With his hand resting on the curved wood, Rory smiled at Percy as he joined him. “This is a lovely piece of oak. What’s it to be?”
Percy grimaced. “A lute. I’ve been asked to make one, but I’ve never made any instrument before, so I’m entirely at sea and just guessing as I go.”
With Gregory, Caitlin halted a few feet away. She took in the look on Rory’s face. “Oh,” she breathed.
Gregory glanced questioningly at her, but her attention remained fixed on her cousin—on his almost beatific expression.
Plainly frustrated, Percy planted his hands on his hips and frowned at the wood. “I hate not knowing what I’m doing, especially with wood.”
“Aye. That’s never a comfortable feeling.” Rory gestured at the curved piece. “If you take a wrong turn, you can’t go back.”
“Exactly!”
Rory drew in a slow breath. “I could help you with this—if you’d like?”
Startled, Percy looked at Rory. “Man, if you have any suggestions to make, speak!”
“Well, I’ve made an instrument or two in my time.” Handling the wood tenderly, Rory picked it up and turned it in his huge hands. “I’ve even made something like this lute. See, you’ll want to…”
As Rory explained how the lute should be constructed, Caitlin whispered to Gregory, “Rory loves working with wood—carving and shaping and making things. He especially likes to make musical instruments, like harps, guitars, lutes, and such.”
They stood and watched, entirely forgotten by Percy and Rory as the pair grew utterly absorbed with the intricacies of constructing the lute.
After several minutes of being unnecessary spectators, Caitlin glanced at Gregory. He met her eyes and tipped his head toward the doorway, and they both took a tentative step back.
Pattering footsteps approaching from outside had them glancing around as Millie, her cheeks lightly flushed from the cold, came hurrying in.
She smiled at Caitlin and Gregory. “Hello.” Then she looked past them at Percy. “I just came to see…”
Her words trailed off, and the color in her cheeks deepened.
Caitlin glanced at Rory. Her cousin was standing stock-still, a stunned expression on his face.
“Ah, there you are, my dear. Well timed!” Percy beckoned Millie nearer. “I was just showing this gentleman… I say, have you been introduced?” Percy looked back and forth between the pair, then remembered. “But of course you have! You were there last night when Mr. Fergusson arrived.”
His gaze locked on Millie’s face, Rory swallowed and croaked, “Just Rory, please.”
“Yes, well. Millie, it seems like we’re in luck.” Percy clapped his hands together. “Rory knows how to make lutes.”
“Do you play?” The intensity in Rory’s expression was searing.
Millie blushed even more fierily and stammered, “A-A bit.” Then she hauled in a breath and more firmly stated, “I haven’t really played since I was ten. My aunt taught me.”
“Well, then”—Rory picked up the curved limb—“you’ll know the pins need to be inset along here.”
Millie drifted nearer, and soon all three—Percy, Millie, and Rory—had their heads together.
When Rory asked what design Millie would like to see carved into the finished piece, she replied eagerly, gesturing with both hands.
Percy stepped back, watched the ongoing exchange between Rory and Millie for another moment, then grinned, turned, and walked to Caitlin and Gregory.
Meeting Caitlin’s eyes, Percy smiled. “No need for me to act as gooseberry.”
“No, indeed.” After one last look at the pair, Caitlin glanced at Gregory. “We may as well leave Rory to Millie and her lute. I doubt we’d manage to lure him out, even with food.”
Gregory laughed.
They parted from Percy, with Caitlin promising to let him know what she learned about the tools he wanted.
