Chapter 10 - The Hudson Valley Symphony
The grand living room of Greystone Manor was no longer a place of dust, ghosts, and covered furniture. The tall arched windows had been replaced with clear, double-paned insulating glass that let in the brilliant, golden light of the May afternoon; the floors were polished to a deep, honey-colored sheen, and the smell of fresh linseed oil had been replaced by the sweet, rich scent of baking bread that Clara had brought down from Lake Forest for the weekend.
In the center of the room sat a massive, beautifully restored Steinway upright piano of dark mahogany wood.
Logan sat on the wide bench, Nova balanced on his left knee and Luna on his right. The silver rosary hung from a small brass hook above the music stand, its polished beads catching the light like small drops of river water.
"Like this, Nova," Logan said softly, his large, scarred fingers gently guiding her small hand to the center C key. "Press it gently. You don't have to hit it. The music comes from the weight of your hand, not the force."
A single, beautiful note vibrated through the room, clear, sweet, and perfectly resonant against the old stone walls.
Luna joined in, her fingers finding the higher register with an instinctive, natural rhythm that she had inherited from the father who had laughed loud and carried both of them through the snow.
Outside the window, the Hudson River moved wide and calm below the ridge, its gray-green waters reflecting the blue sky of a spring that had finally arrived to stay. There were no more sirens in the valley; there were no more black Suburbans idling at the ferry landings, and the heavy iron doors of Mulberry Street were nothing but a memory of a war that had been won by the power of a name that had been redeemed.
May you like
Logan closed his eyes for a brief, beautiful second, feeling the warm weight of his nieces against his ribs, their small voices rising in a soft, unstructured melody that filled the ancient house until the ghosts themselves were forced to smile.
"We did it, Elena," Logan whispered into the quiet, golden light of the room. "They're safe. And the river didn't keep a single thing."
