18
THE PLAY WAS going well. The actors were professionals, and Changing Fate was not considered a particularly hard play in terms of learning their lines.
Ellisandra still needed to make a decision about the last scene and it so happened that Tolaki was rehearsing that with the cast.
That particular morning had dawned with a leaden grey sky from which it had started snowing at breakfast time. Loret and his men had come to the theatre. They were meant to be putting on the ground floor roof: that of the kitchen, the laundry and the back of the house, which held servants’ rooms. The slate got very slippery with snow, so they couldn’t work. Instead, their hammering and happy talk echoed through the theatre building.
Ellisandra went to sit at the side of the stage to watch the rehearsal. Th
