Vienna Nocturne by Vivien Shotwell Read Free Book Online

But what’s your name? You’ve such a pretty voice.”
    The girl’s eyes were shadowed by the mask. Of course that was the appeal of the masks; they gave everyone so much mystery. “Lidia Martellati.”
    “Not your real name, surely?”
Martellati
meant “little hammers”—a technique for singing fast scales. And Lidia was not a common name.
    “The nuns wanted to call me Mariateresa.”
    “Nuns?”
    Lidia glanced around the room and shrugged. “I came from a music conservatory. I escaped.”
    “All by yourself? But who is there to protect you?”
    “Why, no one.”
    Anna bit her lip. “Are you—then I suppose you must be someone’s mistress.” She could not think
whore;
this girl looked nothing like one.
    Lidia smiled graciously. “No, I’m chaste. I play and sing, and work for a seamstress. I have a cousin who helped me.”
    “Look here,” Anna said. She blushed suddenly and felt shy. “Would you ever consider—I don’t suppose you should—might you like to be my lady’s maid? I already have one but I can’t stand her. She’s over there. She’s my chaperone. She watches me at parties and sleeps in my bed. But she snores. Do you snore? I like you. I know we don’t know each other, but I think—I daresay we could be friends. I don’t see how I could do anything but like you when your voice is so pretty. We could try it out for a few weeks. You’d stay with me, and talk with me, and unpin my dress and hair at night. I’ve others to do the rest.”
    In the face of this outburst Lidia seemed at a loss. She pressed her hands together and looked very thin indeed. Then she smiled and touched her heart and said, “I’d like that very much.”
    Anna clapped her hands. “Splendid! Come see us tomorrow afternoon. Here’s my card. But you must act sober and dour. That’s what my mother likes and it won’t come off if my mother doesn’t approve.”
    Lidia was from the Infanta orphanage in Naples. While in service there she had been trained in singing, guitar, cello, and violin. She had played in the girls’ orchestra and sung in duets and trios. Her voice was a sweet alto. It might have been a voice for the stage, had she learned to breathe properly, but she did not like to sing loudly and she did not like everyone staring at her. But music was all she knew, and since she did not care to become a nun, and no one wished to marry an orphan who was so tall and boney, she had atsome peril come to Venice alone, from Naples, to make her way as best she could. The night Anna met her she had not had a good meal in three days.
    Mrs. Storace looked Lidia over and pronounced her underfed and swarthy. However, she said, she liked the sternness of her bone structure and the modesty of her garments. Anna explained about the chaperone’s snoring and said that Lidia could read in Italian, Latin, and French, and was eager to learn English.
    Mrs. Storace said, “She appears all right and proper. She is not loud but neither is she
mousy
. She is not afraid of me and yet she is
deferential
. You are becoming a woman, Anna. Someday you will have to choose a whole household. I will trust you in this, and woe to you both if she fails.”
    “Oh, Mama,” laughed Anna. “You’ve been reading too many romances.”
    Mrs. Storace shook her head. “You may kiss me, my dear, and bring me that fan from the other room. I think I will dine with you tonight. You may not go out. You haven’t practiced and you sounded weak in your low voice on Friday, although the last cadenza was well done. And you know I never compliment. But you must not forget to practice.”
    Then she yawned and fanned herself and bade them a good afternoon.
    Dear Stephen
,
    How I wish you could meet my Lidia. She is all virtue and sobriety but when she loves me she loves me wholly. I certainly have done nothing to deserve her. Really I’m such a silly girl! So silly! Last night we were out till four and today I look like death. But the gods are smiling