Chapter Six
Patience stared at Lady Alice. They were meant to play music? That’s why the chairs were set in rows?
“Are you quite well, Lady Patience?” Lady Alice asked.
“No, not really. You see, my aunt filled out my social calendar and all it said for this one was that it was a soiree. Lady Alice, I cannot play a note!”
Lady Alice was wide-eyed. “Certainly, you exaggerate. When you said so to me when you came to visit, I did assume you were only modest.”
“No, not modest,” Patience said.
“You do not play anything?” Lady Alice asked.
“Not anything,” Patience said.
Lord Stanford was making his way toward her. This was a musical evening. She was meant to play for an audience. What was she to do?
All those scoldings from Miss Pynchon, and the vicar even, were coming to pass. Miss Pynchon had many times said that having musical ability was de rigeur and had argued with Mrs. Right about getting the pianoforte tuned. Patience had thought the idea that she did not play an instrument might be casually mentioned to a husband at some point. She had not thought of a public unmasking.
“Lady Patience,” Lord Stanford said.
Then he looked pointedly at Lady Alice. He wished to be introduced. Of course he did.Peoplehad told him he must.
“Lord Stanford,” she said, as her mind raced on what to do about her current predicament, “may I present Lady Alice Gerhard, daughter of the Earl of Kembleford.”
Lady Alice curtsied.
Lord Radner joined them, having made a stop at the sideboard for a glass of wine. “Lady Alice, Lady Patience. I am delighted to be one of the audience to hear your musical stylings.”
Musical stylings! She did not have any musical stylings. She did not have any stylings of any sort. Think, think, think, Patience, think faster than you have ever thought before. How to avoid playing?
Was there any possibility that shecouldplay?
No, of course not. Their pianoforte in the Dales had not even been tuned in years. Her only lessons had been rudimentary and she recalled very little of it. She’d have better luck playing on some of the ridiculous instruments she’d read about in her father’s library.
As they’d only had a governess for a short period, most of Patience’s education was self-directed by picking up odd facts and bits of information from whatever books took her fancy. There had been that one book full of pictures of all sorts of instruments nobody played anymore.
Patience paused. If nobody played them then nobody would own them. Lady Jenner would not own them.
What if she claimed she only played one of those mysterious instruments?
Lord Radler and Lord Stanford were listening as Lady Alice spoke of her favorite musical pieces and which one she would play for the party.
Then it came to her. The crwth. It was an odd stringed instrument, a little like a lyre and only played in Wales. Even there, not widely these days. Certainly, Lady Jenner would not have even heard of it.
“And you, Lady Patience?” Lord Stanford said. “What did you plan on playing this evening?”
Patience could see Lady Alice flush for her, as she already knew the terrible truth. With any luck though, Lady Alice would be the only one to ever know it.
“I am afraid I may have to disappoint Lady Jenner,” Patience said. “I play the crwth and while I am sure I directed it to be put in the luggage carriage this season, it was somehow missed. It is just now sitting in my father’s music room in the Dales.”
“The crwth?” Lord Stanford asked.
Patience nodded. Now that she’d picked a direction, she’d best keep going with it. “It is an old Welsh stringed instrument. Unfortunately, they are not widely available.”
“And you play the crwth to the exclusion of all else?” Lord Radner asked. “That is very original.”
“Indeed,” Patience said, for lack of anything more astute to say regarding how or why she played an old Welsh instrument that nobody had ever heard of.
