Letting his sister be hurt was the hardest thing she had ever asked him to do.
Another round of applause rumbled through the audience, and a footman swept the narrow curtain to welcome them on stage.
“It’s time.” Camellia hesitated. “Are you going to play the same set Mother arranged for us since we were children?”
Heath swallowed. Camellia was no longer a child. He was going to have to encourage her to follow her dream, even if doing so would ruin her life. The choice was hers.
“What do you want me to play?” he asked simply, despite the ice in his belly.
She lifted her chin. “The sequence we practiced the other day. We’ll start with what they’re expecting, then segue into the one they’re doing this month at the Theatre Royal.”
His stomach dropped. “Not…Don Juan?”
Camellia nodded. “The very one.”
Of course it was. If one’s goal was to destroy one’s reputation, half measures would not do. That particular opera featured the most scandalous lyrics to sweep through London in years. But tonight was not about Heath. It was about supporting his talented sister. About fighting for one’s dreams, no matter what the cost.
He turned to whisper the change of plans to Bryony, then stopped short when he saw the gentle expression on her face. Of course the minx already knew. Camellia’s sisters were her best friends. Heath was the one they hadn’t been certain would support such a radical decision.
In truth, he could not love the inevitability of her loss of reputation, loss of marriageability, loss of standing. But he did love his sister. For her, he would do anything.
Resolute, he followed Camellia out on stage.
Heath wanted to interrupt her, to protect her, to stop her from doing this reckless, irreversible thing. He wanted to save her from the pointing fingers, the mocking laughter, the disparaging remarks, the empty dance card… If indeed she would still be invited anywhere.
Their sister Dahlia had lost almost all ties to Society, just for opening a school in the wrong neighborhood.
Willfully following a career path that was often synonymous with prostitution would be a thousand times worse. Society believed that any woman who was paid to perform on stage would be willing to accept money to perform any other act a man desired.
That was not Camellia. But it wouldn’t matter; her comfortable Society life would be over.
But with a voice like hers, the best stages in London would just be the beginning. She was more than talented enough to take England by storm. She could become the most celebrated opera singer in all of Europe.
Starting this very night. With the support and unconditional love of her big brother, one of the first to unlock her cage and allow her to fly.
Heath put his fingers to the keys and began playing the accompaniment to the evening of his sister’s downfall…
Or the beginning of the greatest adventure of her life.
Chapter 11
Nora sat at the outer edge of a sea of dames and dandies, crushed side-to-side and elbow-to-elbow in breathless anticipation of the spectacle about to unfold before them.
“I cannot believe I’m here,” she whispered to Lady Roundtree.
The baroness lifted her fan so no one would see her gossiping with a paid companion. “Of course you cannot. No one forgets their first Grenville musicale.”
Nora didn’t bother to correct her misassumption.
’Twasn’t just that she was about to witness a performance by the famed Grenville siblings, a feat which by all appearances was an honor and a privilege to everyone fortunate enough to receive an invitation.
It wasn’t themusicalepart of “Grenville musicale” that held her spellbound to her seat.
It wasGrenville.
Nora was inside Heath Grenville’s childhood home. A town house that had belonged to his family for two generations, according to Lady Roundtree. Mr. Grenville’s parents were under this very roof. Possibly inside the same overcrowded salon right this moment.
Even though she knew Mr. Grenville had his own bachelor gentleman’s town house elsewhere in Mayfair, Nora could not help but feel that she was peering inside an intimate part of his life.
