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Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Saturday, April 16: Eloisa James’s Novella A FOOL AGAIN tops over 250 Free Contemporary Titles! plus … Kathryn Shay’s THE BETRAYAL (Today’s Sponsor)

Good morning! On your way to check out Eloisa James’ novella and all the rest of this morning’s latest additions to our 250+ Free Book Alert listings. That’s great, and we don’t want to delay you, but it isn’t every day that we can divert you with a brand new romantic suspense novel by 5-star author Kathryn Shay at a limited-time-only price of 99 cents!

So first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor

This new work of romantic suspense follows the life-long passionate connection of Darcy and Jordan, from their troubled childhoods to their re-connection over scandal and murder. Don’t miss this latest book by the popular writer Kathryn Shay, on sale for a limited time at just 99 cents…

“Kathryn Shay’s storytelling grabbed me on page one and her characters held me until the very last word.” –Barbara Bretton, USA bestselling author


The Betrayal 
by Kathryn Shay
Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

Here’s the set-up: 
 
With THE BETRAYAL, Kathryn Shay adds a brand new full length novel of romantic suspense to her impressive list of forty books, with five million copies in print. Follow this tale of twists and turns as two people find their lives totally entangled, no matter how hard they struggle against their connection.

Darcy Weston flees to her grandparents’ abandoned farm after her stepfather rapes her. There, she meets Jordan Mackenzie, a local boy, and the friendship of a lifetime begins. Jordan helps sustain Darcy with food and water, and his company, for months, but eventually her whereabouts are discovered. In subsequent years, the two young people try to stay in touch from their disparate worlds, but eventually they drift apart.


Flash forward twelve years. Jordan is an accomplished teacher and Darcy, an internationally famous, reclusive artist. They meet again when Jordan publishes a book that reveals secrets about Darcy’s past. But they find themselves thrown together first over the scandal his book creates, then over a murder. Once again, they turn to each other for help and comfort as they deal with police investigations, a variety of suspects from each other’s worlds, and a passion between them which won’t be denied.

Praise for Kathryn Shay’s previous works of contemporary romantic suspense:

“A wonderful work of romantic suspense, with a plot ripped straight from the headlines. Kathryn Shay never disappoints.” 
–Lisa Gardner, NY Times bestselling author

“Kathryn Shay is a master of her craft…she will hold you on the edge of your seat with an ending you’ll remember long after you turn the last page.” 
–Catherine Anderson, USA Today bestselling author

“Timely romantic suspense.” 
–Midwest Book Review

“I can’t say enough about this author’s work—pure perfection.” 
–Old Book Barn Gazette

“Kathryn Shay’s mainstream romantic suspense is a gripping story that will haunt readers with its authenticity. And those who pick up a copy will find not one, but two absorbing romance threads, full of sensuality and fire. If ever the label of “sure thing” were deserved by a book, Promises to Keep is such a book.” 
–The Romance Reader

“These are all living breathing people you might meet anywhere at any time. The action and suspense balance well with the love, so that neither plot is skimped upon. I eagerly await her next release.” 
–Huntress Reviews

Click here to download The Betrayal (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

UK CUSTOMERS: Click on the title below to download
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.
Authors, Publishers, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 
HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:

Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies.

A Fool Again: A Novella
By: Eloisa James
Added: 04/13/2011 12:01:32pm

On the New $114 Kindle with Special Offers, The World is Made Up of Two Kinds of People

The world, or at least the Kindlesphere, may be made up of two kinds of people:

If you are a fan of Groupon, Living Social, Woot, or the Amazon Deal of the Day, but you also love to read and you don’t want to be distracted by advertising while you are reading an ebook, the Kindle with Special Offers could be just right for you.

But if you have ever spent a significant amount of time getting yourself on “Do Not Call” lists or filing spam reports or complaining to your public radio station that you don’t want to send their expensive roses to anybody on Valentine’s Day, it might be best for you to choose another Kindle or stick with the Kindle you already have.

Actually, there are probably still plenty of people in the “undecided” column, and I can say from personal experience that there are probably quite a few people in both of the camps I tried to describe above. There will be plenty to sort out with this latest Kindle, which is a good reason why we have been listening to our readers’ views and making our own notes over the past few days in an effort to share some useful information and perspective.

First, let’s make it clear what we are talking about here: On Monday afternoon, Amazon announced what it called a “new” Kindle, at a new (and rather strange) price of $114. The hardware and wi-fi connectivity is identical to the $139 latest generation Kindle Wi-fi model. The “new” $114 unit will do everything that the $139 model will do, but it will also include what Amazon calls “offers.” The somewhat ungainly name that Amazon has given the $114 unit — which will not ship until May 2 or May 3 — is the “Kindle with Special Offers.”

Here’s a link to the bulletin post that we ran at the time, which included Amazon’s press release:

Like many of Amazon’s business innovations, regardless of whether they are Kindle-related, the new offering has generated significant controversy in the early going among bloggers and visitors to various online forums. Much of the controversy revolves around just what Amazon means by Special Offers:

  • Do special offers mean advertising, or do they mean deals?
  • If they mean one thing now, will they come to mean another thing later?
  • Whatever these special offers are, where will they show up on the Kindle — on screensavers, on the Home screen, or — Heaven forfend! — in our Kindle books? (For the record, despite some mischievous disinformation in the blogosphere on this issue, Amazon has made it clear that there will be no encroachment into books).

The day after Monday’s announcement I posed this question on the Kindle Nation Facebook page:

What do you think of the new Kindle for $114? Do the “special offers” make it more, or less, appealing? If you already have a Kindle, do you wish you had waited for this one?

We had about 30 responses in the short period of time the question was front and center on our Facebook page, and I felt they did justice to the things that large numbers of people were thinking.

