An Accidental Affair Read Free Page A

to assume. Having never been in the same situation, she could only guess what one might say to make that man smile so wickedly.
    Arabella put her speculation aside and reluctantly returned to her brother-in-law’s company. She smiled at the few friends standing about him, but was astonished to find her niece Cecily was not standing with her father anymore. After a discreet check among the couples gathered on the dance floor for the quadrille, Arabella groaned under her breath. Cecily had vanished. Again. She tightened her grip on her fan. Cecily had promised no more disappearances, yet the minute Arabella’s back was turned the girl flitted away. Chaperoning her was proving to be a nightmare.
    A hot breath against her ear made her jump. “Go find her this instant and bring her back to me.”
    The demand from her brother-in-law was not unexpected. He’d made it very plain that Cecily’s behavior and her failure so far to snare the right husband was entirely Arabella’s fault, and to a degree he was right. Yet she’d spent little time with the girl as she was growing up, and Cecily already had firm opinions on what she would do and would not do. She could hardly be blamed if the girl refused to heed her words. Cecily pointed out more often than was comfortable that Arabella should have had a daughter of her own to mother by now.
    “She won’t be far,” Arabella said quickly, eager to appease Farnsworth before anyone noticed the steam billowing from his ears. She didn’t have the faintest idea where her niece had disappeared to in this crowd, but if Arabella didn’t make a start on finding the girl then everyone around them would soon know Cecily was unchaperoned yet again.
    Her brother-in-law elbowed her arm hard enough to sting. “The minute you discover her location, we are leaving this madhouse,” he said. “Tomorrow I’ll decide whether remaining in London another month is worth the expense.”
    Arabella’s heart soared. Once she was done chaperoning Cecily, she could return to Winslette, her home in Wiltshire, and the company of her closest friends. Because of Farnsworth’s demands and assurances that his daughter’s needs came first, she’d missed two of the most important weddings of the season. The first was the Duchess of Romsey’s and the second was of her friend and neighbor Lord Grayling to Miss Rosemary Randall. She was very sorry to have missed the latter as she’d had a hand in matching the pair together. Farnsworth had refused her leave to go, citing that his daughter’s needs took precedence.
    Since Farnsworth had become the earl, he’d developed the most penny-pinching and demanding habits. Not that any of the Farnsworth men had ever been reasonable creatures. It was uncharitable of her to think ill of the dead, but her husband and his son, short though the latter’s life had been, had not been easy people to make happy.
    Her husband had married her to run his homes and promptly ignored her in favor of his own amusements. Since his death, it had become clear the most recent Lord Farnsworth had little patience for either the social whirl or the expense and fuss of his daughter’s first season.
    Arabella set off in pursuit of Cecily with a heavy heart. Mending fences when Farnsworth was rude to their hosts gave her a nightly megrim she could easily do without.
    Farnsworth’s dislike of London and the season’s frivolous entertainments ran counter to his expectations for being here. If he wanted his daughter to make an advantageous match, then at least he could expend some effort to get the girl successfully married off.
    She studied the men around her as she moved through the crowd in search of Cecily and contented herself yet again with inspecting the lords present. Arabella was tall herself, so her eye was drawn to the men of equal or greater height more often than not.
    When it came to choosing a lover, Arabella also had a short list of requirements: Cleanliness was essential,