An Irresistible Temptation by Sydney Jane Baily Page A

she was gifted, as if he ran into gifted
people every day, which perhaps he did. He took her address on
Green Street, and that was the end of it.
    She hoped the director of the opera house
called her back from her first audition, but for the first time,
she felt unsure. She had already asked Charlotte to return the
favor and pack more gowns in a trunk and send them along. She
needed to be dressed for the city or she would seem like an
untutored country girl. She wondered how well Riley cleaned up for
the city. But then she remembered that when he did arrive back, he
could be married to Eliza.
    The last time she’d seen him, he’d been
running from the kitchen to escape Sarah’s condemning gaze. Sophie
had hardly slept that night. She’d thanked her good fortune that
the envelope Riley had delivered to her contained her letters of
introduction to the symphony’s conductor and the opera house’s
director. She’d packed up and stopped at the Cuthins’ house to say
goodbye. Despite her embarrassment and shame, they had seemed as
warm as ever, and then she’d left on the northern-bound train
without ever seeing Riley again. After all, what was there to
say?
    She decided to write to Sarah when she got
back to her room and let her know how she was faring. Meanwhile,
Sophie was going to have a proper walk around The Palace, which
opened less than a decade earlier as the largest hotel in the
world. It was certainly the most opulent she’d ever been in.
    In the Grand Court, where carriages could
enter the building and circle around to drop off their passengers,
she couldn’t help walking with her eyes lifted to the ceiling that
stretched up for miles, it seemed, but was actually seven floors.
Marking each floor was a columned balcony from where guests could
gaze down at the interior courtyard.
    Sophie glanced at the hotel’s brochure in her
hand, 755 rooms, each with a bathroom and a parlor. Sophie couldn’t
imagine that many people needing a place to sleep on any given
night.
    “Can I help you, miss?” A young woman dressed
in the hotel’s uniform had approached her, with brown hair neatly
pinned up, regarding her with kind hazel eyes.
    “I’m just looking,” Sophie said. “That’s all
right, isn’t it?”
    “Many do,” the girl said, then smiled. “Are
you new to the city?”
    “A week, so far.”
    “Carling.” The girl spun around as a man
approached, also in uniform. “Room 4008 has a question about The
Oakdale.” He sighed and his nostrils flared, as if with distaste
over the establishment in question. “Go tell them it isn’t nearly
as nice as our bar. But if they must go, we’ll provide them
transport.”
    And the tall young man with his slicked down
black hair and patrician good looks was off without a glance at
Sophie.
    Carling turned to Sophie with a raised
eyebrow and half a smile. Then they both laughed. “Sorry about
Egbert. He was a bit rude. He runs the reception and the help
staff, and he knows every single guest at any given moment, so he
knew you weren’t staying here.”
    “Yet,” Sophie offered. “I mean, perhaps I was thinking about it, and he’s put me off.”
    “And are you thinking about it?”
    “No,” Sophie admitted and they laughed again.
“I’ve a room on Green Street.”
    “Oh, I’m on Russian Hill, too, on Lincoln.
That’s the next street up. Kind of cat-a-corner to yours.”
    “Carling,” she heard Egbert’s voice
again.
    “I’ve got to get on with it. What’s your
house number? I’ll find you later.
    “1039, and my name’s Sophie,” she called
after the girl whom she hoped would become her new friend.
     
    *****
     
    “So you didn’t even tell him goodbye,”
Carling said, shaking her head in wonder. “Good God!”
    Sophie shrugged and poured another cup of
tea. They sat at Carling’s table in her small flat on Lincoln Lane,
in a white stucco building that seemed to have sprung up in an
alley overgrown with trees and plants and accessible only