There was a glance between her stomach and the piano. Had much of the noise just been her colliding with it every time she played? Hm.

On his side of the piano, he felt out the right(ish) key and used his left hand to deliberately play three notes.

“You can do the same over …” he turned, knee pressing against hers as he took count of the keys and leaned to take her hand, “… here.” He pressed her index finger over the corresponding higher key. “It is easier to learn a song piece-by-piece.”

Alice blushed. Zech might feel a light tremble in her hand at this forbidden physical contact. She wasn't used to being so close to a man. Noah had been her first and only, and the one positive thing she could say about Tobias was that he hadn't forced himself upon her. On that frightful wedding night, he had shown her her own bedroom, wished her goodnight and had gone into his own room, leaving her both crying for relief and dumbfounded.

Mr. Meijer was a handsome man, but she knew he was a bully and the way Noah had treated her had taught her enough about men to know what they wanted and how they would treat her afterwards.

Yet she did not withdraw her hand and move away like she knew she should. Tobias would want her to. Her father would want her to. And she could choose to do otherwise. She had some power.

And so she let him lead her fingers to the keys and followed his example, though she kept her eyes on the keys and dared not look up. Her heart was pounding. Her knee pressed back against his.

A tremble in her hand. Zechariah’s hand lifted from hers. He glanced to her, though it was a look of calculation rather than regret. She was just a girl, caught up in games over her head. His hand started to draw back.

A knee pressed into his, and his arm halted its retreat. Of course she was easy. She was a Ward, she was already pregnant, and she was hardly even of age to marry. His lips peeled back in a smirk as his hand glanced over hers once more. He guided her fingers through one repetition, cologne thick with the shift of his arm.

“Yes,” he murmured with a rumble of underlying laughter, eyes alight with mischief. “Just like that, Alice.”

Then he drew his hand back and put some distance between them, though his knee was still nearly close enough to touch.

“Three of those, on your own.”

Alice. It was she resurfaced after being trapped under water, and could suddenly breathe and take in the world around her. He saw her as Alice. Jenny refused to call her by her own name. To everyone in the village she was Mrs. Appleton too, a constant reminder of the man she belonged to. She had suddenly forgiven Mr. Meijer's earlier bullying.

With a smile on her face, she pressed the keys again and again as he instructed, so focused on them that she didn't notice when he pulled away. It took her a three times to get the rhythm right, but then she continued at the right speed, before moving her fingers down to try another set of keys, hesitantly looking for the next chord.

She smiled.

Easy.

He was briefly, mildly concerned about her pulling the same thing that guy at the Diamond Pony had, but he was also willing to suffer great indignities just to make her life hell.

Zechariah played a few more notes, completing the basic melody of Hot Cross Buns and looking to her with a fixed smile.

Alice reached for his side of the piano, to try to follow his example. She got a few keys wrong. "Teach me the one you were playing at first. I think I heard it before," she implored.

Zechariah leaned back to give her room to maneuver, studying the girl more than the technique. That was no song for someone who still struggled with one hand. Either her husband was going to take his sweet time getting back … or she wanted to be caught in a scandalous position.

Had she thought the consequences through? How quickly a man could drag a lover’s name through the mud? He supposed she did not have a career to worry over – she had already reached her lowest low, bar killing her husband.

Which was just around the corner, considering the family record.

Zechariah looped his arm about her shoulders to be able to reach both hands of the piece. He bumped some keys first, then hit a few keys down trying to acclimate to the position. Pausing with his arm against her, his mouth pursed in thought.

Then, he stood and stepped behind her, putting hands on either side of her. After a couple of off starts, he played a couple of measures with both hands.

“Can you read music?”

Alice suddenly cringed when she felt his arm and again when he was so closely behind her essentially trapping her with his arms. She had known what he was about when she had felt his knee against hers, had even responded. Yet she wasn't sure what to do next. He suddenly felt so much bigger and she felt small.

"Aye," she said in a small voice, before she even thought about it. "I mean no." It was hard to think.

"Look ser, there's a wagon by t' gate." Jimmy had suddenly said. Tobias had risen and put a hand over his eyes to shield them from the low late winter's sun. Jimmy was right, but he hadn't expected visitors. Was it that odd chap who had come for his eggs? Alice was home alone. He didn't like that.

"Carry on, I'll be right back," he had told the boy.

As he came near the home he could hear the piano. Some keys sound. Some quite off. Darn it. He had told Alice to leave it alone. It had been Sally's and he couldn't stand how the girl seemed to take pleasure in abusing it.

He entered quietly through the scullery, for he had not forgotten that they had a visitor and a suspicion was already forming in his mind.

He hadn't expected it to be this bad.

"What the hell is this!?" he thundered.

Every muscle touching her clenched at the yelling. Normally, major confrontations had involved enough paperwork to drown in, or at least a hearty amount of peer pressure. For a moment he froze, hands still hovering over the keys like he was about to puzzle out the next piece of music.

It was easier to think about than what he had just gotten himself into. This may well have been the angriest anyone had ever been with him. Even his father’s slamming-doors rages at his intentional provocations were reigned in by a gentling love.

Steeling himself, he let his arms drop to his own sides and turned to face Tobias. For all his fantasies of hurting Alice, he still stood between she and her livid husband.

“Your piano needs tuning.”

But a part of him (precisely, the mouth) apparently still had a death wish.