I blinked and focused beyond the clover. Unnoticed by me, a young man with ginger hair had approached. His face was a riot of freckles, but he was still amazingly handsome--like a magazine ad. He had the beautiful, cared-for look of kids with trust funds.
I wasn't sure how to reply, so I just said, "You did?"
He ducked around me in a circle, as if studying me. "Yes." He circled again; I spun to keep my eyes on him. "Very impressive. Quite better than I expected."
Better than he expected for what?. For a girl? For a student? For a harpist? For me?
"Thanks," I said, voice guarded. He circled again, a smile on his face. I got another whiff of the herbal scent, and I had an idea that it must be him. Something he was wearing.
"Quite impressive altogether."
I asked politely, "Did you play?"
He grinned. "Do I ever stop?"
He kept circling, ceaselessly moving, and then his smile changed in some subtle way that made my stomach drop to my feet. "You smell good."
A familiar voice made me spin the other direction. "Deirdre."
Luke grabbed my hand abruptly, knocking the clover out of it as he did. Relieved to be rescued, I said, "I'm glad you're here. This guy--" I turned to look at the weirdo, but there was nothing there, only the lingering scent of rosemary or thyme. There were a dozen places he could've hidden as soon as my back was turned. It only meant that he really had been up to no good. Why else would he hide? "There was a guy right here."
Luke looked behind me. "There's nobody there." His eyes narrowed. "Nobody."
Goose bumps prickled on my skin. It would've been easy to just believe Luke, but the freckled boy was impossible to forget. "There was," I said unhappily. "Some freak."
"I don't doubt it," Luke said loudly. "C'mon. Let's get back to civilization. What were you doing way out here, anyway?"
I glanced around. All my spinning had taken me surprisingly far from the tents. The chamber music was only a faint music-box sound from here. "I--I was just trying to get away from my annoying aunt."
"Well, let's get closer to her and farther from invisible freaks," Luke suggested. He turned me with the barest touch on the small of my back and we headed toward the noise. "I like your dress, by the way. Suits you."
I secretly preened, then surprised myself by saying, "I know."
Luke said, "It's not polite to gloat," but he grinned. "So, tell me about your annoying aunt."
I sighed as we approached the food tent. "That would be her, over there. Aggravating my mom by the food tent."
He stood with me and quietly observed Delia and Mom. I was beginning to like that about him.
He listened. He watched. "She's quite awful, isn't she?"
"The sort of aunt that's in storybooks," I said. "If they put evil aunts in storybooks. She and my mom have never gotten along."
Even from here, I could hear Delia's loud voice as she told someone how Mom had been quite talented in her youth, but had never done anything with it. Bitch, I thought uncharitably.
"I just thought a very uncharitable thing about a family member," I admitted.
Luke leaned in, close enough that I could smell his faintly musky odor--nothing like an herb, nothing like any high-school boy--and whispered, "Did it start with a 5? I thought it, too."
I laughed, loud enough that Delia looked up at me. She made motions for me to come over, but I pretended to be looking past her into the food tent. "Hurry. Pretend you're pointing something out so I can pretend to not see her."
Luke put a hand on my shoulder and pointed with the other toward the sky. "Look, the moon."
"That was the best you could come up with?" I demanded. But I looked at it anyway--pale, mysterious, hanging in blue instead of black. Once again I felt I could look at it forever, or at least until I could remember why I wanted to look at it. "It's beautiful, though, isn't it?"
I didn't think he was looking at the moon anymore, but he said, "Very."
I kept gazing up. "This will sound stupid, but--it makes me feel funny." The same way Luke made me feel funny.
"That's because it's from the night. The night keeps secrets."
Luke kept secrets as well, didn't he? Secrets we both pretended he didn't have. "Very poetic."
"I can be very literary when I want to be. I'm a very complex person. Like yourself, I have hidden depths."
I looked down. "Awww, you think I have hidden depths? That's awfully sweet." His eyes shifted from me to a point just behind me, and I turned to see what he saw.
A very tall, very blond woman was approaching us with a modelesque stride. She was as fair as an Easter lily, with perfect blue eyes and a perfect snowy neck. My dress suddenly felt shabby.
"Eleanor," Luke said, face expressionless.
"Luke. How wonderful to see you again." She placed her hands on his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek, running a finger down to his chin. I looked away. "It seems like forever."
"Yes."
"Well, you're not in a very good mood tonight, are you?" Eleanor said. "I'd have thought you'd be in heaven with all this good music."
Luke didn't reply.
"Especially you, Deirdre. You played beautifully. We all were amazed by how you played."
I looked up at the sound of my name and was blinded by her radiant smile. Still, for all her beauty, it was just another compliment. "Thanks. Luke helped a lot."
Eleanor turned her smile to Luke, who still had that strange, expressionless face. "Oh yes, Luke helps out a lot." She smiled at him. "Luke, dear, you don't believe in small talk?"
Luke's voice was flat. "How's work." She laughed. It was annoyingly beautiful. "Going very well."
He raised an eyebrow. "How's the boss?" Eleanor studied her gently sculpted nails. "Oh, more like a co-worker these days, I should say." "That must be thrilling."
"The masses appreciate someone like them." She gestured to herself. "Someone like me."
Luke said, "How lucky for both of you."
"Oh, I think so, lamb." She turned to me. "Well, you're certainly a rising star. I'll be watching you."
Beside me, Luke stiffened.