Excerpt From Chapter Five: Will and Julia in rehearsal for Hamlet (Yes, Somewhere My Love has Hamlet parallels, plus Hamlet features a rather famous ghost)
Julia (as Ophelia) looked pained. “‘You are merry, my lord.’”
“‘Oh, God. What should a man do but be merry?’”
Will rose to heap condemnation on the queen for wedding his uncle so soon after the king’s death. It was a stretch, to say the least, to envision his elderly grandmother as the seductive beauty who’d captivated his evil uncle, played by the sweating, ill at ease Douglas. But Will stabbed a finger in Nora’s direction. “‘For look you how cheerfully my mother does, and my father died within two hours.’”
“‘Nay, it’s twice two months, my lord,’” Julia corrected.
Will answered with Hamlet’s sarcasm. “‘So long? O heavens, die two months ago and not forgotten yet? There’s hope a great man’s memory may outlive his life half a year.’”
Cole’s had outlived his by two centuries.
Will gentled his voice and bent back over Julia, cupping her sweet face between his hands. He loved the feel of her smooth skin. “‘Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? It were better my mother had not born me.’”
She gazed at him in convincing bewilderment.
He wore on. “‘I am proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offenses at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in or time to act them. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? Believe none of us. We are errant knaves, all. To a nunnery, go. And quickly, too,’” he urged, and covered her lips in a hard kiss.
The taste of her was intoxicating and he drew out the feel of her mouth as long as he dared. Angry and hurt she might be, but she had no choice other than to kiss him now. His grandmother was also obligated to indulge him. For a moment.
Heart pounding, he straightened and smoothed Julia’s soft cheek. “‘Farewell.’”
It was only a part and he merely an actor in a play, but Will recoiled at the finality of that word.~
***Somewhere my Love is available in print and at a reduced rate in eBook at Amazon Kindle, The Wild Rose Press, and Barnes & Noble.
“Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.” ~ Hamlet
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