Masquerade with music wa.., p.9
Masquerade with Music (Warrender Saga Book 12), page 9
‘Well, I had, in a way.’
‘But you couldn’t have!’ Kate did some quick mental arithmetic. ‘You wouldn’t have been more than a schoolboy then.’
‘That’s just what I was.’ His blue eyes sparkled suddenly and there was a dash of colour in his cheeks. ‘It sounds corny, I know. Just a bit of hero-worshipping. But it was much more than that. He came to my school when I was—oh, I don’t know—ten maybe, and he talked to us about music. I’ve never forgotten it. It was like someone throwing open windows on an unknown world. I knew from that moment that music must be a part of my life. He spoke of what it meant to him personally—a young conductor just coming into the world class—and it was more exciting than anything I’d ever read, because I knew what he was talking about. He was a bit of a show-off, of course, very arrogant, very good-looking. But none of that mattered. About his music he was quite humble.’ Van paused and then he said simply, ‘It was like a revelation.’
‘But, my dear—but, Van—didn’t you tell him that was how you came to be interested in writing about him? He couldn’t be anything but pleased and flattered.’
‘I didn’t want him to be pleased and flattered. At least, that wasn’t the main idea. I wanted him to judge my work on its own merit, and feel that I’d written correctly about him. I could tell him later how I came to know him. Later—or nor at all,’ he added half to himself. ‘It didn’t really matter.’
‘But of course it matters—a lot,’ Kate declared. ‘And I understand now why I was completely riveted by those early chapters. So much so that I actually forgot that Sir Oscar had agreed to audition me—Oh!’
‘Yes,’ he said ruefully, ‘“Oh!” indeed. Kate, I’m so truly sorry. No anxiety or nerve-strain can justify what I said to you. Please forgive me.’
‘It’s all right.’ She smiled at him almost shyly. ‘Forget it and let’s start again.’ And it occurred to her that she had seldom enjoyed a sentence more.
‘Thank you.’ Again there was that unfamiliar note of humility. ‘And now dare I ask how the audition went?’
‘Of course you can! It went well.’
‘You mean Warrender was genuinely impressed?’
‘No, I wouldn’t quite say that.’ Kate laughed. ‘He said I had a good healthy voice to which nothing wrong had ever been done. But that it was an unawakened voice—I think he meant boring—and everything from now on depended on what I did with it. Then he gave me what amounted to a lesson on the spot, and he put more into an hour’s instruction than most people would have managed in a week.’
‘I don’t doubt it. Is he going to give you other lessons, Kate?’
‘I think he is.’ Suddenly she was cautious, for she did not want to tell him about Carlo’s part in the afternoon’s events. She had an uneasy feeling that some sort of cloud might then descend on the brightness of their new-found friendship. ‘There’s some faint chance that I might do something semiprofessional, but I’m not to say anything about it at the moment. Nothing is settled.’
‘Well, that’s splendid!’ Van looked so intrigued that she was relieved to remember there was another subject she might mention.
‘Oh, Van, Sir Oscar guessed that I was what he calls his so-called niece. And he doesn’t mind much—and Lady Warrender doesn’t mind at all.’
‘I didn’t tell either of them anything about it, you know,’ he said a little defensively. ‘I certainly never betrayed any confidence of yours.’
‘I know. And it doesn’t matter now. Lady Warrender——’ she cleared her throat—‘confirmed the fact that she’d asked you to—to keep an eye on me. And,’ she stated more confidently, ‘I told her it had been quite unnecessary.’
They both laughed then a little selfconsciously, and Kate added, ‘Apart from the Warrenders and myself you’re the only person to know the connection between Sir Oscar and me. For the time at any rate we would all prefer to have it remain a secret.’
He said that of course he understood, and that he must not keep her any longer now, as he had noticed her shiver a little in the keen wind.
It was so novel to have Van Merton concern himself with her wellbeing that she smiled and said, ‘It was worth being a bit chilly in order to straighten things out. I’m glad, Van.’ And she held out her hand to him.
