment will stain our reputation,” Mother said.
    Their curate preached that the theater was a sinkhole of sin, no better than a bawdy house. But Papa, who looked