The Reason a Piano Tuner Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: She Asks

He knocked at nine exactly, three small taps.

I had dressed three times and undressed twice.

In the end I stood in the blue room in my plain nightgown, with my hair down and my feet bare.

I opened the door myself.

He had changed his coat.

He had even brushed his hair, and it stood up anyway at the crown.

"Come in," I said.

He came in, and I shut the door, and we stood there looking at each other.

The room was small and cold and smelled of the lavender soap.

The bed was narrow, built for one, and a candle burned on the washstand.

He looked as if he had walked into a church.

"I was told not to ask," he said.

"You were."

"I have not asked. I am going to say something, if I may, and it's not a question."

"Say it."

He drew a breath.

He looked at me with his whole plain, honest face, and the scar went white over his eye.

"I love you."

The candle flame bent in a draught and straightened.

"I've loved you since the lamp," he said.

"Since the first night, with your arms inside my piano."

"I did not know how to say it without a house behind it, and you would not have the house."

"So I am saying it with nothing at all."

"I love you, Clemency Tallis. You are paid and done, and I love you. That is all."

My eyes stung.

I had thought I would be calm.

I had planned something clever, the way I always do, and I could not find it anywhere.

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