‘I’m glad too,’ he replied as he took the outstretched hand. ‘And this time I’m not going to ask if this is a gesture of genuine friendship or simply—whatever nasty crack I made before.’
‘You don’t need to. It’s genuine friendship,’ she told him. ‘And, Van, does this mean a renewal of your offer to play for my practising sometimes?’
‘It certainly does! Just tell me the time and I’ll be at the studios.’
‘Is early evening any good to you? My daytime hours do really belong to Sir Oscar.’
‘The day after tomorrow, about six-thirty?’ he suggested, and she nodded agreement.
‘Oh, and Van, Sir Oscar is letting me do some work on Nedda.’
‘Apart from the famous duet?’ he enquired quizzically.
‘The——?’ She was startled at first and then remembered that he had overheard her trying the duet with Carlo at the studios. ‘Not only the duet,’ she said hastily. ‘Sir Oscar thought it was a part I might study.’
‘Really?’ he looked impressed. ‘It’s a demanding role for a beginner. If that’s what you really are.’
‘Oh, Covent Garden isn’t bidding for me yet,’ she assured him lightly. ‘It’s just that I’ve always liked the role and Sir Oscar says that if I’m going to study it I must do the job thoroughly. And now I really must go.’
They stood up and for a moment she thought he was going to offer to accompany her. But then, with a tact which surprised her, he bade her goodbye and let her go on her way alone.
Hardly had she reached home when the telephone bell summoned her, and when she picked up the receiver she was not surprised to hear Carlo’s voice say, ‘That brute Warrender kept you pretty late, didn’t he? I’ve tried you twice before this.’
‘There were one or two things to be done—and he had given up most of his afternoon to me,’ Kate reminded him. ‘But, Carlo, I’m so glad to speak to you, and to thank you over and over again for you wonderful help.’
‘It was rather a miraculous intervention, wasn’t it?’ he agreed, with an engaging lack of false modesty. ‘Not that I was responsible for the timing. That was a nice bit of work on the part of fate. I believe in fate, Kate—do you? Fate, luck, strange timing—whatever you like to call it. I believe, for instance, that it was a bit of fateful juggling that brought you and me together at the right time,’ he added solemnly.
‘Well,’ said Kate lightly, ‘that’s a pleasing theory. Carlo, had you really come to suggest to Sir Oscar that I should sing with you at the Gala?’
‘Not really—no,’ he admitted reluctantly. ‘It was for something else, rather unimportant. But when I walked in and saw the scene all set—you near the piano and Warrender getting ready to play God—I had the sudden inspiration, and couldn’t resist combining my dilemma with your great chance. And it came off, didn’t it?’
‘It certainly did,’ she agreed, but a trifle uneasily. ‘It was a great risk, though. Are you sure you truly want me to sing with you on a big occasion? I’m just a nobody, vocally speaking, you know.’
‘No, you’re not. You’re my discovery, darling. Not Warrender’s, incidentally. And you and I are going to do a lot of things together, Kate. You’ll see! I have plans for us, but don’t ask me about them yet—they’re not complete. I’ll be seeing you on Friday, my love, and don’t let Warrender bully you too much between now and then.’
She heard him replace the receiver. But his charm and confidence seemed to linger in the room, and Kate sat there for some minutes, smilingly reviewing the incredible events of that afternoon and speculating enjoyably on the real meaning of Carlo’s last words.
From that day onwards Kate’s life changed. Not that her relationship with her famous uncle became markedly different. She was still very much the secretary to the busy conductor, and if he ever thought about their tenuous family connection nothing in his attitude towards her showed it. But for half an hour—sometimes a full hour—on most days he found time to supervise her vocal studies.
When she told him that Van Merton was going to accompany her for some of her practice sessions he nodded approvingly and said, ‘Well, he’s a knowledgeable fellow, but don’t let him take over. Make him understand that I’m in charge so far as real instruction is concerned.’
‘He does understand,’ Kate assured him earnestly. ‘But he is talented, isn’t he? Those first chapters about you are quite outstanding, aren’t they?’
