Authors: Anisa Claire West
“Mr. Graysen, I am not worthy of your compliments
, but it is
an honor to hear you speak that way. Thank you.” Her sapphire eyes radiated pleasure as she looked gratefully into his kind, blue-gray orbs.
Ryan
regarded
Rebecca with fraternal pride and applauded enthusiastically along with the conductor.
“Would you consider serving as understudy? It would require attending rehearsals regularly. The opera we currently have on the program is Mozart’s
The Magic Flute
. We hope to take it eventually to London and do the tour of the continent. For now, though, we are based in Vienna
, and I do not foresee an immediate relocation
.
” Mr. Graysen’s offer delighted Rebecca beyond words, as she thought with a heartbreaking twinge of sentimentality how
The Magic Flute
had been one of the first operas her grandmother had taught her.
“I would be most honored to serve as an understudy. Thank you, Mr. Graysen! Thank you!” For propriety’s sake, she resisted the urge to wrap her arms around the dear man and give him an affectionate squeeze. Instead, she curtsied and then shook his hand.
*****
Sensing that the impromptu audition was about to conclude, Luke Springwell retreated from his spot in the doorway, where he had secretly enjoyed a prime vantage point beholding the mesmerizing Rebecca Meadow.
Chapter Three
Luke strode out of the rehearsal hall, half-hoping that Rebecca had somehow known that he heard her entire audition.
He fiercely
wanted Rebecca to take notice of him after she had so carelessly swept out of the room.
Even though she had insulted him with her abrupt exit
, Luke could not deny the raw
sweetness that flowed from Rebecca’s vocal chords.
Music had been a staple of Luke’s existence
since he was able to speak, but
never had he heard a voice as angelic as Rebecca’s
.
For her to shine so brightly
during the challenge of an
a cappella
audition
was
remarkable.
Feeling his temperature rise in the sultry midsummer air, Luke removed his jacket and flung it over his arm, loosening his cravat as well. He continued to stroll aimlessly around the heart of Vienna, trying to no avail to get the sound of Rebecca’s voice and the image of her cobalt eyes and flame hair out of his restless mind.
He resisted the temptation to enter a tavern across the street, though it would have been comforting to get a bit of brandy into his bloodstream. Ever since he had arrived in Vienna in October of 1899, he had passed his days and nights in increasingly unbearable solitude
…except for a brief and painful liaison with a woman who had deceived him. Luke thought momentarily of the fiasco and then pushed it to the back of his mind where the memory could not hurt him anymore.
Leaving Wisconsin had
not been easy for
the twenty-
seven year old. From boyhood, Luke had
dreamed of competing
as
a
marathon
runner in the Olympics, representi
ng his country and earning the Gold M
edal. He had trained tirelessly to be able to compete. In
1896
, Luke had received word from his coach that he had earned a spot in the
first modern international Olympic
Games
in Athens, Greece.
The news had garnered pride from his father, who had
previously
told him to become a physician or lawyer. For the first time in his life, Luke had felt like a success in his father’s critical eyes. As for his three younger brothers, they envied him for his accomplishment. Luke believed t
hat his mother, who died giving birth to her youngest son
, had been smiling down on him from Heaven.
Best of all, Luke would no longer have to slave away on the farm where he worked as a hired hand, charged with such uninspiring tasks as stacking hay, milking cows, and
replenishing
troughs. It was to be a new life for him and for his whole family if he earned a medal for the United States.
It had
all
seemed so perfect. Too perfect, as it turned out.
A few weeks before Luke was
to make the journey to Athens, his Olympic dreams had been permanently shattered.
One morning, during an argument with his youngest brother, Jonathan, things had become violent. To this day, Luke could not remember what had triggered the fateful argument. The brothers
had
wrestled by the stairwell of their home until Jonathan
snapped
and pushed Luke down the stairs. Luke landed at the bottom of the stairwell,
his
right
leg
broken. There was no way that he would recover in time for the Olympics.
With a heavy heart,
Luke had surrendered his dreams of being a world-class athlete and turned instead to music. Though he had excelled at music all his life, it had never crossed his mind to make it a career. But with his leg
irrevocably
injured, Luke
could glean no other
path for himself. Even working on the farm was out of the question, as the job involved sixteen hours per day of physical labor.
When Luke arrived in Vienna, he had been physically and mentally a broken man.
Now,
as he reflected on his brief meeting with Rebecca, the vision of her was like a sunbeam in a sky of
black
storm clouds. A woman like her could piece together the
scattered
puzzle into something whole. If he had anything to say about it, she would not remain an understudy for very long. She deserved to be on the forefront, and he would help her get there any way he could. And if she were to give him another tongue-lashing like the one at the rehearsal hall? Well, if her personality was that hot, then he could only fight fire with fire.
*****
“I know you’re disappointed, sis, and I’m sorry. But at least Mr. Graysen has made you an understudy. Think of it as a stepping stone to something greater.” Ryan tried to reassure his sister as they walked together out of the rehearsal hall.
“Yes, I am disappointed.
But I don’t have time to wallow in my crushed dreams.
” She sighed, knowing she sounded melodramatic. Stiffening her posture, she asserted gravely, “
There are practical matters to consider.”
“Such as?”
