A Christmas Melody — Shirl Henke

A haunting melody and a warm fire brought them together

Patrick Madigan feels he has been banished from sunny Nevada to the gray world of 1904 London. After his parents intervened in his disastrous relationship with a saloon girl, they insisted he go to live with their old friends the Cantrells. Texas viscount Josh's wife Sabrina introduces him to suitable ladies to wed. None interest him until one cold night only weeks before Christmas. Shivering in a sleet storm, he is drawn to a glowing fire and the sound of classical piano music coming from a bordello called the Wolf & the Dove. The moment he sees the lovely young girl playing, he is smitten.
Thea ______ is the daughter of a country vicar, now forced by poverty to seek work in London to support her widowed mother and herself. Without references to teach piano, the only employment she can find is playing in this abhorrent place. Thea is an innocent but the moment the handsome American takes a seat at a front table, she is smitten.
But she soon learns he is a guest of Viscount Wesley, here to find a bride. He realizes a girl from a bordello, no matter how lovely, is not a lady he can marry. When Patrick rescues her from an attack by a dissolute marquess who paid to deflower her, the two young people form a bond. He gives her a huge Irish wolfhound he names Yule for protection. Still Patrick agonizes over breaking his parents' hearts by marrying a girl from a bordello. Thea believes their relationship has no future because she is an impoverished nobody and he is a wealthy man. But when the evil marquess kidnaps her, Patrick and Yule save her. The young lovers now realize that their love in strong enough to withstand all obstacles.