Free Evelyn Richardson by The Scandalous Widow Page A

generosity, or even concern for the welfare of his niece, who would be perfectly well protected on her journey with the coachman, her maid, and several burly outriders, but an intense desire to see Catherine again that made him volunteer to accompany Arabella to Bath.
    Lucian had forgotten what a potent effect Catherine had always had on him, but it had all come rushing back to him in a moment as he had stood staring at her across her desk that first day at the academy. There was a vitality about her, an intensity, and a sense of purpose that had always intrigued and challenged him. It was her eyes that had first attracted him. Filled with a lively intelligence and lit with a sparkle of humor, they told him that their owner was a person worth knowing.
    He smiled as he remembered their first waltz together. They had immediately become involved in such a heated discussion of the importance of common lands and the economic effects of the Speenhamland System that at one point they had stopped dead on the floor while the other couples swirled around them like so many butterflies, as Catherine argued that supplementing wages with parish poor rates would bring disaster.
    Lucian had never known any other woman, or man, for that matter, who was so interested in so many things, and he had sorely missed their conversations after he had left London, but other events and other concerns had soon overtaken him, and over time he had forgotten how much he missed those conversations until he saw her again.
    He admitted to himself that after ten years there was still no other woman who could stand up to him as she did, and certainly no one clever enough or strong-minded enough to make him feel foolish. He could not help chuckling as he recalled her shocked disapproval as she questioned him about his selection process of schools for his niece. ‘What? Not even one?’ Even though his own lack of thoroughness in reviewing other possible choices for Arabella’s schooling was all to her advantage, Catherine could not stifle her innate integrity. And who else among his acquaintances would have dared to call him to task for his intellectual laziness or would have cared that he find the best possible place for his niece, regardless of personal interest?
    Rejecting the offer of a servant to fetch his niece, Lucian himself went in search of Arabella, whom he eventually located in the rose garden, though he suspected from the lopsided angle of the bonnet, its carelessly tied ribbons and the muddle of scissors and gloves in her otherwise empty basket that she had arrived there only moments before.
    Clearly she had wished him to find her there. And just as clearly she had chosen to pose in the role of country gentlewoman for some particular purpose. The last time he had seen his niece, she had been equally determined to prove to him that she was an avid equestrienne. Unlike her weak and vacillating mother, Arabella never did anything by half measures, and never without a reason, obscure though that reason might be to the rest of the world.
    “Uncle Lucian! How delightful to see you. I vow it has been an age since you were at Charlmont.”
    Lucian ignored the gracefully extended hand. “Cut line, Arabella. It has been less than a month; furthermore, you are quite aware of how long it has been and all the reasons for it.”
    “Ah yes, the enchanting Lady Granville, I believe. Undoubtedly she grew bored without the flattering attentions of her latest flirt.”
    “You know full well that my presence in London was required for other reasons, business reasons. But that is quite beside the point. What sort of company are you keeping that amuses itself by wasting its time spreading idle gossip? You sound like the worst of the town tabbies.”
    Arabella glanced at her uncle nervously. His tone was light enough, but there was a hint of steel underneath. “I was merely repeating what is common knowledge. Lady Partington and her daughters were speaking of it not