The young soprano looked from Odette to the audience and back again, frowning.‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
‘I am not going to sing.’
‘But it is opening night.Youropening night.’
‘Not any longer.This is your starring debut.’Odette gestured at the murmuring faces beyond the lights.‘They are yours now.’
‘Mine?For how long?’
‘For a night.It is only ever for a night.Look after them.’Odette kissed Freya’s cheeks.‘Now go change your costume, Marietta, as quick as you can.For they are fickle, and you cannot keep them waiting.’
As Freya left the stage, Odette turned towards the audience.She placed a kiss on the tips of her fingers and sent it out into the auditorium, like a butterfly of hope.One final breath of dying applause, one last bow, and she gathered her skirts.
‘Stop.’Cassius rose from the bench.He crossed the short distance to stand before her, and they faced one another, centre stage before the world.The lights glanced off his cheekbones, and his scowl—that little line at the edge of his mouth that hid the secret of his laughter and the storm in his eyes—glimmered and receded in the light and shadow.‘We are not done.’
And before all the world, Cassius Zadora dropped to one knee and took her hands in his.
‘Miss Delaney.Odette.I love you.I have loved you and said nothing for far, far too long.Because I was not ready.Because I was scared.But no more.I want you beside me, every day.I want to wake up in your bed.I want to step into your world and whatever comes next, whatever magnificent thing you do, I want to be there for it.You are a force to be reckoned with, and this is not your end.This is a beginning.’
‘But what about Vienna?’
‘I do not want Vienna if I can’t have you.You are the song in my heart, the notes in my step, the lyrics and the melody.Without you, there is no music.’
‘Everyoneis watching you,’ she whispered.
‘I thought the soprano deserved a proposal to make the papers.’And he grinned, both sure of himself and, perhaps, a little scared.Waiting.Waiting.
This was the best part.When breath bunched in chests made the air ache, when the world turned tight, when every eye watched the stage.When she held them all—the nobles, the princes, the journalists, the common man and woman, even Cassius—in her palm.
‘Yes,’ she said, just loud enough for him, and then once more, louder, for the world.‘Yes, Zadora.I will marry you.’
As Cassius rose to his feet, he gripped her, raised her, and spun her so that her skirts flared and her heart soared.The theatre erupted into applause and cheers, gasps and shouts ofimmodesty!andimmorality!andbrava!andhurrah!ringing clear through the auditorium.
‘Lovesick fool,’ he said as he lowered her to the stage and stole a kiss.‘I never doubted it.’
Chapter 26
Steam,soot,burningcoaland hot grease—the air at London Bridge Station hung across the platform, almost as thick as the crowds making their way to or from carriages.Cassius jumped to dodge a man with a large case, then skated around a woman’s skirt and a line of boys hauling trunks.
‘Excuse me.Let me through.’
Further down the platform, the caboose of the 7.50 train from London to Dover shuddered with movement.
‘Wait!’The thrum of the crowd instantly swallowed Cassius’s voice.‘I’ve made a terrible mistake.My train!’He staggered to a stop as the train, with one loud whistle of farewell, steamed out of the station and trundled away, disappearing into the bright day.
‘My train…’ he said again.
‘Miss your train?’
Cassius looked down at the stranger beside him and held back a snarl.‘Yes.Well, no.It’s complicated,’ he snapped.‘My clothes, my books.My things.I had everything booked through to Vienna.And then I decided not to go.’Everything else he owned had already been sent ahead in boxes and crates.He could no longer even see the train, just catch a burst of its whistle.
Damn it.
‘Stranded in London with nothing but the coat on your back…’ another voice joined in, as Daniel ground to a halt beside Cassius.He’d hailed the cab and offered to help try and intercept his luggage, but now his flat tone and the smug, satisfied twist to his lips hardly spoke of a man with completely altruistic motives.He spun Cassius’s hat between his hands, then held it out.
Cassius heaved a sigh.‘She’s not going to let me forget it, is she?’He reached into his pocket, found his wallet.Until the bank opened, he had two shillings to his name.
Daniel did manage a smirk then.‘No.No she won’t.’
