“I hope you don’t take offense, my lord, but my parents would very much enjoy hearing you play the piano tonight, eitherbefore or after we eat. Would you be so kind? You will be relieved to know you do not have to sing.”
“Sing?” he repeated, still considering her request that he perform, waiting and wondering why the usual irritation didn’t materialize.
Brilliance nodded to Lord and Lady Diamond. “Like Tommy Tucker.”
He couldn’t help his smile. “I see. You mean for my supper.”
“Why, yes,” she stared at him with that look that made him feel invincible. “How clever of you, my lord.”
A sweet nature, he thought. Likedolcemusic.
The butler returned with a tray of glasses and a full wine carafe.
“Shall we toast to our guest’s health?” Lord Diamond asked. “And most particularly to the successful resolution of his legal case.”
“The solicitor seemed confident of victory,” Vincent said. “Thanks to Lady Brilliance’s testimony.”
She shrugged delicately, looking pleased with herself.
“It is my understanding,” said her mother, “that you burned some of your written music.”
Hearing it out loud was mortifying. “I did. I admit that I wasn’t in my right mind at the time.”
“In your left mind, perhaps,” Brilliance quipped, but by her placid expression, he couldn’t tell if she was making a joke, so he didn’t smile.
“Truly, I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Crooked thinking,” she murmured and sipped her wine.
“Ah ... indeed. I should have let my anger pass.” Many times, he wished he had. He addressed Lady Diamond. “But as I told your daughter, I have it all still in my memory.”
“Isn’t that amazing?” Brilliance asked. “Why, I can hardly recall what I read in the morning’s paper, and Lord Hewitt remembers entire sonatas.”
“Lately, I have considered transcribing all my lost music again,” he said.
Brilliance tried to clap, but her wine glass prevented her. “That is very good news.”
“The sooner you publish it under your own name, the sooner it is protected under international copyright,” Lord Diamond said. “Are you going to try to regain the authorship of your other pieces, too?”
“I don’t see how I can do that,” Vincent said. “I believe that horse has left the barn.”
“Now what are we talking about?” Brilliance asked.
But her mother ignored her. “I don’t think you should give up. It was wrong of Mr. Castern when he stole your work, and it is just as wrong today.”
“I will think about how I might be able to do that,” Vincent said, hoping they were not going to discuss his messy personal issue any longer.
Luckily, Brilliance was also ready to move on with the evening.
“I don’t believe you answered my request,” she said, “regarding playing the piano tonight.” And her admiring gaze made him feel as if everything might turn out for the best after all.
What’s more, a new sensation of wanting to play for the sheer enjoyment he might bring to this family resounded through him.
“If I am not delaying our dinner, then I would be honored to play for you now,” he said. Surprisingly, he meant it.
Dolce, indeed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
