Chapter One
Bexley, England, 1854
Brilliance knew she was going somewhere she ought not go. And it wouldn’t be the first time she had simply followed an inclination without giving it much thought. However, the compelling music of a piano being beautifully played drew her from her intended destination.
After arriving at Lady Twitchard’s country house party a mere two hours earlier, Brilliance had taken tea in her assigned room, rested as one did after travel, then washed off the dust off the journey before changing for dinner into a lightweight, pink, silk gown with white flowers around the neckline and the hem. Belinda, her personal maid, had expertly combed and styled her dark hair, sweeping it into coils on either side of her head while leaving down and loose as many curls as a single lady dare get away with.
Having yet to see her best friend, Martine, also a guest for the week, Brilliance was hurrying toward the noisy drawing room, its double doors standing open and welcoming. However, her footsteps slowed at the closed conservatory door, and she found it impossible to continue along the passageway.
Pushing open the door in so deliberate and quiet a manner as to have her bursting with the effort to rein in her curiosity, she discovered a man seated at a highly polished grand piano with his back to her.
Brilliance wasn’t so silly as to believe in love at first sight. After all, she had seen plenty of handsome men at numerous assemblies, and she hadn’t loved a single one of them. However, she well knew her parents’ own romantic story. Lord Geoffrey Diamond and Lady Caroline Chimes hadn’t instantly fallen head over heels in love. Rather, Brilliance’s father had nearly knocked her mother on her bottom. Falling rear end over heels was another matter entirely in the arena of love. Regardless, they’d felt an immediate attraction upon that initial meeting.
Thus, an unexpectedly strong attraction at first sight was something Brilliance understood and believed in ... yet she’d never thought it could be fashioned by music. In this case, whatever the gentleman was playing, something she’d never heard before, was drawing her forward. Moreover, she could not take her eyes off the pianist.
There might not be anything spectacular about him. At least, not that she could see. He had light brown hair that came over the collar of his worsted wool, charcoal-gray evening coat. His broad shoulders sat atop a long torso that indicated he was tall.
He seemed to be staring straight ahead out the conservatory window to the twilight gardens beyond, looking neither at his hands nor at any sheet music while he played.
Both his bearing and the beauty of the music quelled her normal exuberance. Brilliance walked softly and stayed silent, even keeping her lips tightly closed, rather than rushing forward and exclaiming how the music touched her deeply. Moreover, she fisted her hands against the front of her bodice to stop herself from clapping.
Eschewing the plush chairs lined up along one wall, she remained standing, inching a little closer, then closer, without realizing it until she was directly behind him.
After another few moments, the stranger froze, his hands resting lightly upon the keys.
Despite her cream-colored, kid-skin slippers making no sound on the woolen rug, which covered all but the outer two feet of the polished wooden floor, he seemed to know he was no longer alone.
Stiffly, he turned and fixed her with a sage-eyed stare through metal-rimmed spectacles that caught the lamplight. His visage was comely, indeed, but with a most severe expression for someone producing such lovely sounds.
Quite certain she had been quiet, nonetheless, Brilliance circled around to stand at his side.
“I am terribly sorry to have stopped your playing, sir. It was truly delightful.” If he promised to continue, she would take a seat. Before she could encourage him to do so, he spoke.
“Was not the door shut?”
Brilliance nodded. “It was. But I could still hear you.”
“If you could hear the music from the other side of the door, then why did you feel it necessary to enter?”
Brilliance considered it a very good question, one deserving an answer. But it also struck her funny, as many things did. Her sisters and brother thought her a little flighty or giddy, but their opinion didn’t change the fact that people were often amusing.
She shrugged and gave in to the urge to laugh.
Unexpectedly, this made him rise to his feet. She’d been correct in imagining him to be tall.
“Are you laughing at me?” He looked down his nose to where she came only to his necktie. In size, she was between her sisters, Clarity and Purity, who were diminutive, and Radiance, who was a wee bit taller.
“No, sir. Not at all.” Brilliance hoped he would introduce himself, despite the inappropriateness of their being alone. The late-July house party had only recently begun. Guests were still arriving, and as yet, they’d had no gathering, neither formal nor informal, during which introductions could be made.
“I assure you I laugh only because I am happy. We are at the start of a week full of merriment. And in answer to your question, I can only think that I came in rather than remaining in the hallway because I was curious. I wanted toseethe source of the music. Wouldn’t anyone?”
“No,” he shot back. “Music is for your ears. What is there to see?”
Another good question. She nearly told him what she saw was a handsome, albeit inexplicably irritated man.
“I think when listening to music,” Brilliance explained, “looking upon the musician is particularly satisfying. It enhances the deep emotion imparted by the notes.”
“Balderdash,” he muttered. “I assume you are a guest of my cousin.”
