forward and patted Merelan's nervously drumming fingers. 'I'm not a healer, but a glass of wine would not go amiss right now. For both of us.' She rose and went to the cabinet, taking down a wine-skin and two glasses. Merelan waved away the courtesy, but Lorra insisted.
'There're a lot of things Petiron won't notice, including wine on your breath, if that's what you're worried about. And right now you need to relax, which is what my herbal cordial will help you do.' Merelan glanced out of the office at Robie, who was making the girls giggle, his round, happy face smeared with deep purplish berry juice. She settled back, accepting the glass.
'Has Master Gennell told you about the new girl yet?' Lorra asked.
'Halanna?' When Lorra nodded, Merelan went on, 'Yes, I'd a letter from Ista Hold's harper, Maxilant. He's done as much as he can with her vocal training and says she's too good to be messed up by an amateur like himself.' She smiled over Maxilant's modesty.
'Petiron would be happy to have a good contralto on hand too,' Lorra said. She sang in that range, though never as a soloist. 'Odd, isn't life? You never really know how things'll turn out until they do, do you?'
'No, you don't.' As Merelan sipped, she could feel the cordial seeping down her veins and the knot of tension in her belly beginning to ease.
'She's of an age with the Hold daughters here, so I've placed her with them in the cottage,' Lorra said. 'They may be here only until TurnOver, but they'll help her ease into the routine here. It can take a bit of getting used to, can't it?'
Merelan couldn't help smiling at Lorra's use of the word 'routine' in connection with the Harper Hall. No two days were ever alike in the fascinating, and sometimes frantic, atmosphere within this rectangle. She did very vividly remember her own first days there, and would help young Halanna as much as she could to become accustomed to the requisite study and practice. In fact, if Lorra was correct about Petiron, and she rather suspected the head-woman was, Merelan herself would welcome having a female student to bring on. She'd have less time to fret herself into stress over all the confrontations she imagined between son and spouse.
CHAPTER THREE
Halanna arrived, and created an instant impression on all who met her of an overly self-confident seventeen-Turn-old young woman who found fault with everything at the Harper Hall, and especially the cottage where she was lodged. She was accustomed to a room of her own, she informed Isla, who acted as foster-mother to her charges: she'd never be able to sleep, sharing a room. Why was there so little fresh food to be had when she was used to plenty of fruit? The weather was dreadful and she hadn't the right clothing, though the three large bundles laboriously taken up by carrier beast from the ship which had delivered her at Fort Hold Harbour contained an immense quantity of clothing. Nor had she sufficient space to arrange half her things in the tiny room she had to share!
And where could she practise in peace and quiet with all the instruments and voices blaring constant cacophony into the rectangle?
The only one who found her at all bearable was Petiron. Once he heard her sing, he dismissed Merelan's remarks about her lack of discipline and a lack of general knowledge about music which was close to illiteracy. Jubilant over having a contralto with such a rich timbre and wide range, with no 'break' whatever, he immediately began to write contralto solos into the TurnOver music he was currently composing. He discounted Merelan's suggestion that the girl would not be able to 'read' the contralto line, much less manage the tempo changes or the cadenzas.
Unfortunately, Petiron's approval merely increased Halanna's already overbearing manner. Merelan needed all her tact, and the weight of her position as MasterSinger, to get the girl to do the vocalizes that would strengthen her breath control, sustain her range and prepare her for the rigours of singing Petiron's kind of vocally extravagant music. That Petiron had also envisaged a soprano/contralto duet did nothing to help Merelan, for it automatically put the girl on a par with a MasterSinger, which Halanna clearly was not despite an amazing natural voice.
Merelan hadn't a jealous bone in her body and was quite willing to prepare the girl or remedy the gaps in her education – if Halanna had been the least bit amenable. But the young singer decided that, if she was good enough to sing a duet with the leading MasterSinger of pern, she had no need to do such dull exercises and study vocal scores. She sang loudly, completely ignoring any dynamic alteration for the appropriate performance of a song or aria, concerned only with showing off the power of her vocal equipment. 'Soft' was an unknown quality.
'If she keeps on shrieking like that,' Washell said to Merelan when she approached him for advice on how to deal with Halanna, 'she won't have a voice in a couple of turns. That'll solve that problem rather neatly, I'd say.'
'Washell!' Merelan was shocked by the acid tone of his voice.
He raised his eyebrows, wrinkling his forehead, and gave her a long look.
'Of course, it's a lot harder to sing softly, since it requires considerable breath control. I've had many difficult students in my life as a teacher, m'dear, but that one is unique in my experience.
Whatever was Maxilant thinking of to encourage her to think so highly of her ability?'
'Sheer desperation, I'd imagine,' Merelan replied with understandable disgust. 'And a chance to get her out of his hair.'
'You may be right. Though how he could let her away with so little fundamental understanding of note values is really beyond me.'
'And quite possibly beyond Halanna,' Merelan added. They exchanged understanding grins.
'Let Petiron handle this one, m'dear,' Washell said, winking. 'He won't like her messing up his music, you know.'
'There is that,' Merelan mused, and then grimaced. 'Only he's likely to find me lacking as an instructor. And I'm not!' she added with a touch of desperate anger in her voice.
'By no means, m'dear, as everyone else in the Hall will vouch.' Washell patted her arm. Then he paused, thinking. 'There may be another way. We'll contrive. Just you wait and see.'
Many of the Masters, and even journeymen, at the Harper Hall were eccentric in one fashion or another, traits which were respected or, sometimes, endured as a necessary evil to the results.
But they had all put in the essential work to master the basic mechanics of music. Halanna could not be bothered with such slogging.
Merelan kept at it, as obstinate in her attempts to instruct Halanna as the girl was to avoid such lessons.
Halanna was an accomplished flirt and quickly isolated those whom she would favour – because of their rank, either within the Hall or from prestigious Holds. She chose only the attractive journeymen and Masters, of whom there were quite a few just then: back at the Hall either for reassignment or to take part in the TurnOver rehearsals. Not only did she have a voice, even her worst enemies had to admit that she was a beauty. Blond hair bleached almost silver by the sun in Ista Hold, a flawless tan that accentuated her light green eyes and white, even teeth, a figure more mature than those of most girls her age – and she knew far more than she ought of how to accentuate her sensuality. She did not obey the cottage-keeper's basic rules, deciding they were for children and not the daughter of a Holder, though all the other boarders were of the same rank, and some more prestigious than hers. She was caught time and again sneaking in late at night.
Then Halanna took a dislike to Robinton ...
Merelan conducted her voice lessons in her own quarters, as they were spacious enough and offered some privacy. Right now, preparing for the TurnOver celebrations, she was coaching quite a few students and often had to schedule them when Robie was not in the Hall nursery school. He had always played quite happily and quietly in the other room. Now Halanna said his very presence so close to her was distracting, even with the connecting door closed, and she hated anyone to overhear her lessons. That was too much for Merelan. Nor' was it an excuse to find favour with Petiron, who was busy dreaming of the success of his new composition.
'Since it is so important to you, love,' Merelan said from behind gritted teeth, 'I really think you ought to take over her coaching. As you may have observed,' she added, knowing perfectly well that he hadn't, 'she will probably do better with a male coach. I've already more than I can handle with the secondary parts.'
'But I can't teach her what you can,' Petiron protested in surprise. In his estimation, Merelan was much the better vocal coach, and he couldn't quite understand how she was having difficulties with a voice as fine as Halanna's. 'You're not annoyed that I've written in a duet for you to sing with her?'
'Me? No, why should I be? She has a magnificent voice, but she's a little shy on technique and I know she'll respond better to your comments.'
