Page 17 (1/2)

"How about this?" She brought it back to the piano and spread the ton hated the opera--she couldn’t understand why anyone wanted to listen to people bellow for hours in a foreign tongue But she loved Gilbert and Sullivan They at least speak plain English" Beth opened the h the most She’d made Beth learn it and play it over and over Beth had tired of the bouncy rhythrateful to Mrs Barrington’s tastes

Ian looked at the paper without changing expression "I can’t read , and now the rosette at her bosom was level with his nose "No?"

Ian studied the rosette, his eyes taking in every facet of it "I have to hear it Play it through forher about five inches of space on the bench Beth sat down, her heart ha He wasn’t about to move, and his body was like a solid wall This close she felt the hard ainst hers

His alittered behind thick lashes as he half turned his head to watch her

Beth drew a breath She stretched her arm across his abdoh the intro, and then sang in a shaky voice

"I aeneral"

Chapter Five

Ian studied Beth’s niers as they tripped across the keyboard Her nails were small and rounded, neatly trier of her left hand

Her soothing alto flowed over hih he didn’t bother to ral and differential calculus; I know the scientific nas animalculous"

The blue rosette at her boso, and her elbow slid across his waistcoat as she reached up and down the keyboard Light blue silk flowed across her lap--no ray for Beth Ackerley Isabella must have taken her in hand

One curl fell across her cheek as she sang He watched it bounce against her skin, watched herthe lively words He wanted to take the curl between his lips and pull it straight

At last the tune lilted upith her voice: "I a chords, and that was the end

Beth smiled at him, out of breath "I haven’t practiced in a while I have no excuse now, since Isabella has this excellent piano"

Ian laid his fingers on the keys where Beth’s had been

"Is the song supposed to make sense?"

"Do you mean to say you’ve never seen The Pirates of Penzance? Mrs Barrington draggedwith the entire performance, to the dismay of the audience around us"