An English Lesson

"All you need to do is name it Harry, dear," Kiera said smiling.

I laughed and replied, "You might not think I'm such a dear once you find out what it is."

"I highly doubt that," Kiera laughed, "But if it makes you feel better, then tell me."

I leaned back and said, "Alright then, here it is. Number one, if you want me to make you into the very best performer you can possibly be then you have to do everything I ask of you with no arguments or any questions, whatsoever. Can you handle that?"

Still smiling; Kiera put her hand on my knee and replied, "If you say it will make me the best I can be then I'll do whatever you say Harry."

I took a deep breath and said, "Number two, from this moment forward, I want you in bed and asleep by no later than 9:00 pm. Do you under stand that?"

She looked at her watch and said, "But it's already quarter past eight and my mates and I were supposed to go....."

"Ah Ah Ah, you promised not to argue with me and you're already doing it," I said, interrupting her and shaking my finger at her.

She smiled then stood up and gave me a mock military salute and said, "Yes, Sir, Captain Harry!"

I picked up a stack of papers and swatted her on the hip and said, "Now, go home and get some rest because I want you here at 7:00 tomorrow morning, alright?" She was about to say something else before I raised my finger and said, "Remember, I say, you do, okay?" She grinned then, right before she left, kissed me lightly on the cheek and took off out the control room doors, then disappeared down the hall and out of the building.

~~~~~~

The next morning; I woke up at 5:00 am. After my shower; I went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee from the coffee pot that I'd started before hand. As I enjoyed my morning cup of java, I began to think about the day ahead of me. If the truth were known; I was looking very forward to working with Kiera. The energy of her youth somehow seemed to be rubbing off on me and I hadn't felt this alive in a very long time. But due to the fact that her debut concert was right around the corner, there was still a lot of work to do with not a lot of time left to do it. But I somehow knew that Kiera would be able to pull it off without a hitch. The sparkle in her eyes was the same one that I used to have in mine a long time ago and it was very refreshing to be around her. As I looked at my watch and saw that it was getting late, I finished my coffee and got ready to head on to the studio and get everything ready for Kiera. The fact that the studio was within a few blocks of my apartment made it easy for me to get there with no hassles and I was able to walk the distance in hardly any time at all.

When I arrived at the studio building, it was only 6:30 am and still dark outside. However, the lights inside the building were burning brightly and I could see movement through the glass doors. I knocked on the glass, and within a few seconds; Tom Wickham, one of the top sound engineers in England, answered the door with a smile on his face. "Hey Harry, how are you this morning, mate?" said Tom, as he opened the door to let me in.

"I'm doing great Tom, how are you?" I asked, as I walked through the door.

Tom laughed and patted me on the shoulder then replied, "We're all very glad to hear that you're going to be producing Kiera's show. Besides, I heard that you're one of the best there is at what you do."

"Well I don't know about that," I replied smiling.

As we walked down the hall into the now familiar rehearsal suite, Tom took me into the engineering booth and said, "Would you like to hear what we've got on Kiera thus far?"

"I'd love to," I replied. We sat down at the mixing console and Tom turned on the tape machine, and the sound of Kiera's voice began to fill the room. As I listened, I heard the sweet pureness of her voice fill, not only my ears, but my soul as well.

Kiera's debut performance was going to need enough music to fill a time space of two hours, but from what Tom told me; we only had enough for about forty five minutes. Once the tape was finished playing, I looked at Tom and said, "Is this all you've got on Kiera?"

"Yeah mate, that's it," laughed Tom, "Toni said that this would be more than enough to fill the space needed to make a good show."

I just shook my head and replied, "It's no wonder she was on probation, pulling shit like this. I can see right now that we're gonna need more material for Kiera, or this show is going to be a flop."

"What are we going to do mate?" asked Tom.

I smiled, and as I was picking up the telephone receiver, said, "Just leave everything to

me."

~~~~~~

At 7:00 am sharp I saw Kiera walk through the door looking just as beautiful as the first day I ever laid eyes on her. She walked into the engineer's booth and sat down next to me at the control console and chirped, "Good morning, Harry. Did you sleep well?"

