Chapter 104

“These seats are great,” I said, “but I think I preferred the front row where we were sitting for the rehearsal this morning.”

“Yeah,” Dani said, “the view of Tom’s hands and feet from down there was perfect.”

I heard the door open, and turned just in time to see Father enter the box with a beautiful young woman on his arm. He was wearing some sort of fancy dress uniform jacket, complete with gold epaulettes, ribbons, and a blue sash running diagonally across his chest, and she was wearing a gorgeous powder-blue gown of some material I couldn’t immediately identify. Her black hair shone, and she was wearing a jeweled necklace. I guessed her age to be just shy of thirty. We stood when they entered the box.

My mouth must have dropped open when I saw him, because Father said, “Don’t say it, Marco. I know I look like a character out of a Sigmund Romburg operetta but people seem to expect it.”