From highly acclaimed and bestselling author Margaret Evans Porter, the third novel in The Islanders Series—in which lovers’ private passions conflict with their professional demands, and duty is at odds with desire.
Escaping a scandal she did not cause, gifted singer Ana St. Albans abandons the London stage—her lifelong home—for refuge and solitude on the Isle of Man as Oriana Julian, soldier’s widow. Her landlord, wealthy mine owner and geologist Sir Darius Corlett, suspects she’s an adventuress and a fortune-hunter. In her loneliness, Oriana responds to Dare’s advances. Certain that her indiscretion will have no lasting consequences, she returns to London.
Pursuing her, Dare thrusts himself into her world of musicians, aristocrats, horse-racing enthusiasts, and the prominent scientist who can help him promote his geological theories. Oriana’s passionate affair with the bold Manxman coincides with a difficult choice—marriage to a wealthy peer, or a coveted position at the opera house. But neither tempts her as much as the even more impossible fate prevented by her reputation—and Dare’s respectability.
