Reyna spent the morning before the performance going over her lines.  She drank a calming tea made from lemon balm and feverfew to steady her nerves and lounged in her room, flipping through the script.
"Bob says hello, " Bob the Parrot squawked from behind the door to Miss Titan's room.  "Bob dit bonjour, Bob dice hola."
Reyna got up and banged on the door, causing her costume, a sleeveless, purple, classical dress tied with a gold-colored sash, a red ribbon to hold back her loose hair, and a wreath of ivy, to fall from the hooks.

"Quiet, you, " Reyna said. "Or I'll see that you're made into a Sunday roast."
"You spotted snakes with double tongue, " Miss Titan was practicing the fairy song from act two of A Midsummer Night's Dream. "Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, Come not near our fairy queen. Philomel, with melody. Sing in our sweet lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby, lulla, lulla, lullaby: Never harm, nor spell, nor charm, Come our lovely lady nigh; so, good night, with lullaby."
Reyna had to admit that Miss Titan possessed a lovely voice, even if her infernal bird was the bane of her existence.
"Excuse me," Miss Titan cracked open the door. "Did you need anything? I heard you knock."
She wore a simple white petticoat and a round gown made from cloth printed with scenes from a Chinese village.

"I just stumbled, " Reyna replied, too proud to admit to having raged at a parrot.
"Oh. I hope you didn't twist your ankle."
"All's well."
Miss Titan closed the door again, her curiosity satisfied.
After practicing Helena's soliloquy once again, Reyna sat down at the writing desk to answer the latest letter she had received from Madre Diana, the abbess of the Convento de la Trinidad in Valencia. She then wrote a quick note to her father and sister telling them that she would be home in Spain for Christmas.
Reyna thought about maybe inviting Miss Levesque and Mr. Di Angelo to visit whenever they could make the journey. Miss Levesque would enjoy sketching the crumbling Reconquista-era Castillo Loba, the Ramirez-Arellano family's ancestral castle, and the surrounding gravelly hills dotted with scrub and brush while the all the ghost stories and tragic tales, enough to fill several gothic novels, would send Mr. Di Angelo into raptures.

The pleasure such a visit would bring almost made up for the shame of going home empty-handed.
Why not have a little fun before I retire from the world forever? Reyna thought.
Reyna recalled something she had said to Miss Chase: "What's the point of fishing if all you can catch are minnows?" She came to England, eighteen months ago hoping to find a husband and the only suitor to propose to her was dull, old Mr. Vitellius. She was a failure, according to her father, and failures had little choice but to enter the convent.
"Excuse me, " Miss McLean said from the other side of the door leading into the hallway.
"Yes," Reyna replied.
"Do you have any pins? Annabeth needs to hem my dress."
Reyna fetched a case of pins from the drawer of her bedside table and gave it to Miss McLean.
"Thank you."
Miss McLean's pale, grayish-blue, Grecian style gown trailed beyond her feet. She had to pick up the hem to keep from tripping.

Half of her hair was teased up and arranged in soft puffs and rolls and adorned with a simple hairband. Loose waves fell around her shoulders. The picturesque disorder of the style suited her.

"Are you prepared for our performance tonight?"
"I've been practicing all week, but I'm still nervous."
"Don't worry. If you mess up, I'll cover for you."
No doubt, Miss McLean's performance was guaranteed triumph. She would outshine everyone else like she always did. Reyna might as well not even bother to show up.
To her surprise, Reyna pitied Miss McLean when she broke off her engagement to Lord Skye. Miss McLean loved him, and the whole ordeal with the duel must have been hard for her. But everyone now expected the couple would soon reconcile, and a happy ending was inevitable.
Fortunate Miss McLean. She was born for love while I was born for loneliness.
Reyna grabbed her sheet music and walked past Miss McLean through the door of her room.
"Where are you going?"
"To run through the sonata one more time."
Better to focus on what I can control than brood over what I can't.

Carriages arrived around eight in the evening. The guests were given a brief supper before the curtain rose. When they finished eating, they filed into the ballroom.
Miss Levesque peeked at them through the curtains.
"I hope no one notices my bare feet, " she said as she discretely pulled off her back and white stockings."

