Читать книгу In the Barrister's Bed - Tina Gabrielle - Страница 15

Chapter 9

The arrival of Lady Evelyn Harding turned out to be fortuitous for Bella. After only three days, word of the new duke’s arrival had traveled rapidly through the closest town of St. Albans. Bella had anticipated a ripple of scandal when people learned that a bachelor inhabited the same residence as a widow, but to her astonishment, many thought the married Lady Evelyn a proper chaperone for Bella. But Bella was most grateful for the Hardings’ company, not only because they were a distraction for Blackwood—who spent much of his time with his three fellow barristers—but because she found Evelyn Harding genuinely friendly.

Bella had gone out of her way to avoid Blackwood, and she had kept busy unpacking her trunks and learning how to run the household. Yet by the end of the third day, Bella had run out of tasks and realized she needed to take a new tactic. Blackwood wasn’t leaving or expiring from boredom in the country. She had to learn more about him, and she hoped Evelyn would be able to enlighten her.

With that thought in mind, Bella had searched the house to ask Evelyn to join her for tea when her husband, Jack Harding, informed Bella that Evelyn had been ensconced in the library for most of the afternoon. He smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “She can’t resist those books.”

Bella knocked softly and opened the library door. Evelyn sat behind a massive oak desk, a stack of open books spread out before her. Light streamed in from the large window behind the desk, turning her hair to a luminous gold.

Bella closed the door and approached. “I apologize for disturbing you, my lady. Would you like to join me for tea on the terrace?”

Evelyn looked up. “Please call me Evelyn. May I call you Bella?”

“Yes, please.”

“You have been nothing but kind to us since our arrival, and I’m grateful. You must understand, however, that my husband and I do not keep secrets from each other, and I’m aware of the situation between you and James. I take an interest in all my husband’s friends and have grown quite fond of them,” Evelyn said.

Disquieting thoughts raced through Bella’s mind. Had she made a mistake in approaching Evelyn Harding?

“I understand,” Bella said in a low, composed voice.

Evelyn leaned across the desk and a thoughtful smile curved her mouth. “That does not stop me from making my own judgments. Your position may not be as precarious as he would have you believe.”

Surprised and more uncertain than before, Bella asked, “You mean the duke?”

“I do.”

“I assume you are speaking of our dispute over ownership of this property.”

“I am.”

“Blackwood claims the legality of his deed is not in question because he was first to record the deed despite the fact that I purchased the property first and moved in days prior to him,” Bella said.

“I’m quite proficient at reading and interpreting case law, even the arcane property statutes, and I have discovered one court that was divided on the issue. Most courts have held that the first to record the deed is the owner; one held for the first to purchase and possess. Every case is fact specific, you see.”

Bella approached the desk and looked over Evelyn’s shoulder. Even though Bella was well read, the thick text of the legal volumes was baffling, with many of the words in Latin. It was like an indecipherable code.

“How can you understand what you are reading?” Bella asked.

Evelyn chuckled and turned in her chair to look up at Bella. “I am the daughter of a longtime barrister.”

“I thought you were the daughter of an aristocrat.”

“It wasn’t until years later that my father inherited my uncle’s earldom. For most of my life, my father was a revered Master of the Bench—otherwise known as a Bencher—at Lincoln’s Inn. I spent my youth roaming around the Inn and my father’s chambers, listening to him lecture his pupils on the topics of contracts, torts, and criminal law. Father has since retired from Lincoln’s Inn, but he never lost his love of teaching and still lectures at Oxford. James and the others call me ‘Lady Evelyn’ in honor of my father.”

“Your father mentored others to become barristers?”

“Oh, yes. My husband and James Devlin were just two of his many pupils.”

“Is that how you met Mr. Harding?”

“I was a skinny twelve-year-old girl when Jack Harding became my father’s pupil, but I adored him the first time I set eyes on him. He’s always been a charmer.”

An image of Jack Harding rose in Bella’s mind: tall and lean with green eyes and an easy grin. She could imagine Evelyn’s fascination with the handsome barrister.

“It wasn’t until a decade later that I encountered Jack again, only I believed I was in love with another, a scholar and my father’s Fellow at the University, who was under suspicion for murdering the Drury Lane actress Bess Whitfield.”

Stunned, Bella could only stare. News of the notorious Bess Whitfield’s murder had reached even the residents of Plymouth far from the London theater district.