Court Leopold's Lady Lyonesse

Object Post 149

Lady Lyonesse

From Court in Between

Source: Court made the lute he named Lady Lyonesse under the tutelage of Kieran Shamrock, the leprechaun fiddler.

Until he was fourteen, Delacourt “Court” Leopold lived at Leopold Manor with his great-grandfather Baptiste and his mother, Nanette. Neither was especially musical, but Court was, so when he was thirteen Baptiste arranged for him to go to Kieran Shamrock, the fiddle maker, to craft his own musical instrument. Kieran expected Court to make a fiddle, but instead he made an ash-wood lute, which he named Lady Lyonesse and decorated with teapots.

Tansy, the stable hob who had been caring for his horse, asked him about it.

“Why teapots?” she asked.

“I like teapots. They’re generous and I like the shape. And they’re easier to carve than tea, which would look like any leafy twig. You have tansy sprigs on your cup so you ought to understand.”

Tansy might as well have asked, why tea? but that would have been disingenuous. Court happened to smell like tea. He also drank quite a lot of it with Tansy.

He had a confession to make about Lady Lyonesse.

“Lady Lyonesse is my favourite. I made her, and she sings only for me.”

“Why?”

 “I used a me-only charm, I’m afraid. I wouldn’t do it now, but I was thirteen then and I had so little that was mine.” He remembered Tansy Thrift had less, but she made no comment.

Court never mentioned why he chose the name he did for his lute, but the legendary sunken city was the kind of thing to appeal to a thirteen-year-old courtfolk boy and besides, the name would have been a kind of pun on lioness. After Baptiste’s death and Nanette's marriage, Court was the only extant Leopold of his line.