Broken Harmony by Roz Southey Page A

myself.”
    Outside again on the Key, I paused. I had some time before my first lesson of the day and I was tempted to go down to Westgate to see Hugh. Nichols’s certainty of success made me uneasy.
Surely he did not have the girl’s co-operation in the matter? While I stood irresolute, I heard the rattle of carriage wheels on the cobbles of the Key and was surprised to hear my name
called peremptorily. Turning, I saw Lady Anne framed in the window of a carriage door. As I made my bow, she flung open the door and jumped down. Her servants, I noticed, made no attempt to offer
assistance but began to root under the box for a number of parcels.
    “I called upon you at your rooms, sir,” Lady Anne said gaily, “and was told you had come this way. My compliments on your performance last evening.”
    “You are most kind, my lady.” I bowed once more. “I did not see you in the audience.”
    She laughed. “When you sat with your back to us, sir? I am not surprised. Of course I was there – to see the results of my plotting.”
    “I fail to understand –”
    “Had you not guessed, sir? I sent Monsieur le Sac home in the worst of the rain without offering a carriage.” The breeze drifted a strand of hair across her face. Behind her, the
river glittered in the sunshine; her servants carried parcels into the Printing Office. “Did you not know he was susceptible to chills and fevers?”
    “He has never confided in me, madam.”
    How odd to find myself suddenly indignant on Le Sac’s behalf. Lady Anne had behaved abominably towards him. And for what? Merely her own mischief. She stood as if expecting me to comment
further, a vision in a gown of severe cut, burgundy-red touched with white lace; jewellery of gold and diamonds hung about her neck and wrists. She seemed extraordinarily overdressed for a mere
ride about town.
    I would not let her go unchallenged. “I do not understand, Lady Anne, why you should disadvantage your protégé in my favour.”
    She smiled at me impishly. “But you know what we fashionable idlers are like! Always in search of novelties. We are wild for one thing today and tomorrow are looking for some new
distraction.” She turned to her servants and instructed them to drive to the coaching inn to send the remaining parcels on to London. “I have an appointment at the Guildhall,” she
said. “Walk me there, Mr Patterson.”
    No, I refused to be a distraction, or a novelty. Musicians must always be polite and fawning to the gentlemen and ladies who pay their wages, but against this I rebelled. “I have a lesson
to give here, madam.”
    “Come, you will be only a little late.”
    I drew back. “I regret, my lady, but a prior engagement must always take precedence.”
    She regarded me coolly and I thought for a moment that my favour with her would be short-lived in the extreme. Well, so be it. But she smiled again and said, “Very well. But come to me for
tea again tomorrow. This time I will promise you no surprises.”
    Tea? In Caroline Square? But before I could refuse, she walked away.
    It was a trying afternoon. I could not get the lady out of my mind. I was irritated by her games and by her arrogant assumption that I would do as she wished and be grateful
for it. And the invitation to the house in Caroline Square! I had decided that I would not go there again, but how could I refuse? If I found some excuse to stay away, the lady would merely issue
another invitation.
    Then, as I was about to go off to another lesson, I discovered that I had left at home some music-books I needed. To go to the lesson without them would be more than inconvenient, for I had
intended to introduce a good pupil to a new composer, but to go home for them would make me late. There was nothing for it but to rush back – and I dashed up the stairs to my room, only
halting as I came to the last landing and saw Hugh Demsey standing against the railing, looking down at me.
    “I have been waiting for