‘Are they?’ Warrender looked amused. ‘They are extremely readable. But it’s hard for one to say what one was like twenty years ago. Certainly he is almost uncannily accurate about the terms I used then—I’d almost forgotten some of them—and about the ambitions of those early years. It seemed to bring a lot of things back to me, so I suppose he got it right. Though how a young man of his age could have done so I really don’t know.’
She was tempted to tell him then of what Van had said about the inspiration of that school visit long ago. But it was, she reminded herself, for him to have the pleasure of explaining, if he wished so to do. When she joined Van the next evening at the studios, however, she told him what Sir Oscar had said.
‘Yes——’ he smiled with unconcealed pleasure—‘he phoned me and said he was very pleased. That I was to go on in the same vein, but to remember that he had his faults too. That rather amused me, because I hadn’t glossed over his arrogance or his youthful conceit. But perhaps he doesn’t think those rank as faults,’ he added with a laugh.
Then he turned to the piano, propped up her score of I Pagliacci and began to play.
He was, as Miss Caterham had said, an accomplished and sensitive accompanist, and Kate found herself wishing that he had been chosen to play at the Gala Concert. He made few comments, allowing her to take the lead, in the knowledge that she was carrying out—or thought she was carrying out—Sir Oscar’s instructions. At the end he said,
‘I see why Warrender was impressed. You’ll make a good Nedda one of these days if you go on working hard. In fact——’ he laughed—‘Francesca Poli will have to look to her laurels!’
‘Who will?’ Something plucked uneasily at the strings of Kate’s memory.
‘Francesca Poli. She’s one of the best Neddas today. As a matter of fact, she’s going to sing the Silvio-Nedda duet with your friend Carlo Ertlinger at some big charity Gala near the end of the month.’
There was a slight pause, then Kate said in a small voice, ‘She isn’t, you know.—I am.’
‘You are?’ He turned and stared at her. ‘But Ertlinger—whether one likes him or not—is a top-liner, while you, if I may say so, are just a beginner, professionally speaking.’
‘You may say so,’ she assured him. ‘It’s true. No one knows it better than I do.’
‘Well then, how did it come about? Did Warrender make the choice of substitution?’
‘Not exactly,’ Kate said. And then she tried to explain how it had all come about, but she felt she was making rather a poor job of it. At any rate, Van’s expression grew less and less congratulatory, and at the end he said grimly,
‘Then in a sense you’re Ertlinger’s protégée rather than Sir Oscar’s.’
‘No, I’m not,’ she retorted defensively, and she firmly dismissed from her mind what Carlo had said about his plans for them to do quite a lot of things together. ‘It’s just that the other one—Francesca Poli—cancelled and Carlo was in a spot. He happened to come in while Sir Oscar was auditioning me and—and one thing just led to another,’ she finished lamely.
‘I see,’ said Van. And she realised he did not much like what he saw.
‘You mean you don’t approve?’ She was nervous and sounded slightly angry, which was the last thing she wanted to sound.
‘It isn’t my business to approve or disapprove, is it?’ he said, and although the words were reasonable enough, the tone was a good deal less friendly than it had been recently. ‘I wish I were playing for you, that’s all.’
‘Oh, I wish you were,’ she cried, with such emphasis that he smiled slightly and asked, as a matter of interest, who was accompanying her and Carlo.
‘I don’t know.’ Kate shook her head. But as they left the studio together he said, ‘I’ll find out.’ And she decided she also would make some enquiries on her own account.
Consequently, the next day she asked Sir Oscar if he knew who was playing for the Gala Concert.
‘There’ll be more than one accompanist,’ he informed her. ‘It would be a mammoth task for anyone to undertake the lot. Incidentally, there’ve been two or three adjustments to the programme, apart from the one which involves you. Artists do tend to engage themselves generously for these affairs and then find that professional engagements require them to be elsewhere.’
‘Do you know who will be accompanying Carlo and me?’ Kate asked rather timidly.
Warrender reached for the post, which she had opened and set before him and said, ‘I shall.’
‘You will?’ Fright and gratification overwhelmed her.
‘Anthea is singing a couple of items,’ he explained. ‘They had a major disappointment and she agreed to take over. I shall be accompanying her, of course, and might as well accompany you and Ertlinger as well.’