  • Melanie R. I think it is an intriguing concept. It is the first technology I know of that gave a choice regarding accepting advertising. My initial reaction was to reject it; but after reading more about it, I wish that it was available in 3G. I don’t want a wifi only kindle, but I would like to take advantage of the special offers.
  • LaToya A. I think the special offers may be more appealing to some, but besides the $20 giftcard for $10, I don’t care for much else. The sponsered screensavers does intrigue me and I am wondering if it will be available on all Kindles…
  • Eddie N. Less appealing. Savings isn’t worth the hassle of ads, sponsored screen savers, etc. For $50…maybe. For a small fraction less…and wifi only…I’ll pass. But thanks for trying ?:^)
  • Lennette W. I love my WiFi+3G Kindle 3 just the way it is!!! As for the Special Offers, I hope that they offer it to the rest of us! They sound very interesting!!!
  • Connie E.The ads are a turnoff. Wouldn’t be worth it to me. I LOVE my Kindle 3 just as it is.
  • Juana L. This is a BAD idea. When I read on my kindle, I want to enjoy my books. Not ads. For ads, I could be watching tv.
  • Marianne S. Oh no! I want that part of my life ad-free!! Would never EVER consider it for money!
  • Donna D. I LOVE my Kindle but I don’t know if I could put up with the ads as I don’t like them on my TV. My Kindle takes me away from all of that!
  • Sarah H. I would pay money not to have to look at Emily Dickinson again. I vote for screensaver bundles we could buy. I would do that in a heartbeat. Or give us the option of making book covers of the books we purchase our screensavers.
  • Mike D. No ads for me thanks … but I’m in favor of the idea. For many people the price of a Kindle is a deal breaker, and I’m all for anything that softens the blow.
  • Wendy H. I’ve already got a Kindle, but I think it might be a nice way for people to save a little money on one. I personally wouldn’t care if there was an ad on the screen saver/ home page as long as I could get to my book without delay. I’m with @Sarah H. above – I’d love some new screen savers. John Steinbeck is starting to give me the creeps…
  • Ruth N. With so much advertising all around us every day, I am so glad my Kindle DX is AD FREE. worth the extra $$ not to be sold to all the time.
  • Dwight J. As long as the ads never show up while I’m reading or playing a game, I don’t mind ads on the screensaver and home page. If this was available when I got my Kindle, I’d have jumped at the savings.
  • Jaime A. Too small of a price break for ads, which would be a huge disruption in a book.
  • Bill T. Not interested in ads. Think this devalues the Kindle.
  • Debbie S.the ads are just like the screensavers, it’s no big deal. It’s not going to interrupt your reading with a commercial. The price cut just made this more affordable to a lot more people and thats a good thing. Screensaver bundles to buy…maybe, but when I pick up my Kindle I have it switched on before the cover is all the way open so I never really see much of the screensaver at all.
  • Debbie T. I would like new screensavers for my kindle, tired of the ones that keep showing up, how about some different bundles, themed art or how about book covers of the books we have on the kindle, they could be screensavers and the more we buy the more screensavers we have
  • Pat M. If someone bought this for me as a gift, I wouldn’t be very happy especially when I know there is a perfect Kindle without advertising that they could have purchased for me. A gift of this Kindle just tells me how cheap the person giving the gift really is.

As for me, I’m inclined to think of the Kindle with Special Offers as sort of “half brilliant.”

I guess that I see kind of a strange fault line in public sentiment on marketing. All of us boomers who grew up on commercial-cluttered network TV have managed to train ourselves and each other to hate spam with evangelical fervor, but the successes of eBay and Amazon Marketplace and Groupon and Woot and LivingSocial all prove pretty clearly that there are also huge numbers of us who loooooove deals, especially deals that dress us up in some sort of “Members Only” jacket. It can be hard to keep the distinctions straight — for instance, the old prohibitions against advertising by public radio and television stations and doctors and lawyers certainly can’t be said to exist in the same ways any more.

Groupon has certainly proven there’s a business model there, so now Amazon’s taken the natural next step after investing in Living Social and Woot, and come up with a Kindle offering that — whatever else it may be — is a delivery system for such offers. I do believe that part is brilliant in terms of the total concept, and I expect that within a year we owners of all the other Kindles will be given a chance to opt in to special offers. And many will opt in. After all, as a member of Groupon and LivingSocial I can say that once or twice a week or so I see deals offering 50 to 60% off of what I would willingly pay for things that I actually want.

But the flip side here is that Amazon has been a little tone deaf in the roll-out.

  • First, a lot of existing Kindle owners are understandably upset because they have been asking Amazon to allow personal screensaver selections without forcing people to hack their Kindles to get there (under threat of warranty revocation), and now Amazon is doing something on screensavers that has little if anything to do with what folks were asking for.
  • Second, there’s too much stumbling language in their description of the new Kindle with Special Offers and Sponsored Screensavers, as if they don’t really want us to know what they are doing here. Any time a product name is seven words long, or even four words long, it’s a pretty good sign that there’s a problem.

But I understand that there’s a delicate balance that Amazon is trying to achieve here. As is evident from some of the responses above that people posted on our Facebook page, there will be plenty of people who buy this new Kindle in order to save $25. Some of them will be fine with the special offers and sponsorships, and some will quickly become fed up.

There are plenty of smart people who are saying “Maybe I would bite if the discount were $50.” And a lot of us wondered why Amazon hadn’t dropped the price to $99, which would obviously be a much more appealing price point.

But that’s exactly what Amazon did not want to do, at least not right off the bat. If they get a lot of people buying the “new” Kindle only because of the price break, those folks will have a higher resistance and a more negative response to the special offers. If, on the other hand, most of the people who buy the “new” Kindle are interested in or intrigued by the deals, and Amazon starts out with a fantastic array of specials in the first couple of weeks, the Kindle with Special Offers is likely to be a great success in at least two ways:

The “new” $114 Kindle with Special Offers won’t ship until May 2 or 3, and that three-week shipping gap will give Amazon a chance to pay close attention to the response and tweak the user experience if they are so inclined. But for all of us who are wondering where this will lead, we’ll just be guessing until customers actually have the “new” Kindles in their hands.

