Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal Read Free Book Online

compared to her glamour. She is so terribly clever at weaving music andglamour together. Why don’t you play something for us, Jane?”
    Horrified at her mother’s proposal, Jane demurred. “I’m certain that Mr. Dunkirk and his sister do not want to spend their leisure time listening to me.”
    “Oh, but I do, Miss Ellsworth.” Miss Dunkirk spun. “Truly I do. Edmund has said so much about your skills, and I very much want to experience them for myself. Just the small hint I see from your efforts here has made me hungry for more.”
    Jane attempted to demur again, though her attention was caught by the fact that Miss Dunkirk had said that Mr. Dunkirk had spoken of her. But surely it was not unusual for a brother to give an accounting of his neighbours. And as glamour could be said to be the only distinction which Jane possessed, of course it is what he would have mentioned to his sister.
    Such was Miss Dunkirk’s insistence, soon joined by her brother’s, that Jane found herself seated at the pianoforte. Jane began to play a simple gavotte. As the music poured from the pianoforte, she stroked folds of glamour into being, suggesting a forest clearing with a faun gamboling in the afternoon sun. It was no large matter to add a few birds flitting over his head with the high notes of the tune.
    When that song ended, Miss Dunkirk burst into rapturous applause, begging for another. So great was the girl’s approbation that Jane began a rondo and suggested figuresof nymphs dancing around them in time with the music. These were not as fully rendered as the glamour that adorned their walls, since it required much effort to produce a moving image extemporaneously while she played, but the effect was nonetheless pleasing.
    At the song’s end, Jane could not help but notice Mr. Dunkirk’s steady gaze. He stood behind his sister’s chair and seemed still lost in the spell of the music. A greater compliment was not possible.
    The room spun somewhat, and Jane decided that the wisest course would be to refuse another song, or at least an embellished one, lest she faint at its conclusion. But when Miss Dunkirk asked Jane to explain how she caused the nymphs to surround them, a particularly tricky piece of glamour, Jane could not resist re-creating it, which in turn led to another piece of glamour. Jane found herself shewing the girl how to create folds until they were both breathless and overwarm with their efforts.
    Perceiving the strain on Miss Dunkirk’s delicate frame, but glad that some of the melancholy had left her features, Jane said, “You are welcome to return at any time, my dear, and I would be happy to shew you what little I know.”
    “We should take our leave, Beth,” Mr. Dunkirk said, “and let the Misses Ellsworths return to their afternoon’s engagement.” He stopped and turned. “But where is Miss Melody?”
    Jane suddenly realized that Melody had slipped out of the room without any of them noticing. She sprang to herfeet, forgetting the effort she had just expended on glamour. The room spun around her, darkened, and she tumbled to the floor.
    A sharp burning odor penetrated Jane’s nostrils, making her sneeze. She opened her eyes. Miss Dunkirk sat on the sofa next to her, passing a small glass vial of smelling salts under her nose. Nancy, the housekeeper, stood behind her, twisting her hands together and bobbing convulsively in a series of curtsies. Across the room, Mr. Dunkirk attended to Jane’s mother, who had collapsed in her chair, as though
she
had been the one to overextend herself.
    Miss Dunkirk said, “She is awake!”
    At this, Mrs. Ellsworth roused from her swoon. “Oh, Mr. Dunkirk. What should we have done? What should we have done if you had not been here?”
    Jane flushed with sudden understanding. It seemed that Mr. Dunkirk had lifted her to the sofa. She eased herself into a sitting position, careful lest she faint again. “I beg your pardon, Mr. Dunkirk. I am sorry to have troubled