THE DEVILS DIME Read Online Free PDF Page A

contradiction between sight and sound kept Jess interested, and he slid a glance over the trio of violins in the front row. Seated furthest from him was a black-haired wraith of a girl whose eyeglasses and excruciatingly thin face gave her a far greater seriousness than he’d seen elsewhere in the group.
    Next to her was as complete a contrast as one could conceive. Even from a distance the girl’s pug nose and riotous red curls announced her as a tomboy. Her peaches and cream complexion was flushed nearly orange with the exertion of playing. The girl bit her lip intently as she muscled her instrument through the score.
    And then a movement on her left drew his eye. Jess felt his breathing still as he took his first impression of the concert mistress, the girl who occupied the first chair of the first row of violins. He’d seen her before, that proud, swanlike neck below a high tumble of rich auburn curls. Could it really be her? The auburn-haired beauty with the spine of steel he’d seen from his office window, with three little girls in tow?
    He watched as she tumbled through the lively music, changing from woman to girl to goddess to imp. Yes. It had to be her. And in seconds he knew that she was the leader of this group. The signals she threw with a lift of the head or shoulder spoke as clearly as if she’d whispered some magical fairy language only the musicians could hear.
    Right on cue, the music swept upward into a gypsy ballad. The young lady’s thick piles of auburn curls began to bob as her shoulders swayed and leaned into the passionate, virile piece, and Jess could not have pulled his eyes away had he tried.
    As the orchestra continued to play, the girl slipped from her chair to stand in the center half circle created by the seated musicians. Her violin never left her chin as she moved into place, and now her intense notes soared over the Hungarian tune. She was taking a solo turn.
    Her over-sized amethyst ring seemed almost too heavy for the delicate fingers that flipped her violin bow with tantalizing speed and grace over the strings. The rich purple gem left ribbons of color hanging before his eyes as Jess watched her hand vault back and forth, up and down in furious swipes across the violin. Perhaps the colorful gem was her own small rebellion at their quiet attire.
    The music dipped into languid hollows and then taunted with a maddeningly slow progression toward the ripping tempo with which it raced toward its finale.
    Jess didn’t know which was more surprising. The realization that his heart was actually trying to keep pace with the primal tune, or the fact that he’d just spent the last few minutes drinking in the music rather than trying to shut it out.
    He watched the violinist’s fingers fly faster and faster up and down the fingerboard of her richly polished instrument. This girl seemed to know instinctively where and when to drop her fingers on the strings, just like he did with the Blick. He recognized the magnitude of her skill that made the mechanics so much second nature that she could give her whole attention to simply flirting with the music.
    The orchestra dived into the final eight chords and held the last one in a tremolo as the girl he watched zoomed through a mind-numbing flurry of notes and plucked the final stinger.
    Applause erupted from the room. Jess lifted his hands to join their eager approval and dragged his cuff through mashed potatoes and gravy. When had his meal arrived?
    He saw her taking her bows as he wiped clumsily with his napkin. Her eyes were black and piercing, her cheeks suddenly flushed. Her smile, he noted, was at an odd tilt, as if she were surprised to discover they liked what they’d just heard. No, as if she were surprised to discover they were even there.
    Her violin was tucked between her waist and left elbow now, and her violin bow dangled from the fingers of her left hand. She flung her free right arm in a half circle indicating her sister musicians,