As for me, I tend to be a grumpy curmudgeon with respect to most advertising. I am channeling Mr. Ashley, whose lawn I used to mow on Saturday afternoons when I was 12. He was a great guy, well into his 70s, and it seemed like he popped Nitroglycerine every 20 minutes for his angina. When I finished his lawn he’d give me $1.25 and invite me for a cold lemonade and a few innings of the Red Sox game. I had never seen a remote control device before and I was amazed to see him mute the beer ads between innings. And the car ads, andsoforth. Like Mr. Ashley, now, I game the system, mute the ads, use the DVR, try to block out ads when I am at the movie theater, block pop-ups on my computer, use the spam filter on the Viagra ads, etc.
But I know quite a few smart, serious people who are addicted to Groupon and LivingSocial and scarf up more coupons than they will ever use. What they love are deals that are suited to them, I guess. They don’t think of them as ads or spam, and they don’t spend much time fine-tuning the analogies with respect to what is or is not like TV advertising or NPR underwriting or whatever. It’s just beyond most of our bandwidth to worry much about that.

And what most of us do with ads and spam and deals and offers is define our own boundaries, and since the “new” Kindle is opt-in, I’ll be surprised if many actual customers end up being upset with their actual experience, as opposed to what they fear it may be leading to, or what they hear about it in the media, etc.

Which is why I still think it is half-brilliant. And I’m intrigued. And I haven’t ruled out pulling the trigger on one. After all, if I’d had the “new” $114 Kindle with Special Offers in hand this morning, it probably would have told me about the Amazon Deal of the Day … the today-only price cut from $379 to $299 on the latest-generation Kindle DX!

Kind of makes you wonder what’s coming next month, doesn’t it? Which may be the biggest cause of friction for Amazon’s efforts to sell either the $114 Kindle or the $299 DX.

Kindle Nation Daily Free Book Alert, Friday, April 15: KISS ME, STRANGER and WALKING ON BROKEN GLASS Now Free on Kindle! plus … Think “Shakespeare meets Being John Malkovich meets Back to the Future” and you’re all set for Andrew Delaplaine’s THE TRAP DOOR (Today’s Sponsor)

Several highly rated reads that should be a permanent part of your Kindle library top this morning’s latest additions to our 250+ Free Book Alert listings….

But first, a word from … Today’s Sponsor

History documents the fact that a Shakespeare play titled Cardenio was performed at London’s Globe Theater in 1613. References to the play turn up in various diaries and documents written in the 1600s. Cardenio, and other plays attributed to Shakespeare, did not survive in written form.

Author Andrew Delaplaine wraps the intriguing history of Cardenio and the Globe in this fascinating novel that takes off when a modern-day boy named Charlie jumps through a trap door at the modern iteration of the Globe and goes back in time to the days of the original performance.

The Trap Door: The Lost Script of “Cardenio” 
by Andrew Delaplaine
5 Star Reviews
Text-to-Speech: Enabled 
Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

Here’s the set-up: 
 

It’s Christmas Eve, and the opening night of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in a student production at the reconstructed Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank, and 16-year-old Charlie has the coveted role of Puck.

When a mysterious man in the back of the theatre causes Charlie to flub a line, he drops through the trap door in the stage, and is taken back to 1594 and the original premiere of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” eight weeks before Christmas Eve.

Charlie becomes a member of the Globe acting company and while trying to get a copy of Shakespeare’s famous lost play, “Cardenio,” he gets caught up in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and install Mary, Queen of Scots in her place.

But there’s a deadline: if Charlie doesn’t return home by Christmas Eve, he’ll be stuck in 1594 forever.


Click here to download The Trap Door: The Lost Script of “Cardenio” (or a free sample) to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, Android-compatible, PC or Mac and start reading within 60 seconds!

UK CUSTOMERS: Click on the title below to download
Each day’s list is sponsored by one paid title. We encourage you to support our sponsors and thank you for considering them.
Authors, Publishers, iPad Accessory Manufacturers:
Interested in learning more about sponsorship? Just click on this link for more information.

Free Contemporary Titles in the Kindle Store 
HOW TO USE OUR NEW FREE BOOK TOOL:

Just use the slider at right of your screen below to scroll through a complete, updated list of free contemporary Kindle titles, and click on an icon like this one (at right) to read a free sample right here in your browser! Titles are sorted in reverse chronological order so you can easily see new freebies.

Bulletin: Amazon Cuts Price of Kindle DX from $379 to $299, Today Only

Major Price Cut Today Only on Latest Generation Kindle DX! Marked Down from $379 to $299 Until Midnight Tonight – This is the 9.7″-inch display model, Graphite, with Free 3G – And did I mention it is today only? (Because it is Amazon’s Deal of the Day)

Click here to get the Kindle DX for $299 – Today Only — April 15, 2011

All New, High Contrast E Ink Pearl Screen: Our graphite Kindle DX display uses the latest generation E Ink Pearl technology with 50% better contrast for the clearest text and sharpest images

Beautiful Large Display: The 9.7″ diagonal E Ink screen is ideal for a broad range of reading material, including graphic-rich books, PDFs, newspapers, magazines, and blogs

Read in Sunlight with No Glare: Unlike backlit computer or LCD screens, Kindle DX’s display looks and reads like real paper, with no glare. Read as easily in bright sunlight as in your living room

Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazines

Books In Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered wirelessly in less than 60 seconds; no PC required

Free 3G Wireless: No monthly payments, no annual contracts. Download books anywhere, anytime

Long Battery Life: Read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on. Turn wireless off and read for two to three weeks.

Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents

Buy Once, Read Everywhere: Kindle books can be read on all your devices. Our Whispersync technology saves and synchronizes your Kindle library and last page read across your Kindle(s), PC, iPhone, Mac, iPad, Android device, and BlackBerry device

Share Meaningful Passages: Share your passion for reading with friends and family by posting meaningful passages to Twitter and Facebook directly from your Kindle

Global Coverage: Enjoy wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries. See details. Check wireless coverage map.

Built-In PDF Reader: Carry and read all of your personal and professional documents on the go. Now with Zoom capability to easily view small print and detailed tables or graphics

Auto-Rotating Screen: Display auto-rotates from portrait to landscape as you turn the device so you can view full-width maps, graphs, tables, and Web pages

Read-to-Me: With the text-to-speech feature, Kindle DX can read newspapers, magazines, blogs, and books out loud to you, unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable

Large Selection: Over 900,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including 107 of 112 New York Times® Best Sellers, plus U.S. and international newspapers, magazines, and blogs. For non-U.S. customers, content availability and pricing will vary. Check your country.

