I skipped over Luzie Valorin's first chapter in these teasers. It isn't always easy to find a good extract when you're first introducing a character. But now Luzie's life has intersected with my other protagonists. Serafina Talarico was looking for a place to live for the Rotenek season and Luzie had a room to let. By one of those tangled social webs, Jeanne de Cherdillac hears of the opportunity and drops a note requesting that Maisetra Valorin see if she could accommodate her dear friend Maisetra Talarico.
As existing fans of Alpennia know, that web of connections is a continuing theme in the books. A room opens up in Luzie's home because the violinist Iustin Mazzies has gotten married. Iustin was a protegée of the Vicomtesse de Cherdillac, who introduced her to her new husband. Jeanne is an old friend and former lover of Barbara, Baroness Saveze. Barbara's very dear friend Margerit Sovitre is trying to teach Serafina thaumaturgy. Serafina hears Luzie playing some of her own compositions late in the evening when she thinks no one is listening, and she hears something in the music that Luzie doesn't even know is there. And Serafina recollects that Baroness Saveze has been thinking of commissioning some settings for her favorite poems. So Serafina suggests Luzie as a candidate, knowing Margerit will be in the audience when the work is first performed...
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(from Chapter 5 - Luzie)
So many people! The open doorway was cracked open just enough to see the first few rows of chairs beyond the open space where the fortepiano stood. Luzie could barely remember the first time she’d played in public, perched on a box set on top of the bench to raise her hands high enough to reach the keys. One of her brothers had played the violin—she couldn’t remember now whether it had been Gauterd or the unfortunate Ianilm. Later it had been duets, side by side at the keyboard with her father. She hadn’t performed since her marriage—not for more than a few friends in private or for her lodgers. And never her own compositions before. She had confidence in her hands, but this crowd!
Somehow she’d thought it would be a small affair—a parlor, or at best a private ballroom—not the Salle Chapil. In rehearsals she’d imagined a private salon with a dozen listeners. A few friends, the baroness had said. Zarne will be reciting some of his new works after you play, and Hankez is showing off her portrait of Maisetra Sovitre. Baroness Saveze’s few friends seemed to include half of Rotenek society.
How had Maisetra Talarico fallen in with this crowd? She didn’t pry into her tenants’ lives, but one couldn’t help being curious. A letter of reference from the famous Vicomtesse de Cherdillac, familiar enough with Baroness Saveze to secure this commission for her, and yet not familiar enough to be invited to the performance?
Luzie looked out again. The space glittered with gilded woodwork and elegant jewelry. The guests were beginning to take their places. She could see the baroness seated in the place of honor in the front row wearing a gown of peacock-blue silk, her head bent in conversation with the woman seated beside her.
If only her father could see her now! He hadn’t set foot in a Rotenek concert hall since his hands had grown too stiff to play, but he would have come, if only she’d known to ask. She wouldn’t have dared to beg an invitation for a truly private concert, but for something like this…surely it could have been arranged. Perhaps there would be more opportunities after this one. There were a few faces in the audience she knew from her own acquaintance: the Alboris and the Silpirts. And everyone in musical circles in Rotenek knew Mesnera Arulik.
She glanced behind her to smile nervously at the singers. DaNapoli from the Royal Opera, and the other two no less prominent. Baroness Saveze had suggested them. She couldn’t have commanded that level of talent on her own. And now the baroness was standing before the assembled company, saying something and nodding to call her forth. Luzie stepped out and curtsied to the crowd, barely hearing what was said of her as she and the singers took their places.