“I told you I am.”
His eyes lock with mine. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll stay all winter… if you like.”
He faces me now, hands on his hips. “Whether I agree to the festival or not?”
I nod once.
“Whether I’m after an assistant or a bride?”
My cheeks burn, pulse spiking. “Which do you want?” I work to control my voice, not betray the crush I’ve had on this man for as long as I can remember.
“How old are you, Ivy?”
“Twenty-four.”
I don’t need to ask his age. Forty-two.
I know everything about this man. At least, what can be found online. And what I remember from the public career before his disappearance.
His eyes narrow, gaze casting to the side. Then, he lifts a hand, motioning for me to continue.
The opening theme unfolds exactly as it’s lived in my hands for years now. Not rushed. Not dramatized.
I hold the suspended measure with restraint, allowing the unresolved ache to hover.
He goes still. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. But he doesn’t stop me, so I press on.
The melody climbs. Stops where the cadenza should begin.
I lower the bow. “That’s all I have.”
His face hides in shadow. His voice resonates rich and dark, “It is enough.”
Reed walks a little distance away, hand gripping the window frame. Under his breath, he whispers. “Stephen saved it. Stephen believed it should survive. Stephen—of all men—chose preservation over destruction.”
I wait, unsure of what to say.
Then he turns, eyeing me with a derisive smile. “You think I can stand in front of an orchestra again?”
“I think the music deserves you,” I reply.
Not the other way around. The distinction matters.
Snow gathers along the porch railing, the wind blowing in angrier gusts.
“What do you want from me?” he asks.
“I want you to finish it,” I say. “Conduct it. Let it exist.”
“In five days.... The festival stage. Stephen in the wings. An orchestra waiting.”
He paces in front of me, hand clenching and unclenching. “Violin Concerto no. 1 — Variations in Winter,” he whispers.
The breath catches in my throat.
His eyes snag on my face. “You didn’t know the title?”
