Accidentally in Love by Claudia Dain

Author:Claudia Dain
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Claudia Dain
Published: 2014-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Lady Jordan, widow, had never been blessed with children. She had, however, married for love, or that was the rumor, and consequently, she had not married as well as her two sisters. One had married the Duke of Aldreth, produced two children and promptly died, and the other had married the Marquis of Melverly, produced two children and subsequently died. Lady Jordan had, by virtue of surviving life, found herself in the position of maternal placeholder and sometime chaperone to the three daughters of her two sisters.

As it happened, Lady Jordan did not enjoy the dubious thrill of motherhood, even of the substitute sort; therefore, she was not a very eager chaperone. Also, she drank prodigiously.

In Eleanor’s opinion, that all combined to make Lady Jordan very nearly the perfect chaperone.

Emeline had got all this out of Eleanor in the first hour of their acquaintance. Eleanor Kirkland was quite forthcoming about nearly everything. She was, in a word, shameless. Or perhaps the word was courageous. Yet again, perhaps it was untouchable. No one in Society would ever look down upon Eleanor Kirkland. The same could not be said of Emeline Harlow.

“I can’t just walk up to Lord Raithby and talk to him. It’s too forward,” Emeline said.

“We’ll do it together. He won’t mind in the slightest. He’s a very even-tempered man,” Eleanor said.

“I thought you hardly knew him.”

“Everyone knows that about him. Everyone. He’s never even been in a duel, that’s how mild he is.”

“Then that is not a dueling scar upon his cheek?” Emeline asked.

They were at Lady Jordan’s musicale, the musicians still setting themselves up with their music sheets and chairs just so, finger limbering, or whatever it was they did before actually playing upon their instruments. Emeline had never been to a musicale before. She did not count the church Christmas play where the vicar and his wife played (violin and pianoforte, respectively) and Marquerite, the local soprano, sang (shrilly).

Lady Jordan was hosting the musicale in the Marquis of Melverley’s home on Brook Street. It was a colossal home of ancient and proud lines, though some of the upholstery looked a bit shabby around the edges. Mama had told her in somewhat self-satisfied tones that the shabbiness was the result of Lord Melverley’s lack of a wife, not a 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.

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