"I sure did, how about you?" I replied.

She smiled and said, "I slept wonderfully." I found out later that, when it comes to me, she has a sort of sixth sense. Because after we exchanged greetings, she looked at me and said, "What's wrong Harry?" I apprised her of the situation, but told her not to worry because I had everything under control. With tears beginning to form in her eyes, she said "What are we going to do for material Harry? There isn't enough time to write enough songs to cover that big of a time slot."

I smiled and asked, "Do you trust me?"

"Implicitly," she replied.

"Can you learn twelve songs in the next ten days?" I asked her.

"I can learn anything you put in front of me," she said, bravely and with confidence.

I grinned and replied, "Then I've got everything covered, alright?"

She looked bewildered and started to ask me, "But what......"

"You're going to have to trust me," I said, interrupting her.

I saw the look of fear come across her face, but just as quickly; it disappeared and then she smiled and said, "I know that you'll take care of it, won't you Harry?"

I just nodded and said, "Yep!"

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and replied, "Alright then, I trust you."

I looked at her and said, "In the mean time, I want you to sit down at the piano and practice going over your scales vocally, starting in the key of 'C'. Go up one complete octave then come back down. Do that for the next two hours and then take a break, alright?"

She nodded, and then smiling, said, "You've got it, boss."

Right before she left the engineer's booth, I stopped her and said, "Just because I won't be in there with you doesn't mean that I won't be listening ya know." She grinned and shook her head as she left to get to the job at hand.

Around noon we all took a lunch break, and Kiera and I walked down to The Red Lion to get something to eat. As we headed down the street, Kiera once again took my arm and snuggled into it as we walked. "Where are you getting the material for me to learn Harry?" she asked. I just laughed and shook my head. She looked up at me and said "What's so funny?"

I smiled and replied, "I thought you said you trusted me?"

"I do, but that doesn't mean that I don't want to know where it's coming from," she replied, half smiling, half frowning.

I leaned down close enough to be heard only by her and whispered "It's a secret!"

When we arrived at The Red Lion; the same maitre'd as before was there to greet us and said, "Miss Brighton, it's so good to see you again!"

Kiera smiled and sweetly asked, "What is your name, sir?"

"My name is Robert, Miss Brighton," he replied.

Kiera smiled, and motioning towards me, said, "Robert, this is Mr. Harry James and he's my very best friend."

Robert smiled and said, "Mr. James, Miss Brighton, will you both please follow me to our best table?"

"Thanks Robert!" I said.

At the sound of my accent, Robert smiled and replied, "We're always glad to have our American neighbors here as well, sir. Right this way please!" Kiera and I followed him to a table that, again, was in the very back away from the other patrons.

"I'll never get used to being treated like I'm someone special," said Kiera, once we were seated and our drink order was taken. I smiled just and shook my head, making her ask "What?"

I looked her in the eyes and said, "You are someone special, and the sooner you realize that, the better off you'll be."

"Do you really think so?" she said.

I smiled at her reassuringly and replied, "I thought you were the first time I laid eyes on you."

"Even though I was horrible to you?" she asked, grinning.

I took her hand and replied, "My thoughts were reaffirmed the first time I heard you sing." She said nothing but simply stared at me warmly with a look that I later learned was something more than what it appeared to be at the time. After we'd eaten our lunch, we made our way back to the studio. It had now become a ritual or habit that, whenever we walked anywhere together, Kiera took my arm and snuggled closely to me. I didn't complain because after all; I'd come to absolutely adore her more than I cared to admit at the time.

The rest of the day was spent working with the other musicians and Kiera. Things were beginning to shape up very nicely, and Kiera's confidence was building and I could see the beginnings of, as I said earlier, greatness in the making.

That afternoon, I told Kiera that I was staying a little later than usual because I had some work to do. She looked at me and replied, "All work and no play make Harry a dull boy you know."

"What're you talking about?" I asked.

She took my hand and said, "Come with me for two hours."

"Shaking my head, I replied, "But Kiera I....."

"Ah ah ah," she interrupted, "Relax Harry. You need this, trust me."

