Free The Temptation of Laura by Rachel Brimble

rehearsing his lines.
    Before anything could change his mind, he marched into the hallway, donned his overcoat and hat, and stepped outside. The light seemed brighter than it had yesterday and the air clearer. Worry still lingered in the back of his mind because he had no further work lined up, but somehow the prospect did not feel as heavy a burden on this new day.
    Things would come right for him, one way or another. He had severed his ties to Annabel and planned to pay back every penny she’d spent on him over the last twelve months. Two years had passed since his father cast him out of their family with a wad of cash and little else.
    His father’s words reverberated in his ears. “If you fail and come back, you will live by our rules, do as we say, and have no more theater.”
    Unable to stand his parents’ resistance to his dreams, Adam rebelled and they had renounced him. He would never regret his decision. Even now, with his money dwindling to desperate levels. His pride and fear had led him to renting a house out of his means. His rationale had been that renting something more affordable might lower his chance of being taken seriously by a potential producer.
    He marched along the street, his mind mulling over his decision to set out with the image he wanted to convey firmly established prior to auditioning. Rationalizing nice clothes and a good home would lead the theater’s top people to take him seriously, he now realized he had been a fool. Never in his wildest imagination could he have anticipated the tens of people who would attend the auditions or that the competition would be so fierce.
    His worst fears he would not be good enough were realized. Adam drew in a long breath as humiliation after humiliation haunted him once again. When his money ran out, Lady Annabel’s continuous pursuit of him as her lover had been too hard to resist and he succumbed. Shame ached at his temples. The doors of opportunity had swung open freely on hinges greased with her money.
    Was it any wonder he still doubted his ability? Who was to say the roles would not once again dry up without Annabel’s assistance? Adam shook his head and pulled back his shoulders. No, he would not think that way. He had accepted long ago, the day either parent clapped him on the shoulder for a job well done was the day he married the “right woman” and bore them a grandchild. There was little chance of either happening this side of the millennium.
    Marriage, family, and babies were as far down his list of priorities as taking tea with Annabel in the Pump Room. He had dreams, ambitions, and wishes—none of which involved a family. If a man had a family, he should be there for them. Have a continuous supply of money, a steady job so his beloved never feared for food being absent from the table or their child getting cold on a winter’s night.
    Acting would not provide as much, and yet he could not give up what he loved.
    Shaking himself from his melancholy, Adam looked around as he entered the park. Bath was never quiet at any time of the day or night, but, on a day like this, it heaved with shoppers and people looking to enjoy the sunshine before autumn grew colder and stripped the trees, sending them scurrying for warmth and home comforts.
    He tipped his hat to passersby who raised their eyebrows or whispered behind their hands as they recognized him. His ego inflated at the attention and diminished his fear of failure a little more.
    Adam smiled when his gaze fell on some young boys tossing stones into the water or pushing wooden sailboats across the surface of the river that ran through the center of the park. He glanced at their mothers. Their backs were turned as they chattered in earnest conversation. No doubt gossiping about who was doing what with whom. What was it with women and their innate ability to zone out anything or anyone when a whiff of scandal was in the air?
    A yell and ensuing splash behind him shot his heart into his