London Harmony: Water Gypsy (5 page)

This got an explosive giggle. “No you don't. One hour.” Then my evil best friend rang off.

I said sarcastically, “Oh goody.” Then chuckled as I got ready for the night, knowing she was right, I'd most likely have fun. I needed some fun after a frustrating day singing. A part of me added, “Besides, I can still practice for 'her' tomorrow.” Where the bloody hell did that come from?

An hour later I was out at the lane, pulling up a pant leg and thumbing for a ride from the silver truck that was pulling to the curb. Paya was laughing as she opened the door and scooted over for me to join them. “Get in here before someone sees you, you git.” I smiled hugely at her and Harry. Her better half just kept his eyes dutifully on the road, fighting a grin he knew would earn him a backhand to the gut from his girl.

It was brilliant, I hadn't laughed so much in a long time, Paya always knew how to keep my spirits up. The whole night I was thinking about reading that amazing book and working on my vocals for the green-eyed headmistress. Still wondering why she was doing this and feeling hurt that the only thing I could think of was that I was a charity case for her.

Sundays were my Tabitha days, I'd usually laze the day away, just listening to music and working on my own. My mind kept drifting from a new song I had been working on, Heart of Ice. I was creating an instrumental for it in Garage Band, but that bloody book was calling to me like a siren luring my ship to the rocks. I finally rolled my eyes at myself and put everything down and grabbed it and started reading chapter two.

I found myself practicing that damn impossible lesson, after a light lunch of fruit and bread with a couple cold cuts on it. I was almost in tears by the time the night generator-time came. Apply yourself she had said. I was so close but why couldn't I make those two trouble spots click? I threw the papers down onto my mattress in frustration. Teresa was going to be disappointed that I couldn't get this one thing right. I truly didn't wish to let the confusing woman down.

I smiled at my memory of her standing in that doorway, blocking my exit. Her eyes, there was something in them I can't explain. And those lips. I caught my hand drifting slowly downwards from my belly.
Bloody hell Tabitha!

I took a deep breath, pushing my arousal away as I plugged my devices in to charge. Did I find the woman sexy? I closed my eyes tight and nodded reluctantly.
Of course I do, I can never fall for the women I actually have a snowball's chance in hell with.
I licked my lips nervously and doubled my efforts on the lesson.

I woke up shivering at four in the morning on top of my covers. I had fallen asleep practicing. I wrapped myself in my quilt and curled up as close to the stove pipe as I could, then slowly went back to sleep.

The next morning after my ritual of rousing of the boat, traveling to Joe's for my shower, then my daily prep, I hopped a coach. I listened to music from my mobile on my headphones as I read the lesson book.

I passed by the food carts and paused and looked longingly, I hadn't eaten this morning, my mind was on other things. I had to scramble to throw together a sandwich for my lunch before I left. I sighed, I was so weak. I broke my convictions about being more frugal and stepped up and grabbed a bagel and coffee. Keeping my expenditure low.
This is the last time, I promise.

I finished as I arrived at the Conservatoire. Paya and I went straight to it and started scrubbing the hardwood floors in the hallway in preparation for the waxing tomorrow. The students arriving stepped around us I noted that for such a small school, they seemed to have a lot of pupils. There were at least thirty split between the two classrooms. They ranged from young men and women in their twenties to upward of fifty.

By the time tea came around, my knees and back ached from scrubbing on my hands and knees. Paya asked, “You have lunch?” I nodded. She squinted an eye. “What is it? Let's have it.”

I held up my little brown bag and crinkled my nose at her as I said defiantly, “I have a cold cut sandwich, an apple, and water.”

She smiled and said, “I honestly don't know how you survive on so little, woman. I suppose you're going to lock yourself away again?”

I nodded. “Sorry. The instructor is just brilliant.”

She smiled and trundled off to the break room and I hustled to the storeroom clutching my lunch and the book with the lesson sheets to my chest. I read as I snacked and listened through the wall. I sang with the group. When tea time was almost over and I was gathering my things, the door opened again.

