Masquerade with Music by Mary Burchell

Author:Mary Burchell [Burchell, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-12-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

‘This isn’t really happening to me,’ Kate told herself once during the next hour. But only that once did she allow her thoughts to wander from the detailed instructions which Warrender was giving her. Even Anthea, though she remained in the room, made no attempt to comment unless her husband specifically sought her opinion.

To Kate’s initial surprise, Sir Oscar dealt very little with the actual duet which it was proposed to use at the concert. What he made her reflect on with the utmost attention was the whole role of Nedda.

‘You don’t just start being Nedda at the beginning of the duet,’ he informed her. ‘You have been Nedda since the opera began. Indeed, if you are an artist of any sensitivity you became Nedda some while before that—even in the dressing room.’

‘I would suggest——’ began Carlo, but Warrender interrupted him.

‘You will suggest nothing,’ he stated drily. ‘I am giving Kate this lesson. Granted that you stirred her emotions to a fine pitch originally. But that’s not going to sustain her when the romantic bubble bursts. She’ll need much more behind her performance than thrills of personal excitement.’

‘But I think——’ Carlo got up and came towards the piano.

‘Sit down,’ said Warrender without raising his voice. ‘You can make your observations later.’ And Carlo sat down immediately, looking rather like a chastened schoolboy.

At the end of the lesson Warrender allowed them to sing the duet again, and Carlo said discontentedly, ‘She did it better the first time.’

‘Of course she did,’ replied Warrender, unmoved. ‘But she is beginning to build a real foundation now, and is trying to combine some fresh discoveries with her instinctive knowledge. Eventually she will do it a great deal better than that first attempt.’

‘If you say so——’ Carlo shrugged sceptically.

‘Yes, I say so.’ Warrender smiled without offence. ‘And now—you’ve played your part very well and can take yourself off on your own affairs.’

‘But these are my own affairs! I’m waiting to take Kate home.’ The young baritone looked both surprised and affronted.

‘No,’ Warrender assured him, unmoved. ‘Kate has one or two things still to do in the office. She is my secretary as well as your artistic partner, you may remember. She has also quite a lot of work to do on Nedda before we team you up again. If she’s really to join you at the Charity Gala, she has to do us both credit, and I don’t intend her to have a superficial idea about professional requirements. You can join her for another lesson at—let me see——’ he consulted his diary—‘at three o’clock on Friday afternoon.’ And, with good-humoured but quite resistless authority, he wafted young Carlo Ertlinger towards the door.

Kate wanted to laugh. But she was also a shade disappointed, for she would have liked very much to thank Carlo adequately for his magical intervention in her affairs, and to discuss with him further the whole question of the Charity Gala.

But, like Carlo himself, she had no technique for opposing Sir Oscar’s authority. She was, as he had said, his secretary and subject to his requirements.

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