Free No Will But His by Sarah A. Hoyt

them and to cover her errors with her pure, high voice.
    When she was done, there was silence. At long last, the duchess tapped her stick once. "Well?" she asked.
    "I am glad Your Grace called me and thought of me for this employment," Manox said.
    "But?" the duchess said. "You don't find her well enough?"
    "Oh, she is well enough. Indeed, I thought me that an angel from heaven had flown down and landed in the room to grace us with melodies so sweet that even the Almighty in his throne would be jealous of our enjoyment. I am honored and hope only that my poor teaching skills can do justice to such an exceptional pupil."
    "I said," the old lady's voice rose, acerbic, "that you were not called here to make love to my granddaughter. Lessons will start tomorrow after dinner. You may use my small study and my virginal." But she sounded pleased, Kathryn thought.
    And when she looked at Manox, she was surprised to find that his gaze on her had changed. He was no longer smug and vaguely amused, but there was real admiration in his green eyes.
    She went to bed with a smile upon her lips, dreaming of the lesson on the morrow.

 
    Chapter Nine
    "Repeat that last line, Mistress Howard, please," Manox said. He sat next to her in the small study. They'd been working upon the virginal for over a year now, and Kathryn felt herself quite confident upon the instrument.
    She'd stopped marveling at the instrument itself, a beautiful creation of many-colored woods inlaid with mother-of-pearl, the whole forming a landscape of woods and lakes upon which stags and does disported in an eternal spring. That it was a great honor for the duchess to allow her to play upon it, she understood, and also, she'd come to know that all the other girls were jealous of her private music lessons upon such a good instrument.
    Kathryn enjoyed knowing that the duchess thought well enough of her to let her use this instrument. And she enjoyed, even, the envy of her fellow maids of honor. For it was a thing she'd never had: the chance to be envied for something she got to see or do that was not quite what the rest of her fellows could see or do. This was something different, something important, something that set Kathryn apart.
    She might be the youngest of the maids, and she might be silly at times. She might not have heard as much of court life as some of the other girls, and she might know nothing of what went on between men and women. But this she knew: her voice could rise upon a pure note and fill the room and all the listeners with wonder; her fingers were nimble on the lute; and she was fast becoming a very good virginal player. If the others wanted to envy her for that and the notice it brought her, they might as well do it, and she would warm her soul upon their envy as one warming one's hands before a fire on a cold day.
    She repeated the phrasing that Manox had asked her to do and then waited while he corrected some of her mistakes in positioning. This required him to embrace her from behind and place his hands upon her hands.
    There was nothing exceptionable about this. The door to the small sitting room stood wide open. Kathryn didn't think that Manox was about to try to violate her right here, and he was only doing what he had done many times before.
    Why then, did her heart start beating such a frantic cavalcade, and why did her blood seem to rush past her ears with a whistling sound? Manox smelled good—of some strong perfume like pine or camphor, but more pleasant—and his blond mane tickled the edge of her face as he leaned forward next to her. "Now, put your hand thus, Mistress Howard. You see how much easier this makes it to perform the transition to the next movement? Like this. Turn and turn, and your small finger does this . . ."
    She repeated the movements, with his hands still resting atop of her, his face pressed next to hers. She could smell him, and feel his warmth and the hardness of his muscular chest behind her. He'd never seemed