Out-of-Copyright, Pre-1923 Books: Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are available to read on Kindle, including titles such as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Pride and Prejudice, and Treasure Island. Learn more

Low Book Prices: New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases from $9.99.

Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy

 

If you like a great fantasy read with a strong heroine, you’ll love Andrea K Höst’s Champion of The Rose – Just $2.99 on Kindle, and Here’s a Free Sample!

Proclaimed Rathen Champion by the Rathen Rose, Soren Armitage is determined to live up to the title. But can she trust the person she is meant to protect?

Here’s the se
t-up for Andrea K Höst’s Champion Of The Rose, just $2.99 on Kindle:

Soren Armitage is an anachronism. Proclaimed Rathen Champion by the Rathen Rose, intended to support the rule of a Rathen King or Queen.

But there are no Rathens.

Resigned to symbolising only Darest’s faded glories, Soren is not prepared for the sudden appearance of a Rathen. Now she must find and support the heir despite the machinations of the kingdom’s regent, sylvan curses, and the strange behaviour of once-dormant protective enchantments.

While the odds seem stacked against her, Soren is determined to do her best to live up to the name of Rathen Champion. But what is she to do when it seems that there is something very wrong with her Rathen? Can she trust the person she is meant to protect?

Andrea K Höst is an Australian writer of fantasy and science fantasy.  She was born in Sweden but raised in Australia – mainly in Townsville, Queensland. She now lives in Sydney.

Andrea writes fantasy and science fantasy, and enjoys creating stories set in worlds which slightly skew our social expectations, and most especially give her female characters something more to do than wait for rescue.

Her novel The Silence of Medair has recently been shortlisted for the 2010 Aurealis Awards for best fantasy novel.

From the Author: I started writing novels in my mid teens. The first was your standard issue big fantasy epic trilogy – the chosen ones sent to find magic thingamabobbies to defeat shadowybigbad. This was a story which I kept changing and rewriting, until the shadowybigbad had become a navy-eyed mad boy, a different main character had taken over the plot, and book three abruptly diverged into alternate worlds and spaceships and ornate moons and it was not very standard issue at all.


Still, I like meeting things in stories that I don’t expect.–AKH

And here, in the comfort of your own browser, is your free sample


Free Kindle Nation Shorts — April 13, 2011 – An Excerpt from The Trap Door: The Lost Script of Cardenio by Andrew Delaplaine

History documents the fact that a Shakespeare play titled Cardenio was performed at London’s Globe Theater in 1613. References to the play turn up in various diaries and documents written in the 1600s. Cardenio, and other plays attributed to Shakespeare, did not survive in written form.

Author Andrew Delaplaine wraps the intriguing history of Cardenio and the Globe in this fascinating novel that takes off when a modern-day boy named Charlie jumps through a trap door at the modern iteration of the Globe and goes back in time to the days of the original performance.

Think “Shakespeare meets Being John Malkovich meets Back to the Future” and you’ll be ready for today’s generous 10,000-word excerpt to transport you, with Charlie, back to the days of the Bard — and all for just 99 cents for a limited time!

 

Scroll down to begin reading the free excerpt

Text-to-Speech and Lending: Enabled

 

 

Here’s the set-up:

It’s Christmas Eve, and the opening night of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in a student production at the reconstructed Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank, and 16-year-old Charlie has the coveted role of Puck.

When a mysterious man in the back of the theatre causes Charlie to flub a line, he drops through the trap door in the stage, and is taken back to 1594 and the original premiere of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” eight weeks before Christmas Eve.

Charlie becomes a member of the Globe acting company and while trying to get a copy of Shakespeare’s famous lost play, “Cardenio,” he gets caught up in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I and install Mary, Queen of Scots in her place.

But there’s a deadline: if Charlie doesn’t return home by Christmas Eve, he’ll be stuck in 1594 forever.

 



Copyright © 2011 by Andrew Delaplaine and published here with his permission

 

 

Tichborne’s Elegy

 

 

Written in the Tower of London the night before he was hanged, drawn and quartered for his traitorous role in the Babington Plot, by Charles Tichborne.

 

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,

My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,

My crop of corn is but a field of tares,

And all my good is but vain hope of gain;

The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told,

My fruit is fallen, and yet my leaves are green,

My youth is spent and yet I am not old,

I saw the world and yet I was not seen;

My thread is cut and yet it is not spun,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

I sought my death and found it in my womb,

I looked for life and saw it was a shade,

I trod the earth and knew it was my tomb,

And now I die, and now I was but made;

My glass is full, and now my glass is run,

And now I live, and now my life is done.

 

Chapter 1–Christmas Eve at the Globe

 

“It says here in the paper they’re going to clean out Chaucer’s tomb at Westminster Abbey after Boxing Day,” said George, trying to read the London Times as he bounced around in the back seat of the Range Rover. “It seems they haven’t opened his resting place since the 1590s.”

“I’ll actually be at that ceremony,” said Sir Gerald as he drove along in the rain, the windshield wipers slapping back and forth. “Apparently, since Chaucer was the first poet buried in the Poets’ Corner, his tomb kept getting pushed back and obstructed by all the newer tombs, so it’s always been hard to get to. So no one’s touched it in all these years.”

“That would be fun to go to,” said George in a tone that left no doubt that he thought attending such a ceremony would be the least “fun” thing he could think of doing.

Sir Gerald looked over to his son Charlie sitting up front in the passenger seat.

“It’s going to be a great Christmas Eve, Charlie, seeing you in the play. Your mother and I can’t wait for eight o’clock.”

“You must be very proud of Charlie, Sir Gerald, getting the part of Puck,” said George as Charlie’s dad drove down the rain-slicked ramp off the Southwark Bridge Road and into Park Street. A leaden sky hung low over London.

“His mother and I are very proud, George, especially considering my profession,” Sir Gerald chuckled.

Charlie looked over his shoulder and rolled his eyes so his best friend George could see him, thinking his father’s gaze was focused firmly on the road ahead.

“I saw that, Charlie,” Sir Gerald wanted to make clear. “I’m not amused.”

