Read Online Her Russian Beast: 50 Loving States, New Mexico by Theodora Taylor - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Theodora Taylor
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want to find Sirena?” Bair asked his brother. “From our phone calls, I am thinking you are happy with Eva and have no wish for pet.”
“You mistake me, brother. I still want only my Eva, but I have job for your singer and she is the perfect fit. You could say the only fit.”
Alexei shifted forward in his seat, a new excitement coming over his normally stoic face. “I am financing an opera, you see. It was written by two children of a friend, and it is very good.”
Bair answered his brother’s fervent declaration with a sardonic lift of his eyebrows. He highly doubted any opera written by two children would be any good.
“Yes, yes, I know how it sounds,” his brother said when he noticed Bair’s expression. “But listen…”
Alexei brought out his phone.
“We workshopped this opera with the other lead last summer. Listen to the last song in the show…”
He touched a button and unleashed a dramatic aria into the office’s formally quiet space. Bair’s English was still only so-so, and used purely for business now that his si— Sirena had left, but even he could feel the beauty of the words. Fully understand the longing as the girl on Alexei’s phone sang of her dream to one day be reunited with the brother she’d left behind to go north.
“It is the tale of a slave who escapes to the North and finds a job working in the house of Abraham Lincoln before he becomes the president. The first act of the opera is sung by the young girl you hear here, with simple arias. But the rest of the show is sung by the strong woman she becomes after her escape. It is much harder, and the children want Sirena to play the part.”
Bair shook his head. “How would these children know about Sirena?”
“They are, how can you say it, obsessive when it comes to this opera. They listened to many performances by many opera singers from all around the world, and did not find anyone they liked. But then they found Sirena’s one album in my study, while visiting our house in Texas with their father. Now they say it must be her, that they will not let the opera be performed if she is not in the lead.”
“This is a crazy thing to say,” Bair answered. “And they are just children. Spoiled children from the sound of it.”
“But brother, I agree with them,” Alexei said solemnly. “One hundred percent. Sirena’s voice is bold and, judging from her accent when I first met her, from the American South.”
Yes, Bair remembered that accent, too. She’d never quite been able to completely shake it when she wasn’t singing, even though it made it hard for her German voice teachers to take her seriously.
I miss my accent.
Sick of the way his chest ached whenever he thought of Sirena, he shifted his attention back to his brother. “I am sorry, there is nothing I can do for you,” he told his brother. “I do not know where she is anymore.”
Alexei studied him. “Yes, I believe you. Now. That has not always been the case. When she first disappeared without a trace, I had some thought that maybe you had something to do with that disappearance. When I first started searching for your Sirena myself, I thought there might no longer be an opera singer to find. That perhaps my brother had handled his wife’s unhappiness in a bad way, despite his family’s rules.”
No, he hadn’t had anything to do with his wife’s sudden disappearance. Even if Sirena had come to him and asked for a divorce, he would never have hurt her in that way. He simply would have put her in a tighter cage and limited her freedoms until she learned her lesson.
But in that moment, Bair merely stared blankly at the half brother who’d helped him become a billionaire. Keeping his face carefully neutral, even as he wondered where Alexei was going with this.
“I thought that until I received a call from one of my contacts at the SoCal Opera,” Alexei continued on. “Apparently Sirena submitted herself for their Young Artists Program, and
“You mistake me, brother. I still want only my Eva, but I have job for your singer and she is the perfect fit. You could say the only fit.”
Alexei shifted forward in his seat, a new excitement coming over his normally stoic face. “I am financing an opera, you see. It was written by two children of a friend, and it is very good.”
Bair answered his brother’s fervent declaration with a sardonic lift of his eyebrows. He highly doubted any opera written by two children would be any good.
“Yes, yes, I know how it sounds,” his brother said when he noticed Bair’s expression. “But listen…”
Alexei brought out his phone.
“We workshopped this opera with the other lead last summer. Listen to the last song in the show…”
He touched a button and unleashed a dramatic aria into the office’s formally quiet space. Bair’s English was still only so-so, and used purely for business now that his si— Sirena had left, but even he could feel the beauty of the words. Fully understand the longing as the girl on Alexei’s phone sang of her dream to one day be reunited with the brother she’d left behind to go north.
“It is the tale of a slave who escapes to the North and finds a job working in the house of Abraham Lincoln before he becomes the president. The first act of the opera is sung by the young girl you hear here, with simple arias. But the rest of the show is sung by the strong woman she becomes after her escape. It is much harder, and the children want Sirena to play the part.”
Bair shook his head. “How would these children know about Sirena?”
“They are, how can you say it, obsessive when it comes to this opera. They listened to many performances by many opera singers from all around the world, and did not find anyone they liked. But then they found Sirena’s one album in my study, while visiting our house in Texas with their father. Now they say it must be her, that they will not let the opera be performed if she is not in the lead.”
“This is a crazy thing to say,” Bair answered. “And they are just children. Spoiled children from the sound of it.”
“But brother, I agree with them,” Alexei said solemnly. “One hundred percent. Sirena’s voice is bold and, judging from her accent when I first met her, from the American South.”
Yes, Bair remembered that accent, too. She’d never quite been able to completely shake it when she wasn’t singing, even though it made it hard for her German voice teachers to take her seriously.
I miss my accent.
Sick of the way his chest ached whenever he thought of Sirena, he shifted his attention back to his brother. “I am sorry, there is nothing I can do for you,” he told his brother. “I do not know where she is anymore.”
Alexei studied him. “Yes, I believe you. Now. That has not always been the case. When she first disappeared without a trace, I had some thought that maybe you had something to do with that disappearance. When I first started searching for your Sirena myself, I thought there might no longer be an opera singer to find. That perhaps my brother had handled his wife’s unhappiness in a bad way, despite his family’s rules.”
No, he hadn’t had anything to do with his wife’s sudden disappearance. Even if Sirena had come to him and asked for a divorce, he would never have hurt her in that way. He simply would have put her in a tighter cage and limited her freedoms until she learned her lesson.
But in that moment, Bair merely stared blankly at the half brother who’d helped him become a billionaire. Keeping his face carefully neutral, even as he wondered where Alexei was going with this.
“I thought that until I received a call from one of my contacts at the SoCal Opera,” Alexei continued on. “Apparently Sirena submitted herself for their Young Artists Program, and
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