Music from the Heart

Sent reluctantly to stay with her aunt so that her lustrous dark red hair and green gold-flecked eyes would not distract the attentions of her stepsister's suitor, beautiful young Ilouka's stagecoach is involved in a terrible accident in which two passengers are killed.One is Ilouka s old lady s maid and chaperone, Hannah. The other is Lucille Ganymede, a glamorous dancer and understudy to Madame Vestris, the famous performer who has enchanted the theatre world of Covent Garden.They are en route to perform at a private gentlemen s party for the Earl of Lavenham at his glorious stately home, Lavenham Hall.Lucille s Manager, Mr. D Arcy, is distraught. This engagement is his last hope if he is to avoid destitution and, since she is a gifted singer and dancer herself, Ilouka nervously agrees to perform in Lucille s place.But on arrival she takes an instant dislike to the Earl s haughty demeanour and worse still she finds to her dismay that the behaviour of the guests at the gentlemen s party is far from gentlemanly.Dancing to the gypsy music that conjures in her heart visions of her Hungarian ancestors and sublime snow-capped mountains, she enthrals the audience who clap and clap her inspired dancing.And especially the handsome but aloof Earl.It is only when he rescues Ilouka from the drunken attentions of a certain Lord Marlowe, does she realise that she is utterly and irrevocably in love with the Earl.