Oh, grump, thought Charlie.

“He’s really good as Puck, Sir Gerald. Why haven’t you sat through any rehearsals?”

“We want to experience the first night with a fresh perspective. But you say he’s really good?”

“Yes, sir,” came the little-too-eager reply from the back seat, thought Charlie. “He’s just excellent. Everybody says so.”

“Even the director?” Charlie finally joined the conversation.

There was a pause as George mulled over his answer.

“Is James Dalton giving you problems?”

“No, Dad. Not really.”

“I don’t see why he has any problem. Isn’t his son playing Bottom?”

“Yes, he’s playing Bottom.”

Sir Gerald, who at forty-nine had curly salt and pepper hair and a ruddy complexion, took a right into New Globe Walk.

“Well, that’s a great part-even has more lines than Puck. I can’t see what his problem is…. Ah, here we are.”

Sir Gerald pulled up in front of the reconstructed Globe Theatre. The Range Rover came to a stop and the boys grabbed their backpacks and tumbled out into the busy street glistening with rain.

“Thanks, Dad,” Charlie said. “See you tonight.”

“Charlie, I wish you were having more … fun … with all this. Just remember, your mom and I are really excited and we can’t wait to see you tonight. We really can’t.”

“But I’ll bet you wish we were doing Cardenio. Right, Dad?” Charlie said, a smile finally working its way across his wholesome, open face. Charlie had his father’s curly hair, but his was a rich blond color and the director of the play had ordered him to let it grow, so now he had long luxurious curls dropping to just above his neck.

“Well, of course, that would be something really special,” he laughed.

Charlie closed the door and his dad backed out of the driveway and moved into traffic. Charlie and George turned toward the Globe Theatre.

“What’s all that about Cardenio?” asked George.

Cardenio is the most famous play never performed in modern times.”

“Why isn’t it performed?” George asked a pudgy George as he huff-puffed besides the slender Charlie.

“Because it’s ‘lost.'”

“‘Lost’?” asked George, his jowly face scrunching up into a questioning frown.

“No one alive has seen it.” Charlie nodded across the street to a small open-sided truck selling pastries. He looked back to George, his blue eyes dancing with a sudden new idea. “Let’s get a cupcake before we go in.”

“Sure-we have time. What do you mean, about the lost play, I mean?”

They slipped through traffic and dashed across the street, the chubby George laboring a little to keep up with Charlie.

“Well, we know-that is, people like my dad and I know-that the play existed because it’s mentioned in the historical record. You know: diaries, court records where they say it was performed before Queen Elizabeth or King James, records like that. But no copy of the play’s come down to us, and if it was ever published, all the copies have been lost. Or, at least nobody’s ever discovered one.”

George nodded to the vendor and got a chocolate cupcake, paying the man. Charlie took one with a vanilla topping.

“Whoa. You’d think if it was Shakespeare…”

“They didn’t value the plays as written as much as they valued them as performed. If a play was printed, it could be stolen by other theatre companies and the writer wouldn’t make any money.”

“Things are different today,” said George.

“If his partners hadn’t printed most of his plays a few years after he died, half of what Shakespeare wrote would have been lost forever.”

“Like Cardenio.”

“Like Cardenio. In fact, my dad’s on his way to a symposium at Oxford this afternoon to deliver a paper he wrote on a fragment someone discovered and claims is part of the Cardenio manuscript.”

“Is it?” asked George, cake frosting smudging his cheek.

“Dad says not,” said Charlie, pointing to George’s cheek. “You’ve got some frosting on your cheek.”

“Well, he ought to know-he’s England’s greatest Shakespearean scholar,” said George, sticking out his tongue and licking up the misplaced frosting.

Charlie rolled his eyes.

“And don’t I know it.”

Just then, the director, James Dalton, and his son Frederick came round the far corner of the Globe, heading toward the entrance.

James went inside but Frederick saw Charlie and George and ran over to the pastry cart.

“I’ll have the strawberry tart,” he told the vendor. “You boys looking forward to rehearsal?”

“Big night tonight, Frederick,” said George. “Know all your lines?”

“Sure I do,” Frederick said with a nasty smirk. “I even know Puck’s lines-should the actor playing him take suddenly ill,” he added, then purposefully bumped his arm against Charlie’s, causing him to drop his cupcake into the gutter.

“Now see here,” piped up the vendor, who saw the whole thing.

“Sorry,” smiled Frederick, just as the rain began to fall in torrents. Frederick ran out from under the protective awning attached to the truck and into the rain and made for the theatre.

“Why that…” George started.

“Doesn’t matter. C’mon, we’ll be late.”

 

Chapter 2–The Dress Rehearsal

 

George and Charlie ran into the theatre, passing beneath a wooden scroll above the entrance with the words “All The World’s A Stage” carved into it.

The interior of the circular Globe was poured concrete, a modern day convenience. Elizabethan audiences would have been used to standing on packed dirt, or even mud, since the thatching on the roof only went around the edges-the center was open to the elements.

The rain immediately showed signs of letting up. James Dalton stood on the five-foot high squared-off thrust stage under a canopy roof that covered about half the stage, protecting him and the arriving students from the downpour.

“Everyone, please come up onto the stage and out of the rain. This will soon pass and we’ll begin rehearsals. Everyone look to your costumes in the Tiring Room.”

George and Charlie stood out of the rain in one of the covered seating areas.

“So why are you in such a funky mood about this play?” George asked. “You’re really good in it,” he said, his freckled jowly cheeks wobbling about as he munched on some M&Ms, between bites of his cupcake.

“I just don’t like all the backbiting I’m getting from Frederick and some of the others.”

“Here, take the rest of my cupcake. It’s all because your dad’s so important, isn’t it?”

Charlie took the cake and gulped it down.

“No doubt. But I’d rather not get parts when people think he had something to do with it.”

“It doesn’t help that he’s the direct descendant of John Heminges, does it?” George said with a nod to an old portrait hanging above the entrance, a portrait of John Heminges, one of the original partners in the Globe Theatre with Shakespeare and one of the two men responsible for printing the famous First Folio collecting Shakespeare’s plays in 1623, ensuring that half the plays that had never been published in individual editions didn’t suffer the same fate as Cardenio.

