Chapter Twenty-Two #2
For the next while they alternated between testing musical phrases, exploring how music could support and convey the emotions of Seraphina and Alaric, and even singing sections to see if the desired effect had been achieved.
It was marvelous. All the troubles of the last week became distant worries as the music and working with Ezekiel captivated her.
She loved watching the song take form beneath his fingers as he became lost in playing and feeling the music.
He’d figure out a section, rush to record it on the musical ledger, play it again, and add more.
They only had a rough working, but as they neared three o’clock, he wanted Nora to sing what they had straight through to ensure they were on the right path before he left.
Having worked with the song’s creation, she knew it better than anything she’d ever practiced with Mum.
How I wish I could share this with her. She’d be thrilled to hear Nora had performed, even if only in a parlor where the audience was the composer and a neighbor.
A tear slipped out as she prepared to sing.
Ezekiel might need the music to fulfill his obligations, but she needed it to feel close to Mum.
To hold on to a piece of her that would be lost if Father had his way.
She couldn’t let music go. Not again. Never again.
If this was the only way to keep Mum in her life and memory, Nora would sing. Maybe she’d even perform on a stage.
Yes. That’s what she’d do. If Mrs. Reed’s offer still stood, Nora would take those lessons.
What better way to take the stage than with the music of the man who’d brought something back to her she’d thought forever lost?
A life full of music, opera, and perhaps the stage.
Maybe she, like Princess Seraphina, would toss aside her mask, declare who she really was to the man she loved, and rebel against Father’s tyranny.
Of course, she didn’t love Ezekiel yet, but it didn’t take much time with him to consider love an eventual possibility.
She nodded for Ezekiel to begin and sang with all the yearning and hope for a future free of the chains that her soul contained.
The crescendo of Seraphina’s love declaration met with Alaric’s own in a passion rivaling Juliet’s for Romeo.
When she finished, Ezekiel stared at her with the awe and admiration of a man in .
. . well, a man heading toward love. Instead of the realization terrifying her, it made her heart do a strange little dance.
He rose and took her hands, looking at her as the most treasured gift he’d ever beheld.
They were close enough that their shoes touched and her skirts brushed against him.
It would be far too easy to bend a little at the waist and lean into him, maybe even rock to her toes and kiss him.
She blinked. Goodness. What was wrong with her?
She swallowed hard against the rogue desire.
They were friends. That was all. It was simply the magic of music muddling her brain.
Mum had always said that to sing one’s best, one must become the character.
That’s all Nora had done, and she was still trapped as Seraphina, looking into the eyes of the man she dared to love and wishing for all the things she could not have.
“Nora.” He tilted forward as if he too felt the forbidden draw.
He stopped too far away to expect a kiss, but his voice was huskier than usual.
“That was . . . You were magnificent. Even if you don’t take lessons with Mrs. Reed, you have to let me introduce you to Graham.
I cannot imagine another woman playing Seraphina. ”
“You’re saying that because we worked on it together.”
“I say it because it’s true.” His hand cupped her cheek as his fingertips stroked the curve of her jaw with maddening tenderness. “You belong on a stage, Donna Anna.”
“Quit charming me, Don—”
“Ottavio. Please do not call me Giovanni. Nothing Giovanni felt was real, but this—” His thumb brushed over her lips, bringing a devilish smile to his own. “What I feel for you is real. I’m willing to go as slow as you need, but I already know what I want. We belong together.”
“My father may have other opinions.”
“The only opinion that matters to me is yours. Do you think you could ever see a future with me?”
All the reasons she should say no bombarded her. Mum’s past as a singer. Father’s opposition. Even her own slipping sanity. But for once in her life, her heart spoke louder than her brain. “Yes.”
His smile was so genuinely happy that if he tried right now, she would gladly accept and return his kiss.
But he did not move closer, only continued to caress her cheek and study her in that cherishing way. “Then I will do everything in my power to change your father’s opinion. Family is important, and I don’t want to be the cause of division between you and your father.”
“Thank you. He’s all I have left now.”
Ezekiel leaned in, his beard tickling her skin as his warm breath brushed her ear. “Not anymore.”
Oh, good heavens. Where had her ability to breathe gone?
She turned her head to better see him, and her gaze flicked to his lips.
With the erratic beat of her heart and the way her whole body zinged with anticipation, this moment would not be like any other she’d experienced.
For one, she wanted it, and two . . . Well, she would be the one to initiate a kiss.
