In Need of a Noble Bride - Chapter 15

Pacing the floor of the front parlour in the Knights’ expansive town house, Rafael shook his head. ‘She has to, that’s all there is to it.’

‘She refused, Rafael,’ Nora Knight told him. Nora was in London planning her wedding and hosting a fundraiser tomorrow night for a charity that she and Geoffrey were starting for mudlarks and other orphans. As soon as Rafael had suggested that Willette should perform there, Nora had been giddy at the idea and had rushed over to Willette’s cousin’s house at once. But… ‘I begged her, and, though she offered to make a donation, she said she can’t sing at the event.’

‘You have to try again,’ he said.

‘It won’t do any good,’ Nora said. ‘I’ve known her since we were children, and Willette can be quite stubborn.’

He knew that. He also knew that pigeon-livered, mumbling cove Clement Barr was to blame!

After leaving Willette at her cousin’s house, he’d decided to find out who Clement Barr was, and had done. He’d also visited the man the next day. Sporting a broken nose and two black eyes—claiming they were from a stage accident, but Rafael knew what it looked like when a man got popped in the nose—Barr had insisted that he hadn’t hired Willette because she didn’t have what it took to be an opera singer.

Rafael had threatened to pop the blighter’s nose again before Barr had admitted that was a lie and agreed to write a letter of apology to Willette and offer her another audition. However, it had been the woman in the hallway who had told Rafael exactly what had happened to Willette.

The anger that had filled him had ripped Barr’s door from its hinges, and while holding the man against the wall by his shirt front, with his feet dangling, Rafael had informed Barr exactly what would happen to him if he didn’t change his ways.

Not satisfied with that, Rafael had gone to the owner of the opera house, threatening to tell every box owner in London of the disgrace happening behind closed doors.

Consensual relationships were none of his business, but forced ones should never happen. The owner had agreed and promised changes, and Rafael would make sure he followed through.

‘Willette said she’s never going to sing again,’ Nora said.

Rafael could understand that, after the way she’d been treated. He’d even had a flare of excitement when the opera-house owner had apologetically informed him that Willette had said as much in a return note to his offer of another audition. His heart had leaped at the thought that perhaps their lives weren’t set on such different tracks after all…

Until he’d realised his excitement was the epitome of selfishness. Willette’s voice needed to be heard. She needed to sing.

He had to see that happen for her.

‘It had been a wonderful idea, Rafael, but she’s not interested,’ Nora said. ‘Her cousin is returning home tomorrow, and Willette is going home, back to her father’s house. I wish I knew why, but she wouldn’t tell me.’

Nora sounded as disappointed as he felt. However, he knew why Willette was leaving. He wouldn’t tell Nora and had insisted that the opera-house owner not mention it to her or anyone else. Willette didn’t deserve to be reminded of what had happened. Nor did she deserve to be embarrassed by it.

He felt awful about how he’d pressed her to tell him.

Dreadfully awful. He fully understood why she would never want to see him again.

‘We’ll just have to go with the orchestra as planned,’ Nora said. ‘Which is sad because Willette’s singing would have made it the event of the season.’

Of the century, Rafael corrected, to himself. He’d been to enough events to know when one wouldn’t be forgotten as long as the attendees lived.

Finishing the drink he was carrying in one hand, he set the glass down. A woman who had the courage to pop a man in the nose had the courage to sing; he’d just have to find another way to help Willette understand that.