“No, that doesn’t help at all.”

“You probably know more about Shakespeare than any kid your age.”

“No question about it. I know more about Queen Elizabeth the First than I do about Queen Elizabeth the Second.”

Frederick came out of the Tiring Room onto the stage carrying Bottom’s donkey head that he would wear in Act III.

“And Frederick’s made no secret that he wanted your part.”

“No, he hasn’t made that a secret. And Frederick’s really good. His audition for Puck was great.”

George shook his head.

“Yours was better. Everybody says so.”

“Still, it’s awkward when his father’s the director.”

“Rain’s stopping,” George said. “I’m off to the booth.”

George climbed some stairs to the tech booth farther up and Charlie went round to the temporary stairs wheeled up to allow access to the stage from the pit, sometimes called the yard, then went back into the Tiring Room where all the costumes were kept.

There wasn’t much to Puck’s costume. A loincloth, really, is all that it was. Charlie found himself wishing they were playing A Winter’s Tale and not A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was chilly out, and with the rain, Charlie’s loincloth was hardly enough to keep him warm. He kept his jeans and parka on for now. There was no use changing into his costume until he made his first appearance in Act II.

Another thing he didn’t like about wearing the loincloth was he had to parade about the stage half naked. And while he didn’t have a bad body for a fifteen-year-old boy, he certainly didn’t have Frederick’s fine physique. Frederick was a year older than Charlie, a head taller, went to the gym religiously and all the girls swooned over him. Charlie had fine curly blond hair while Frederick had wavy dark brown hair that he wore long.

Charlie made sure his loincloth was in its proper place in the Tiring Room, then stepped out onto the stage. He nodded up to George in the tech booth up behind the top-most seats, and his gaze fell down a tier to the portrait of his ancestor, John Heminges.

The portrait had an interesting history. Legend had it that when the Globe burned to the ground in 1613 when a cannon fired as a sound effect during a performance of Henry VIII caught the thatched roof on fire, John Heminges grabbed his portrait off the burning wall and ran out of the theatre. Some say he left behind all of Shakespeare’s plays, many of them in his own hand, to save his own portrait. The painting even had a pronounced singe mark on the lower left quarter of the picture where the oil paint bubbled up during the blaze.

The portrait was handed down over the generations until it came to Charlie’s dad. When the new Globe opened 12 June 1997, dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh, Sir Gerald Heminges was there to present the portrait to the theatre on indefinite loan.

In Charlie’s mind, these were the circumstances that contributed to his being cast in the part of Puck.

 

Chapter 3–Thinking about Charlie

 

Lucinda Heminges, more properly styled Lady Heminges, sat on the first row of seats in the ornate former chapel at Oxford, now in use as a lecture hall, beaming up at her husband as he spoke to the room packed with English literature scholars, students, historians and other important figures in Britain’s literary world.

“… and after examining the twelve page fragment whose discoverer claims is a section of the lost Shakespeare play, Cardenio, I find it wanting in several aspects…”

It seemed to Lady Heminges that her husband had discredited every forged document purporting to be connected to Cardenio in one way or another. In fact, it seemed to her he’d based his entire career on his obsession with Cardenio.

“… and from the editorial content featured in this twelve page fragment, we learn basically the same story as conveyed to us in chapter twenty-four of Don Quixote, where the tale originated…”

Lady Heminges wasn’t really listening to her husband. She’d heard more than she ever cared to hear about the various Cardenio stories. Instead, she was thinking ahead to tonight’s performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with her darling boy Charlie as Puck.

“… we all know that Cardenio was an Andalusian nobleman of some wealth and position who since he was very young had loved Lucinda…”

Lady Heminges knew whenever her husband said the name Lucinda that he’d glance up from his prepared remarks to give her a quick look, that his gaze would be doting, full of love.

“… there was nothing to stand between Cardenio’s happiness when he married Lucinda until the day a letter arrived from the Duke who required a companion for his son, Ferdinand. Cardenio, ever the loyal subject, went into the Duke’s service and became very good friends with Ferdinand. The Duke did not know that his son loved a farmer’s daughter, and it was forbidden for a man of Ferdinand’s station to be involved with someone of such a low class. Ferdinand decided that in order to put the farmer’s daughter out of his mind, he had to leave the country for a while, so he asked Cardenio to arrange a trip to Cardenio’s estate where they would tell the Duke that Ferdinand was going on business to purchase some beautifully bred horses. Of course, Ferdinand falls in love with the fair Lucinda, dashing Cardenio’s hopes of happiness.”

Lady Heminges was almost convinced her husband had married her because her name just happened to be Lucinda. But perhaps she was being too harsh. It’s just that the minute he found out her name (when they were still in college), he never left her alone. Even then he was obsessed with Cardenio. He was shocked that he would ever meet anybody named Lucinda quite by accident, and believed it was Fate that brought them together.

Perhaps he was right.

They’d been together for thirty years now, had three beautiful children (Charlie was the baby) and life had been as interesting as she’d ever hoped it would be, coming from a little village in Sussex.

She especially enjoyed the “research” trips to Spain where her husband was determined to trace down her own family’s ancestral heritage. (Her family they could only trace back three hundred years-her husband’s went back six hundred before being lost in the mists of time.)

“… and after working with some of our most experienced analysts, we’ve determined factors such as the wrong age of the paper, the quality and age of the ink-and even the calligraphy-are inappropriate to the time. All these factors point to a forgery. And not an accidental forgery, but a purposefully created one.”

There were mumbled comments now passing through the room.

For her part, Lady Heminges just couldn’t wait for Act II to begin tonight at the Globe Theatre-that’s when Puck made his entrance with Oberon, King of the Fairies.

 

Chapter 4–Frederick Challenges Charlie

 

Back at the Globe, the weather had cleared considerably. There was a break in rehearsals, and George had come down from the tech booth to go over some lighting cues with James Dalton. He came up to Charlie, who was chatting with Julia, the pretty girl playing Titania, Queen of the Fairies, and who was also Frederick’s girlfriend.

