The Temptation of Laura Read Online Free PDF Page A

her eyes shut. No, no, no .
    “Any song you heard there tonight.”
    She pulled back her shoulders. “Why would you want me to sing?”
    “Because that’s what you were born to do, my darling. You sing and move, dance and hum whenever you’re not whoring, washing, wiping, or cleaning. You don’t need to go to that theater for a gentleman, you need to go there and put yourself onstage. It’s where you belong.”
    Bette grimaced and collapsed onto the bed, sucking in an audible breath.
    Laura rushed to help her. “You’re tired. Lie down and get some rest. We’ll talk more in the morning.”
    “I’ll rest when your voice is ringing in my ears and not before.” Bette coughed, her breath crackling horribly beneath her ribs. “Sing me a ballad from the show. Send me to peaceful slumber with that sweet voice of yours in my head.”
    “Bette—”
    “Please. Show me I know what I’m talking about.”
    Bette’s eyes closed and her face fell into repose.
    Tears smarted Laura’s eyes and she swiped them away, her hand shaking. No tears, no fear. “Fine. There was a ballad.”
    A soft smile. “I know.”
    Laura inhaled a long breath and infused herself in the role so beautifully portrayed by the wonderful Monica Danes. She opened her mouth and the ballad’s lyrics drifted like sweet oxygen from her lungs.
    “You are the only one I see. The only one I long to hold. . . .”
    As she closed her eyes, the orchestra resounded in her head. She smoothed her hands over her imagined gown of gold and scarlet velvet, and lifted her fingers to the pearls in her hair. Around and around she turned, her heart breaking for the coveted love of a man out of reach. A man encapsulated in the gorgeous form of Adam Lacey.
    Opening her eyes, she stared in starry-eyed wonder around her. Gone were the bland walls and rickety furniture of her and Bette’s abode. Instead, there he stood, high above her upon a stage festooned in exquisitely painted scenery lit by the golden hue of lanterns. Adam Lacey’s eyes met hers, and he stared as though she was the most beautiful woman in the whole of Bath and beyond. . . .
    Heat suffused Laura’s body and attraction pulled at her center. Oh, to have him hold her and speak those blessed lines!
    She blinked and snapped her mouth closed.
    Panic galloped through her blood. She and Bette needed food and money, not love and fantasy.
    “Bette, this is madness.”
    Her friend’s soft breathing floated over and Laura released her held breath. Bette slept.
     
    The following night, Laura’s nerves jangled as she shifted from one foot to the other outside the Theater Royal. The crowds waiting in line moved and chattered around her as they waited for the doors to open. The matinee performance was half the full ticket price, but it was still money she and Bette could ill afford to spend. Laura tightened her jaw. No, she wouldn’t think that way. This was an investment.
    If she wanted a job in the theater—or a gentleman of the theater—to keep Malcolm Baxter from their door, they had to put a bit of money out first. Clutching her purse, she breathed deeply in an effort to calm the nerves bouncing like a million rubber balls through her belly. She didn’t know if she was more nervous about netting an unsuspecting gentleman or seeing Adam Lacey onstage again.
    The look in his eyes from the night before had yet to leave her recollection for a minute. It was as though he knew her. As though he stared at a ghost. His eyes had grown wider and wider until his mouth dropped open and his body turned rigid. Why had he stared at her that way? There was as much chance of him knowing her as her knowing one of the royal princes.
    A murmured cheer up ahead shook Laura from her thoughts and she stood on tiptoes to see what the commotion was about. The line was moving forward. The doors had opened.
    She pressed her hand to her stomach and stepped forward. No turning back now.
    Once inside, she resisted the urge to gape