Evelyn Richardson by The Scandalous Widow Read Free Book Online Page B

marriage of convenience to Lord Granville. Fully aware of what she was doing, she had accepted respect instead of love, shared interests instead of mutual passion. It was a great deal more difficult, however, to admit now that someone who never should have played a significant role in her life and in her consciousness had, in fact, never left them.
    Shaking her head vigorously, Catherine looked back down at the account book in front of her. She had been young and inexperienced, just a girl, when Lord Lucian Verney had first upset her peace of mind. Then, she had been powerless to combat the deep impression he had made on her. Now she was no longer young and impressionable. She could choose to ignore the way he made her feel. She would focus on her own life, her own goals of turning her academy into a place that shaped women’s lives into something of value and satisfaction instead of a frenetic search for fashion and social status.
    But at the moment, Catherine needed more distraction than the account books in front of her could offer. She needed other people, other conversations. Closing the book in front of her with a decisive snap, she went in search of Margaret Denholme, who shared the carriage ride home with her as far as the vicarage every afternoon after school when Catherine returned to the dower house.
    The instructress was gathering up her students’ papers and several obscure-looking mathematical treatises as Catherine entered the room. Making rather more work than was necessary out of stuffing it all into a serviceable-looking satchel, Margaret tried unobtrusively to read the expression on her friend’s face with little success.
    It was not until they were both finally in the carriage and rolling off down the Royal Crescent toward home that Margaret, unable to contain her curiosity any longer, spoke up. “From the little I saw, the Marquess of Charlmont appeared to be favorably enough impressed with us yesterday, but what person of taste and refinement would not be? And he definitely seemed to be a person of taste and refinement. I trust that upon his return today he was decided upon the academy for his niece?”
    Catherine was silent for some time, and Margaret, her gaze still focused on her friend’s face, thought she detected just the hint of a blush spreading over the delicate aristocratic features, but perhaps it was just the warm hues of the late afternoon sunlight pouring through the carriage window.
    “Ah, er, yes he did.” Catherine blushed even more deeply as she looked up to discover Margaret surveying her closely.
    It was a most unsatisfactory answer, especially for a young woman born with an intellectually curious nature. “Odd that he has the care of the young lady. I suppose that he mentioned why it is he who is looking after his niece instead of her mother or father?”
    ‘The father is dead.”
    “How sad. An accident, I collect? However, you did say that he was a man of dubious reputation. People of dubious reputations are more prone to such things than the rest of the population.”
    “That is undoubtedly true, but such is not the case where the Marquess of Charlmont is concerned. That is, I mean he is the Marquess of Charlmont, but not the Marquess of Charlmont, if you know what I mean.”
    Margaret’s blank expression was irrefutable proof that she did not know what her friend meant.
    “What I mean to say is that the man you saw today is the man you presumed to be dead. He is the man I formerly knew as Lord Lucian Verney, brother to the Marquess of Charlmont.”
    “The rake?”
    Catherine nodded slowly, and this time Margaret was certain that the rosiness suffusing her companion’s cheeks had nothing to do with the sun and everything to do with Lord Lucian Verney, who was apparently now the Marquess of Charlmont.
    “Perhaps he is not so rakish as he once was. After all, he must have mended his ways to some degree if he is now concerning himself with his niece’s