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Authors: Marion Zimmer Bradley
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chance?"
The mellow tone of a chime, the warning signal that they should seek their seals, interrupted his musings, and mother and son passed under the arched entrance and
through the great doors. In the box seat on the first balcony which she had reserved for this performance, they took two of the upholstered chairs and Alastair dutifully draped his mother with her fur-lined cloak and adjusted a padded footstool under her feet before looking around the ring of boxes, seeking the young woman on whom his fancy had
alighted.
"There, I see her," he whispered. "In the box decorated with the Elhalyn coat of arms."
Then he murmured in surprise, "I see the royal box is occupied, too." King Aidan was not known to be fond of music, and the royal box was seldom occupied these days.
"No doubt it is Queen Antonella," said Erminie. "It was her generous gift and love of music which rebuilt this house after the fire last year. She is old, very fat, and now quite deaf as well; but she can still enjoy the high tones of her favorite singers."
"I heard a story about that," Alastair interrupted, "when I was singing with the Mountain Choir last year; they said she had commissioned Dom Gavin Delleray to write a cantata for sopranos and violins only, since her hearing loss was fairly selective; she can hear high notes better than low ones."
"So I hear tell," said Erminie, looking over toward the royal box, where the elderly queen, very short and stout in an unbecoming dress of a singularly unlovely shade of blue, sat munching candied fruit,
her lame leg propped up on a footstool. Despite her age, she was accompanied in the box by an elderly woman in the dress of a chaperone, and Alastair smothered a snicker.
At her age the lady can hardly need a chaperone," he whispered, stifling laughter in his sleeve.
"Oh, hush!" implored Erminie. "No doubt the kind old lady is giving a treat to one of her ladies-in-waiting who loves music."
Alastair had noticed that Floria Elhalyn was accompanied in her box only by her father, dispensing with any form of female companionship. He asked, "At the first intermission, will you introduce me?"
"Certainly, my dear boy; it will be a pleasure," Erminie promised, and they settled back to the ripple of applause that greeted the orchestra and choral singers. The nobles all having been seated, the commoners surged into the lower hall, and the performance began.
The cantata was a fine one, featuring as conductor and chief performer the young
composer himself, Dom Gavin Delleray, a handsome young man who sang several solo
pieces for bass voice, interspersed with choral works. Erminie listened, thinking that if he would apply himself, Alastair could certainly sing as well as Dom Gavin himself.
She looked, when Alastair was not watching, toward Edric Elhalyn's box; he smiled at her and nodded, an obvious confirmation of his earlier invitation for herself and her companion to join him at intermission. The girl, too, caught the older woman's eye and smiled in the friendliest manner, and Erminie thought perhaps Floria had noticed that her son was looking at her.
It was to be expected, of course, at his age, that her son's interest would be caught by first one young woman and then another; it was only surprising that it had not happened before this.
From time to time, while the young bass soloist was performing, she glanced at the form of the old queen in the box, staring straight before her with a look of rapt attention (or was it only shortsightedness?) and Erminie, thinking of what her son had said, wondered how much of the music the elderly queen could actually hear.
The music ended, and there was a round of applause for the popular young
composer―he was the same age as Alastair; they had been inseparable during much of their childhood and adolescence. To her surprise, Queen Antonella led the applause, and unpinned a spray of flowers from her dress, weighted with a handsome jewel, which she flung to the
The mellow tone of a chime, the warning signal that they should seek their seals, interrupted his musings, and mother and son passed under the arched entrance and
through the great doors. In the box seat on the first balcony which she had reserved for this performance, they took two of the upholstered chairs and Alastair dutifully draped his mother with her fur-lined cloak and adjusted a padded footstool under her feet before looking around the ring of boxes, seeking the young woman on whom his fancy had
alighted.
"There, I see her," he whispered. "In the box decorated with the Elhalyn coat of arms."
Then he murmured in surprise, "I see the royal box is occupied, too." King Aidan was not known to be fond of music, and the royal box was seldom occupied these days.
"No doubt it is Queen Antonella," said Erminie. "It was her generous gift and love of music which rebuilt this house after the fire last year. She is old, very fat, and now quite deaf as well; but she can still enjoy the high tones of her favorite singers."
"I heard a story about that," Alastair interrupted, "when I was singing with the Mountain Choir last year; they said she had commissioned Dom Gavin Delleray to write a cantata for sopranos and violins only, since her hearing loss was fairly selective; she can hear high notes better than low ones."
"So I hear tell," said Erminie, looking over toward the royal box, where the elderly queen, very short and stout in an unbecoming dress of a singularly unlovely shade of blue, sat munching candied fruit,
her lame leg propped up on a footstool. Despite her age, she was accompanied in the box by an elderly woman in the dress of a chaperone, and Alastair smothered a snicker.
At her age the lady can hardly need a chaperone," he whispered, stifling laughter in his sleeve.
"Oh, hush!" implored Erminie. "No doubt the kind old lady is giving a treat to one of her ladies-in-waiting who loves music."
Alastair had noticed that Floria Elhalyn was accompanied in her box only by her father, dispensing with any form of female companionship. He asked, "At the first intermission, will you introduce me?"
"Certainly, my dear boy; it will be a pleasure," Erminie promised, and they settled back to the ripple of applause that greeted the orchestra and choral singers. The nobles all having been seated, the commoners surged into the lower hall, and the performance began.
The cantata was a fine one, featuring as conductor and chief performer the young
composer himself, Dom Gavin Delleray, a handsome young man who sang several solo
pieces for bass voice, interspersed with choral works. Erminie listened, thinking that if he would apply himself, Alastair could certainly sing as well as Dom Gavin himself.
She looked, when Alastair was not watching, toward Edric Elhalyn's box; he smiled at her and nodded, an obvious confirmation of his earlier invitation for herself and her companion to join him at intermission. The girl, too, caught the older woman's eye and smiled in the friendliest manner, and Erminie thought perhaps Floria had noticed that her son was looking at her.
It was to be expected, of course, at his age, that her son's interest would be caught by first one young woman and then another; it was only surprising that it had not happened before this.
From time to time, while the young bass soloist was performing, she glanced at the form of the old queen in the box, staring straight before her with a look of rapt attention (or was it only shortsightedness?) and Erminie, thinking of what her son had said, wondered how much of the music the elderly queen could actually hear.
The music ended, and there was a round of applause for the popular young
composer―he was the same age as Alastair; they had been inseparable during much of their childhood and adolescence. To her surprise, Queen Antonella led the applause, and unpinned a spray of flowers from her dress, weighted with a handsome jewel, which she flung to the
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