“Such as, how am I to support myself?! I’m here in Vienna with no occupat
ion. You heard the conductor. T
he understudy position is unpaid! How am I to live?”
She tried unsuccessfully to control the panic mounting within her.
“Becky, I’ll be earning fair wages as a violinist. I’ll help you for as long as necessary.”
Ryan said sincerely.
“That’s very generous of you, Ryan, but you know as well as I do that you’ll be earning a pittance. Besides, you are at a prime age for marrying. If you decide to take a wife, she surely won’t want you to be burdened with supporting your spinster of a sister!”
“
You’re not a spinster. And
I am sure that any woman I marry will adore you.” Ryan spoke diplomatically,
and then
attempted to paint a smile onto her face. “My future wife will also adore Grandmother. As for Gregory and Ethel, I can’t make any promises.” He grinned and she grinned back in spite of herself.
“There are other things to take into consideration. If you should marry, yo
u’ll have not just a wife but a whole
offspring to care for. It simply won’t work for you to support me. I won’t allow it---even if you do remain a rowdy bachelor.” She smiled teasingly, knowing that nothing could be further from the truth.
If Ryan even knew the meaning of the word “carouse” he had certainly never incorporated the concept into his own life. Rebecca viewed her brother as a rare gentleman who deserved the most gracious of ladies for a wife.
“As soon as we get settled into our rooms, I’ll go about the business of finding a job.” Rebecca said decisively as they headed eastward to collect their belongings and check out of the lodge where they
had
spent the previous night.
Before they left the audition,
Mr. Graysen had recommended
a complex of apartments above a cheerful storefront in central Vienna, just blocks from the rehearsal hall. He claimed that many of the musicians lodged there for the affordable rent and short-term leases that allowed for flexibility.
Ryan and Rebecca shuffled in and out of the lodge quickly, excited to move into their new abode. After a short walk across town, they arrived at the five-story building Christopher Graysen had recommended. The apartments rested on a trio of stores including a delicatessen, bakery, and blacksmith.
Rebecca smiled to herself, thinking how homey the aromas would be coming from
a Viennese
bakery. The image of herself awakening in the morning to the delicious smell of oven-fresh bread was enough to make her forget her financial quandary for the time being.
The siblings walked up one flight of stairs to the rental office, where a tidy blond secretary sat at a desk typing.
She looked up from her typewriter to greet the Meadows. “
Guten
Nachmittag
. Wie geht es Ihnen
?”
Rebecca understood that the secretary had just bid them a good afternoon and asked them how they were, but she let Ryan do all the talking. In German, he explained to the secretary, Beatrice, that Christopher Graysen had referred them to the building.
Beatrice immediately recognized the name and dug into her desk drawer for a lease, written in German, and handed it to Ryan.
Ryan looked
the document over
briefly
and then
turned to Rebecca. “The lease looks legitimate, but I don’t think you’ll be thrilled with the accommodations. It says here that tenants each have a furnished room
and that women reside on the fifth floor and share a washroom. Men are on the fourth floor and also must share a washroom. The lease is renewable every thirty days. What do you think?”
Rebecca
was mortified. But she reminded herself harshly that she
was not a princess, and she was not even employed. These modest accommodations would have to do just fine.
“Go ahead and sign it, Ryan. We have little choice. At least we’ll be able to leave in thirty days if conditions are positively unbearable.”
He nodded his agreement and accepted the pen that Beatrice offered him. With a swift movement of his hand, he affixed his signature and handed the paper back to Beatrice, who stamped it with an official inkblot. She unlocked a safe next to her desk and retrieved two large brass keys that would open Ryan and Rebecca’s respective rooms.
As they were turning to leave, Beatrice
muttered something quickly in German that Rebecca could not understand.
Ryan turned to her and translated, “Beatrice says that the rooms are available for immediate occupancy. We may move in right now.”
Relieved by this news, Rebecca climbed the steep stairwell and bid Ryan goodbye when they reached the fourth floor. He unlocked the door to his room and entered, as Rebecca stood outside the door, suddenly overcome by a feeling of alienation.
She gazed upstairs to the fifth level where her private room awaited. When she finally went inside that room, any trace of fantasy would have to be banished from her system.
Whatever the room was, whether dingy or passable, she would have to inhabit it. It struck her as odd how she had felt such liberation leaving Michigan, and now on only her second day in Vienna, her
choices were
steadily shrinking. Resolving to drop off her luggage in the room and immediately go out in search of employment, she began to ascend the stairs.
As she did so, a familiar male voice called behind her, “Miss Meadow, I did not expect to see you again so soon.”
Rebecca whirled around, nearly losing her balance and toppling over the stairwell as she stared straight into the smiling
brown
eyes of Luke Springwell.
Grabbing onto the banister and squeezing it until her knuckles
were white
, Rebecca looked at Luke in amazement.
What in the world was
he
doing there? Had he stalked her
from the rehearsal hall
like some sort of lunatic
? She
eyed
him suspiciously, clutching her satchel closer to her body.
Before she had a chance to interrogate him, he spoke again
, observing her off-kilter stance
. “You must be careful on these staircases.
They’re dreadfully narrow and equally steep.
I almost landed flat on my face when I first moved in here.”