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Back The Actresses Save as PDF
Chapters (51)
  1. Cover
  2. THE ACTRESSES
  3. About The Actresses
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. 35
  42. 36
  43. 37
  44. 38
  45. 39
  46. 40
  47. 41
  48. About Barbara Ewing
  49. Also by Barbara Ewing
  50. An Invitation from the Publisher
  51. Copyright

‘Well, I expect he did,’ said Mrs O’Brien expansively, getting out her purse to buy another drink.

*

Very soon after this Sunday afternoon, Pauline was named as the Most Promising Newcomer in the West End Theatre for the Year 1964. Very soon after that Anthony Bonham, her first lover, made her pregnant. Unmarried pregnancies were still shameful; they had to try and hide it from her stepfather, so quickly got married. The play ran on in the West End, a huge success, but of course Pauline had to leave the job that had meant so much to her as soon as her pregnancy showed.

She never mentioned her father again.

*

She was now, over thirty years later, rich and elegant, and still very beautiful. The wary, gangly movement of her body had long ago developed into a cool stylish sophistication. She owned a thriving antique business in Chiswick and she enjoyed the work in a way; she still did the odd acting job though Anthony kept reminding her it wasn’t necessary, they didn’t need the money.

And she knew, because she had found out the hard way, about her husband’s infidelities.

Over the years, if she felt her life had turned out differently from the way she had planned, no one ever knew. She perfected that art of hiding her feelings.

She wore her mask.

But the real reason she didn’t go to the reunion of the class of ’59 that day was because she didn’t want to think about – but when she looked out across her garden in her blue dressing gown that Saturday morning had been so suddenly, piercingly reminded of – the days when she had found the laughter and the warmth again, when she told everybody her real father flew on a trapeze in a circus in another country, and life waited for her then, unbreakable.

*

She did not know that the reunion would change her life forever.

3

At the door of the old building, as they kissed, embracing awkwardly the way old lovers sometimes do, Molly McKenzie smelt that he’d been drinking too. She wondered if he could smell her vodka and pulled away, looked up at him, gave a little tinkling laugh.

‘How well you look darling,’ she said.

But what she saw was his expensively cut but thinning hair and the bags under his eyes and the lines on his face, the things time does.

Anthony Bonham smiled down at her, at her cleverly dyed blonde hair, the good figure she had kept, her exotic green dress. ‘You look just the same Molly darling,’ he said, remembering. His eyes flickered for a split second to where a taxi drew up beside them, flickered back to Molly again when some old grey-haired woman he didn’t know got out.