Singing for the Duchess

“Luna! Are you ok? You look winded,” an elderly knight said. His name was William, Luna had become friends with William over the years. And she was thankful that us was him that opened the door. Not Lila, Lila would have tattled on her to the duchess. ‘Oh, wait, the duchess, I must get to my mistress now.’

“Thank you William, but I must go find Duchess Lousette.”

“I heard she isn’t very happy right now, she was throwing a fit earlier today. Tread carefully.”

“I will, and I have the fruits,”

“Hand them to Martha and hurry to your mistress.”

Luna handed the fruits to Martha who was passing by, and went to the kitchen to grab a few pastries for the duchess. Luna hurried with the baked goods to the garden. That was where Luna had been told to go. ‘Come on, I mustn’t fall, I must hurry.’

“Luna, where are you?” Duchess Lousette asked.

“I’m here!” Luna called out.

“Terrific, since I am in a good mood I won’t punish you today. But next time you will be punished.”

Luna asked a fellow servant, her name was Lilly. “What has got the duchess in a good mood today, I heard that she threw a tantrum earlier.”

“She saw the prince walk in the castle and he waved to her.”

“Ohh, you mean Prince Henry?”

“That’s the one,”

“What are you girls babbling about now?” The duchess asked.

“Nothing,” Lily and Luna chorused.

“Sing for me then,” the duchess said.

Lily and Luna exchanged glances, they haven’t warmed up yet. But they did as they were told, they started singing. Lily took the harmony and Luna had the melody. Lily also kept the beat and the rhythm. ‘Oh boy, why this song Lily? This has a solo in it and we need at least a few other people to join. We also need a tenor voice for this. I’m an alto to soprano, I can’t do low.’

Luna gave Lily a look, everyone in the kingdom knew the song. It was the king’s favorite so everyone had to learn it. Some voices of knights and servants joined in. Duchess Lousette looked happy now, their singing always calmed her down. It was getting close to the part with the tenor solo. Lily was still doing harmony, most people that had joined sang the harmony as well. Few people tried to do the melody. The melody was always harder for people. Yet the duchess had made Luna do the melody time and time again. The duchess was a very musical person.

‘Oh my, we are at the tenor part, what do we do?

The knights had all done harmony as they had all base and alto voices. A few were tenor but they didn’t look like they knew the melody that well.’

Suddenly footsteps could be heard from the stairs, someone with a tenor voice started singing the melody. Luna voice stopped, to see who the singer was. It was also the part where she spinet be singing anyways.

Luna had a sigh of relief when the tenor had came to sing. Luna rested her throat for a bit until she had to join in again.

‘More footsteps are coming, who is it? I haven’t a chance to see who the surprise person is. I’ve been carried away by the tune, and I’ve closed my eyes. I should open my eyes shouldn’t I? Oh the footsteps have stopped, I am to presume that they are here.’

Luna’s thoughts had raced, but she had still been singing.

Now the song was over and she opened her eyes. People had started applauding, Luna was confused. There were people all around her the garden was packed with people. ‘How did this happen, and why am I in the middle. Well thankfully they aren’t looking at me. Wait, wait, wait who was the tenor? And where’s Lily’s and the duchess. Actually they are staring at me. Why is that?’

Someone screamed boo, quite a few people screamed, including Luna. ‘These people are trying to kill us.’

‘Now where do the duchess,’ there was a commotion the people had started bowing and curtsying. Now Luna was even more confused, but she curtsied anyways. In case something was about to go down, Luna was eyeing the crown looking for her mistress. When Luna saw her mistress, she understood why everyone had bowed. The king was right next the the duchess. But if the king had a bass voice then who was the tenor singing?’ Luna’s thought moved quickly, her mind was fast so in the time she was thinking everyone was still bowing and curtsying.

Luna was a bit special from others, well first she wasn’t really a servant, she was a guard and she was actually a noble’s daughter. But the noble had died years ago and Duchess Lousette had took her in. With the time Luna spent with her mistress she learned a few things, other than not to disobey an order. Luna could analyze things faster than a lot of people. Now who was the tenor and why was the King here?

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***