firm warning. “Stop instigating, James, and introduce me.”
James. The woman had called him James.
Her familiar manner and use of his Christian name suggested that she was no random trollop he had brought home for the evening, but someone with whom he shared a relationship. A longtime mistress, perhaps?
The nauseating sinking in the pit of her stomach was as confusing as it was distressing.
“If you insist. Although I admit her reaction is highly amusing.” James made a sweeping motion with his hand. “Bella, may I introduce Lady Evelyn Harding, the wife of my good friend and legal colleague, Jack Harding.”
Lady Evelyn stepped forward and smiled. “It is a pleasure to meet you. I do apologize for the late hour. My husband and I hadn’t planned on visiting until several days from now, but his trial was postponed and we decided to arrive straightaway. We would have arrived hours ago at a decent time, but our coach threw a wheel. We were stranded on the road until, as luck would have it, James was returning home from the Twin Rams and spotted us. My husband is seeing to the horses in the stable as we speak. I had hoped we’d only have to disturb the young stable lad from his sleep.”
Bella blinked and gazed at the smiling blonde. It was then that she noticed her fine traveling gown of violet silk with lace trimming and black kid gloves. Blackwood had called her “Lady Evelyn,” which could only mean the woman was the daughter of an aristocrat who had kept her courtesy title upon her marriage to a commoner. A nervous fluttering began low in Bella’s stomach.
“I do believe you owe Lady Harding an apology,” James said.
“Don’t be daft, James,” Lady Evelyn admonished. “Mrs. Sinclair owes me no such thing. It’s perfectly understandable for her to question the arrival of a strange woman with a bachelor in the dead of the night in her home.”
Bella did not miss the insightful words at the end of Lady Evelyn’s speech. She had referred to the manor as Bella’s home.
Could it have been an accidental slip? Or can she be an ally?
Bella felt her face redden as she looked to the lady. “He’s correct. Please forgive my rush to judgment and rudeness, Lady Evelyn. I would be honored to have you and Mr. Harding as guests at Wyndmoor.”
“Thank you for your kindness,” Lady Evelyn said.
Bella glanced down at her attire, at once conscious of her nightdress, wrapper, and bare feet. She couldn’t very well escort Lady Evelyn and her husband to the guestroom dressed as she was.
“If His Grace would be so kind as to escort Lady Evelyn to the drawing room, I shall see that a room is prepared,” Bella said.
James grinned. “Excellent idea. I do believe your senses have returned.”
Bella bit back a scalding retort, not wanting to further spar with him. She had already behaved foolishly enough for one evening. She waited until the pair made their way around the corner and out of sight. Only then did Bella sprint up the stairs to awaken the staff and prepare for their unexpected guests.
Evelyn Harding was pleasantly surprised when James escorted her not to the drawing room, but to the library instead. She was the daughter of an earl, but before her father inherited his title, he had been a barrister and lecturer at Oxford. Evelyn had spent her childhood at Lincoln’s Inn surrounded by books and listening to fascinating legal arguments.
She roamed the library, her fingers passing over the colorful spines of the volumes on the mahogany shelves. The comforting smell of books and well-oiled leather furniture surrounded her. With his back to her, James poured a whiskey from a sideboard.
“Were all these books here when you arrived?” Evelyn asked.
James turned and sipped his whiskey. “Yes, it seems my father no longer had a use for them, and the man he sold the manor to, a Sir Redmond Reeves, sold the place with the furnishings, including the books, intact.” James pointed to one of the shelves. “I brought those legal volumes with me from chambers.”
Evelyn had known all the barristers in her husband’s chambers for five years. There was Brent Stone, with his tawny mane and striking looks, but whose unfathomable blue eyes seemed to hold long-buried secrets. And Anthony Stevens, whose pugilist pastime and controversial area of legal practice had sculpted him into a hard, jaded man. But as for James Devlin—the new Duke of Blackwood—she had always found him the most controversial. She was aware of his reputation with women, and Evelyn vividly recalled her first encounter with him before she had married.
She had run into James at Lincoln’s Inn when she was seeking out Jack Harding’s legal representation. James had flirted outrageously with her in the doorway of chambers, and had tried to tempt her into switching barristers, insisting he was the most competent. His antics had made her laugh, and when she’d refused him, he’d merely shrugged, tipped his hat, and wished her luck with her legal endeavors on his way out the door.
She had never approved of James’s lifestyle—his lovers or his liaisons with the willing wives of his clients. But since Evelyn had married, James had always treated her with the utmost respect. Evelyn had grown to care for him, as well as the other two barristers in their chambers, Anthony and Brent, as friends.
“How’s Phillip? I promised your boy a pony when I return,” James said.
When it came to Evelyn’s three-year-old son, Phillip, James was a beloved uncle. “You spoil him,” she said.
“I take my job as an uncle seriously.”
Evelyn sighed. “Phillip’s as precocious as ever. But it’s the first time Jack and I have left him, and I miss him terribly already. He adores you, you know.”
“Don’t give me too much credit. It’s quite enjoyable to act the doting uncle knowing I get to hand the boy over to his parents at the end of the day.”
“Hmm.” Evelyn wasn’t fooled. James did have a knack with children. Perhaps it was his devil-may-care attitude.
But tonight James had behaved strangely. James had spoken with them in the carriage ride about the unexpected appearance of the widow at the manor, and Evelyn knew he wanted Bella Sinclair to rescind her claim to Wyndmoor. Then Bella had marched down the stairs and confronted James. His reaction had seemed unperturbed, yet behind his façade of amusement, Evelyn had been surprised to sense an undercurrent of tension in him around the beautiful widow.
I warned you about sharing a residence with a bachelor. It’s not too late to reconsider, he had told Bella.
Bella had eyed him with challenge, and the sparks between the pair had flashed.
In all her time, Evelyn had never known James Devlin unable to win over a woman he had set out to charm. He enjoyed his freedom and avoided emotional commitment like the plague. There had been women who sought more from him than to share his bed, women who had claimed to love him, but he had been quick to break off those affairs. Bachelorhood, he often said, was the epitome of freedom. Why ruin it with marriage and children?
He rarely spoke of his past or his family. His mother had died in childbirth, and—prior to recent revelations at least—it had been common knowledge that he was the illegitimate son of the Duke of Blackwood. The dowager duchess had paid for his education and housing as a boy, but apparently that had been the extent
