Three notes. Then again. Then a fourth, attempted twice.
Helena and Lady Rosenhall were still in the entrance hall behind her, trading observations about Cousin Edith’s new bonnet. Annabelle set down her evening bag and went toward the sound.
The music room door stood open. A single candle burned on the side table. Not hers, she had left none lit?—
And James, the Duke of Silverford’s nephew, sat at the piano bench, his feet not quite reaching the floor, pressing solemnly through the sequence she had shown him at Lucien’s ball.
She leaned against the doorframe.
The boy noticed her after the third repetition. His hands came off the keys.
“The door was unlocked,” he said, before she could speak.
“I see.” She came into the room and crouched to his level. “How did you get here, James?”
“I walked.”
“From Silverford House? Alone? In the dark?”
He looked at her without apology. “It’s next door.”
She pressed her lips together. “It is. And your uncle?”
“He was out.” James looked at the keys. “Miss Hartley said no. But she didn’t say I couldn’t go next door.”
“I expect she meant to include next door.”
He said nothing. His hands moved back to the keys and rested there without pressing.
“James.” She kept her voice even. “Why here?”
He looked up at her then. “Uncle doesn’t let me.” He pointed at the piano. “You do.”
Annabelle looked at the instrument, then at him. His eyes were entirely steady; there was no manipulation in them, no performance, just the plain logic of a child who had found a problem and solved it in the most direct way available.
“You have to go home,” she said. “Your uncle will be worried.”
“He won’t.”
“He will. He will come home and find you gone and it will frighten him, even if he doesn’t show it that way.”
James’s brow pulled down. He did not look convinced.
“James.” She held his gaze. “I will not let you stay. That is final.”
His mouth went flat. He looked at the keys.
“But,” she said, and waited for him to look up, “if you go home now, and you go without argument, I will speak to your uncle about playing the piano here. During a proper social call.”
He studied her face. “Promise?”
“I keep my promises. You know that already.”
A long pause. His feet swung once against the bench legs. Then he climbed down without another word and held out his hand.
She took it, led him out into the hall, and went to tell Helena she would be a quarter hour.
Dominic returned to Silverford House at half past eleven to find the entrance hall lit and his staff arranged in the posture of people about to deliver unwelcome news.