Before she lost her nerve, she pressed her lips to his.
He didn’t immediately respond, and Nora feared she’d misunderstood all he’d said and not said, but then he met her kiss with gentle eagerness.
This was nothing like those unwanted experiences, and she was content to stay kissing far longer than was proper.
Was this even proper? She wasn’t sure she cared.
A very pointed ahem cut in.
They jerked apart like flinching from a burn.
“I thought the music had been quiet for a little too long.” Mrs. Jerden’s amused tone held no condemnation, but she made a point of looking at the clock all the same. “Don’t you think it’s time you should be going, young man?”
Ezekiel coughed as he looked down to unroll his sleeves. “I believe you’re right, Mrs. Jerden.” The corners of his mouth still tipped upward, so he must not have been too embarrassed to be caught.
That was all right—Nora was embarrassed enough for the both of them. “It’s probably best if you don’t come back tomorrow.”
His head jerked up, the smile gone. “What do you mean?”
“Oh pish, child.” Mrs. Jerden swatted away Nora’s discomfort like a gnat.
“Don’t be so flighty just because you got caught kissing.
If anything, that’s more of a reason for you both to meet back here tomorrow.
There’s nothing wrong with a kiss between two courting people, so long as it doesn’t go further, and that is what I’m here for. You are courting now, aren’t you?”
Ezekiel watched her, his trepidation evident in the tension around his lips.
Nora tugged at her cameo. There was nothing for it. No matter how much she feared what her future might hold, facing it with Ezekiel did seem less scary. “I suppose we are.”
He relaxed once again, pleasure radiating off him. “And I couldn’t be happier. Until tomorrow, then?”
She nodded, her throat too tight for words.
He shrugged on his jacket and retrieved his coat from the hook. “Thank you for chaperoning, Mrs. Jerden. It would indeed be too easy to get carried away with Nora.”
“Ah, young love. It is as wild as it is beautiful. I’m happy to be the chaperone who’s tardy enough to allow the kiss but timely enough to keep it short.
” She laughed at their gaping, then shooed him toward the door.
“Go on now. I have bread to pull from the oven, and I dare not leave you two alone again today.”
“Ever the wise chaperone. Might I request a little more time tomorrow before your interruption? That was decidedly too short an experience for a first kiss.”
“Ezekiel!” Nora’s cheeks burned.
Mrs. Jerden cackled. “Bring me a box of chocolates, and maybe I’ll slow my steps a bit more.”
“Mrs. Jerden!” How could Nora’s chaperone and—what should Nora even call Ezekiel?—be conspiring together about kissing? It was downright mortifying.
“I’ll bring you three to ensure you’re too full to move any faster than a snail.” Ezekiel turned the doorknob.
Good gracious! The cheek of him! The man deserved to be punished for such a brazenly public display of flirtation, and she knew the greatest punishment of all. “Aren’t you forgetting Tristan?”
The cat lifted his head and glared at her for reminding Ezekiel to shove him in a basket. His tail flicked with warning, and even she could tell Tristan meant to fight should he be disturbed from his afternoon repose.
Ezekiel glanced at the clock and grimaced. “Could I possibly convince you to keep him for the night? It appears I was bewitched by a princess and now don’t have time to take him home before the show.”
“Blaming me for your inability to tell time?”
“No, for making me believe time stood still when really it was speeding by.” He came back to her and clasped her hand.
All teasing was gone. “Please. He’d have to stay in my office, and you saw how that turned out.
Besides, can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if he escaped and made it onto the stage during the performance? ”
If there weren’t so much truth to his words, she’d make him take Tristan anyway. “I suppose I can allow it. But tomorrow you’ll bring us both a can of f-i-s-h for our troubles.”
Tristan yowled his agreement.
“I can do that. Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He bussed her on the cheek, then slipped outside before Nora could come up with anything else to delay him.
As soon as the door shut, Mrs. Jerden gave a conspiratorial grin. “Two days, and already you’re courting. We’re well on our way to that marriage proposal I promised. Now we need to prepare your father. When does he come home again?”
When indeed? His telegram this morning hadn’t been specific, only that he was nearing the end of the audit and should be home soon.
No matter when he arrived, no amount of preparation would make courting a man of music and opera acceptable.
Yet somehow Nora would find a way, because if there were any man she wanted to risk a future with, it was Ezekiel.
Unfortunately that also meant confronting the questions she was afraid to find the answer to.
Was she going mad? Or was danger lurking outside her door?