tom-tom player?" Keith interrupted innocently.
"No!" Bryn gasped out. "Oh, please! Let's forget this. Stick with the 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.' I was wrong, very wrong, and I didn't mean what I said." Quickly she continued.
"I...uh...Fm working on a videotape--''
"Oh, wow!" Keith said. "You mean like on MTV?"
"Yeah, like onMT--"
"Wow!" Brian leaned up as far as he could.
"For who, Aunt Bryn?"
"Lee Condor."
"Wow!" Even Adam echoed their excitement.
Brian turned to Keith. "Mrs. Lowe told us to watch his last video if we wanted to see the Middle Ages recreated perfectly!"
"Perfectly," Adam imitated his older brother. "Perfect," Bryn muttered. "Everything's just perfect!" It was almostseven o'clockbefore she made it home, and almost nine before she had the kids fed, bathed and in bed.
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Then she had to spend another hour in the darkroom. She had done a wildlife layout for a Tahoe tour folder, and only after having chosen five shots from the proofs had they decided on a different set of animals. But the folder could lead to more work in the future, so she didn't want to take a chance on quibbling with the nervous exec from the ad company.
At least, when she finally got to bed, she wasn't haunted by dreams, or by visions of strange dark and golden eyes. She fell into an exhausted slumber the minute her head touched her pillow.
Wednesday was, if possible, worse than Tuesday. She arrived at9:00 a.m., as Tony Asp had asked her to before she left the night before.
She thought that the place was empty when she first walked in, and it felt strange to be there. It was almost as if she had stepped back in time. The huge chandelier glowed in the ballroom, illuminating the striking marble floor and the beautifully carved strips of wall trim that contrasted with the lightly patterned wallpaper. The staircase rose into misty darkness, and for a minute she felt as if she had actually stepped back to intrude upon another lifetime.
A sudden blast of music almost sent her rocketing up to the ceiling; her heart slowed its wild pounding as she realized a tape had been turned on.A tape of Lee Condor and his group doing "Lorena."
It began with a drum beat that had a rock sound about it, but more than that, it projected the image of men marching off to war. A fiddle joined in.Then, softly, the sound of a keyboard.
And then Condor's voice.
It was a unique sound. His voice was a tenor, but a husky one, and it seemed as if it could reach inside the soul with its slightly raspy edge.
Bryn's nerves felt more on edge than ever. She felt as if his voice, like his eyes, could discover her secrets. As if it were an instrument that could strip one bare, expose the heart and the mind and leave them naked and vulnerable.
The song was beautiful. When other voices joined his in perfect harmony for the refrain, she felt an absurd rush of tears sting her eyes. You could feel it all, the love found, the love lost, the wisdom and sadness of resignation.
"Bryn, you're here. Great!"
Tony Asp was coming down the stairway, a tape recorder in his hand.
"Can't you just imagine when it's all done?" he asked jovially. "It's going to be wonderful.Just wonderful."
Bryn dredged up a weak smile. "I'm sure it will be."
"Set your bag down, honey, and take a minute to warm up. I'll be ready at the foot of the stairs."
Bryn obediently did as she wastold, wryly thinking she didn't need much of a warm-up. They had
"warmed her up" so much yesterday that she should be stretched and limber for years to come.
Still, she knew the importance of keeping her muscles and tendons from being strained, so she set into a Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
quick routine of exercises. Plies and stretches and, on the floor, more stretches. She rose, absently dusted her hands on her tights and walked the few feet to the