Easily pleased, Micah enjoys a career in non-profit work and gets through his days one lame joke at a time. Then his friend Lou introduces him to her musical family and the Knights pull Micah into their world of resilience and sorrow. Soon, Micah understands that in the face of grief, optimism isn't always enough.<br><br>Lei was once revered for his tremendous talent. But one day the music died, and the scars under his leather bracelets are a reminder of what he lost. These days, he's nothing but a phantom. Shut away from the world, Lei tunes instruments in the Knights' music store.<br><br>Then charismatic Micah enters his life, charming his family and slowly coaxing his way into Lei's heart with steadfast devotion. With Micah at his side, it may yet be possible for Lei to reclaim the spotlight he'd thought permanently abandoned.

Music of the Knight

“I’m the one who named him. After Wagner, the composer.” Al was fiddling with the bottle opener. “Wagner, you know—he’s still a controversial figure. Some folks say he was anti-Semite. Others say that he had many Jewish friends and they can prove that he wasn’t. But you know, when you look at the body of his work, you’ll find a lot of…shadows there. Ideas of grandeur, maybe. Some kind of obsession with the heroic virtues of nobility and chivalry. But, dig a little and you’ll hear it—the darkness.” He looked up at me. “I think, in some ways, I might have cursed Wilhelm with his name.”


“No, Al, no.” I instantly covered his big hand with mine. “There’s a lot of truth in what you just said, and there’s a lot of that in Lei. Not the racism, but the darkness.”


“It’s not your fault,” I whispered, leaning in closer, finally understanding what hid behind Al’s sorrowful eyes sometimes. Guilt. A father’s guilt. “And Lei loves you.”


Chapter 77