An encore performance...Blue blood flows through actress Claudine Bellerose's veins, but a noble birth hasn't protected her from a life of hardships. Driven from home by French revolutionaries when she was an infant and orphaned in a strange land, Claudine was forced to make impossible choices to survive. An aspiring playwright and gifted performer, Claudine is beginning to rebuild her life at a small London playhouse where she is surrounded by friends and about to premiere her first production—until she learns the new owner is bringing down the curtain before she's stepped into the spotlight, threatening not only her future but the very home she's fought to create.An unexpected destiny...​When gentleman Russell Hawke inherits a failing London playhouse, selling to the highest bidder is just smart business. But when actress Claudine Bellerose marches into the Clarendon Hotel to demand he sell to the manager instead, he's intrigued. What is so special about the theater to command such loyalty? Perhaps he should visit to find out. After an accident backstage, Russell is thrust into the lead role opposite Claudine to save opening night, and he's determined to win her heart offstage, too. But can a gentleman follow his destiny when society, and his own mother, are hounding him to marry an heiress?