Lady Thalia decided that since Titania was a fairy queen, she should go barefoot. Luckily for Miss Levesque, her flowing, high-waisted white dress covered her feet.

"Our little fairy queen shouldn't go on without her crown, " Miss Chase added, placing a diadem of blue flowers among Miss Levesque's curls. "Ah, there's my cue."

Miss Chase strode on the stage, wearing a red riding habit borrowed from her mother. Its black and white facings resembled those on the uniforms of Mr. Chase's regiment.

The curtain rose upon Shakespeare's mythical Athens. They acted out the romantic entanglements of a group of Athenian youths and a marital spat between the king and queen of the fairies.
Between the third and fourth acts, Reyna joined Miss McLean for their duet of Mozart's Sonata #16.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

Reyna sat down at the harp, and Miss McLean sat down at the harpsichord. Most of the audience seemed disinterested in their musical interlude. The gentlemen got up to stretch their legs and get refreshments. The ladies hid their yawns behind their fans. Not even Miss McLean's beauty or exquisite music could hold their attention throughout the entire ten-minute sonata.
They curtsied to the audience after the sonata finished . Act three had ended with the four Athenian lovers falling asleep under Puck's spell. Reyna took her place on stage, lying next to Lieutenant Jackson. Miss McLean laid herself down at Mr. Di Angelo's side.
Miss Titan frolicked onto the stage, tossing flowers when the curtain rose on the fourth act. She wore an airy white dress tied with a red belt and a pale gold gossamer shawl, which fluttered like a fairy's wings. A red headscarf bound up her hair.

Miss Levesque led Valdez, the blacksmith, by the hand.
"Come, sit thee down upon this flowery bed," she said as she helped him to lie down on the flowers which Miss Titan had strewn. "While I thy amiable cheeks do coy and stick musk-roses in thy sleek, smooth head." She gently placed a crown of blossoms on the fake donkey's head Valdez wore. "And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy."
Valdez rested his head in her lap while she caressed him.
"Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms. Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away." Miss Titan scampered off. "So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle gently entwist; the female ivy so enrings the barky fingers of the elm. O, how I love thee! How I dote on thee!"
The image of a beautiful fairy queen mooning over a coarse rustic with a donkey's head made the audience laugh. Reyna wondered if Shakespeare had intended a subtle commentary by it: love makes asses of us all.

"Do I look queenly enough?" Miss Chase said.
Miss Chase had changed out of her red riding habit and into a blue Grecian gown with sheer, white sleeves, and a bronze-colored veil. Her waist and blond tresses were bound by scarlet ribbons.

"If her majesty is done preening," Miss McLean said. "She's needed on stage."
Miss Chase took Lord Skye's arm, and the two strode on stage. Reyna, Miss McLean , Lieutenant Jackson, and Mr. Di Angelo followed them a few moments later for the wedding feast scene. Miss Levesque and Zhang, as King Oberon and Queen Titania, showed up at the end to bless the newlyweds. After the curtain fell, Solace delivered the closing soliloquy:
"If we shadows have offended, think, but this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here, while these visions did appear. And this weak and idle theme, no more yielding than a dream. So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands if we be friends. And Robin shall restore amends."
The audience applauded. Solace bid them goodnight with a wink and a bow.
Glasses of champagne waited for the cast backstage. Reyna eagerly gulped down several; the stage lights were infernally hot.
A maid scampered down the hallway, which served as a backstage area. She dropped a curtsy to Lady Thalia.
"This is for you, Milady," the maid produced a folded up piece of paper from her apron pocket.
"Thank you," Lady Thalia snatched the note and placed it in her bodice.
Miss Chase approached her with a mischievous grin on her face.
"Should we get you ready, " she said, taking Lady Thalia's hand.
"No, not tonight. The night of the ball."
The ball was planned for December 6th, six days away. Working on the play gave everyone something to help pass the time between excursions and social engagements. Reyna imagined that everyone would go mad with boredom now that it was all over. December 6th could not come soon enough.