“Well, I just do not see why Frederick wants to play your part, Charlie,” said Julia. “He and I have some great scenes when he’s Bottom, and if he plays Puck, we won’t have a single scene together. I’d rather he played Oberon.”

“No, but if he’s Puck, he gets to take his shirt off for all the girls to admire.”

Julia’s eyebrows went dangerously up.

“The only girl who’s seeing him with his shirt off is me.”

She seemed very emphatic to Charlie.

“Where’s our noble Herr Direktor?” George wanted to know.

Julia shook her long blonde hair.

“Who knows?”

“I don’t really care who plays Puck, Julia.”

“I believe you, Charlie,” said Julia, causing a bit of a flutter when she laid the palm of her hand on Charlie’s chest.

“I mean, it’s only a play,” he said, his heart pounding.

“Maybe you should play Bottom. I bet you’d bring a lot more to the part than stupid Frederick,” she plucked a bit of lint off his parka. “What is he after all but another pretty face?”

“Well…” he stammered as her gaze shifted up to look at him.

“And you know more about Shakespeare than even the director. I think, frankly, that he knows everybody knows this and he just simply resents it.”

“He’s a well known Shakespearean director.”

“Oh, what’s he know?” Julia pouted.

Looking over Julia’s shoulder, Charlie saw George motion for him to come over.

“Excuse me, Julia. Be right back.”

He went from the stage through the open doors of the Tiring Room where George was standing with his cue book.

“What is it?” Charlie asked. “I was just getting somewhere with Julia. She touched my parka!”

“I wouldn’t plan on getting too far with that girl if you don’t want Frederick’s boot on your scrawny neck, Charlie. Now, go to the back door and listen,” George said with a jerk of his head over his shoulder.

Charlie crept down some stairs and toward a door open into the alley behind the theatre. He heard voices raised.

“I still don’t see why I can’t play Puck, Dad!”

“I’ve told you over and over again, Frederick-his father made the suggestion to the headmaster that his son play Puck, that he was shorter than you and the part fitted him better. He’s not necessarily wrong, you know?”

“Still, I had my heart set on it, Dad.”

“The headmaster pressed me on several occasions-there’s not much I can do about it now.”

Charlie edged away from the door and went back to meet George.

“That’s depressing.”

“I think the forecast calls for a chilly evening ahead,” George said with a twisted frown. “Lots of storms, thunder and lightning.”

“Frederick’s going to be a total nightmare to deal with.”

“Just thought you ought to know.”

“I’ll make it easy for him.”

Dalton came in to call the cast together and George made his way back up to the tech booth.

“What was that all about?” asked Julia.

“Nothing.”

“It’s Frederick being an ass, isn’t it?”

“I think the word I’d use is ‘petulant.'”

“Well, it’s quite good he has an ass’s head as part of his costume,” she said with a smile. “He could take it home with him and use it every day at school and all over London and no one would think it didn’t look ‘just right’ on him.”

“Julia, Charlie-places everyone,” Dalton called out.

Dalton was down in the yard below. As soon as he had everybody assembled onstage, Charlie chose his moment and walked downstage.

“What is it, Charlie?” asked Dalton, looking over his notes.

“I’d just like to ask you to consider switching my role for Frederick’s. I’d really love to play Bottom and I know Frederick wants to play Puck. It really doesn’t matter to me.”

“Thank you, Charlie, but my decision’s final. We’ll move on with no changes.”

“I’m really having trouble with the lines.”

Dalton let out an exasperated sigh.

“Charlie, everybody knows you have a photographic memory. And even though Frederick knows Puck’s lines, and you know Bottom’s, we’ll just leave things as they are, if that’s quite all right with you,” he added a little testily.

“Well, I just thought…”

Suddenly, Dalton’s face lit up.

“Wait! I think I’ve got it! Why don’t we let you two boys alternate the roles?”

“What?” Frederick piped up, suddenly interested.

“Why not? You both know each other’s lines. It’ll be a good experience to switch roles.”

Frederick and Charlie actually exchanged smiles. Charlie went over to Frederick and shook hands.

“A good call, yes?”

“Yes,” said Frederick.

“All right,” Dalton called out. “Let’s get started. We’re doing Act Three, Scene One. We’ll start with Frederick playing Bottom and then switch to let Charlie try it.”

The scene began with Quince and all the peasant players who’d gone into the wood to rehearse the play they were to present to celebrate the upcoming Theseus and Hippolyta’s wedding day.

Frederick played the part just perfectly, donning the donkey head Puck had magically given him when he went behind a bush to make his entry. Titania, Queen of the Fairies, sleeps nearby. Puck had squeezed the juice of a flower (called love-in-idleness) onto Titania’s eyes that would cause her to fall in love with the first living creature she saw when she awoke.

Bottom sings to show all his friends (who scattered when they saw his head replaced with that of a donkey, thinking they’d been cursed) that he’s not afraid:

 

The ousel cock so black of hue,

With orange-tawny bill,

The throstle with his note so true,

The wren with little quill.

 

At this point, Titania awakes.

 

What angel wakes me from my flowery bed?

 

By now, she sees Bottom, and immediately falls in love with him.

 

I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again:

Mine ear is much enamor’d of thy note;

So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;

And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me

On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee.

 

The scene went on perfectly, not a missed line. In all honesty, Charlie didn’t see how he could improve on Frederick’s performance.

So when it came time for Charlie to play Bottom, he delivered his lines a little hesitantly. Having Julia/Titania stroking his chest amorously wasn’t something that exactly aided his concentration.

As it was, he was pleased to finish the scene without blowing any lines.

But when he saw Julia/Titania rubbing his chest, Frederick went into a rage. Charlie could even imagine Frederick offstage breathing deeply, waiting to beat him into a pulp in the soggy alley behind the theatre.

Still, with her hands all over him and the big donkey head resting on his shoulders, he felt like he was suffocating.

Through the big cut-out eyes in the donkey head, he could see George up in the tech booth covering his mouth to keep from laughing as he stroked his own chest and made faces. He was acting, thought Charlie, like all those other boys in the middle teens who don’t have girlfriends and are always making fun of those that do.

He’s just jealous, that’s all, he thought.

