He hadn't even known that she played an instrument, yet here she was entirely in her element with a borrowed fiddle and a collection of old friends. They hadn't planned on meeting anyone at the pub, but a little while after they arrived, the band had rolled in, composed of half a dozen local musicians -- all of whom she knew but had not seen in years.
At first they had all chatted pleasantly together, and he joined in politely, though there was not much for him to add to a conversation about the current fate of her former classmates. When they invited her to play with them, however, he retired in shock to a corner of the pub, drinking his beer in large but infrequent quaffs while he stewed over her deception. It seemed a bitter blow to discover that these strangers should know something so fundamental about his wife -- something that she had never shared with him.
Still, as the evening wore on, the beer and the music lulled him. He emerged from his resentment and, as she rejoined him at the table, he noticed how her eyes were sparkling. She smiled and squeezed his hand, and he wondered what other mysteries would be revealed as their life together unfurled.
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