AllFreeNovel
Share Us
They worked together for the next hour or so. Carmen corrected Nora whenever she began to go off-tune and she did so patiently. By the end of the lesson, Ramon was gone. Carmen smiled to herself. She had probably bored him to death.
“You’re such a good teacher!” Mrs. Cooper exclaimed.
“Well, I’ve had some experience teaching the women who live with me,” Carmen explained.
“The ones we saw on the street that day, correct?” Nora asked. “It will be wonderful to see you all perform together.”
At that, Carmen’s smile died down. Nora noticed the change in her expression right away. “Is something bothering you, Miss Black?”
Carmen shook her head. She had no intention of telling her what her father had done. He would only accuse her of turning his daughter against him. Instead, she tried to steer the conversation in a different way. “I saw your father leave in a hurry this morning,” she said as she put the violin away in her case.
“He rarely steps out of the house as it is,” Nora explained. “But my necklace needed repairing and he went down to the jewelers to have it fixed for me. I rather love that pendant!”
Carmen nodded. She had one herself, given to her by her father before her sixteenth birthday. But like her daughter, it too had been lost somewhere. She felt a dull ache of pain in her stomach. She hadn’t thought about her parents in a long time. The last she had heard, her father had passed away. Going back home wasn’t an option, even if she wanted to.
“What do you think of me?” Nora asked expectantly.
“You’re a fast learner, and with the right amount of practice, you may get even better than me,” Carmen said genuinely. She recognized talent where she saw it, and Nora was naturally gifted with an ear for good rhythm. The Duke was wrong to put a stop to her musical education.
“Come, I’ll walk you outside,” Nora offered.
“There’s no need for that, my lady. I’m perfectly capable of doing so,” Ramon said appearing at the door again.
“Besides we have to continue with your lessons or else your father will be cross,” Mrs. Cooper said. “You remember the condition.”
“What condition?” Carmen asked curiously.
“His Grace wants her to devote another hour to religious texts,” Mrs. Cooper explained. “Even though he himself isn’t a member of the church, he expects Lady Nora to have an idea of faith.”
Carmen frowned. She understood the reason the Duke was only doing so that Nora would get bored with those lessons and give up. She could hardly believe the man! Why could he possibly despise music so much? She didn’t have much time to ponder on that as Ramon cleared his throat. He was apparently anxious to show her the way out.
“Goodbye, Lady Nora,” Carmen said with a small curtsy. “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.”
* * *
Arthur sat in his friend’s back garden with a cup of steaming hot tea in his hands. Richard sat on his opposite side and a small table with a chess set lay in front of them. “Your turn,” Richard prompted.
“Ah yes,” Arthur said. It took him a few seconds to think through his strategy. Finally, he decided to move one of the pawns two paces to the left and saw all too late that one of Richard’s knights was waiting to ambush him.
“Where is your head at?” Richard asked, throwing him an amused smile. “Usually, you’re quick to beat me.”
“The woman…” He trailed off. “Did I commit a grave mistake leaving her alone with Nora?”
Richard raised both of his brows. “Isn’t her governess there to chaperone her?”
“Well, of course,” he said rather uncertainly.
“Do you expect her to spirit your daughter out of the house and ask for ransom?” Richard asked. Arthur frowned at his friend. “Do you have to put such morbid ideas in my head?”
Richard shrugged. “Preparing you for the worst, you can say.”
Arthur shook his head. “I know my Nora. She’s too clever, even at her young age. It wouldn’t be so easy to dupe her. She likes the woman and there’s no possible explanation to it.”
“Well, I have one,” Richard said. “Nora misses her mother, and this woman reminds her of the late Lady Davenport. Didn’t you tell me that she was about your late wife’s age and had similar features? Maybe that would explain the liking towards her.”
“Well, yes,” Arthur said. Both the women were petite with dark hair and striking eyes. But they couldn’t be more different in their temperament and in every other way that counted. Lydia was a calm, demure woman who hardly spoke more than a few words at a stretch. Andshe—she was nothing less than a hellion. “But there’s no reason to believe that Nora likes her because of that.”
“But I will be inclined to do so,” Richard said and then his voice became softer. “Grief does strange things to us.”
