you wouldn’t. Set aside a month, no, make it two, I want plenty of time with you, in fact, I wish you’d come back to London for good. You should never have left, Lily’s an adaptable child, and your friends are here.’ There was a pause, and a sinking back into the voice that reminded Anna of water boiling. ‘I’m so worried, Anna, so worried about your seeing Duncan. You will be careful, you must be careful. I just wish I were there, wish there were someone close to give you support. How about Raphe? Couldn’t he go to Melbourne with you?’
Anna explained he was looking after Lily. ‘He’ll keep her safe, and that’s more important than having him for myself.’
‘You’ll ring me as soon as you know anything. Anything at all.’
Anna assured her she would.
‘I spoke to Madelaine a short time ago. She’s in America until the end of the month; she sends her love and says she’ll play your old cello scherzo as an amulet for you.’ And again, ‘You will be careful?’
‘Of course, Eve, of course.’
‘It’s hard to refuse a genius, my dear.’
As well Anna knew. No one refused Duncan, not Anna, certainly not Juliet, nor any of his students or admirers. But Eve had, years ago now and had not seen him since. And Madelaine too. Duncan had written a cello concerto for her, and he never understood why, at the last moment, she had rejected it. But Anna knew. Fifteen years ago, and her first meeting with Eve Carstairs, the shock of it and that sense, never again repeated, of being skinned alive. Who would have guessed that Eve and Madelaine would become her closest friends? And what would have happened to Anna if they had not? London Nocturne would have disappeared without a performance, and Anna would still be playing advertising jingles, stuffed with boredom and the futility of a life stripped of its central passion. Or worse, she might have returned to Duncan in order to put some proper music back into her life. If not for Eve and Madelaine – well, it did not bear thinking about, for if anyone had made her a composer they had. And yet, it could have worked out so differently. Only fifteen years old, and running wild, or rather, just running, that was Anna when first they met.
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