"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Except the Music" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

And he continued with his lecture as if nothing had gone wrong.

If Max hadn't known Otto so well, Max would have thought that it had all been a ploy, but it hadn't.

When he approached Otto after the encounter, lamentably the fourth person to do so in the space of five
minutes, Otto held up that imperious finger again.

"I am fine. I made the mistake of sampling some of the fine cheese that the vineyard had brought to serve
with its wine, and a bit of Gouda caught in my throat. It is nothing, really."

Max made no reply. Like the good musicians, he knew the value of silence.
****
He didn't see her at the encounter, but she was at the concert. She caught his arm during intermission,
when he had tried to sneak through the lobby to get himself a glass of the excellent wine being served by
the local vineyard.

"Are you going to allow dancing during the minuet?" she asked.

He had to lean toward her to understand her. Her question hadn't been one he expected; he had thought
she was going to challenge him about the way he had been avoiding her.
"Dancing?" he repeated rather stupidly. "Why would we allow dancing?"

"Because a minuet is a dance. The composer intended it as a dance, not as something that a group of
people listen to while seated in plush chairs, pressed against the backs like wallflowers."

Max frowned at her. She had her luxurious hair up that night, which only accented her surprising beauty
and, for the first time, she wore a touch of make-up, just enough to inform him that she knew how to use
it to accent her assets as most women did not.

Her face seemed familiar to him, and not because he had spent an evening cupping it between his hands.
She looked like someone he had known before, or someone famous, someone highly photographed.

"Don't you think it would be fun?" She swept the skirt of her ankle length dress, revealing delicate shoes.
"We could move some chairs to the side here in the lobby, leave the auditorium doors open, and let
anyone who wanted to dance."

"It's against fire code," he said, wondering if that was even true. He had no idea what passed for fire
code in this godforsaken town.

"But it's a crime to embalm the music like this," she said. "You treat it as if it were a museum piece instead
of a living thing, a joyous thing. You take away its purpose and make it about the musicians instead of
about--"

He didn't wait for the end of her analysis. He excused himself and pushed through the crowd, listening to
the pretentious voices discuss pretentious topics with an astounding amount of misinformation. When he
reached the concessions, he glanced over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't followed him.

He didn't see her.