An Unexpected Suitor Read Free

control led these gifted young people down the wrong path.”
    “They want to perform and use their talents,” Violet had started to protest, but her mother had silenced her with one raised finger.
    “There are other avenues, respectable avenues, for making use of such talents. Nola here is a shining example of that. As a girl I recall she had a notion to study music in Boston, no doubt with an eye toward performing concerts and such.”
    “Classical music,” Nola had interjected.
    “It’s no more than crossing the street to make the shift from respectable classical entertainment to the kind of vaudevillian and melodramatic fare that Harry Starbuck puts together and that these people invading our little village are only too eager to perform. Thank goodness, Nola, that you had the good sense to see your duty to your dear mother and siblings and turned your God-given talents toward something as necessary and respectable as providing the music for Sunday services.”
    Nola flinched now at the memory. It had hurt to have herdream dismissed in such a cavalier manner. Yet she could not deny that the actors’ colony had doubled over the last two seasons and now there was rumor that Starbuck planned to enhance the local population of actors by bringing in his own troupe of handpicked performers from New York. In fact, everything Harrison Starbuck was doing seemed designed to encourage that population to frequent the island.
    “They’ll drive out the regular summer families,” Rose had warned. “Mark my words. Once that cabaret opens, there will be an increase in the level of rowdiness and respectable visitors will look for other places to vacation.”
    Nola had never had reason to question Rose’s authority on such topics. The woman had been raised in the high society of Boston. Rose had often talked of their houseguests, an impressive parade of the rich and famous that had included at least one European duke and his duchess. And the very fact that Starbuck had now set his sights on Nola’s home and tearoom to expand his empire seemed further proof that Rose’s warnings should be heeded.
    “Well, you have met your match, Harry Starbuck,” she muttered as she watched him pause outside her gate to light a fresh cigar before crossing the street. Oh, he was handsome, all right, in that insolent manner that set her teeth on edge. Everything about the man, including the way he dressed, seemed deliberately calculated to affect an image of nonchalance. The sable-brown hair was straight and a little too long, and it blew across his forehead whenever he removed his hat. And those eyes—blue as a summer sky—and the mouth that always seemed just a breath away from bursting into laughter.
    His clothing was yet another affectation in Nola’s view. Above the perfectly tailored trousers his attire evoked a kindof careless aplomb. Especially the battered straw fedora that he always wore at a rakish angle. Then there was his preference for a red bandanna scarf tied at the open neck of his shirt in place of a proper tie. Nola’s inventory continued as she watched him. He usually preferred a vest but no jacket. On those occasions such as today when he deigned to wear an unstructured—never tailored—jacket, he left it unbuttoned, loosely hanging from his broad shoulders and revealing a gleaming white shirt with no collar and no starch.
    Nola could not help wondering who did his laundry. Those shirts were always so pristine, even lacking the proper appearance of a good dose of starch. On the other hand, that softness linked to the faint scent of lime that clung to his clean-shaven jaw and the wide-brimmed fedora indeed gave him an exotic air that even she had difficulty dismissing entirely.
    Not that Nola made a habit of assessing men’s apparel. It was just that clothing on Harry Starbuck seemed one more detail of the man’s determination to stand apart from others. Shaking herself back to the reality of the moment, she realized