The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(17)

After about an hour the heat had intensified and Isla had grown restless. Her sister’s infatuation with Cecil no longer entertained her for the challenge had been met and won. She had brought them both together, made suggestive comments and encouraged their friendship – the rest was up to them. Then a strange melody wafted in from the hall, a doleful tune in a minor key and Audrey recognized it at once because it was Louis’ melancholic spirit translated into music. Her cheeks prickled with yearning as she realized suddenly that it was also a reflection of her own rootless spirit striking a chord within her. Unable to remain a moment longer at the table she muttered a hasty apology and fled, following the hypnotic sound of the piano.

When Audrey stood beside the piano, watching Louis’ long fingers gliding across the keys, she noticed that he wasn’t reading a score but inventing the music as he went along. His eyes were closed and he was following his feelings as if he were riding a wave on the sea, aware of her presence without needing to see her. His fingers trembled slightly and his mouth curled into a small smile. Then little by little as his spirit rose, the minor chords were transformed into major ones until his melody was surprisingly happy and full of hope.

After a while Louis opened his eyes. He rested them on the blushing young woman who swayed to his music without even realizing. Then his mouth extended into a wide smile and Audrey found herself smiling too because Louis had the artlessness of a child, jumping from melancholy to joy in a single moment. Audrey found such spontaneity disarming and her spirits lifted with his.

‘Come and play with me,’ he said, making room for her on the stool.

‘No, really, you play so well,’ she protested. ‘I can’t improvise.’

‘Of course you can. Come, I’ll show you.’

Audrey sat down beside him and immediately felt the warmth of his body against hers, burning through her clothes. She rested her nervous fingers over the keys and waited for his instruction.

‘These are the notes we’re going to use, G minor,’ he said, playing a chord. Audrey copied him and played the G minor scale. ‘There, that’s not too hard, is it?’

‘I spent years learning the scales.’

‘You play them beautifully. Now, I’m going to invent a tune for you, “Audrey’s Sonata”, and once you’ve familiarized yourself with the melody I want you to close your eyes and slowly let your feelings move your fingers. Don’t worry if you make mistakes, it doesn’t matter. Soon your fingers will be an extension of your heart and you won’t think in terms of notes but feelings. You’ll feel the need to express them. Now close your eyes.’

Audrey obeyed and listened as he began to play slowly, a sad, engaging tune that stirred her restless soul. Then he spoke over the music in a soft, hypnotic voice, drawing her away from the hall in the Hurlingham Club, to a faraway place where they were alone beneath a dark sky in an enchanted valley. Tentatively her fingers began to touch the keys. Falteringly at first, a note here a note there until they lengthened into phrases that threaded into his and united with them; a doleful sonata of dreams.

As the strangely alluring tune resounded through the hall the old colonel, who was sitting in his usual leather chair reading the Illustrated London News, put down his paper and listened. He sat as if petrified while the music melted the frost that old age had sketched upon his heart and felt a thawing in his joints so that when he finally pushed himself up he did so with the agility of a much younger man. He snorted in puzzlement and shook his head as the echo of that melody still rang in his ears. When he looked around the world looked softer. He blinked, then blinked again. It remained soft as if an invisible hand had buffed away the sharp edges. ‘Curious,’ he mumbled to himself. ‘Most curious.’

Later in the day when Audrey joined her family for lunch in the tiled corridor her body was still swaying to the music they had made and her eyes had glazed over with imaginings inspired by Louis and his wandering soul. She no longer feared him. On the contrary, she felt she understood him. She knew she shouldn’t love him, but he was the most loveable human being she had ever met. He was otherworldly and he had captured her spirit with his music, with his passion and with his impulsiveness that somehow made him vulnerable. She ceased to hear the small voice of her conscience for the internal melody of her love had muffled it.

‘Are you excited about your party?’ Aunt Edna asked Audrey when they all sat down to eat.

‘Yes,’ she replied. Aunt Edna frowned at her lack of enthusiasm.

‘She’s nervous because she’s in love,’ Isla explained in a loud whisper. Audrey’s face throbbed scarlet with mortification and she shot her sister a wounded look. ‘I’m sorry, Audrey.’ She laughed. ‘But it’s written all over your face, they were bound to find out in the end.’ Their three younger brothers sniggered into their hands.