Chapter 15
Just as Grace enters the hotel, she thinks to refresh her memory briefly and goes inside her purse for her show notes. She doesn’t see the folded paper in there either! It must have fallen out of her purse during her mad search for the itchy wig on her head! Grace slumps defeated and wonders if she should go and search the limousine. However, time is of the essence and she’s already running late. So, she tries to recall her opening line before entering The Blue Room. The swigs of scotch that she drank in the limo did nothing for her nervousness but make her sweat and feel tipsy. Grace grows worried that she might fail miserably at this performance.
That is, until she looks up and sees the oversized portrait of none-other than The Englishman, mounted on the wall inside the hotel’s lobby. That’s when courage and oomph returns, and her memory sharpens!
Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turns to see who startled her. It was Gabriel; and in a snap of a finger, all courage and oomph left her! Grace feared that the smell of rotten eggs would seep through her gown and replace the wonderful scent of her eau de parfum Chanel No 5; that’s how nervous she felt!
“You must be here for the private party in the Blue Room,” he said.
Grace made no eye-contact with Gabriel. She simply kept herself mysterious, gave an agreeable, prim & proper nod, and then looked downward. “The Blue Room is right down the corridor,” Gabriel pointed, and walked away. Grace looks up at the portrait and mutters, “Damn you, Robert Bisset! The hoops that I have been jumping through, all because you tricked me!”
“GRACE! There you are,” her loud-mouth aide voiced, rushing towards her. “I’ve been calling your phone. Dinner was served and everyone is waiting for you!” The aide received Grace’s purse whence smacked with it at the stomach, and she trailed behind Grace who marched towards the banquet hall, a bit mad over all the snags that she’s enduring; unaware that Gabriel stood nearby, quite curious when he’d heard the name Grace, and observed.
Ashly’s personnel opened the door to the Blue Room for Grace and DJ MistaPher blares: “Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for our guest of honor, the lovely… William Huntsman’s fiancé Miss Grace Trotter!” Grace looked at him, amused at the name Trotter, and he winks at Grace as the room erupts with applause and whistles. Grace has no idea that Gabriel slipped into the banquet hall, behind her, and is standing obscurely near the doorway. DJ MistaPher plays the beautiful waltz music – Masquerade Ball, and Grace begins her broken hips, measured belly dance, all too familiar to the four gossipers who readily cracked-up laughing.
Grace was glad that they laughed because, in her mind, it meant that they understood now that the “joke” was on them, since they previously assumed that she was a crazy nobody. They now are seeing a whole new Grace and are loving the performance. With every swing of her hips, Grace sings, “I… have… a… boyfriend… his… name… is… William Huntsman. We… are… getting… married… and… he… shall… be… my husband…”
Suddenly though, Grace hears a woman’s voice come through the speakers, asserting, “WHERE IS HE?” DJ MistaPher lowers the music and the room grows silent. Mystified by this, Grace doesn’t know what to make of the unexpected moment, so she stops dancing and looks all around her. She has no idea that I would be joining her in the performance and that I was hiding behind the DJ’s booth whence MistaPher equipped me with the microphone.
I next deepened my voice: “Where is that four-foot bastard William Huntsman?” and I got a laugh from the audience. I then appeared from behind the golden booth in a strange costume and strolled over to Grace. “Where is he?” I asked. Grace bent backwards and looked at the silvery creature approaching her, in fear! Grace cracks me up, so I tried to keep a straight face and not laugh with the audience. We then stared at each other and she instantly recognized me. I then said, “And what is this that I hear, that he is your boyfriend and you are getting married? Was William unfaithful to the both of us?”
Grace bounced back, with her hands at her waist “Well, I reckon that he did!” she stomped on the dance floor and swerved her shoulders.
I start fake-crying and acting melodramatic. “Wait. Do you mean to tell me that he has deceived us both and broken our hearts?” I boo-hood, followed by Grace, who starts fake-crying too but sounds like a wounded moose: quite loud and nasally! The audience guffawed enthralled by the act. Grace and I leaned toward each other and cried on one another’s shoulders.
Grace cried: “I met… William… on an airplane…and we fell… madly in love… I can still… smell his fine… cologne,” she bellows, as I whispered in her ear, liar, you mean his pungent vinegar! Grace then screeches her laughter into even louder crying. Just then, I shove Grace off me.
“Miss Trotter… aren’t thou a tad too tall for such a short man as is the unfaithful William?”
Grace stands tall and says, “Now that I think of it, I would lose him in a crowd!”
I reply, “William is so short, you can stand him on your shoulders to reach inside a cupboard for you!”
Grace then livens up and says, “I have an idea! How about we find him and play kickball with him?” She pulled her gown upwards and swings a skinny leg forward.
“Indeed, I will kick him into Tuesday!” said I.
And Grace shouted: “And I will kick him back to France, for what he’s done to me!”
“Miss Grace, I don’t know about you, Sista, but I am done with crying over William Huntsman! If you ask me, it’s raining men… right here in this room!” With that, DJ MistaPher plays the corresponding song.
Grace performs like a charm! She starts spinning and dancing like a pro! She surprised me, that’s for sure. I then made my way to the dining area and encouraged every man there to dance with Grace. Steven Rutherford appeared shy about it, but seeing as that only the female guests were sitting this one out, he arose to the challenge
However, Gabriel shocked me when I saw him in the room. I went and asked him is something wrong? He said, no… just that he believes that this Grace is the same Grace he had told me about; he recognized her voice. I shrugged a shoulder at that remark, making as though I wouldn’t know if that’s her. I then grabbed him by the arm and suggested that he go and dance with her and find out for himself. Gabriel obliged me and went and competed now with the other nine men who were dancing with Grace!
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