Free The Hamlet Trap by Kate Wilhelm

ground before I’d turn it over to a holding company, or a board of directors who saw it only as a way to make a good return on their investment.”
    â€œWell, the theater doesn’t own me,” she said firmly. “You know I’ve had offers to do sets for other theaters. I can work anywhere, send in my designs, models, finished drawings. I don’t have to be there even. I don’t have to be here, as far as that goes.”
    â€œBut you do. I’ve seen those sets done by a designer in absentia. No heart, no soul. They could get them out of the book. Yours aren’t like that.”
    â€œYou’re prejudiced,” she said, and bit a cookie in half.
    â€œI noticed that you didn’t take any of those offers.”
    â€œI’m not ready. I still need to travel, see more and more theater all over the world, see what other people are doing, see how other people live. I didn’t say I’d never take on outside work, just not now.”
    â€œAnd where are you planning to travel this year?”
    â€œI’ve been thinking of South America. Peru maybe.” She put the other half of the cookie down; it tasted stale and too dry.
    Ro drank his eggnog and for a moment she thought the conversation had ended. Then he said, “Isn’t that where Peter is going when he gets his Ph.D.?”
    â€œHe says digging in Peru is the greatest,” she said with a grin.
    He stood up and stretched and then, looking at her narrowly, asked, “Honey, do you love him?”
    She hesitated. “I don’t know. I’m trying to decide, I guess.” She was trying to love him, she wanted to add, but she didn’t know how; she was afraid of it.
    â€œWell, I have to get along. You’ll have the preliminaries done over the weekend? I’d like to see them before you show them to Gray, if you don’t mind. I expect to have his promptbook for that damn play by this weekend. It’d better be decent.”
    â€œAre you holding him to showing you all of them?”
    â€œYou bet I am. I’m afraid my confidence in him was shaken over this mess with Sunshine. Sunshine! for God’s sake! More like foul weather, if you ask me. You’re looking tired. Pack it up and get some sleep, okay?”
    She smiled at him and kissed his cheek. “Nag, nag.”
    â€œThat’s my job,” he said and left.
    Peter returned for New Year’s Eve and they spent the evening at Bellair Inn, where they had dinner, then danced until two.
    Peter was packing up his apartment; he already had taken a carload of things to southern California and had left his car there. “I have something to show you,” he said mysteriously. “I can’t wait. But I’m not willing to do it until you can appreciate it, not while your mind is completely on theater sets.”
    â€œPeter, be reasonable. I can’t take off a whole week right now.”
    â€œYou turn in the drawings for Gray to look at on Monday or Tuesday, right? That’s what you told me. The following Monday there are auditions and you want to be back by then. But what do you have to do during that week? Even if you make changes, you can’t start until after Gray’s had a chance to look them over, and you know as well as I do that he’s going to love them. You won’t work on the models until after the cast is chosen and you’ve heard the readings. You said that.”
    â€œMy God! Do you remember every word I’ve ever said?”
    â€œYes. I’m going to leave you strictly alone until Friday, when I’ll arrive with dinner makings. And detailed plans for our week. Meanwhile, eat. Sleep. I love you.”
    She could do it, she knew. There was still a lot of work to finish, but by Friday afternoon she could be done. As for a whole week off right now, she was still certain she could not do that, but a few days surely. Four days, five? She went back to work.
    There had