With nothing to do, and wondering if she still knew how to play as it had been years, Thalia sat down at the pianoforte, placed the lantern by her feet, lifted the case, and started to play.
She lost herself in the moment. Her eyes closed and her fingers moved on instinct, the melody was haunting and somber, her mind drifting back to when she had first learned this particular tune. It had been taught to her by a close friend, one she loved dearly, one who was no longer with her but of whom she was still reminded every day…
“I didn’t know you played.” Ronan’s voice was low, barely heard above her playing.
Thalia’s eyes shot open, and she nearly fell from the seat. “Oh!”
He was standing just inside the room, but far enough back so the light from the lantern did not reach him. She was hardly able to make him out, but his eyes somehow caught the orange ambers of the light and glimmered as they watched her.
It was the first time they had spoken or seen one another since the garden party and Thalia… she found herself nervous. Her heart started to race, and her breathing grew heavy. A part of her wanted to stand up and walk out, to save herself from whatever this was.
Another part of her was not quite ready to give up on the duke. And that he had come to see her suggested that he was not quite ready to give up on her either.
“Not very well,” she said with a light chuckle.
“No,” he said. “I did not recognize the song, but it was beautiful.”
She scoffed but smiled as she did. “A friend taught it to me. I do not know the name. I suspect that she wrote it herself.”
“That’s quite the talent.”
“She was very talented…” Thalia’s smile grew as she remembered this particular friend, and she felt a tear reach her right eye. “Not just in music, but so many things.”
Ronan stayed across the room, watching her always. “Are you two still close?”
She sighed and shook her head. “I am afraid not.”
He tensed as if he had expected the answer. “Such is the way with friendships. Most relationships, I find. We think these things are static and set to last forever. But in my experience…” His eyes darkened. “None of it lasts.”
Thalia frowned at herself. There was something personal about the way that Ronan was speaking. Words not meant to dowith her and this friend, but his own experiences. Indeed, the shadows around him grew darker, as if he was angered by the notion.
He does not trust easily. But he does not want to. Something happened to him in the past, enough to warn him off all and any relationships. Obvious, now that I think about it.
Thalia had been doing much thinking about the duke, mostly why he was so standoffish. It was easy to just think that was his way, that he had always been a loner and simply did not know how to open up. But that never felt right to her.
In Thalia’s eyes, Ronan was fighting against something. A dark past that haunted him. And in that, it was no wonder he spurned her the way he did. As she knew so little about him, he knew just as little about her. Why would he trust her when she had given him no reason to?
Her eyes turned to the pianoforte, her memory going back to that friend of hers. She bit into her lip as she considered what she was about to do, a sudden idea… a gamble, it felt like. A means by which she might bridge the gap which existed between her and Ronan.
She had a secret that nobody else knew. And in that moment, she came to understand that, of all the people in this world, Ronan deserved to know it. All he had done for her and Olivia…he deserves the truth. He deserves to know who he is married to.
And then, maybe, he would come to trust her.
“I think you misunderstand me…” She shifted on the seat, lifting her legs over so she could face Ronan properly. “Me and this friend, we didn’t have a falling out or anything like that. She… sadly… she died not so long ago.”
Ronan balked. “I… I am sorry. I did not…”
She smiled because she did not want to scare him away. “It is quite alright, and you couldn’t have known. But was it not for that, she and I would still be best friends. In a way, I still consider that she is.”
She looked at him then, her expression imploring, coaxing him from the shadows so he would ask the question. She needed him to ask.
And slowly, Ronan started to edge forward, creeping closer from the shadows and stepping into the light. “What happened?”
She nodded. “She was my best friend from childhood, so close to me that we were almost sisters. I was never very close with my father, and that was how he liked it. I always felt that he saw me as a tool to be used, rather than a daughter to be loved. But this friend…” She smiled softly. “I knew she would do anything for me, and I for her. So, when she fell in love with one of her father’s tenants and ran away with him, I…” She grimaced as if embarrassed. “I followed.”
Ronan’s eyes widened. “You mean…”
“The man she fell in love with was not well, and he died shortly after they left together. I knew she would need me, and I wanted to be there for her. And given that she was pregnant with his child…” She shrugged. “I had no doubt she would need me all the more.”
