Maggie gave Elisabeth another hug and then set her on her feet. “I’ve got papers to sign,” she said brightly. “Cora, will you do me an enormous favor and call Philip Briggs for me? Tell him, please, that I won’t be going to America after all, and I won’t be coming in for rehearsals today. He’ll argue with you about the rehearsals; just tell him that I know my lines well enough and I’ll be there in plenty of time for the performance.”

Cora nodded and she and Elisabeth left the room hand in hand. Maggie took a moment to say a prayer of thanks, then went to stand in front of the mirror over Reeve’s bureau.

Pale and peaked only minutes before, she was now glowing with happiness. There was the matter of Reeve’s illness, but that would heal in time; plenty of love and care would hurry the process.

After a short interval had passed, Maggie felt composed and businesslike. She went downstairs to the study to meet with Mr. Coates. Cora was just turning away from the telephone, and she was flushed again, though this time with annoyance.

“He says you’d better be in that theater within the next twenty minutes,” she confided tightly in passing, Elisabeth trotting along at her heels. “If you’re not, he’s going to come here and fetch you himself.”

“If Philip tries anything like that,” Maggie answered blithely, “it will cost him a layer of skin and at least one eye.” She swept past the frazzled nanny to the desk, where Mr. Coates waited politely.

Maggie took Reeve’s chair. “Now, then,” she said. “I’ll have a look at those papers.”

To Mr. Coates’s suppressed annoyance, Maggie insisted upon reading every word of every document before signing, and what she didn’t understand, she asked to have explained.

Philip arrived, unannounced, just as Mr. Coates was leaving.

“What the devil do you mean by holding up the entire cast this way?!” he shouted.

Maggie smiled warmly. “Yes, Philip, it is good news that Reeve is alive after all. Thank you for saying so.”

Philip had the good grace to look chagrined. “Of course it’s wonderful news, Maggie. I’m very happy for you. But—”

“But nothing. I’m not going to rehearse today, and if you press me, I won’t perform either.”

Philip’s amber eyes narrowed. “Maggie Chamberlin—”

“Soon to be McKenna.”

“You’d like to think so,” Philip challenged her as he sank into the chair Reeve’s secretary had just vacated.

Maggie took a moment to admire her ring. “It seems that Reeve left word at his offices that my signature was to be as good as his when it came to matters of business.”