16
" You play with great skill," he said.
"Thank you."
"Is that your favorite piece?"
"It's my most difficult," Helen said, "but not my favorite."
"What do you play when there's no one to hear?"
The gentle question, spoken in that accent with vowels as broad as his shoulders, caused Helen's stomach to tighten pleasurably. Perturbed by the sensation, she was slow to reply. "I don't remember the name of it. A piano tutor taught it to me long ago. For years I've tried to find out what it is, but no one has ever recognized the melody."
"Play it for me."
Calling it up from memory, she played the sweetly haunting chords, her hands gentle on the keys. The mournful chords never failed to stir her, making her heart ache for things she couldn't name. At the conclusion, Helen looked up from the keys and found Winterborne staring at her as if transfixed. He masked his expression, but not before she saw a mixture of puzzlement, fascination, and a hint of something hot and unsettling.
"It's Welsh," he said.
Helen shook her head with a laugh of wondering disbelief. "You know it?"
"'A Ei Di'r Deryn Do.' Every Welshman is born knowing it."
"What is it about?"
"A lover who asks a blackbird to carry a message to his sweetheart."
"Why can't he go to her himself?" Helen realized they were both speaking in hushed tones, as if they were exchanging secrets.
"He can't find her. He's too deep in love- it keeps him from seeing clearly."
"Does the blackbird find her?"
"The song doesn't say," he said with a shrug.
"But I must know the ending to the story," Helen protested.
Winterborne laughed. It was an irresistible sound, rough-soft and sly. When he replied, his accent had thickened. "That's what comes o' reading novels, it is. The story needs no ending. That's not what matters."
"What matters, then?" she dared to ask.
His dark gaze held hers. "That he loves. That he's searching. Like the rest of us poor devils, he has no way of knowing if he'll ever have his heart's desire. "
― Lisa Kleypas , Cold-Hearted Rake (The Ravenels, #1)
18
" I told the twins, as tactfully as possible, that Hamlet was never barrowed in infancy, as he should have been. I had no idea the procedure was necessary, or I would have made certain it was done."
"Barrowed?" Kathleen asked, perplexed.
West made a scissoring gesture with two fingers.
"Oh."
"Remaining, er... intact," West continued, "has made Hamlet unfit for future consumption, so there's no reason to fear he'll end up on the dinner table. But he'll become increasingly aggressive as he goes through pubescence. It seems he'll become malodorous as well. He's now suited for only one purpose."
"Do you mean-" Kathleen began.
"Might this wait until after breakfast?" Devon asked from behind a newspaper.
West sent Kathleen an apologetic grin. ""I'll explain later."
"If you're going to tell me about the inconvenience of having an uncastrated male in the house," Kathleen said, "I'm already aware of it."
West choked a little on his toast. There was no sound from Devon's direction. "
― Lisa Kleypas , Cold-Hearted Rake (The Ravenels, #1)
19
" They're installing a boiler system," Pandora said, flipping through a book. "It's a set of two large copper cylinders filled with water pipes that are heated by gas burners. One never has to wait for the hot water- it comes at once through expansion pipes attached to the top of the boiler."
"Pandora," Kathleen asked suspiciously, "how do you know all that?"
"The master plumber explained it to me."
"Dear," Helen said gently, "it's not seemly for you to converse with a man when you haven't been introduced. Especially a laborer in our home."
"But Helen, he's old. He looks like Father Christmas."
"Age has nothing to do with it," Kathleen said crisply. "Pandora, you promised to abide by the rules."
"I do," Pandora protested, looking chagrined. "I follow all the rules that I can remember."
"How is it that you remember the details of a plumbing system but not basic etiquette?"
"Because plumbing is more interesting. "
― Lisa Kleypas , Cold-Hearted Rake (The Ravenels, #1)
