Tessa and Jem joined the Institute residents for lunch. She noticed Jem's delight whenever someone at the table addressed him as Uncle Jem. During their conversation the night before, he said that he had a different name during his time in the monastery. It was as if he had had a different identity for most of his life.
The children soon left the dining room with the teachers to continue the lesson while her family sat together to get to know Jem better.
Seeing him with James made Tessa's heart sink.
It had happened several times in the last years that she called James by Will's name. Until now nobody had thought anything of it. Except she got the names mixed up. No one ever thought she actually mistook her husband for her son.
But seeing him next to Jem seemed to play with her wits. They sat together for a good four hours before Tessa apologized, holding Jem's hand.
As much as she wanted to reunite Jem with her family, she only had him back a day. There was still a lot they both had to catch up on.
So they went through the Institute together, just like they had done before. Tessa remembered how Will left her during the tour when she was new here. She didn't know her way around and had been totally lost. While she couldn't remember what she had argued with Will - they had argued a lot back then - she remembered exactly how Jem had found her.
He'd given her a sympathetic smile and ended the tour for Will.
Somehow, for a long time, Will had left her angry and Jem had come to smooth things over.
That was also the reason why she fell in love with Jem back then. The only way she could talk to Will was about books. She was attracted to having someone who shared her passion, but it was Jem who always understood exactly what she needed.
"I want to show you something," she said to him now.
She led him into the old music room. In her youth, Jem had been the only one who had used this room. Whenever he composed a new piece for his violin, he took it with him. Here he had shown her a play that he had written for her. Even though Tessa had only heard it once, it was still in her memory.
Words and memories seemed to blur, some even disappeared completely, but the music was unforgettable.
Whether it was because of the endless expanses she could see during the play or because it was the last time she saw him, she didn't know.
They had been engaged for two months, the wedding in the planning stage, when he carried her out of her room one night to play the song he had written for her.
He said he had originally planned to play for her at the wedding, but that he couldn't wait.
That evening they had become closer than ever before. Then they decided they didn't want to delay the wedding any longer.
Jem's health continued to deteriorate and he was not forecast to live another two years.
So in the morning they wanted to inform the institute residents that they were going to get married that same day.
They already had the marriage license, all they had to do was find a church and a priest who would marry them.
They both could do without all the trappings of a wedding.
When she woke up the next morning, she felt great anticipation, but that gave way to infinite sadness when she found out that Jem left that same night.
In the letter he had left her, he expressed his infinite regrets and that he would have liked nothing more than to be married to her right away. But he had suffered another flare-up and just couldn't be selfish anymore. He wrote that she should be happy for a lifetime and not just the little time that could have been theirs.
The letter ended with the sentence. "Don't look for me, I'll start my own journey, but I hope you and Will find your way together."
"Wow, it looks almost the same here as it did back then," he said as he entered the room now.
And that was true. The only thing that had changed was that the room had no clouds of dust. After Lucie befriended Cordelia, Will decided they needed a music teacher.
At the time, the girl was so enthusiastic about the violin that lay in this room, but she said her parents could not afford her lessons on it.
Will instantly took a liking to Cordelia and paid someone to show her.
He didn't want Jem's violin to just gather dust. It filled him with great joy to see the instrument in use.
And even before James was courting her, Will saw that something was between the two of them.
He'd always winked at Cordelia and said the violin should stay in the family.
Over the years, most of the children at the Institute have been taught music, but only a few have been allowed to play the violin.
Tessa opened the closet and took it out. Jem's violin, which hadn't left the room once since he'd left.
Jem gasped in surprise as he took the violin box from her.
He placed it on the piano and undid the buckles.
The dark wood gleamed as if it were new, but it was unmistakably his old instrument.
Dreamily, he laid it on the crook of his neck and tugged at a few sides.
At the sound of it, he sighed and closed his eyes. "It's still in tune," he murmured.
"Because it is still used. Owen learned to play it, as did Lucie's children."
Jem smiled at that thought. Then he drew the bow and tried to play.
Tessa flinched as the violin made the wrong notes.
Jem opened his eyes again and took the violin from his neck. He laughed. "That probably also answers the question I've been asking for years, whether I can still play."
Tessa grinned at that too. "As the saying goes, practice makes perfect."
For the next few hours, they were together like they were in their youth.
Tessa sat on the chair in the corner while she quietly listened to the strains of Jem's music.
It didn't take long for him to get his feeling for the violin back and soon the music of their youth was playing again.