A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson

Author:Eva Ibbotson [Eva Ibbotson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780330477345
Publisher: Pan Macmillan UK

The news for which Kendrick had been waiting so eagerly came through three days after his previous visit to the travel agency.

‘We’ve got them, sir,’ said the helpful girl. ‘We’ve got the tickets for the gala! They were returns but they’re wonderful seats – a box in the Grand Tier. They were reserved for an American diplomat and his wife, but he’s been recalled to Washington.’

She seemed almost as pleased as Kendrick, but she was a conscientious girl and felt compelled to add: ‘There have been rumours of a bit of trouble – Seefeld isn’t pleased with the conductor, but I’m sure it’ll be all right.’

For a moment, Kendrick blenched. What if he payed out so much money and then some inferior soprano took over the lead? How would Ellen react? Trying to assess this, he had to face the fact that he did not know exactly how deeply Ellen felt music. Once he had taken her to a Tchaikovsky concert at the Queen’s Hall and after the concert he had asked Ellen what she was thinking of and she had said, ‘Sorrel Soup.’

She had explained that the slow movement of the Pathétique made her think of a green forest and this in turn had made her think of sorrel and made her wonder if she could get some to make into soup for one of the Gowan Terrace aunts who had a stomach complaint. All the same, it had been a shock.

But she would not think of Sorrel Soup after Rosenkavalier. After Rosenkavalier she would think – she would have to think – of love, and it was after the opera, in some spot that he had not yet finalised, that he intended to propose. This would not be a hasty declaration forced out of him in a kitchen like his previous one; it would be a brief but considered speech which would reach straight to her heart. He had made a short list of places that might be suitable: the Donner Fountain in the Neuer Markt (which personified the tributaries of the Danube), the Mozart Memorial in the Burg Garten, and the equestrian statue of the Archduke Albrecht on the steps of the Albertina – all of which were within a few minutes’ walk of the opera house.

And this brought him to the delicate question of the hotel. They would need two rooms in a suitable establishment – but not adjoining rooms, which might frighten Ellen and give her a wrong idea of his intentions. Perhaps they should be on a different floor, thought Kendrick. He had heard his mother refer to men who could not control their instincts as ‘animals’. The idea that Ellen might think of him as in any way an animal was too dreadful to be borne.

Stammering slightly, Kendrick put the problem of accommodation to the nice girl in the agency, who recommended the Hotel Regina in the Graben, a historic street in the Inner City, and promised to make the booking straight away.

There

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