I gave an exasperating sigh and said, "Alright, but more than two hours."

Kiera took me to Hyde Park and we walked around bare-footed in the grass enjoying the afternoon not saying a whole lot of anything other than the occasional (I told you so) glance from Kiera. I told her later that it was just the thing I needed to relieve the stress that, until then, I didn't realize, had begun to build up.

Upon our arrival back to the studio, Tom was in the control booth unpacking a box that was addressed to me, in care of the studio there in London. "What's this?" asked Kiera.

"It's the surprise I was telling you about," I replied smiling. Taking the two, twenty- four track tapes out of the box, I put one on the tape machine spindles, threaded it through the tracking magnets and into the feed reel and then pushed the play button. In a few seconds, music began to fill the room. Kiera listened intently and, by the end of the first song, was crying openly.

"Oh my God," wept Kiera.

"Do you like it?" I asked, stopping the tape machine.

She wiped the tears from her eyes and said "It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. Who wrote it?"

"I did!" I replied.

Kiera gave me the same warm look that I seen earlier in the restaurant during lunch and said, "I didn't know that you wrote music as beautifully as you played it."

I smiled and said "Thank you sweetie, but I think you have a far greater gift for singing it than I ever had for writing it." She just smiled warmly at me again only this time it was accompanied by a soft and gentle kiss on my cheek very near my lips.

We listened to my music for the rest of the evening and Kiera had a hard time deciding on which song she liked the most. When I got back to my apartment that night, and after a nice quiet dinner, I was all set to get a good night's sleep. At about 10:00 pm I decided to go ahead and turn in because it had been a long day and I was very tired. The minute I laid my head down; I was fast asleep and for the first time since I arrived in London, I was beginning to rest extremely well.

However, Kiera haunted my dreams again that night. I dreamt that I was walking along the banks of a river and out of nowhere she appeared to me. She was dressed in a long sleeveless flowing white nightgown. Her blues eyes were sparkling and her hair was shining and I felt at peace by just looking at her. In my dream I took her hand and sat her down next to me. Suddenly she leaned over and kissed me passionately, wrapping her arms around me at the same time. I was encompassed by a serene warmth and I remember that I felt safer than I'd ever felt before in my life. I heard her say "I love you Harry, and I promise that I always will because I know you'll never leave me. I Love you......." Suddenly I awoke to the sound of the alarm clock going off, and I looked over at my nightstand to discover that it was 5:00 am.

