She raised her eyebrows at the understatement.
He looked grim. “I apologize and take full responsibility for not being in better control of my temper.”
“Before you say any more, my lord, while we are both calm and have our wits about us, I must apologize once again for taking your music from your lap desk in the salon. I folded it and tucked it into a pocket tied to my petticoat. I must have known I was doing something naughty and unwise, or I would have asked you if I could send it to London.”
While she wished he had handled it differently, and not been so quick to become livid, Brilliance had thought a great deal about how she would feel if someone took something of hers. Even for a good purpose.
“Will you forgive me truly and put it behind us?” she asked, trying to still her hands in the fabric of her skirts.
After a brief pause, he said, “If you will accept my apology, then yes, my lady, I will. Besides, you could not have possiblyunderstood how I felt because I never told you about what happened in the past.”
“I have time now,” she offered.
He nodded and tugged at his necktie. “Will you believe me, that is the question?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” Then Brilliance recalled with reddening cheeks how he had already made some statements about his music that she had refused to believe.
He must have recalled those instances because he shrugged. “Because it sounds fantastical, even to my ears. How could I expect you to accept what I tell you on faith?”
Brilliance made a decision. “Because we are friends, I shall accept what you tell me.”
Vincent stared at her unwaveringly through his spectacles while a small muscle jumped on either side of his closed jaw. Then he nodded.
“I have been lied to by someone who professed to be my friend before. My closest friend, in fact, turned out to be my worst enemy.”
“Ambrose Castern?” she asked.
“How did you know?”
“When his name has come up, each time you’ve grown exceedingly cross.”
He nodded. “The short of it is that we’ve known each other for years. He had access to my home. And at the first opportunity, he arranged to steal every scrap of music that I’d committed to paper.”
Brilliance couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her. “How awful.”
“Since I had never played any of it publicly, he could claim it as his own.”
“Even ‘The Hummingbird’?”
“Yes,” he croaked and then cleared his throat. “That piece,my‘Sonata in A’ made his reputation as a brilliant composer.”
“And it is yours,” she said softly.
“It is.”
“Yet you cannot prove any of the works he plays are yours.”
To her amazement, Vincent gave a half smile. “Because of you, I believe I can.”
“Me?” Brilliance managed finally to release her fingers and still her hands.
“The piece I played at my mother’s birthday, the same that you heard Castern play in concert — that’s the one you took from my salon and published.”
She gasped again. “Oh no!” Then she closed her eyes. “I feel sick to have betrayed you.”
He rose to his feet and came over to sit beside her on the sofa. In a quick movement, he stripped off his gloves and took one of her hands between his.
“We have moved beyond that, haven’t we?” he asked.
