The Moonlit Garden
Corina Bomann, Alison Layland
Language: English
Pages: 427
ISBN: 1503950646
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Lilly Kaiser had come to terms with her solitary, uncomplicated life after becoming a young widow. So when a stranger delivers an old violin to her Berlin antiques shop and tells Lilly it belongs to her, she’s completely bewildered. Why should she be the one to inherit such an exquisite instrument?
Together with her best friend, Ellen, and handsome musicologist Gabriel Thornton, Lilly sets out to explore the violin’s legacy. From England to Italy to Indonesia, she follows its winding trail. Along the way, she learns of Rose Gallway, a beautiful woman of English and Sumatran descent who lived among Sumatra’s lush gardens more than a hundred years earlier. A celebrated and sought-after musician, Rose once owned Lilly’s violin and regularly played concerts for Sumatra’s colonial elite—until, one day, she simply disappeared.
As Lilly unravels the mystery behind Rose’s story—and uncovers other unexpected secrets—she’ll come to see her own life in an entirely new light. And as each shared discovery brings her closer to Gabriel, her heart might finally break its long-held silence.
child! No one will allow you to play for them until you’re married.” “We can keep it a secret,” I suggested. “Granted, I wouldn’t be able to play for a few months, but—” “And where would we tell the audiences your child came from?” “Do I have to justify myself to my audiences?” I muttered. It turned my stomach to think of the people watching me as I played those false notes, glaring as if I had conjured up the devil. “You’re in the public eye, in the spotlight! You’re not the kind of woman
nodded, staring at the rose for a few moments in silence. “Come with me,” he said finally. “Where to?” Lilly asked. “To our archive in the basement. Unless you want to polish off the rest of your steak.” Lilly had lost the meager appetite she’d had. Her heart was beating wildly, and her face felt flushed. She jumped up so fast she made her chair rock dangerously, but she reacted quickly and managed to grasp it before it fell and drew the attention of the whole cafeteria to her. “Take it
your husband now!” Maggie suddenly resembled a summer apple that had been bathed in sunlight. Paul saw that several people had gathered on the broad flight of steps and refrained from kissing her again. At the front door they were greeted by a dark-haired servant in traditional Batak garb. He was wearing the characteristic dark, patterned scarf bound around his head like a turban. He bowed to Paul and Maggie and gestured for them to follow him. More guests were standing in the entrance hall.
suited him perfectly, accentuating the golden shimmer in his hair. He stopped his restless twisting of the walking stick in his hand to pull out his pocket watch and snap it shut again. Rose decided not to keep him waiting any longer. She pressed her hand to her stomach and tried to breathe away the fluttering inside. Since nothing helped, she set her foot on the first step and called to mind Mrs. Faraday’s advice on coping with stage fright. “Once you start playing, it will disappear of its own
Lilly thought. If the girl were forced to play the violin, she would probably suffer for it and reject the instrument as soon as puberty injected enough rebellion into her. But maybe she enjoyed it. There were many artists who knew from an early age what they wanted to do; those were the ones who didn’t care whether or not they were considered normal. Not all children enjoyed romping in the mud or climbing trees after all. “Perhaps she really might be a star one day,” she said eventually. “And