Mr.Churchill's Secretary(44)
“What are you working on these days, Sarah?” John asked. “I don’t have as much time as I’d like to get to the ballet.” Really? Does being patronizing and moody keep you on a tight schedule? Maggie thought.
“Swan Lake—music by Tchaikovsky, choreography by Petipa, staged for us by Nicholas Sergeyev, former regisseur for the Mariinsky Theatre. You should see Dimitri in it, David,” Sarah said, taking a sip of her tea. “He’s learning the role of Prince Siegfried.”
“I’d like that,” David replied, reaching for yet another petit four.
“David!” Paige said, giving his knuckles a rap.
“What?” said David. “Carpe diem! Or carpe cake, I suppose.”
“Of course,” Dimitri said, “Michael Somes is lead, but I am understudy. So maybe perhaps I go on someday as lead.”
Simon smiled. “Fairy tales. Perfect for tutus.”
Sarah smiled tightly. “It’s a tragedy, actually. The story of Swan Lake is about two girls, Odette and Odile, who resemble each other so closely they can easily be mistaken for the other. Odette is the innocent maiden turned into a white-swan queen by an evil sorcerer. The prince falls in love with her and tries to save her. But the sorcerer deceives him—and tricks the prince with a black swan, Odile, who impersonates Odette. The prince confuses the two, and poor Odette is doomed to remain a swan forever.”
“Ah,” said Simon. “Freud’s old Madonna-whore dichotomy.”
“What’s interesting,” Sarah continued, “is that the same dancer performs both roles. Odile goes undercover as Odette, as it were. Conniving bitch,” she said, laughing.
“First of all,” said Chuck, “Freud’s a horse’s ass. Second, Sarah, that’s wonderful. I can certainly see you in both roles.”
Annabelle interjected, “Is it hard to go back and forth?” She smiled. “I only have one role in Rebecca, and it’s hard enough—what’s it like to do two?”
“It is a challenge,” Sarah replied. “There are the technical demands, of course—but then there’s the fact that one character’s very soft and vulnerable, while the other’s quite steely and very sexy—but imitating the first. So it’s a balancing act.”
Dimitri turned to David. “When do you come to performance?” There was a silence that went on a bit too long.
Maggie could feel David’s discomfort at Dimitri’s public attentions and rushed in, changing the subject. “Well, with our schedules, who can? Anyway, that reminds me of a joke—well, it’s really more of a logic problem—called ‘The Liar and the Truth Teller.’ ”
“Oh no,” Nigel groaned. “Reminds me of Eton.”
“It’s not hard, if you think it through,” Maggie said. “All right, so there are two soldiers at a crossroads. One always lies, and one always tells the truth, but you don’t know which is which. You need to find out whether the left or right path leads to safety but can only ask one of them a single question. What should you ask? And what should you do, depending on what they answer?”
“Easy,” Annabelle said. “No matter what answer either gives you, take the other path.”
Maggie was surprised.
“I don’t understand,” Chuck moaned, shaking her head. She’d had too much wine to think clearly.
“Well, if you ask the truth teller,” Maggie said, “he’ll tell you which path the liar will tell you to take.”
“And if you ask the liar,” John said, “he’ll know which path the truth-telling soldier will tell you to take. However, since he’s a liar, he’ll point you in the wrong direction. So just take the other path.”
“Bravo!” Maggie said. All right, so maybe he is smart. But he doesn’t have to be so very condescending at the office about it.
Chuck looked heavenward. “This is why I became a nurse.”
John looked over at Nigel. “So when do you push off, old sod?” Nigel was being sent to a secret location and wouldn’t be in contact with anyone, not to mention Chuck, for an indefinite period of time.
“About a fortnight,” Nigel replied, leaning over and giving Chuck’s thigh a squeeze through her dress. “Can’t say I want to leave my gorgeous girl here alone, but now that I’ve decided, it seems like it’s time to get on with it.”
“We know you’ll do splendidly,” Sarah said. “You’ll come back a hero, all decorated with medals and—little ribbons.”
Little ribbons? Maggie mouthed at her. Sarah shrugged.