In Need of a Noble Bride - Chapter 10

By some miracle, Willette found the ability to keep walking. It could have been the anger resurfacing inside her, or it could have been the shock on Rafael’s face. She hadn’t meant to sound so harsh, but she was filled with fury all over again, and no amount of teasing was going to make anything better.

She hadn’t actually been officially banned from auditioning, but surely she would be after what she’d done.

They walked out of the zoo, and she wondered how far her cousin’s house was from here. She had no idea, but knew she had to get away from Rafael. Knew she had to put him, and London, and everything else behind her.

He grasped her arm, firmly, bringing her feet to a sudden stop. ‘Who is Clement Barr and what did he suggest?’

‘It doesn’t matter,’ she replied.

‘It does to me.’

She bit her bottom lip. He was simply too kind, and the truth was that it was all her fault. ‘I should have known better right from the start. People warned me, but I didn’t listen.’

‘Warned you about what?’

There was no teasing chime in his tone, nor glint in his eyes, now and she regretted telling him the truth. He’d been nothing but considerate and accommodating, and she’d had to open her mouth.

It was just that Rafael had believed in her. When they’d been at Turnbill, and he’d learned about her dream, he’d told her it would come true. That he’d never heard anyone who sang like her.

Others had said as much, and she’d let it all go to her head. Had believed she could do more with her life than work at her father’s dry goods store or marry a local boy and never see anything more of the world than her own backyard. She loved her mother and father, and brothers, but had wanted more, and had thought she’d receive it from singing.

Mr Barr had said she had a good voice, could carry a tune to perfection, and would make a good addition to his troupe of performers, but he had to know her other skills. Which in the end were skills that a woman should perform only with her husband.

Living with four older brothers, she’d seen a tussle or two, and the moment Mr Barr had pushed her up against the wall, she’d balled her hand into a fist and struck him square in the nose, then brought her knee up to his most vulnerable point.

Then, as he’d sunk to the floor with blood pouring from his nose, she had run out of his office, out of the building. He’d shouted in her wake, claiming she’d never get another audition in the city.

Her brothers had warned her that scandal and disreputability were associated with performers, but she’d thought they were just trying to convince her not to seek a career that might take her far away.

‘I’m going to ask again,’ Rafael said, ‘and I expect an answer to each question. Who is Clement Barr? What did he suggest and what were you warned about?’

She shook her head. To tell him everything would be too embarrassing. ‘It doesn’t matter, Mr Williams.’

‘We’ve been on the first-name basis since we met, Willette,’ he said, emphasising her name. ‘And it does matter. I refuse to take you to your cousin’s house until you tell me.’

A stubbornness that she was known for rose up inside her. ‘Then I will walk, Rafael.’

‘No, you won’t.’

‘Yes, I will.’

‘No. You. Won’t.’

‘Yes. I. Will.’