Read Online The Waltzing Widow/Smith by Joan Smith - Free Book Online Page B

placid smile. The butler had alerted her to Avedon’s arrival, and she had had time to compose herself.
    “Good evening, Lord Avedon,” she said very civilly, with just a glint of battle showing in her dark eyes. “So kind of you to drop by this evening.” She cast a bland look at his disheveled toilette and said, “And what a job you had reaching us, too. You took pity at our being cut off, I assume?”
    He batted at his dusty trousers while trying to think what to say. “Is Miss Percy out this evening?”
    “How could she be? She doesn’t have wings. She has retired early. The dust and noise bother her a little. If you feel your reputation can withstand sitting alone with me, I shall invite you to sit down.”
    “Thank you. I have no fear for my reputation.”
    “Nor I for mine,” she said demurely. “My being a widow allows me a certain latitude in social matters.” Avedon took a seat, and she continued, “Dear Tony usually accompanies me in the evening, but he has deserted me tonight.”
    This speech was intended to irritate her visitor, and did so to a satisfying degree. Avedon’s brows rose and his lips tightened. “Indeed,” he said.
    “Oh, my, yes, I don’t know what we should have done without him in our hour of distress. So very kind of him to insist on giving us a cow and hens, and supplying our every need now that we are cut off from the world. He sent over a couple of his men to put in our garden, just in case the laying of the tiles should be delayed. I daresay using your own untrained men instead of the crew from Canterbury must set the work back a little.” Lucy continued plying her needle as she spoke.
    Avedon was left without a word to say. His attack turned into a defense, and he muttered something about getting on with it, since the plans were made. “Where is Tony this evening?” he asked, to cover his embarrassment at being caught dead to rights.
    “His mama returned late this afternoon,” she replied. The incongruity of her telling him details of his own family delighted Lucy. “Cousin Morton came with her for a visit. You must forgive my calling him by such a familiar name, but Tony always calls him so, and I truly do not know whether Morton is his first or last name.”
    “Morton Carlton is his name.”
    “I should be learning these things.” Lucy lifted her eyes from her work and smiled boldly at Avedon at this thrust, which conveyed that she hoped to join the family.
    Avedon felt a burning sensation in his throat and said, “These details are not likely to be of much interest to you once you leave. Have you considered my offer to remove to another place? I have found a cottage quite similar to this—half timbered, with leaded windows.”
    “So very thoughtful of you, but we have no intention of removing at all. In fact, we like it so well we may spend our full twelve months here, and not just the summer as we originally planned.”
    He was through with controlling himself and flared into a towering rage. “You waste your time and money, madam, if you think to marry Lord Bigelow. When he enters into marriage, in ten years’ time, it will not be to a soldier’s widow five or ten years his senior, but to a lady of his own kind and station.”
    “Tony tells me he is only six months short of reaching his majority. Your careful perusal of my face has misled you, sir. I am not thirty years old, nor even twenty-five, but scarcely twenty-two.”
    “I tell you quite frankly, your age is the least of your disadvantages. Your circumstances are in every way ineligible.”
    “You know nothing of my circumstances, sir.”
    “I know you are an officer’s widow, living on your late husband’s half pay. Don’t try to con me, you are not wealthy. If there were property in the family, you would have some better place to go to than a hired cottage. Your social position is infinitely inferior to my nephew’s, you are too old for him, and your manners are too free by half. Your