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PROLOGUE

As a vicar's daughter, Lenora knew that doing the right thing was not always easy, in fact it was rarely so. It was right that Evan Glenside had broken his engagement to Lenora because he'd realized that it was Cassie he'd fallen in love with. It was right that Lenora had stood up to her parents who had forbidden Cassie and Evan from each other. It was right that in the morning Cassie and Evan would marry in Father's church and begin their lives together. There was comfort in having been an essential part of so much rightness, but it was not easy.

She'd been known all her life here in Leagrave as the shy Wilton girl. The daughter of the vicar who struggled to maintain eye contact, who kept to herself, and whose only friends were her five sisters. Lenora was used to that, but the number of consoling looks sent her direction and amount of whispering behind their hands made it impossible for her to stay here. "Poor girl," they were surely saying in piteous tones. "Such a strange little thing." And Lenora just kept playing the pianoforte, providing background music to everyone's life while hiding behind her instrument.

The guests were slowly leaving, and Lenora kept her eyes on the music as her fingers moved over the keys with tender exactness. There were still a few people in the room--extended family who had come for the wedding--when Mother put her hand on Lenora's shoulder, her way of saying that Lenora could stop after this piece. Once she'd finished, Lenora attempted to slide out of the room before anyone attempted to draw her into conversation. Her throat seemed to close more often than not when people addressed her. She would stare at the floor, fidget like a child, and make everyone uncomfortable. Two more days, she told herself, and her stomach erupted with butterflies, some fluttering due to nerves, but some due to excitement and relief.

Lenora startled when Cassie took her arm in the foyer; she'd thought her younger sister was still making sparkling conversation with their guests. Sometimes Lenora felt like Cassie got Lenora's portion of social graces, as though they were slices of cake. "Two for Cassie, and, I'm sorry Lenora, there's none left for you." But then maybe Lenora got Cassie's musical portion. The trading abilities wouldn't bother her other than the fact that other people thought it odd that she preferred her own company. And yet, that was changing too. At least it had been in Bath. Then she'd come back to Leagrave and fallen right back into the role she'd always played: shy prodigy.