Page 9 of Crescendo

She relaxed a little, cocking her head with an inquisitive look. She really was… well, her eyes were striking, to put it politely. To put it crudely, this woman was damn beautiful. I guess there were worse faces to spend two months around. “So, that’s what brings a hall-of-fame composer to a program like this.”

“Mm. My friend recommended I come teach as a guest instructor here, help clear the cobwebs from my mind. And I’m unbearably spiteful, so I enrolled as a student instead. She’s still a little mad at me. So—Ella, right—did that clarinet insult your honor, or are you planning on playing it? Because I happen to be quite partial to the clarinet, but it sounds better when you blow into it.”

Her eyes darkened, looking back down at the case on the floor, and she thumbed her pendant, a disc with the letter C. She put it away as soon as she saw me look. “It’s… it’s just a… mental block.”

“Ah. Been there. You’re a career musician too, then?”

She laughed. “Not quite. I’m a radiologist.”

If she’d given me a thousand guesses, I wouldn’t have gotten there. “Radiologists have a lot of need for orchestral scoring?”

“Oh, all the time. My supervisor is always telling meElla, we need scans and some brass harmony on floor seven.”

“I believe it. Anything is better set to the swell of an ambitious brass section.”

She relaxed a little more, still—I hadn’t really realized how much tension she was carrying around in her. Seemed like there actually was something serious with her and that clarinet, something responsible for that haunted look in her eyes. “I took a sabbatical for a few months, and wanted to get back to music. My friend told me about this program… but she just told me to enroll as a student. I’m not quite so spiteful.”

Getbackto music implied something interesting, for someone who’d ended up as far from music asradiology.Something had happened to drive her away, judging from the look in her eyes. And whatever it was, it was inextricably linked to the clarinet.

“Well, it is a pleasure to meet you,” I said, walking past her to the piano and opening the lid over the keys. It was a nice thing—looked like a generic cheap upright at first glance, but looking closer, I recognized it as a higher-end Steinway model, simple and sleek in the design but a classic, elegant piece. “You look like you want to play but the clarinet’s stumping you. Shall we try the instrument to end all instruments?”

She withered, just a little. “Ah… I, er.” She faltered, looking down, blushing hard. “Truth be told, well—I’m new to a lot of this. I played clarinet back in school, but I didn’t study music much beyond—”

“If you don’t know how to play the piano, I won’t judge you.”

“I don’t know how to play the piano.” She paused. “And I’m also afraid of being judged. Especially by…”

She trailed off, clearly not keen on saying the next part. I said it for her. “By a washed-up has-been who can’t string together a half-decent melody to save her life right now?”

She went wide-eyed looking at me.Damn,those eyes. She could look at me all day. “I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”

“I had to call off a major project and tell the executives to hand it over to somebody else because I couldn’t do it. And Hollywood isn’t an industry that looks kindly on someone sayingsorry, I can’t do it, can you ask somebody else?It was something of a cardinal sin. Enough I had to flee the country and start learning music from scratch. Now, sit down and let me show you how to play the piano.”

She scrunched up her face. “You’re offering—you,a world-class composer, one of the greatest of the greats, walk into my flat, scare the crap out of me, and want to teach me how to play the piano.”

I thought it over. “Yes, that seems to be an accurate summary. No instrument shows music theory more clearly. I’ll be upset with myself if you don’t outdo Eliza and Hannah over the course of the program. Or do you want to eat first?”

She laughed, still giving me an incredulous look. I’d gotten used to getting that from a lot of different people. “I… suppose it has been a minute since I ate.”

“Fantastic.” I turned away from the piano. “Well, it’s my first day in the UK since I was twenty-one, so I’ve got to do it properly with some fish and chips. Shall we have fish and chips?”

She tented her hands at her waist. “I’m a vegetarian, but I can do chippy.”

“Oh, fantastic. I’ll be vegetarian too, then.”

She laughed awkwardly. “You… do not need to do that. I’ve lived with meat-eaters before.”

I waved her off. “I came here for a change, so I’m looking for change. Something to help jog me out of my routine andbreak this rut. Trying vegetarianism for two months sounds like fun. Maybe it’ll stick. Maybe it won’t. Either way—I show you how to play the piano, and you can show me how to eat some excellent meatless cuisine in London. Now, shall we have…” I equivocated. “Vegetables?”

Ella stared at me for the longest time before she broke out into an odd smile—as if I was being odd. How rude of her to imply that. “Let’s do chippy,” she said. “It’ll be a proper welcome to the UK. Cheese and onion pie with cheese and chips.”

That just sounded like a pile of cheese and carbohydrates. Who said vegetarian food would be boring? Or healthy? “Lead the way,” I said, subtly closing the clarinet case while she wasn’t looking and sliding it back to its spot. She seemed to be doing better when she didn’t see that thing. We could maybe get into it another day.

Chapter 4

Ella

“That was disgusting,” Lydia said as we walked down the long street back to our flat. “I hope you know that.”

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