“Singers and actresses!” His mother snorted. “I do very well in that area, I assure you.” “Don’t you want children? And what about…companionship?” “What’s the matter with you? Men of your age should wish for a wife.” “I don’t understand you.” She pouted, pacing in a cloud of royal blue silk. Lady Clarissa Hawthorne had vigor enough for two women half her age.

This aroused her from her languid pose-feigned, of course. I’m not going to tie myself for life to a fortune hunter.”

“And I take warning from your own experience. Maybe you’d be yourself whoever happened to have sired you.” Her moment of weakness had passed. Although,” she added with a return to her characteristic acerbity, “we’ve already established that you take after me. “But I shouldn’t say that, darling, because then I wouldn’t have you. If he could find a way to blame Teresa Foscari for the poor reception of Fidelio he would. How could they not when he’d thought of little else for days, almost spoiling his pleasure in the long-awaited opening of his opera house? He scowled. Memories of the occasion when her money had “saved” him came rushing back. “I wish he had stopped me and saved me from disaster. He’d never seen his mother look so vulnerable. He moved into the room and stood next to her sofa, examining her face intently. With her reputation in ruins, Tessa must fight for her career ーand resist her burning attraction to the man who wishes to destroy her.“I wish he had stopped me.” The words were spoken so softly Max wondered if he’d misheard. When his glittering new opera house sits half empty, thanks to the soprano filling the seats of his competitor’s theater, Max vows to stop the woman he unwillingly still desires.Īmidst backstage intrigue and the sumptuous soirées of fashionable London, the couple’s rivalry explodes in bitter accusations and smashed china. Notorious Teresa Foscari is none other than Tessa, the innocent girl who broke his youthful heart. Now she has come to London to make a fresh start and find her long lost English family.įoscari’s peerless voice thrills all Londonーexcept Maximilian Hawthorne, Viscount Allerton, the wealthy patron of operaーand lover of singers. The public knows her as a glamorous and tempestuous diva, mistress to emperors, a reputation created by the newspapers and the ruthless man who exploited her. No one knows the perils of celebrity better than Teresa Foscari, Europe’s most famous opera singer.

Secrets of a Soprano by Miranda Neville