Listen to the Skylark — Jane McCarthy

Pretty Carol Marlowe's vacation in Moscow took an unexpected turn when she joined Olga Marya, a willowy ballerina she had met back home in San Francisco, for a late tea at the dancer's apartment. Carol was stunned by the change in her once vivacious and lighthearted friend, for Olga appeared nervous and distraught. Then, to Carol's amazement, the ballerina pleaded with her to take Luisa Marya, Olga's ten-year-old daughter, back to San Francisco with her.

Olga explained that the girl's mentally unbalanced father, the dancer's ex-husband, was in pursuit of the child, attempting to take custody of her. Arrangements had already been made for Luisa, an American citizen by birth, to be secreted out of Russia the following day in Carol's care. Dumbfounded, and moved by her friend's distress, Carol agreed to take the enchanting little girl, whom she nicknamed Skylark--but only for six months.

So instead of flying on the Paris and London with the rest of her tour group the next day, Carol met Luisa in a secluded section of the airport. She regretted having to curtail her trip--and her all too brief acquaintance with Michael Burke. Mysterious, gray-eyed Michael, by far the handsomest man on the tour, excited Carol in a way no one else ever had. And so she was astonished--and chagrined--when Luisa glimpsed her father at the airport, for the fleeing figure was none other than Michael Burke!