Jayden had swung into the fourth rendition of "Moon River" he had been requested to play that evening in the piano bar of the Viking Rhine River cruise ship Gersemi two hours after it departed Cologne for its final destination in Amsterdam the next morning. As he was wont to do, each time he played the song he made a variation of it if for no other reason than to not bore himself to death. This fourth time was challenging because his ear was tuned to the mesmerizing throaty laughter of the woman across the lounge at a table with two younger men, members of a Swiss football team being rewarded with a cruise for having had a particularly good season.
Just as her laugh was hard to ignore, so was her siren existence in the bar. She was a flaming-red-haired beauty, with a trim, well-honed body and generous breasts poured into a gold lamΓ©, scant-sleeves-off-the-shoulder cocktail dress. She had to be in her early forties at least but so well preserved and put together that she had no trouble maintaining the worshipful attention of the glassy-eyed and flirty hunky footballers. There was a revolving light ball in the middle of the ceiling that kept picking up flashes of light from not only her dress, but also the chunky diamonds on her fingers and dangling from her earlobes that both signaled huge wealth and was yet another distraction for Jayden's attempt to provide background music on the piano in the bar.
A waitress, Jeanette, wafted by to take away the empty glass on the piano and renew it with one half-filled with cheap scotch, and Jayden stopped her to ask, "Do you have any idea who that red-headed woman is over there?" Jeanette was the best one to ask about the cruise passengers. By the end of a cruise she knew what there was to know about the more interesting ones.
"That's Miriam Stratford-Hyde.
Lady
Miriam Stratford-Hyde," Jeanette answered. "A regular baby killer, isn't she?"
"Stratford-Hyde? No relation to Arthur Stratford-Hyde, the composer, is she?"
"She is, yes."
"His mother?"
Jeanette laughed. "No, his wife."
"But he's--"
"Reputed to be gay, yes," Jeanette said.
"I was going to say probably half her age."
"That too."
"Not to say that she isn't a gorgeous babe."
"If you say so," Jeanette said, with a sniff. "She certainly goes after the babies."
"She isn't English, is she? I've heard her talk from over here."
"No. American. Got to move on, Love." And then Jeanette was gone. But Miriam Stratford-Hyde had risen and was coming over to the piano. For a moment Jayden was afraid she'd caught him asking about her and was coming over to admonish him, but it was because she wanted to request a song. He had gotten to the end of playing "Moon River" while he was talking with Jeanette and hadn't realized he'd still been playing it. Of course he could play it in his sleep in this river cruise venue.
"How about playing a song for me, Handsome," Miriam said. "Can you play 'Misty' for me?" Jayden groaned and she laughed her enticing throaty laugh. "I do suppose you get that requested a lot--and just that way."
"Only a million times a night, but for a beautiful woman like you..." and he started into a slow, sensuous version of the song with a lot of rich chords added in to give it body.
She lingered at the piano. "Was that waitress giving a rundown to you on me?" She was smiling, and the tone was one of amusement, so he didn't get defensive.
"I was interested. You are an arresting woman."
"I
have
been arrested a time or two," she said. "Once because they thought I'd killed my second husband, after my first one keeled over nearly the same way. After that, I swore off older men. How old are you?"
"Twenty-five."
"A good age. A very good age. But you don't come from around here, do you?"
Jayden knew exactly what she meant by that. "I come from Jamaica," he answered. He steeled himself for some sort of racial slur whether she meant it or not.
"Well, you play divinely. Somewhat of a surprise, considering what a very large, strapping young man you are."
"It gives me broad hands, so I have a long stretch on the keys."
"I like a big man with a long stretch," she said.