The very prim, proper, and professional looking headmistress stood there looking me over in silence as I stood still. Why did she intimidate me so bloody much? She looked a combination of untouchable and breathtaking all at once. She wore a sky blue, immaculately pressed dress with a professional white business coat over it and a matching sky blue fabric headband that held her shiny hair so tight to her scalp it had to hurt. Her makeup was done subtly to enhance her features, not dominate them.

I was just staring like a bloody git. I caught the slightest hint of a smile on her face that disappeared as she cocked one of her exquisitely sculpted brows. “Well?”

I blinked finally and looked on nervously. “Sorry Missus. Umm...” I looked up at her, timidly making eye contact as I hugged my things to me.

I opened my mouth to sing and her mouth tightened and she shook her head impatiently. “No, put that stuff down so you can sing properly...” Then she actually did smile if for just a millisecond as she tilted her head. “You know, I don't know your name.”

I was placing my things on a shelf as I said, “Tabitha. Tabitha Romanov missus.” Then pointed at my name badge.

She exhaled then snapped, “Right then. Stop calling me Missus, Tabitha. My name is Teresa McClellan, I'm the headmistress here.” I nodded and she repeated, “Well?”

I took a couple conditioning breaths then straightened up and began. I closed my eyes and did my very best, I wanted to please her. I almost got past the first trouble area and buggered the second, the rest I thought was my best attempt yet. This lesson was the spawn of Satan himself, sent from the underworld to torture singers. I noticed the class behind us had fallen silent.

When I was finishing I opened my eyes and saw the most serene look on the woman's face as she listened with her head slightly cocked. She had the tiniest smile on her lips until she opened her eyes, then her face was all business, emotionless.

She said, “You need to work on breath control. You are botching the fortepiano transition because you are using the same breath. Stop your exhalation and begin again at the pianissimo.”

I nodded, my lunch time was over, I didn't wish for her to have any reason to fire me for clocking in late. I started reaching for my things, but she said firmly, “Again, half time. Adjust your breathing at the transition.”

I was feeling some anxiety now as I looked past her to the hall. She saw this and she softened and gave me the first true smile I had seen on her face as she said, “Please.” Good God, I'd do whatever she wanted if she'd smile like that again. I was such a sucker for a pretty face.

I glanced at her eyes, they seemed to be studying me, looking for something I couldn't figure out. It was a mistake as I found I couldn't look away as I slowed down to half time and sang. In my peripheral vision, I caught one of the fingers on her right hand tapping lightly on her hip in time. Was she checking my meter and tempo?

I was fixating on her words at the first transition. I fell off tempo as I stopped and started a breath as she said. I blinked, there was no slide in my voice. I smiled hugely and at the second transition I nailed it. I finished with one of the biggest grins on my face. She arched an eyebrow at my internal celebration and said, “Don't get cocky now. Try it at full time.” She smirked.

Oh, the bloody bird was challenging me! I smiled and started again, I cocked up the first one trying to control the breath but the second one I did a fair job of it. She smiled again. “Practice your breath control, and try tomorrow again. In the mean time.” She handed me some sheet music. “You'll find the corresponding instruction in Chapter twenty-three. It focuses more on breath control.” Then she turned to leave.

I prompted, “Please, ummm... Miss McClellan. Why are you doing this?”

She didn't even pause as she kept walking and called over her shoulder without looking back, “Don't you have rooms to clean?” Was there mirth in her tone? I was so bloody confused. Then my eyes snapped wide and I grabbed my things and ran down the hall to clock in.

Paya and I had dumped the daily trash into the bin and came back into the hall when the woman who had looked out at me Friday last, stuck her head out into the hallway again. She smiled at us and said, “Young Miss, could I trouble you for a moment in here?”

Paya nodded, and the woman, said, “Terribly sorry, but the other young lady.”

I reached over to grab the handle of my cleaning cart, assuming a mess had been made in the classroom. She waved it off with a smile and playfully rolling her eyes. “You won't need that.”

It felt like ice was suddenly flowing through my veins. I glanced over and my bestie was looking a little pale, she had come to the same conclusion. This was it, I was being sacked for taking liberties. I nodded at the woman and marched over to my doom. It was a good job while it lasted.
I hope this doesn't affect any future temping.

