She glanced up at the ceiling, considering, and realized Antonia’s bedroom was directly above. “Antonia loves Beethoven’s Bagatelle Number 25 in A Minor, Für Elise. I usually play it at least once a week for her. But I’ve sadly neglected my duty lately.”
“Well then, it is decided!” Nico smiled down at her.
Inez smiled back. She now understood why he was pursued by so many of the feminine persuasion. He could be exceedingly charming. And when he looked at her like that…
She redirected her focus to the piano and ran her gloved fingertips lightly over the tops of the keys.
Nico said, “Play it once, solo. Then again, and I will join you.”
Inez nodded. She pulled off her gloves, set them aside, and touched the cool keys. She could almost hear herself reminding her students: wrists relaxed and level with the hand, fingertips on the surface of the keys.
She closed her eyes, blocking out all but the piano, letting the quiet fill her until she was ready to replace the silence with music. She launched into the short piece, letting the familiar melody and theme carry her away, playing at the slower tempo she had adopted for Antonia. When she finished and circled back to the beginning, the notes of the violin wound in and around her own, pulling her out of the music. As the two instruments joined together, blending their individual styles and tones to form a deeper, richer whole, Inez relaxed again, able to let the harmony and melody flow over and through her.
They played it twice together. At the end, Inez left her hands rest in final position and allowed echoes of their performance to slowly die away.
“Bellissimo,” said Nico, somewhere above her. In the dream state playing sometimes brought to her, his voice almost seemed a continuation of the music.
“Why did we wait so long?” He took her hand, and Inez thought he only meant to help her to her feet. But as she rose, he pulled her closer, and she realized that was not his intent at all. Time seemed to slow, even as her mind and her heart began racing faster.
Her first thought: why not?
It had been a long time since a man had been so attentive, so admiring. A long time since she had been touched in this way, buried, as she was, in work, in worry, in care for Antonia. She had purposely stayed in the shadows to protect them both, for it had seemed that only by being anonymous and unnoticed would they be able to create new lives in this new city.
Her second thought: why not Nico?
He was charming. He was attractive. He was desirable. With all this, and endowed with the gift of musical talent and sensitivity as well, it was easy to understand why women swooned and dropped their gloves and signaled with their fans and laughed with that lighter-than-air breathless expectancy when he appeared.
Besides, she was curious.
Curious to taste the unknown.
So, she let him guide her to her feet, pull her close and closer until there was no space between them, then touch his lips to hers. First, a light kiss. Then, a second, more lingering. And a third….
Inez, eyes closed, responded as harmony spoke to melody, left hand to right. She allowed long-dismissed passion to uncurl inside her, warming her with pleasure and inducing a growing longing. Her hands and arms had, of their own volition it seemed, pulled his head down to her throat. There, in the dark, in the silence, he was faceless. He could be anyone.
He kissed her neck, brushed her ear with his whisper, “Why did we wait so long?”
The trancelike moment shattered and awareness rippled through her.
What am I doing?
This isn’t just anyone. This is Nico.
It was as if someone had switched on the bright gaslights in the darkened room, blasting insubstantial dreams into hard-angled reality. If she needed to satisfy her thirst for intimacy, Nico was probably her worst possible choice.
Inez cleared her throat and untangled her fingers from his hair. She slid her arms from around his neck, her hands slipping over the soft fur collar of his cloak. “Mr. Donato, we must stop.”
“Surely we are past the point of Mr. this and Signora that.” He sounded mystified and even a little affronted.
Inez realized she had to tread carefully. “Please, this is all very sudden. I mean, perhaps not sudden, but…I need time to think.”
“Thinking can come later.” He began to pull her back into the embrace.
“There is much at stake.” Realizing that might sound cold and calculating, she added hastily, “It is not just you and I. There is Antonia to consider.” She hated offering up her ward as an excuse. It felt as if she was hiding behind the girl’s skirts.
“I thought…” He truly was bewildered, Inez realized. He might not have had a woman refuse his advances before, in which case the possibility of injured male vanity made the situation even more fraught.
“Nico.” She capitulated as far as using his first name and tried to turn the word into a caress. “You have me at a dis-advantage, surely you see that. Surely you can give me the space, the time, I need to think over this change in our relationship.”
He released her and retreated. “Very well.” But it didn’t sound like he thought it was well at all. “It is late. I have kept you from Antonia.” His words and tone also retreated into formality, politeness.
He turned and put his violin away. Inez closed the fallboard and wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the sudden chill in the room. They walked out of the store together. After locking up, Nico turned to her and said, “Please, Signora Stannert.” His voice held a tinge of desperate determination. “For very long, I thought you still in mourning and did not want to presume. My intentions toward you are honorable, I swear it.”
“I see.” And she
