Music Master by Barbara Jean Miller

Author:Barbara Jean Miller [Miller, Barbara Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC027070 FICTION / Romance / Historical / Regency
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2023-06-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The next day, Leighton slept late and missed breakfast. Indeed he woke at all only because Tibbs dropped a boot he’d been polishing. Certainly that had been deliberate, but he was grateful for it. After dressing, he went down to the courtyard with the fountain and had his lunch, then sat enjoying his customary brandy and water as he worked on “Maddie’s Song” in the garden. He was adding the left-hand accompaniment and meant to try it out that afternoon when he gave Dierdra her lesson. If he turned up early, she might still be dressing and he would have access to the piano while he waited. So intense was his absorption that when a shadow loomed over his table, without looking for the waiter, he held up his glass. “I’d like another brandy, please.”

The glass was silently removed from his hand and deposited on the table without any reply.

Leighton hesitated, then looked up. The tall gray-haired man who glared down at him was a stranger. “I am sorry. I thought you were the waiter.” This caused the stiff face above him to turn an alarming shade of red and the salt-and-pepper mustache to bristle.

“Are you Leighton Stone?” a gravelly voice demanded.

“Yes.” Leighton stood up. “Do I know you?”

“I believe you are acquainted with my daughter.”

“Daughter?”

“I am Sir Phillip Haddon.”

“Haddon?” So much for first impressions. But it would not do to be obsequious. “Oh, Mrs. Marsden’s son-in-law.” Leighton could sense a fuming from the stiff figure.

“Yes, and my wife’s husband. But the matter at hand is my daughter.”

“I know,” Leighton said as though consulting a faulty memory. “Music lessons. I don’t think she really has a particle of interest in music lessons, but her grandmother insists.”

“And you are interested in music.”

Leighton could hear the skepticism in his voice and wondered if he dared try to win this lion over. At least he could disarm him. “Of course. Please, have a seat and join me. Do you read music?”

“I—no, I do not. What has that to do with anything?” Haddon remained standing. Of necessity, so did Leighton.

He fell back on his ruse during the Peninsular Wars, that of an obtuse young scholar trying to make what he could of his grand tour with most of the continent in ruins. “I have been torn between an eighth and a sixteenth note for the end of this measure. I suppose you cannot advise me.”

“What? No! I do not wish to discuss your music.”

“Oh, what did you want?”

“I want to make it abundantly clear that my daughter is off limits.”

“Off limits?” Leighton thought he effectively switched his face from an expression of confusion to one of glee. “You mean I don’t have to give her music lessons?” The relief in Leighton’s voice should have been convincing enough for anyone.

“I mean there is no chance I would ever approve a match between her and—and an itinerant musician.”

“Oh, that.” Leighton allowed himself a chuckle as he tossed his score onto the table, causing Haddon’s complexion to darken even further.

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