The Reason a Piano Tuner Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Restringing

Winding a bass string takes three hours, and you cannot rush it.

I sat on the bench at nine on Wednesday night.

The steel core was clamped in a vise and the reel of copper lay in my lap.

Everard sat on the floor beside me with the lamp.

He had been there since dinner.

He had not asked me a question or offered me a single idea.

He held the light low and steady, as he had on the first night.

Every time I turned the crank he moved it a hair to the left, exactly where I needed it.

The copper went on in tight bright rings.

I counted them under my breath.

At a quarter to midnight I cut the wire, bound the end, and held the finished string up to the lamp.

It shone like a new coin.

"Is it good?" he said.

"Ask me after it's been hung."

I hung it.

I hooked the loop over the hitch pin at the far end.

I drew the string the whole length of the case and fitted it onto the lowest peg.

Then I turned the hammer, a hair at a time, until the tension came up and the string stood tight in the lamplight.

I struck the key.

It gave a deep, rough, wavering note, a long way under where it belonged.

"That's flat," I said, "and it'll be flat for hours."

"New copper stretches. I bring it up, let it settle, and bring it up again until it stops giving."

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