Isabel: Taking Wing

An Actor Born

The days pass on, and Isabel travels with the players up the countryside. She manages to hide every slip that she is not a boy, and does all right. She almost is caught when she picks up a small boy that’s fallen, but she wittily makes a comment about taking care of her younger siblings.

When another player falls sick, Master Pink ends up putting her into the show as the Princess—she’s the only other one that fits in the costume. Everybody tries to give her notes on how to act like a girl, and she secretly thinks it’s fun to pretend to be a boy pretending to be a girl.

She goes on as the Princess in several shows, and finds herself a natural actor. But as much as she loves being on the stage, she knows that the traveling troupe life isn’t for her. They have to travel in all weather, and often sleep outside, wet, and hungry. She’s developed large blisters on her heels, and they’re ridiculed, blamed for stealing things they didn’t, and even had to leave in the middle of the night once when they were threatened.

But after a few weeks, they’ve reached Northampton, and it’s almost time for Kit to bring her back to her Aunt’s. She’s tried over the weeks to tell herself she didn’t miss her family, and that they don’t miss her either. But she knows she does miss them, and she wishes she was back in London. And for the first time since leaving home, she cries herself to sleep.