The Ram Rebellion(66)

"Here you are, Your Highness. Please be careful with them. They are the only copies I have." Kristina was too polite to actually snatch the basket from my hands, but it was a close run thing.





"Would you like some refreshments, Frau Matowski?" She was totally the graceful hostess, but I was pretty sure that she would prefer I didn't accept the invitation. There was no sign of impatience or anything, but the message was clearly there. She had her videos and now she wanted to watch them.





"Thank you for the offer, Highness, but I have to get back to work. Perhaps after you have seen the performances we can get together and talk about them." She smiled, her arms wrapped around the basket of videos. Then with a small curtsey she returned to Elisabeth Sofie and Countess Emelie. I waved to them as I turned and followed Lady Ulrike.





"She really should have followed you to the door. What are manners coming to?" I turned my head to look at Lady Ulrike. She was slowly shaking her head at the lack of manners being displayed by her charge. "Thank you, Frau Matowski, for bringing the videos. The princess will take good care of them. Both Duchess Elisabeth Sofie and Countess Emelie know how to use the `video player' so that should present no problems."





Just as we made the door I could hear clearly the opening notes of the "William Tell Overture." I turned to Lady Ulrike and took her hand in mine and gripped it lightly. "I hope you do not come to hate me for bringing the videos. I think you are going to get very tired of that piece of music." With a shake of her head and a smile, she waved me on my way.





I bumped into Mary Simpson and her loyal lieutenants a few times over the next few days. They dropped into rehearsals to keep me up to date on progress, and what a lot of progress there was. Mary's Mafia, as I had come to think of her gang of women, had gone though town like a miniature tornado. A bank account was arranged so I could pay expenses and wages. Cloth was arriving for costumes. Artisans were building props and backdrops. Even the programs had been sent off to the printer. They were going to print color pictures of the dancers in the program, at least for the first night and collectors' program. There was some serious money being spent on this first season of ballet.





As far as I was concerned, the most important thing Mary achieved was getting the high school auditorium for five days around the New Year, Wednesday through to Sunday night. Hopefully this would give us sufficient time to set up scenery and lights, and run a couple of dress and lighting rehearsals. I was thankful for her intervention. There was no way I could have persuaded the powers-that-be to give me full access to the auditorium for that period of time. Not with the demand for the facility being what it was.





The dancers moved into the auditorium on Wednesday, straight after morning training. Crews under the control of Mary's lieutenants had been moving the scenery and backdrops into place before we arrived. While the technicians set up the props and scenery according to my plans, I chased up the lighting technicians, hoping to get the lights set up quickly so we could have a lighting rehearsal.





Meg and Deanna Matowski, a couple of my cousins by marriage, led the ballet mothers as they checked out the changing facilities. Their reports weren't promising. When we had used the auditorium for the Gala night we never had more than a dozen performers on stage at a time, and most hadn't needed to change costume. Suddenly we had over forty performers trying to change, fix make-up, or stay warm and limber in an area not designed for that number of performers. It was going to be a madhouse.





"Bitty, there's no way my Glenna Sue is getting changed in those rooms. The only separation between the boys and girls is a few blankets hung over a wire. It's not good enough. I demand that my daughter be given a proper changing room," came a voice from behind me. It wasn't actually bellowing, but it was close. That could only be the Ballet Mother from Hell, Laurie Haggerty. I turned around. Right the first time.





"Laurie, there are no changing rooms. There is that tiny Green room, or the showers. Otherwise the only other space is the couple of classrooms we have managed to grab. Believe me, I would love to be able to give your Glenna Sue a proper place to change and put on makeup. But we have to go with what we have."





"Well, can't you at least have the boys in one room and the girls in the other?"





"Sorry Laurie, but it's easier if rooms are allocated by role, the Mice in one room, the Soldiers in the other. Party guests in one room, Land of the Sweets dancers in the other. Otherwise we'd never keep track of the performers."