Accidentally in Love by Claudia Dain Read Free Book Online

lack of funds. Emeline concluded that Mama was very pleased that their home in Wiltshire had faultless upholstery. They had reupholstered the small parlor furniture only last year.
    Emeline and Mama had arrived a bit late, which Mama had said was perfectly acceptable, even preferable. Emeline had, upon arrival, done what she always did: she looked for Kit. She did not see him. It was as she was trying to make her way through the various, large rooms that comprised Melverley House that she was caught up, most congenially, by Eleanor Kirkland. If Emeline wasn’t so busy trying to find Kit, she could truly appreciate how fine a friend Eleanor was. However, she was trying to find Kit and Eleanor was hindering her.
    Emeline, obviously, did not care about Lord Raithby or his scar. Well, perhaps she cared about his scar a little bit. It was rather intriguing and it was so prominently placed high on his cheekbone, just under his eye.
    “No, it can’t be. It is well known he does not duel,” Eleanor said.
    “Perhaps he fell out of a tree. Or a window,” Emeline said.
    Eleanor laughed, a full throated affair that Mama had told Emeline repeatedly was not an acceptable laugh for a woman, in Town or out of it. It sounded wonderful on Eleanor.
    “That’s not at all romantic enough a story for that scar,” Eleanor said. “I thought you had more adventure in you than that.”
    “Are we back to that again?” Emeline said, grinning. Really, she ought to be searching for Kit, but Eleanor was such a fun, engaging girl. One couldn’t help but like her. “I am not going to compete with you to prove something which will only see me ruined.”
    “You are too clever for me,” Eleanor said, smirking. Eleanor Kirkland smirking put one in mind of a naughty woodland elf, or perhaps a naughty marshland fairy, but most definitely something quite naughty. “I began this Season with the sole goal of leading some gentle girl from Wiltshire to complete and utter ruin. Since you refuse to cooperate, I shall have to find another likely girl.”
    A gentle girl from Wiltshire? Is that how Emeline looked to the London girls?
    It was not at all how she saw herself. A gentle country girl would find herself married to just anyone, if she found herself married at all.
    “Oh, very well,” she said. “Let’s go trounce Lord Raithby. I’m certain that, however he achieved that romantic looking scar, he can handle himself with two girls just Out .”
    “Emeline,” Eleanor said, “you never disappoint. Let’s go trounce Raithby. I’m certain that, given that he possesses such a dashing scar, he can handle whatever we decide to do to him.”
    Which was not at all what Emeline meant or intended, but she held her tongue and her resolve. She was going to talk to Lord Raithby. She was not going to allow him to ruin her. She did not suppose he would dare try to ruin the Marquis of Melverley’s daughter.
    Lord Raithby did not stand still and wait for them to approach, for which Emeline gave silent thanks. She and Eleanor were forced to bypass a slender, tallish woman with rather orange hair wearing a very superior expression, which Emeline considered a bit boorish as she was greeting Lady Jordan at the time.
    “That’s my sister, Louisa,” Eleanor said. Emeline nearly gasped. “We should try and avoid her. She simply delights in telling people what to do.”
    “She is your elder sister?” Emeline asked as they slipped through the crowd. It was not a particularly large gathering by the standards of the London Season, Mama had told her that, but it was as large a gathering in the largest room Emeline had ever experienced.
    “Yes.”
    “I suppose she feels it is her duty to guide you and protect you,” Emeline said, thinking of her own three brothers and how often she had done the same.
    “No,” Eleanor said, “it’s not that. She enjoys telling everyone what to do.”
    “Oh.” That didn’t sound pleasant at all. Emeline hoped her brothers