A/N: ummm… better summary… hmm…. I will have a think about it and change it, thank you for the comment Doomed Delight.
AmberPalette: Thank you, I appreciate your time to read and review.
ModestySparrow: Same to you and I will be heading over to your piece shortly…
Excuse any typos… I write late at night and tend to miss things in the proof reads… then go back later and correct. I did a few corrections tonight but no doubt I have missed plenty.
Chapter 5- The Music
She stared down at the piano and released a sorrowful sigh, how long had she been sitting here? She glanced at the window and noted that it was dark outside, it hadn't been when Raoul had left. She shook herself and wondered if he was back yet, she had been in such a daze she was sure that she wouldn't have noticed had he tapped her on the shoulder.
She stood and stretched then leaned over to light the candle on the corner of the piano. He always told her off for that, keeping the candle on the piano. He scolded her for not thinking of the heat and the damage hot wax might do to the beautiful, and expensive, instrument. She always grimaced when he mentioned the price, as if it were all that mattered in the world. He never thought that maybe she had the candle there for a reason, that it comforted her being so close and the light being so soft and warm. She licked the bitter taste of his words from her lips.
This piano.
He had often made her wonder why he ever bought it for her if not so that she could do as she pleased with it. He was unhappy when she played it, although she considered herself rather good and he was unhappy when she didn't play it because it was a gift.
Still, he didn't like her to play it and she understood at least part of his reasoning. He hadn't wanted her to continue to sing and to her, at the time, that was fine. She hadn't wanted to sing either because that part of her had belonged to someone else.
A person that both of them had wished to forget about.
She remembered his words on the subject and she recalled her own response. She had said that it was probably a blessing that she would no longer have the stress of needing to touch perfection almost every night. Raoul had never been pushy about it, no, nor had he been possessive. He had been concerned and that is what she loved most about him, that he had a good heart and a kind nature. It was the reason she loved him. It wasn't the money or the status that made her heart skip a beat and it wasn't his dashing good looks... She smiled to herself as her mind drifted over his chiselled good looks. No, that wasn't why she loved him that was just a bonus.
She loved her husband because he was kind.
But her smile soon faded to a frown and she gulped back her emotion as she thought about the change that had come over him in the last year or so. She truly didn't understand it. Now he was evasive when they spoke, he disappeared at all hours and was uncharacteristically bad tempered. And he always looked so tired. Her heart cried for him, to him.
Oh Raoul.
What's wrong? What have I done?