Magic Flutes // The Reluctant Heiress — Eva Ibbotson

She was an exquisite, but penniless, Austrian princess, heiress to fabled Pfaffenstein Castle and expected to marry Prince Maximilian. But Tessa rarely did what was expected. Disguised as a wardrobe mistress, she secretly joined a Vienna opera company...and unexpectedly lost her heart to a mysterious Englishman. Fabulously rich, rakishly handsome, he had just bought Pfaffenstein Castle as a wedding gift for his beautiful, snobbish fiancee. But he was about to be captivated by a waif of a girl known only as Tessa...and the stage would be set for a romance sparkling with laughter and tears, as magical and enchanting as love's eternal spell.

Winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award (1983) by the Romantic Novelists' Association.