Those thoughts had never occurred to him until that very moment. What a lovely thing that would be… with the right person.
Rather startled at his turn of thought, Val looked over the side of the balcony to see that the room below had come to a halt. Faces were turned upward, towards the minstrel’s gallery, all of them waiting eagerly for the next bit of music to come. Val looked over to see what his mother’s reaction was to Vesper playing Gavin’s oldclavichordiumand he could see his mother looking up at the gallery as well, a rather wistful expression on her face.
He hadn’t seen that expression from her in a very long time and Val had to admit that he was touched. His mother, for all of her gruffness and petulance, had a soft heart beneath that she liked to keep hidden. He was pleased that Vesper had given the woman a moment to find that soft part of her again. He wasmore impressed that she could bring a room full of people to a halt with her sweet singing voice. Returning his attention to Vesper, who was just playing a few chords now and not singing, he knelt down beside her.
“You have a captive audience below,” he said. “Play and sing to your heart’s content. Everyone is enjoying it very much.”
Vesper kept her eyes on the keys as she played. “To tell you the truth, I have never played for anyone other than Lady Eynsford. It is good that I cannot see the hall from where I sit for if I could, I would surely faint of fright.”
He laughed softly. “You seem brave enough to me,” he said. “Moreover, you sing and play so beautifully that it is a genuine tragedy for you not to be heard. McCloud must be very proud of your accomplishments.”
Vesper thought of her father and her good mood faded. Nay, her father wasn’t proud of her accomplishments or if he was, he’d not said so. He was as wrapped up in life at Durley as she was wrapped up in life at Eynsford and the two did not meet. They didn’t even come close.
Not wanting to get on to the subject of her relationship with her father, she sought to change the focus, realizing she had done a good deal of subject changing when in conversation with Val throughout the course of their association. She hoped he hadn’t noticed.
“As I am sure your mother is very proud of your accomplishments as well,” she said. “My father did not tell me much of how you and he met. Mayhap we should return to the table so I may hear some of those adventures in France that you spoke of.”
But Val did, indeed, notice that she always seemed to change the subject away from her and especially away from her father. He realized she didn’t know McCloud very well but he was coming to suspect it was more than unfamiliarity that made hershy away from discussing her father. There was some kind of sullenness there, as if she not only didn’t know her father but didn’twantto know him.
There was resistance.
However, the lady spoke so fondly of Eynsford Castle that Val was coming to think she hadn’t wanted to leave it, that perhaps McCloud might have forced her to. But for what purpose? His curiosity about the lady, and about McCloud, was growing. There was something odd afoot that he couldn’t quite put his finger on as if to say “Aye! That’s it!” Nay; it wasn’t anything definitive.
But it was there.
“There is all evening to speak of France,” he said after a moment. “I do believe everyone would rather listen to you play. It has been so long since we’ve had good music in this hall. Won’t you please indulge us?”
Not strangely, Vesper didn’t feel much like singing anymore. Her thoughts were leaning heavily on her father and on leaving this wonderful place and wishing she didn’t have to.
“I… I am a bit tired after traveling today,” she said. “I hope you will forgive me that I am too tired to continue. But I would be happy to play something for you to sing.”
Val lifted his eyebrows at the irony of that request. “I do not know any fine songs. Moreover, I am a terrible singer. How can you punish everyone in this hall with such a request?”
Vesper burst into soft laughter. “I do not believe you,” she said. “All knights are trained in courtly accomplishments. Did you not learn to sing when you were younger?”
He made a face that suggested she was asking him something most distasteful. “Aye, I did, but I do not want to speak of it. I was teased mercilessly. My master told me that a goose sounded better than I did when I sang.”
Vesper bit her lip, trying to keep from laughing at him but it was to no avail. “I am sure that is not true,” she said. “Please sing something. I insist. What can I play for you?”
Val didn’t want to deny her but he truly didn’t want to sing. Therefore, he sought to teach her a lesson. Perhaps if he sang a terrible and shocking song, she would never ask again. He eyed her thoughtfully.
“Do you knowTilly Nodden?” he asked.
Vesper’s brow furrowed in thought. “I do not. How does it go?”
With a mischievous gleam to his eye, Val went to the balcony and called down to the men eating there. “The lady has never heardTilly Nodden,” he boomed. “Who here is brave enough to sing it?”
Suddenly, most of the men eating below had the same mischievous gleam in their eye that Val did. An older soldier stood up, grinning, and lifted his cup to the chamber as he belted out a tune that was better suited for the walls of a tavern.
“A young man came to Tilly Nodden,
His heart so full and pure.
Upon the step of Tilly Nodden,
His wants would find no cure.
Aye! Tilly, Tilly, my goddess near,
