The Scottish Play Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

hard. Then she swallowed and said, “Daniel, what do you think of me playing that role?”
    Daniel’s reply was distracted, not entirely focused on what she’d asked, for he was picking bits of meat from a duck bone. As he wiped grease from his fingers with the new bleached linen napkin she’d bought the day before for this meal with him, he said, “I think you’ll do well.” It was a polite answer, the sort of thing one would say in order to not make the effort at a thoughtful reply.
    “Seriously. Do you think I’ve got it in me to play such an evil woman?”
    That caught Daniel’s attention, and he sat up to regard her and read her expression. Probably the better to know what diplomatic reply to make, since she’d made it clear she wanted him to think on it.
    “Don’t lie,” she hurried to say. “I don’t wish to hear what you believe I wish to hear. I want to know your opinion, so that I might know where to spend my efforts at the task before me.”
    He sighed, in the way he had when thwarted on something small. No facile reply today. “Very well, then. I say you do have what the role requires.”
    “Such as?”
    He pursed his lips, then elaborated with care. “Determination. Ambition.”
    “Me? Ambitious?”
    He smiled as if she were being silly. “Of course you’re ambitious. Don’t deny it. You’re the most aggressive woman I know, and I’ve known not a few whores and thieves who were born in the gutter and stayed there. Other women might cut a man’s throat for a farthing, which you certainly would never do, but you are more tenacious in getting what you want. Many a man would rather face a knife than your tongue. You have always looked to a better place, and have never let anyone keep you from it.”
    Suzanne opened her mouth to deny, but he held up a finger to stay her. “Don’t try to tell me it’s not true. Remember you walked straight into Whitehall to convince me to patronize you in this theatre. Bold as brass, you demanded five hundred pounds.”
    Suzanne had to smile. “Five hundred and fifty. I got three hundred.”
    He continued. “Also, remember your determination in securing an apprenticeship for Piers. You were living on the street with not a farthing to your name, and you convinced a rejected suitor to take on your illegitimate son and teach him the ways of the business world. No retiring flower you. Also, you should remember your anger at me.”
    “Anger?”
    “Of course. That percolating, acidic, ever-beneath-the-surface emotion you’ve carried around for me since I returned from France.”
    Since long before then, but she only gazed at him.
    “Yes. Like that.”
    She had to smile. “Very well, I understand what you mean.”
    “Keep those things in mind, and I think you’ll make a fascinating Lady Macbeth.” He sucked on the duck bone some more, and there was a glint of humor in his eye.

Chapter Three

    T he first rehearsal of the Scottish play began as they all did, with a quick meeting of the entire cast in which Horatio gave a speech to the players. As usual Suzanne watched from her favorite spot in the third-floor gallery over the entrance, since she wouldn’t be needed for scenes today. Naturally, Horatio being who he was, his speech was drawn from Hamlet’s instructions to the players. Most of those present had heard it before, and many had spoken Hamlet’s speech when they’d played the role. The cast waited patiently on the stage, knowing this was Horatio and he would have his audience, and there was nothing to be done about it.
    The cast filled the stage, each actor standing, attentive. Diarmid Ramsay had duly presented himself and stood quietly among the others, dressed in ordinary English garb today, his legs quite covered and his calves hidden by leggings. But even so he stood out from the cluster of actors, his presence seeming to overspill the stage and occupy the pit and parts of the lower galleries, though he did nothing but stand there. Liza,