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Chapter One
London, England
May 1824
Lady Isadora Bevelstrokeset down her quill and rubbed her weary eyes. She had been working to ensure that all her accounts were in order, as well as making a few adjustments now that she was the sole occupant of the leased townhouse in London. Since all three of her sisters were married and happily settled, the full responsibility of the cost fell on her shoulders. However, she wasn’t averse to bearing the weight of finance when it came to balancing ledgers. On the contrary, it was one of the things she did best.
She stretched the kinks in her shoulders, tense from being bent forward for so long and leaned against the back of the chair. A week had passed since Araminta and Lord Somers and Olivia and the Duke of Gravesend had left the city to return to their country estates following the recent union of Calliope and Lord Blakely. They had stayed with Isadora for a few days before parting,and although Isa had enjoyed having them there, she detested the utter silence that their departure now wrought.
It was as if every chime of the case clock said the same thing.
Alone. Alone. Alone.
She hated that word, but she dislikedlonelyeven more. She would certainly prefer the former to the latter. Alone made it sound as though she preferred it that way, that she was a strong, independent woman who wanted to make her own way in the world. The second, however, made her sound like a forgotten spinster. But she supposed at eight and twenty, that was what she was.
She shook her head and got to her feet. It was time to stop feeling sorry for herself. It was getting late and it was time she turned in for the night. She had a busy, few days on the horizon and she still hadn’t gotten used to town hours. But then, she’d grown up in the country for most of her life, up until the previous year when she and her sisters had decided to embark on a journey of independence.
It looked as though she was the single sister who was going to succeed.
Granted, Minty, Livy, nor Callie had planned to meet the gentlemen who would change everything. But love was a powerful force of nature and could not be ignored. It was human nature to be with someone special and Isa couldn’t be happier for her younger half siblings. She knew it had been difficult for them ever since their father, the Duke of Marlington, had passed, and for years before that. None of them had been fortunate to have had their mothers for any length of time.
Araminta had been blessed with hers for the longest, but when her mother perished from fever the year she’d turned three, she’d been too young to even remember her. Olivia’s mother died on the birthing bed and was the reason the last Bevelstroke sibling had eschewed marriage for so long. She was afraid that she would share her mother’s fate, but now that shewas about to start a family of her own, Isadora was glad that she had taken a risk. Calliope had lost her mother when she was six months old from a weak heart, and Isadora was just a year old when the first duchess had fallen from a horse and broken her neck.
With so much tragedy littering the family, it was no doubt that their father had wanted to shield them from the fact he had considered marrying again. Just after the Christmas holiday, it had been revealed that he had signed a contract with Lady Eugenia Stillwater, the daughter of Viscount Rundale. It had been a shock to everyone, except for Isadora who had known the truth. She hadn’t wanted to upset her sisters with the news, but when it all came to light, she was forced to admit that their father had sworn her to secrecy when she’d uncovered a jeweler’s receipt during one of the times she was assisting him with the estate ledgers.
It was later uncovered that the marriage was to be in name only, and that Lady Eugenia suffered from delusions. Their father had merely wanted to help someone while gaining a companion for his older years.
And yet, people still wanted to think the worst. They called him the “Black Widower” with the most distrusting belief that he had caused the demise of all his four wives. It might have been easier if he had been so cruel, that Isa hadn’t witnessed him break down more than once in despair. She wasn’t sure if it was a deep and abiding love that he had felt for each of his duchesses, although he had claimed it was so. He had said that they all had brought something special to their union and he had been devastated by each loss.
She wasn’t sure she would ever know if he spoke the truth, but neither was she going to allow all those unanswered questions to keep her up at night. The fact was, her father was gone and even should she wish to know his true heart’s desire, there was no way to even begin to unravel such a mystery.
Some things were just better left alone.
Like her.
Isadora entered her chamber, and once her maid had assisted her in undressing, she prepared herself for bed.
However, when she slipped under the covers, she was chagrined to find that this was one night where sleep evaded her.
She considered going downstairs and making some warm milk to see if that would help. But spying the book of James Howell’s Proverbs on her night table, she decided that she would read instead. It generally helped to calm her mind when her thoughts tried to make her restless.
She wasn’t as interested in the written word, unlike Olivia, who was seldom without some sort of book in her hand. But Isadora did enjoy a bit of poetry or verse now and then. It generally helped to lift her spirits if she was feeling a bit out of sorts.
Turning up the lamp, she was perusing the pages for a time, but when she came to a certain passage, she paused.“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
Isa placed the book in her lap with a frown. For some reason, that particular sentence resonated with her. Although she considered herself particularly shrewd when it came to her business dealings, having made several contacts during her time in London, she wondered if people thought of her as dull. She liked to think of herself as being practical and somber, because she didn’t see the need to giggle and act ridiculous when she was a mature woman.
And yet…
When she recalled the wary glances people would send in her direction at varioustongatherings, she always just thought it was because they were intimidated, but perhaps it was that they didn’t consider her to be worthy of note.
Her frown deepened. That wasn’t a very pleasant thought.
Normally, she couldn’t care less what others believed of her, unless it had the ability to damage her reputation. But wonderingif she was being laughed at was something else entirely. If she wasn’t taken seriously, it could injure her almost as much as if she were caught in some sort of illicit tryst.
Isa folded down a section of the page in her book and returned it to the table beside her bed, and then she got up and walked over to her dressing table to sift through the latest invitations. She hadn’t intended on trying to make additional contacts in the city, as she had already decided it would be in her favor to check her interests outside of London, most particularly those in Newcastle to the north.
That would be her latest venture, thanks to her brother-in-law’s assistance, for Grey had put her in touch with his business associates. He was allowing her to take over his pursuits for a time while he embarked on married life. She had been grateful for the opportunity, hoping it would prove that she was as capable of conducting industrial dealings as well as any man. Now that she was left to her own devices, she decided it was the perfect time to pay a visit.