But it turned out George wasn’t the only one watching. In fact, when the scene was over, all the other girls in the play came rushing over to Julia, whispering and casting glances over to Charlie as he pulled the ass’s head off his shoulders, pulling in a deep breath.

“Julia,” called out the director.

“Uh, oh, yes…” she stammered.

“That was a fine performance. I think it would be nice if you gave the same performance whether the actor playing Bottom is Charlie or Frederick. What do you say?”

There were giggles from the girls and outright laughter from the boys.

“And Charlie?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You were fine.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“All right, everybody. Let’s take ten.”

As soon as the kids dispersed into little groups to grab a Coke or eat a snack, Frederick was out of the Tiring Room and across the stage to Charlie in a flash, pulling him into the wings stage left.

“First you take my part and now you want my girl, is that it?”

“Frederick, hold on, give me a break.”

“I’ll break something, all right.”

Charlie felt Frederick’s strong hand grip his bicep until it hurt.

“I didn’t do anything. I don’t want your part and I don’t want your girl.”

“Well, it seems like you get everything you don’t want, is that it?”

“Listen…”

“You’re just a snotty little asshole. So your dad’s a knight, so what? Sir Gerald this and Sir Gerald that. You’re just a spoiled brat, that’s all you are, and if my dad wasn’t directing this play, I’d have you out in the back right now, and-“

“But I am directing this play, Frederick, so let the boy alone!” said James Dalton from behind them. They both turned to see him.

“Uh-” blurted Frederick.

“And we’re all going to get along here, whether we like it or not. Now let’s show a little more maturity. We have an opening night performance in a few hours, and the Queen will be here, so let’s look sharp.”

 

Chapter 5–Smelly Straw?

 

“All right, everybody!” the director cried out a couple of hours later as the cast became increasingly restless and eager for the traditional dinner break before the first night’s performance.

“Let’s just finish the last three pages and we’ll break for dinner.”

Since Puck had the last lines in the play, they tried it first with Frederick and then with Charlie, though Charlie would be performing Puck the first night.

After the first run-through, the director shook his head.

“I don’t like the timing of the exit. Maybe if we just went to a black-out, it would be stronger.”

“Sir … why don’t you use the trap door?” came a suggestion from George in the booth.

Dalton’s eyes lit up.

“That’s a brilliant idea, George. They used the trap door in Shakespeare’s day, used it all the time. All right, Frederick, get ready. On your last line, the trap door will open and down you’ll go into Hell.”

“Hell” is what they called the area below the stage: it’s where they used to handle the sound effects from the dark regions. It’s where the Ghost of Hamlet’s father exhorts the guards to “Swear!” when Hamlet requires an oath. Very scary in Shakespeare’s day, as most people still believed in witchcraft and magic, at least to some degree.

They checked to make sure there was a pile of foam rubber mattresses below the trap door for the boys to land on, and George tripped the trap door several times to make sure everything was in good working order.

As Oberon and Titania made their grand exit to Mendelssohn’s famous music, Puck came forward:

 

“And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to scape the serpent’s tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call:

So, good night until you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.”

 

The trap door flung open and Frederick fell out of sight, the drop perfectly executed.

“Very good, Frederick. Now you try it, Charlie. Places everybody, back to Oberon and Titania’s exit!”

Charlie wasn’t at all sure about the trap door. Frederick was a superb athlete, in excellent shape, and as graceful as he was strong.

Charlie moved forward as Oberon and Titania made their exit, the Mendelssohn died down and he made his speech. He always raised his arm in a flourish as the speech ended, and as he did so, he braced for the floor to fall out from under him.

It did, and as he made the drop, his elbow hit the edge of the stage as he went down and he let out with a yelp.

“One more time. Are you all right, Charlie?”

“Yes, sir, I’m fine,” came Charlie’s uncertain and shaky-voiced reply from Hell.

Charlie had landed on the foam rubber mattresses all right, and crawled out of Hell and back up into the wings, rubbing a sore elbow.

“You might want to hold that arm in this time, Charlie.”

“Yes, sir, I think so.”

Charlie looked up to the booth where George gave him a thumbs up. Charlie nodded and Oberon and Titania made their exit and Puck came downstage center for the play-ending speech.

They did it again, and this time Charlie hit his other arm on the edge of the stage as he went down, causing Charlie to come out with an alarmed “Ahhh!” as he plunged into Hell.

“Are you all right, Charlie?”

“Yes, sir,” Charlie called out from Hell.

When he came back onstage, rubbing the other elbow this time, Dalton had an idea.

“Frederick, why don’t you show him how you do it. No dialogue, just the drop.”

“Happy to,” Frederick said with a beaming smile, running out from backstage.

At Dalton’s signal, George tripped the trap door and Frederick dropped into Hell as gracefully as a swan. It was all Charlie could do to keep from grinding his teeth. And then, instead of crawling out of Hell and up into the wings, Frederick just placed his hands on the sides of the trap door and lifted himself out of Hell and with a bounce was standing next to Charlie.

“Again?” Frederick asked his dad.

“Yes, again. You see how he does it, Charlie?”

“Yes, sir. I see.”

They did it twice more, and each time, Frederick got better at it.

Then Charlie tried it again, and though he was focused on keeping his arm out of the way, one of his hands touched the side of the stage as he went down.

“All right, all right, that’s enough,” Dalton finally called out, glancing at his watch. “We’re going on dinner break. Everybody back in one hour.”

The entire cast heaved sighs of relief as they all began chattering.

George came down from the tech booth to hook up with Charlie for their dinner break.

But Dalton pulled the two boys aside.

“Since you’re playing Puck tonight, and we are performing before the Queen, I want you to stay behind with George here and practice that drop a few more times. Just till you get it right. Then off to dinner with you.”

“Right,” said Charlie. “A good idea.”

“You don’t mind, do you, George?”

“No, sir, not at all.”

But Charlie could tell George was starving. He had a certain look when he got hungry. His pink cheeks got pinker as he threw himself into a funky sulk, the freckles on his cheeks seeming to grow redder than normal. George had sandy hair, but lots of freckles. He wore his hair in loose bangs over his owlish face.

Dalton went away and