Scherzo

The following morning the rain had already set in, with a slow drizzle that looked determined to last all day. Amanda arrived and drove round to the stable yard, but as she climbed out of the car she heard her name being shouted from the tack room. She hurried across the yard and looked in to see Virgil with a pile of harnesses on the table in front of him.

"Virgil!" she exclaimed, "what an earth are you doing?"

He gave a sheepish grin. "I was getting bored, so I asked Parker if there were any jobs I could help with, and he gave me this to do."

"Cleaning tack! That's what we used to be given as a punishment! Here, let me give you a hand." She pulled up another chair and reached for the bottle of polish.

Virgil watched her work and grinned. "Judging from your expertise, I'd say you got a lot of 'punishment duties'."

She pulled a face. "Penny was a bad influence on me – we were always getting into trouble for one thing or another." Over the next hour she proceeded to recount a series of pranks that eventually had Virgil holding his injured side and begging for mercy. Some of the escapades would have even aroused Gordon's admiration, and Virgil made a mental note never to tell his younger brother about this new side to Lady Penelope. The last thing they wanted was a game of one-upmanship on Tracy island, and though Virgil presumed the aristocrat had now grown out of such pranks he knew darn well that his brother hadn't.

As they worked and chatted, Virgil discreetly studied the young lady sitting opposite him. The first couple of times they had met, she had been wearing her hair in a pony-tail. Today she wore it loose, pushed back with a hair-band. It was slightly darker than Gordon's, and was matched by the row of freckles that spread lightly across her nose and cheek bones, under her dancing green eyes. He wondered if he should tell her that she had a smudge of polish on the tip of her upturned nose, but decided against it – he thought it looked kinda cute. Suddenly he realised that she had asked him a  question.

"Sorry," he said, "I didn't quite catch that."

"I asked if you were a member of the CIA, or the FBI?"

"No," said Virgil, wondering where this had come from, but deciding to keep the mood light, "nor, for that matter, M15, the KGB or the French Foreign Legion – though, of course, if I did belong to any of those, I would still have to tell you I didn't. What made you ask that?"

"Oh, just something Penny said." Virgil frowned, wondering what Lady Penelope could have been thinking of, but Amanda continued on. "Did you know that Penny's great-great-grandmother was a spy for the French Resistance in the Second World War? I often think Penny would have liked to be like her."

"No," said Virgil, "I never knew that." ('but I see now where she gets it from' he thought to himself.)

Just then Parker appeared with a large umbrella. "Luncheon his being served hin the Music Room.," and using the umbrella, escorted the guests into the house.

After cleaning up, they entered the music room to find Penny seated with a plate of sandwiches and drinks. "There you are, Virgil. I gather Parker has been keeping you occupied this morning. I thought we'd have lunch in here then we can look out over the rose garden – they are looking so pretty at the moment." She paused a moment and looked at him, "Then maybe after lunch you might like to play the piano for Amanda."

"Oh, do you play?" asked Amanda, eagerly.

"Well," said Virgil, "I'm a bit rusty. I haven't played since my accident. When I tried before I found it was making my ribs hurt."

Penny knew full well that Virgil hadn't been playing. This was one of the things that was worrying his father, who knew how music acted as a release for his son's feelings. Penny was counting on the fact that Virgil wouldn't refuse to play in front of a guest.

After he had finished eating, Virgil made his way to the piano and sat down, flexing his fingers. He tried a few scales with his right hand, while his left pressed against his injured side. "Doesn't feel too bad," he observed, half to himself, then turned to his audience, "Well, I can't promise anything spectacular, but any requests?"

The two girls looked at each other, then Penny said, "No, just play whatever you feel like, dear boy."

Virgil started with Moonlight sonata and then went on to Clair de lune. Then, with a small smile in Penny's direction he started on a piano version of Cas Carnaby's Dangerous game. Amanda was surprised to hear Penny singing softly beside her. She turned to her friend "I didn't know there were any words to that tune."

"There aren't – officially," replied Penny, "This is something Virgil wrote for me once."

 When he had finished, Amanda applauded. "Well, if that's how you play when you're a 'bit rusty' then you must be brilliant normally." She paused, "I've just realised, I'm going to a 'Prom' concert tomorrow night – my uncle and aunt are using our family box. It's a 'Russian' night and one of the pieces is a piano concerto. Would you like to come along? They told me I could bring a friend if I wanted."

Virgil looked puzzled. "Is that like a High School Prom? I'm not exactly up to dancing at the moment, you know."

Both girls laughed. "No, Virgil," explained Penny. "the Proms are a series of concerts held every summer at the Royal Albert Hall in London. All the seats are taken out of the centre of the hall so the audience can stand and watch the orchestra. But don't worry, the boxes around the sides of the auditorium have seats, so you won't have to stand."
Amanda continued "The Albert Hall was built in a rather unusual way. Money was raised by people buying leaseholds on boxes for a specified number of years. Our family has a box whose lease still has another 30 years to run. We don't use it much, but my aunt likes Tchaikovsky, so she's going to this particular concert."

"Sounds great!" said Virgil, "I'd love to come – if it's OK with your relatives."
"Fine, I'll go and ring them now."

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