When the Curtain Rises Read Online Free Page B

introduced himself to me on deck stood on a raised platform at the front of the lounge. I watched, spellbound, as he performed one trick after another. He tossed a birdcage with a live dove inside it into the air, and the bird and cage both disappeared. He put tiny plants inside hollow tubes and withdrew mature rose bushes. Beneath the magician’s skillful fingers, the roses disappeared, reappeared and changed color.
    For his final illusion of the evening, Mr. Kellar allowed himself to be bound, gagged, tied to a chair and locked securely inside a wooden spirit cabinet. There was only space for one person inside the small cabinet, but it became clear almost immediately that the magician had been joined by some ghostly presence. Mr. Kellar’s assistant knocked on the cabinet door, and in response we heard a low moan, and the curtain that hung in the cabinet’s window began to ripple slightly. A ghostly arm appeared through the window, and as it was withdrawn we heard the sound of a horn, then the clanging of a bell, then the crashing of a tambourine, then all three instruments together.
    When Kellar’s assistant opened the door a few moments later, the magician appeared before us again, still gagged and tied to the chair, every rope in place.
    I sprang to my feet instantly, overwhelmed by what I’d just seen. “Bravo,” I called out. Kellar flashed the audience a crooked grin and bowed once he had been freed.
    The scene ended, and Chloe became aware of her surroundings again. She shook her head and blinked. It had all been so clear, as if she’d been watching a movie. She wanted to read more, but the warm breeze playing over her body and the soft burble of the fountain beside her made the words on the next page blur together. Her eyelids had grown impossibly heavy. She put the book down and let her head drop onto her outstretched arm. A moment later she was asleep.
    She was walking through a hallway lined with mirrors. From the neck down, her body was reflected accurately, but a different face peered out at her from every panel. When she stopped in front of the last mirror, she saw her own face reflected in the glass. Then the glass rippled and a stranger’s face shimmered into view. The woman in the mirror spoke, but no sound escaped the glass. Chloe thought she saw the woman’s lips form her name, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t make out anything else.
    Chloe woke up suddenly, the stone bench hard against her back. For a moment she thought she heard a woman whispering nearby, but it was only the soft hum of some bees in a honeysuckle vine. She stretched her arms and sat up.
    â€œCome join us, dear,” Kitty called from the front veranda after supper.
    Chloe took a seat at the wicker table. Her great-aunts and their housekeeper sipped their tea and chatted as the sun sank in the sky, turning the canal across the street candy-floss pink. The night air was warm, but a cool breeze from the water kept the veranda from getting stuffy. Throughout the evening, passersby of all ages smiled and waved up at the women on the porch. Many of them paused to exchange a friendly word or two as well.
    â€œDo you know everyone in Little Venice?” Chloe asked. “You must have introduced me to half the town already.”
    â€œYour great-aunts have been fixtures in this town for almost a century,” Abigail told Chloe proudly. “Anyone who’s been here more than a week knows the famous McBride sisters.”
    â€œFamous?” Chloe asked.
    Bess raised one eyebrow. “Abigail’s laying it on a little thick. She does that.”
    â€œI do not,” the housekeeper insisted with a sniff. “Your great-aunts were famous stage actresses, Chloe. People traveled from miles around to watch them play all the starring roles at St. Mark’s Theatre.”
    â€œNothing we loved more than being on the stage,” Kitty said, her eyes sparkling. “Born