Page 34 of Unmasking the Silver Heiress
She went to the instruments first, her eye immediately drawn to the elegant shape of a pedal harp, carved in exquisite relief. She could no more resist the allure of such a thing than she could forego her love of stories or her taste for summer melon. She stepped around the piano as though it were of no consequence, drawn like a maiden to an enchantment in a fairy story.
The harp was taller than she was, but most harps were. It was much finer than the instrument she had played at Mrs. Arlington's under the steely-eyed tutelage of a Welsh master, a man who had considered Nell his personal prodigy. Up close, she could see the workings in the wood, animals in the style of a Renaissance painting frolicking over the curves and dips, chasing one another up the central core of solid spruce.
She reached out to touch it, knowing that the strings were old and out of tune, and knowing full well that the entire instrument was covered in dust. Still, a quickglissandounder her fingers drew out a bright ring of off-key music.
"Do you play?" Nathaniel asked, startling her as though she'd been caught in something untoward.
She whipped around with an apologetic smile, her hand going flat against the strings to silence their thrum as the dust clouded out from the disturbance. "I do," she said once the tone had been silenced. "I used to be quite adept, but I am over a year out of practice."
"We will have it restored," he said with a firm decisiveness. "I wish to hear you play."
"Oh!" she said, her cheeks warming under his attentions. "That would be lovely, Nathaniel. Truly. It is a beautiful instrument. It has exceptional carving along the wood. It is a shame it has been left unplayed for so very long."
"Yes," he agreed softly. "Beautiful instruments are meant to be warm and oft visited. With enough affection, I'm certain you can make up for its neglect."
She gave a nervous laugh, stepping off the platform with her hands twisting together and avoiding his gaze. Something about what he had said had sent jitters clattering through her in the most nonsensical way. She glanced up at the walls, looking for anything that might be more worth studying than her gorgeous husband.
He had seen her naked last night. He must be thinking about it every time he looked at her. He must be remembering the things she'd let him do to her. Why was everything so much more embarrassing in the light of day?!
"I am fond of the baroque pieces," she blurted out in a high, nervous voice. "I once spent two months memorizing the whole ofPassacagliafor no reason other than knowing I couldn't take the sheet music with me when I left Bath! It is my favorite piece, though it is quite long."
"You are full of surprises, Miss Applegate," he replied.
"Nell," she corrected automatically, only to realize as she spoke that he had said the name in a tone that implied the error was deliberate. She turned, her brows furrowed, and found him leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, watching her with a wry smile. "Ah. You are teasing me."
"I am," he confessed, spreading his hands open in a gesture of apology. "I can't seem to help myself. I swear it is not mean-spirited, Eleanor. I find your reactions when you are flustered very endearing."
"You do?" she asked, genuinely surprised. "I cannot imagine why."
"You can't?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows.
Nell attempted to sputter out her befuddlement, but when the words would not come, simply reverted to a sigh of exasperation. "It would certainly explain things, if my distress was amusing to others. Glory used to prod me so, and when I was worked up into a proper steam, she'd suddenly embrace me, laughing as though I'd told the finest jest she'd ever heard! It drove me absolutely barmy."
He chuckled, which only made her sigh again, her arms flopping down to her sides.
"Nell," he said sweetly, pushing himself off the wall and walking toward her. Slats of light danced over him as he went, changing the glimmer in his eyes from gold to green to gold again. "Have you ever met a person who is oblivious to their own charm? Someone who you find yourself growing fond of almost by accident, as though it were sprung upon you when you were looking the other way?"
"I don't think so," she replied, drawing her eyebrows together as she considered the question against those in her acquaintance. After a moment, she shrugged and said, "I tend to know right away whether I like someone or not."
He reached her, gathering her hands into his and looking down at her with an expression of clear skepticism. "Is that so? Is your opinion of me the same today as it was that night when you handed me the letter at Almack’s? Is it the same as it was even a few weeks ago, when we departed Somerton together?"
She frowned, averting her eyes as she considered this question. "I have always ..." she hesitated, not wishing to humiliate herself. "I have always found you appealing, though I suppose as one gets to know another person, more concrete features of the other begin to take shape."
He lifted her hands to his lips, lingering over her fingers with a soft kiss. His eyes sparkled with amusement at her obvious discomfort, as though to demonstrate the strange line of reasoning he'd just described. "So it is different, now that we are married?"
"It is different now that we have spent a great deal of time together," she huffed, doing her level best not to chew on her lip. "And of course, after ... erm ..."
"After last night?" he prompted, tugging her closer to him, so that she had little choice but to meet his gaze or to stare directly into his shirt. "There is nothing to be embarrassed about, Nell. We are married. It is a thing married people share."
"I know that!" she breathed, certain now that her entire face was as bright as the bowl of cherries from the night before. "That is not what I meant, anyway. I meant that before, you were this enigmatic figure, this question I could not answer, and while you are still a man of many puzzles, I feel those questions pressing less on me when we interact."
"I will answer any questions you have," Nathaniel said to her. "What would you like to know?"
Have you ever killed a man?
She shook her head, dispelling the thought. It would not suit the tone of this moment, nor the fledgeling intimacy that they had begun to build.
What is your interest in the Silver Leaf Society?
