Music in the Key of Love

Chapter 19: The Enemy's Camp

Cressida went with Graham when he officially "moved in" the next day, though that was rather a grandiose phrase for what was actually just two duffel bags full of stuff.

Katherine let them in herself, coming to the glass doors that led off the foyer. "I heard you were going to be staying with us," she said. To Cressida she said nothing. "I'll show you which room will be yours, just follow me."

"Is that Graham arrived, then?" Professor Thurman called.

"Yes mum, I'm just showing him to his room."

As usual, Katherine was exquisitely turned out, golden hair going straight down her back, in straight legged jeans and a cashmere sweater that accentuated her superb figure. Cressida felt like a dowdy teenager around her, though they had to be close to the same age.

She couldn't help but stare at the interior of the house; the last time she'd come, for the party, she'd only seen the main part. The hallways were beautifully decorated, and there was a library with floor to ceiling books and an attached ladder, and every room had that unmistakable decorator's touch.

Graham didn't seem to be as impressed as she was, and just slouched along, his duffel on his shoulder, knees making an appearance in his ripped jeans with every step.

"We put you in the south bedroom, since it gets the best light of all the spare rooms," Katherine was saying. "And the back hall will take you straight to the music room, but you already knew that," she added with a mischievous smile.

What did that mean? Cressida wondered.

Katherine opened the door to a beautifully appointed room with a spectacular view of midtown and Central Park. The bedclothes on the huge bed were turned back for airing, and the room appeared to have its own en suite bathroom.

"So, I'll leave you to settle in," Katherine said from the door. "Lunch will be in about twenty minutes. Can you stay, Cressida?" she asked, addressing Cressida for the first time.

"Yes, thank you, that's very kind of you," she responded. She was hungry, and she didn't want to leave Graham in this house just yet.

"'Yes, thank you, that's very kind of you'?" Graham mocked as soon as they were alone. "You don't have to be so obsequious, do you? Do you have to kiss her ass quite so hard?"

"Excuse me, it's just good manners to thank someone when they invite you to share a meal in their home," Cressida retorted.

Graham just shook his head and began putting his clothes away in the dresser and closet.

Cressida sat on the bed and watched in silence.

"Katherine still has a thing for you," she finally said, taking a deep breath.

"I know. So?"

"It makes me nervous."

"Why? I no longer have any kind of a thing for her, and that's all that should matter." Graham came out of the bathroom, where he was putting his toiletries away, to sit next to Cressida on the bed.

Cressida didn't want to say out loud what she was thinking, that no one could fail to be impressed by Katherine and all she had to offer: This apartment, the comfort and splendor of it, and access to that gorgeous piano. And that wasn't even taking into account Katherine herself, beautifully blonde with a perfect face and figure.

Plus, Katherine was herself a pianist, though nowhere near at the level of Graham, it seemed. She could meet him in that world, communicate with him, wax eloquent about Brahms, Rachmaninov, Beethoven and the rest. Cressida could only ever be an observer.