Once my eyes were open and I was totally awake, my heart felt empty and alone, and for reasons that I didn't yet want to admit; I couldn't wait to see her again. I went into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. The minute I looked into my own eyes I knew that, regardless of how confused I was; it was possible that I was beginning to fall for Kiera and I wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea either. The thing about it was, is that I could never let her know. She was way too young for me and I wasn't about to set myself up to get hurt. I'd seen it happen to one of my good friends back home. He fell for a younger woman and she ended up ripping his heart out by the roots. Had it not been for me and a couple of his, and my, close friends, he would've destroyed himself completely, and I was not about to let that happen to me. I was just going to have to hide my feelings for her. That's all there was to it. But I wondered how I would do that without hurting her. After all, I'd managed to gain her trust even after all the things she'd been through in her life, and I wasn't going to violate that for any reason. It was going to be a tricky situation, most definitely, but I was sure I could handle it. Besides, there were only ten days left until her concert dates and then when that was over; I could go back home and forget all about this whole situation. Little did I know, Kiera already felt the same way about me that I was only beginning to feel about her?

~~~~~~

Later that morning, I walked into the studio to find Kiera already waiting there to greet me with a cup of coffee in hand and a smile on her face. As I approached her, she giggled and said, "Good Morning, Harry dear."

"Hi, how are you?" I asked.

"I'm fine now that you're here," she replied blatantly. For the first time in a long time I was at a total loss for words. However; she handed me the cup of coffee and added, "I got here a little early because I've got a surprise for you."

"Oh yeah, and what might that be?" I asked, a little unsure.

"Listen to this" she replied, as she sat down to the piano. She proceeded to flawlessly play and sing the first one of my songs she'd heard the day before. And when she was done, I could do nothing more than wipe the tears from my eyes that had begun to flow halfway through her performance.

Kiera smiled at me sweetly and said, "How was that, Harry darling?" I was too moved to speak. Never before had I thought that anything I'd written could ever sound, or be performed as beautifully as I'd just witnessed.

I looked at her and replied, "Kiera my dear; that was perfection in its purest form!" Because it was still early in the morning, and because she and I were the only ones there at the studio, Kiera rose from behind the piano and slowly walked over to me. Placing her arms around my neck; she pressed her body gently but firmly to mine and tenderly kissed me on the lips. I had no choice but to return the kiss and I did so with a vengeance.

When it ended, and we were both breathing heavily; Kiera looked into my eyes and softly said, "I've wanted to do that for days now. I thought you might be angry with me for it, but judging from the way you just kissed me back; I think not," and then she broke into a fit of giggles.

Like I've already said, I adored this side of her so; I simply smiled and replied, "No, I don't think so either. However my dear, we still have a great deal of work to do so let's try to keep it professional, okay?" She immediately got a look on her face as if what I'd said had hurt her deeply, but as she tried to angrily pull away from me; I held her tightly against me and added, "At least while we're here anyway."

Her frown immediately softened back into the beautiful smile she'd had on her face just moments before and she sweetly said, "I can handle that, but after we get done, can we take up where we left off?"

After quickly kissing her lips, I grinned and replied, "I sure hope so," and then I let go of her. For the rest of the morning we went through the songs that we'd listened to the previous day, and I was surprised at how quickly she picked them up. All that was lacking were lyric sheets, which I quickly produced, and by lunch time; Kiera had learned, by heart, over half the number of songs that I'd played for her to begin with.

We took our lunch break there in the studio. I managed to get us some Chinese food delivered and we sat around eating and talking until the rest of the band showed up for an afternoon of rehearsals. I decided to extend rehearsals late into the evening so the band would have the new material learned fairly well. I was very proud of everyone concerned. Kiera inspired us all to not only work harder, but to do the very best we possibly could. By the end of the evening, it was nearing 10:00 pm so; I decided to call it a night. After everyone had gone, the only people left in the studio were Kiera and I.

I was preparing to go home when she looked at me smiling and said, "Harry, may I ask you something?"

"You sure can," I replied.

She took my hand and said "Please don't think badly of me, but I was wondering if I might come with you back to your apartment to spend the night?"

When we arrived at my apartment, Kiera waited until the door was closed and then she jumped into my arms, almost knocking me down and proceed to kiss me on the lips. As I began returning the kiss, she became extremely passionate and her lips very hungrily devouring mine as if she'd been starved her whole life. After the kiss was finished; we were both breathing quite heavily when Kiera looked at me dreamily and said, "Wow! I've never been kissed like that before."

"Me either," I replied, smiling. Then I gently pushed her away from me and held her at arms length and said "Kiera sweetie, would it be alright with you if I said that we need to sit down and have a talk before this goes any further?"

She looked alarmed, but as she sat down on the couch; she asked "Is there something wrong Harry?"

I chuckled as I sat down next to her and took her hand then replied, "No, there's nothing wrong, but I think you should know something about me, alright?"

She nodded and suspiciously said, "Uh...Okay!"

I took a deep breath and began, "Kiera, you are, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful women that I've ever seen. I find you alluring yet, at the same time, somewhat innocent. That's why I want to take this slow."

She gave me a sexy smile and said, "I'm not as innocent as one might think ya know."

"That's all the more reason I want to take this slow," I replied, laughing.

Once again, she got the same hurt look on her face as she'd done earlier in the studio, but this time, she stood up taking a defensive posture. Then, with a hint of sarcasm mixed with anger in her voice, she put her hands on her hips and replied, "I thought you were an experienced man. What's the matter? Are you afraid of me?"

I rose from the couch and gently took her hand. Then raising it to my lips, I kissed it and said, "No! I'm not afraid of you. I just respect you apparently more than any man you've ever known. Now, if you truly want to be with me, then, in return; you will respect me as well as my wishes. Okay Sweetie?"