The woman looked a pleasant sort, she was all smiles. I entered the classroom. Bloody hell, it was full up. There must have been fifteen or twenty students there. Was she going to sack me in front of them all? Then she said, “What was your name dear one?”

I stuttered, “Tabitha Romanov.”

She nodded then turned to the students. “Please welcome Tabitha everyone, she is with our cleaning service.” Everyone murmured greeting, then she asked me, “Do you have classical training?”

I barked out something that might be described as a surprised laugh, if you were kind. I slapped my hand over my mouth and composed myself and responded, “No Missus. I took two years of choir in secondary school.”

She blinked rapidly at that then her brow furrowed. She asked carefully, “How is your range? Can you hit F6?”

That was hard, bordering on painful, but I just nodded once as I started fidgeting and wringing my fingers. She nodded. “Brill. Go ahead then.”

I'm sure my eyes were about to bug out of my head as I whispered to her, “Here?”

She nodded and said with a grin, “Please if you would.” I sighed, but then took a couple conditioning breaths. The woman was throwing me into the fire, I was glad I had just sung for Teresa, my vocal cords were loosened up. I hummed F to myself to get it into my ear, then opened my mouth and hit the note cleanly. She firmly said, “Forte!” I increased my projection.

She looked at the others with a satisfied smile then handed me some sheet music. She didn't look at me as she seemed to stare down the group as she said, “The highlighted passage if you would be so kind dear one.”

My eyes bugged out again as I looked at Queen of the Night from Mozart’s legendary opera, The Magic Flute. The Aria features a high note of F6 within a challenging section that darts up into a demandingly high register. Ummm...

I looked over at the woman with what I'm sure was a terrified look on my face. She just smiled and nudged her chin at the music. I swallowed visibly then took a few breaths and tested a few notes. Then I stood tall and sang. The instructor had her eyes closed and her facial expressions and eyebrows seemed to be singing along with me. I cocked up a note and she winced a bit, the rest went great for a dry run.

I was blushing from head to toe when I finished the highlighted passage. I handed the music back to the woman and wanted nothing other than to escape. She smiled at me encouragingly and said, “That was lovely Tabitha. Thank you. I see why my daughter is gushing about you. And you've had no formal training?” I shook my head and she showed mercy and motioned her head to the door, dismissing me.

I heard her saying to the students as the door was closing behind me with my heart pounding in my ears, “There, now stop complaining and apply yourselves. That dear girl doesn't have any formal training yet she could accomplish that.”

I almost ran to my cleaning cart, Paya was still there waiting. She tilted her head and creased her brow as I started down the hall with the cart. “So that's it then? I'm sorry Tabs.”

I grinned sheepishly. “No. It's fine, I still have the job. She just wanted me to sing for her students.” I shrugged and she gave me a comically confused look. The I froze in my tracks. Wait, did she say her daughter was gushing about me? I felt... warm, all over. Then my blood went cold again, then that was Marjorie McClellan, the bloody brilliant woman who wrote that book! I finished the day out in a daze.

I spent the night going over the prior lesson, and worked on my breathing, attempting the lesson again and again. I was smiling by the time the generator powered down for the night and I lit my kerosene lamp. I was able to get through the impossible lesson better than half of the time.

I excitedly grabbed the second batch of music Teresa had given me. My eyes went wide in shock and horror. Were these bloody lessons designed just to torture students? And the syncopation and dozens of transitions... just keeping proper time would take most of your concentration. I thought about the classroom today and how embarrassing it was. Then I looked at this new lesson. Was that the point? Was the headmistress trying to embarrass me for eavesdropping on the class?

I thought of her fierce eyes then that tiny smile and serene look on her face, as she listened to me, sing. No, she wasn't trying to embarrass me, but I had no clue what she was on about and it was frustrating. I take back everything I have said about loving a good intrigue. My traitorous mouth betrayed me by smiling. Fine whatever, I love a good intrigue.

As I read the corresponding chapter in the lesson book and practiced the new impossible music, I thought of her elusive smile again. I smiled. Her mother had said she was gushing about me.