‘How—how good of you,’ she stammered.
‘Not at all. I prefer to have you in my hands on such an occasion,’ he told her. ‘So you’d better do your best. I shan’t be available for anything but the actual performance. Someone else will have to do the dress rehearsal.’
‘Oh, could Van Merton do it?’ she exclaimed, suddenly pink with excitement.
‘Is he good?’ Warrender asked, as if he really wanted her opinion.
‘Yes, he is,’ she stated confidently. ‘Miss Caterham told me he was very accomplished and very sensitive, and that’s how I found him when he played for me.’
‘Oh, Isobel Caterham answered for him, did she? Well, I’ll see what Anthea says.’
Anthea said she would be happy to have Van Merton for the dress rehearsal if he were free, and so it was arranged. To Kate the fact that both Van and her famous uncle would, so to speak, have a hand in her dramatic debut added the most extraordinary attraction to the whole occasion.
‘I’d have thought you would be nervous with Warrender checking every note,’ Carlo said half scornfully. ‘I’m not sure that he would have been my choice. Only of course one doesn’t actually refuse Oscar Warrender’s services. Who is this Van Merton, by the way?’
‘He’s the man who’s writing that talked-of book about conductors,’ Kate said casually. ‘You met him once passingly when he was leaving the flat and you were just arriving. He’s played for me once or twice for practice sessions. He’s very good.’
‘Well, if you feel comfortable about him, he’ll do all right for me,’ Carlo said with careless good humour. ‘It’s only the dress rehearsal, after all.’
In fact it was literally only at the dress rehearsal that the three of them finally came together. In a sense Kate was almost glad of this, as she felt nervous about the meeting between the two men. But her common sense told her that Carlo was being irresponsible in not ensuring that he met his unknown accompanist at least once before the important rehearsal.
‘It’s all right;’ he assured her. ‘I know the thing backwards and, provided he knows his job, neither of us need worry.’
‘Typical,’ was Warrender’s comment when he heard. ‘The eternal improviser. It gives a certain spontaneous charm to what he does, of course, but sets traps for the unwary. So long as it doesn’t make you nervous——’
‘I’m nearly dead with nervousness at the whole prospect,’ Kate told him. ‘But I feel better when I think of Van’s support at the dress rehearsal, and your support on the night.’
‘It would be absurd to admonish you not to be nervous,’ Warrender said realistically. ‘Though, if it’s any consolation to you, it will be Ertlinger they will have come to hear. Still, the British public are sentimental on the whole, and they like anyone who steps into the breach at the last moment. In addition, you are young and pretty. So unless you do something disastrous, which is unlikely, they’ll be on your side. Anyway, I’ll be there to uphold you on the night. You’ll be all right.’
Strangely enough, Kate felt she would be. She even felt this to a certain degree when she arrived for the dress rehearsal, and was intrigued by the thought that Van Merton would at last be hearing how well she sang when Carlo was providing that extra frisson of excitement and feeling which was such an individual part of anything he did.
Their turn came fairly late in the programme, so that Kate had an opportunity to measure her own gifts against those of some of the other singers. Without undue complacency she felt she was not fatally outclassed, though with the star performers like Anthea, she did not even try to seek comparison.
Van obviously enjoyed accompanying Anthea, and acquitted himself well. In fact, Carlo, who was sitting with Kate in the half empty auditorium, said, ‘Is that our chap? He’s good.’
‘Yes,’ agreed Kate eagerly, and her spirits rose. But just then they received the signal to be ready in their turn and, with her legs feeling rather hollow, she went on to the platform with Carlo.
For a dreadful moment she wondered why on earth she had agreed to do this thing. It was like being in some terrible dream. Then Van smiled at her encouragingly, and the world swung into focus once more. The next thing she knew was that Carlo was singing. And, unbelievably, so was she.
Once more he wove that extraordinary spell. Once more she was responding. She was unaware that one or two people came into the wings and peered interestedly at her. Still less did she know that a quite important impresario asked, ‘Who’s the girl? She’s good.’
