“You’re wrong if you think just anyone could run a business the size of Warbrooke Shipping. My family has owned the business for over a hundred years. We’re trained to run it from the time we’re children. Each son—Where are you going?”
“You’re not making any attempt to listen to me. You have your mind made up that what you do is important and what I do isn’t important, and you’re not going to listen to what I have to say. I see no reason to discuss this further.”
He was on his feet instantly and caught her arm. “You can’t just walk away. Don’t you realize that this is our life you’re talking about? If you don’t live with me in Warbrooke, what’s going to happen to us?”
Her voice and face were very calm when she spoke. “What are we going to do if I don’t do what you want?” She jerked her arm out of his grasp.
“Look at you,” she said. “I sensed that you had money the moment I first met you. You walk with that air about you, of someone who has always been able to buy whatever he wants. This time you decided you wanted to buy an opera singer. You wanted to buy her a pretty cage in the form of a theater full of plush and gilt and famous people. You wanted to buy her diamonds and silk gowns. And in return, whenever you wanted to hear your little opera singer, all you had to do was look at her and say, ‘Sing, little bird,’ and she would do so. After all, you had bought and paid for her, hadn’t you? She was yours to command as you wanted, just as all those many men who work for you are yours to command.”
“You don’t understand.”
“It’s you who doesn’t understand.”
“What am I supposed to do if you want to keep on performing in public?” He made it sound as though she were a strip dancer. “Am I to follow you around from city to city? Hold your cloak? Maybe you’ll let me see to the stage sets. Maybe I should have cards printed that give my name as Mr. LaReina. Do I get to be a duke?”
She looked at him and there was sadness in her eyes. “I have never lied to you about what was important to me. I have always told you that my voice is the most important thing in my life.”
“I’m not asking you to stop singing,” he yelled at her. “You can sing from morning to night for all I care. I want you to sing.” He stopped shouting. “Maddie, I can’t do what you want. I know you think Warbr
ooke Shipping is just a business, but it’s more than that. It’s…it’s tradition. I don’t know how to explain it. Tradition is an important part of my family and my family is important to me. The Montgomerys are as important to me as your singing is to you.”
She understood very well what he was saying. It was the end. Even though she knew that, she knew that she could not give up what meant life to her to become his pet performer. “I can’t do it,” she whispered. “I would die. I would shrivel into nothing and die if I had to give up my life in order to receive your love.”
“I’m not asking—Oh, hell! Jamie, you talk to her. See if you can make her see reason.”
Jamie didn’t say a word and ’Ring turned to look at his brother. There was disapproval in Jamie’s eyes.
“Don’t tell me you agree with her?” ’Ring half yelled at his brother.
Jamie’s mouth tightened. “It’s not as though you were an only child. You have six brothers and, granted, none of us is quite as good as you are at running Warbrooke Shipping, but we manage. In fact, we manage quite well without you.”
“I saw the last quarterly reports. I saw how well all six of you have managed without me.”
At that Jamie stood, his handsome face distorted with rage, and for a moment it looked as though the two men would come to blows, but Jamie was the first to turn away. He looked at Maddie. “You’re better off without him. He’s not worthy of you.” At that Jamie turned and walked away.
Maddie started to follow him, but ’Ring caught her arm.
“You can’t leave now. We have to settle this.”
She was trying to hold back tears. “It is settled.” She looked up at him and the tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. “Madame Branchini was right. She said I could be a singer or I could be like other women.”
“You are like other women,” he said softly. “You need and want love just like every other woman, and, Maddie, I’m offering you love. Please don’t turn me down. Please don’t think that I’m making you give up your singing.”
“But you are, and you don’t even see that you are.” She jerked her arm from his grasp. “Don’t you realize that I never asked to be given this gift? No one came to me sitting on a pink cloud with a little book in hand and said, ‘Maddie, we’re planning your life. Do you want to be a singer or do you want to have a normal life with a husband and children and friends?’ No one asked me what I wanted.”
“What would you have chosen?” he asked softly.
The tears began then. “I don’t know. I don’t know. What is is. I can’t change what I am.”
“Neither can I.”
She couldn’t speak anymore, for her throat had closed up with tears. She put her hand to her mouth and ran from him.
’Ring stood staring after her. There had to be some way to make her see reason, he thought. There had to be some way to explain to her—
“Ow!” he said, and grabbed his shin, then looked at Laurel in astonishment. She had just kicked him. “What was that for?”
“You made my sister cry and you made Jamie mad. I hate you.” With that she turned and ran after her sister.