The revelers who remained were either slogging through the last steps or slumped tipsily against the wall between the decimated refreshment table and the door.
When she played the final chord, Nottingvale bid each of his guests a good night.
After the final straggler exited the ballroom, the duke climbed up the dais to the pianoforte and sat down on the wooden bench next to Cynthia.
“Thank you,” he said softly. “You saved the evening.”
She stretched her fingers. “What’s a ditty or two between friends?”
“You played for five hours,” he pointed out. “Without stopping.”
She hadn’t done so for him.
She’d done so for Gertie.
Oh, very well, Cynthia had helped for his sake, too.
“Interesting opening,” he said.
She grinned at him. “I’d hoped you’d like it.”
He gestured at the ivory keys. “I’m ready to hear your inappropriate alternate lyrics.”
She folded her hands in her lap primly. “Guests are asleep, Your Grace. It would not do to wake them up to the sound of my skill with rhyming ‘rocked me fore and aft’ with ‘the length of his shaf—’”
Nottingvale closed the lid of the pianoforte.
“You’re right,” he said hastily. “They’re not prepared for the nuance of your lyrics.”
She shook her head in resignation. “No one ever is.”
Nottingvale cleared his throat. “Speaking of—”
“Turgid shafts?” she supplied hopefully.
“Music,” he corrected firmly. “You were wonderful tonight. Really.”
“I’m not embarrassing,” she admitted. “But I’m also not Gertie.”
“Your cousin was astonishing at the pianoforte the other day,” he agreed.
“Every day, if Gertie can help it. If you think she has a knack with songs by Playford or Gallini, you should hear the arias and cotillions she’s invented on her own.”
His surprise was evident. “Lady Gertrude composes her own music?”
Cynthia nodded. “Scores of it. Literally.”
He seemed to think this over. “Do you think she’d agree to—”
“No.”
Of course Gertie would agree to be the party’s official pianist. She’d sleep on this bench every night just to be closer to a pianoforte.
“I’ll do it,” Cynthia said. “Gertie needs to dance. I’ll play for the rest of the party, if you need. I wasn’t going to dance anyway.”
He frowned. “Why not?”
“I never stood up for a set, back when I washopingto dance,” she reminded him. “No longer trying makes it less awkward for everyone.”
