“My mother really loved to play the piano. That’s why I picked it up at first. I wanted to share something with her specifically. I was so in love with her. We all were, but for me she was everything strong and right and kind about women. I wanted her to be proud of me. Whenever I saw that she was, whenever she told me she was, it was the most amazing feeling.”

“Some people strive all their lives for their parents’ approval and never come close to gaining their pride.” There was something bitter and cold in her voice. She caught it herself and managed a weak laugh. “I’m drinking too much. It’s going to my head.”

Deliberately he filled her glass again. “You’re among friends.”

“Overindulging in alcohol—even lovely alcohol—is an abuse.”

“Overindulging on a regular basis is an abuse,” he corrected. “Ever been drunk, Sybill?”

“Of course not.”

“You’re due.” He tapped his glass to hers. “Tell me about the first time you tasted champagne.”

“I don’t remember. We were often served watered wine at dinner when we were children. It was important that we learn to appreciate the proper wines, how they were served, what to serve them with, the correct glass for red, the correct glass for white. I could easily have coordinated a formal dinner party for twenty when I was twelve.”

“Really?”

She laughed a little, let the wine froth in her head. “It’s an important skill. Can you imagine the horror if one bungles the seating? Or serves an inferior wine with the main course? An evening in ruins, reputations in tatters. People expect a certain level of tedium at such affairs, but not a substandard Merlot.”

“You attended a lot of formal dinner parties?”

“Yes, indeed. First, several smaller, what you might term ‘practice’ ones with intimates of my parents, so that I could be judged ready. When I was sixteen, my mother gave a large, important dinner for the French ambassador and his wife. That was my first official appearance. I was terrified.”

“Not enough practice?”

“Oh, I had plenty of practice, hours of instruction on protocol. I was just so painfully shy.”

“Were you?” he murmured, tucking her hair behind her ear. Score one for Mother Crawford, he thought.

“So silly. But any time I had to face people that way, my stomach would seize up and my heart would pound so hard. I lived in terror that I would spill something, say something I shouldn’t, or have nothing to say at all.”

“Did you tell your parents?”

“Tell them what?”

“That you were afraid?”

“Oh.” She waved her hand at that, as if it were the most absurd of questions, then picked up the bottle to pour more champagne. “What would be the point? I had to do what was expected of me.”

“Why? What would happen if you didn’t? Would they beat you, lock you in a closet?”

“Of course not. They weren’t monsters. They’d be disappointed, they’d disapprove. It was horrible when they looked at you that way—tight-lipped, cold-eyed—as if you were defective. It was easier just to get through it, and after a while, you learned how to deal with it.”