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“Course not!” Jim said roundly, “but he’s a charming little fucker and you don’t seem to be trying to stay on her right side at all!”

Clem took a deep breath in and out. “I gave Dora full permission to associate with Ewell whenever she sees fit,” he said coldly. Jim looked at him doubtfully. “Something else to say?” Clem asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Yes,” Jim replied scathingly. “What did you want to do a bleedin’ stupid thing like that for?”

The worst thing was, that Clem couldn’t give him a satisfactory reply.

*

“What the ‘ell’s going on between you and Clem?” Lil hissed as the curtain dropped that evening. “E’s been glarin’ daggers at you all night.”

“Nothing that I am aware,” Theo lied. “Look out, the curtain’s coming back up.”

They had three curtain calls before they managed to totter off stage, still drunk from the applause. Lil turned impulsively to her in the corridor outside their dressing room, tears in her eyes.

“Theo darlin’,” she said, grabbing her hand. “I don’t know’s I’ve outright said this, but you do realize you’ve turned my life around, don’t you?” Theo opened her mouth to respond, but Lil cut her off. “You don’t know what it means to me, returning to the top of the bill at this time of life, after all these years of shifting for meself wiv nuffink to look forward to but a pauper’s grave!”

“Lil.” The last couple of days had been emotionally quite exhausting and Theo felt quite overcome.

“Oh, come ‘ere,” Lil said, throwing her arms about her neck. They embraced. “Don’t you let ‘im browbeat you, that’s all!” her friend scolded.

They both jumped when an angry voice broke out nearby. “I might have known this was how I’d find you, Lillian Longdon! A leopardess does not change her spots!”

Theo turned her head in surprise, feeling Lil stiffen in her arms.

“Johnny!” a white-faced Lil gasped, her arms falling away. “Is that really you, darlin? I thought for sure you was long dead!”

“I just bet you did!” came the bitter reply. The speaker was a tanned man of rangy build with graying hair at the temples. The cut of his suit was at least a decade out of style, and he looked out of place somehow to his surroundings, as though ill at ease to find himself here. There was a strange inflection to his words. A faintly American accent, Theo thought, though not one she was familiar with.

Johnny, thought Theo belatedly, as in Johnny Longdon, Lil’s absent husband?

“He’s a bit young for you, ain’t he?” continued the man snidely, looking Theo up and down. “You want to stay away from this one. Didn’t she tell you? She’s a married woman, albeit not a respectable one.” His expression twisted as he took in Theo’s dapper evening wear. “Or maybe the likes of you don’t much care.”

“The likes of me?” Theo repeated loudly before turning back to her friend. “Don’t tell me this is the husband you’ve held a torch for all these years, Lil?” she said. “Only he seems a bit of a prick to me.”

Lil went off in a choked fit of laughter as Longdon seethed. “Oh, you’ll be laughing on the other side of your face soon,” he promised Lil through gritted teeth. “I’ve made my fortune now and I’ll be setting my mother and sister up for life, while you’ll see never a penny from me! You can get by on your immoral earnings!”

Theo snorted. “Well, I think you’ll be interested to find just who Lil has been supporting all these years with her so-called ‘immoral earnings,’” she mocked. Just then, they heard a roar from down the corridor and all three turned to see Eddie charging toward them.

“Oi! I told you to sling your ‘ook, mate!” The burly doorman was clearly furious a stranger had managed to slip backstage.

“This isn’t the last you’ve heard from me, Lil,” the irate Longdon vowed, quite white about the mouth. “You’re still my wife, but that ends now. All these years I wondered if it was me at fault. Guess those doubts end here and now, yes sir!”

A growling Eddie seized hold of the interloper and started hauling him bodily away. “As for you, my young sprig,” Longdon yelled, his eyes darting angrily toward Theo. “You’ll be hearing from my solicitor.”

Theo rolled her eyes and raised her voice to follow his retreating form. “You’ll find that difficult, without my name!”

“I’ll find it out, never you fear!” John Longdon spat.

“It’s Dora, Dora Dabney,” Lil called after him. “The best male impersonator in London’s fair city!” Theo looked at her friend’s flushed face and sparkling eyes. “Fancy ‘is bein’ so mad at finding me in your arms,” Lil chuckled. “Daft sod!”

Lil maintained a steady flow of chatter as the two of them changed out of their clothes, and Theo could only be glad of the fact it distracted her friend from any further questions about Clem. Theo had felt desolated to a ridiculous degree to wake in their bed alone that morning. It had been the first time since they had been married that they had slept apart.

“Did you hear ‘is accent?” Lil marveled. “Sounded like a proper American born and raised, didn’t he? I wonder if he’s sought out his old mum, or if he popped along to see me first …”

Fortunately, Lil was far too caught up in her own ruminations to notice that off-stage, Theo’s spirits were decidedly lackluster. “I had better nip ‘ome sharpish tonight, I reckon,” Lil said, offering her cheek to Theo to kiss. “In case he turns up all hot-headed and spoiling for a fight.” She sounded more cheered than daunted by this prospect.

“Do you think you might need Eddie or Sam’s services,” Theo asked frowning. “I’m sure if I offered a good tip—”