A Christmas In Bath Read Online Free PDF

enough of an eager follower of Society to be humbled and pleased over such a connection to the nobility .
    Mary greeted the visitors in the small drawing room at the front of their skinny little house. The visitors sat one after another on a faded chintz sofa, and Mary faced them in an arm chair a bit closer to the fire.
    "As much as I adore your mother," Glee began, "I wanted a private word with you." Her gaze flicked to Felicity and Catherine. "They don't count. They know everything."
    The sisters were Mary's lifelong friends, but she was not as well acquainted with Catherine, who was a bit older and closer to Felicity. How mortified Miss Arbuckle was to think Catherine knew she fancied herself in love with Jonathan Blankenship! The heat suffusing her cheeks, Miss Arbuckle's gaze darted straight to Catherine. "Everything?"
    Catherine nodded meekly. "Your affection for Jonathan Blankenship very much reminds me of how I felt about Airy—before he fell in love with me." Airy was Catherine's own name for Melvin, owing to her calling her scholar husband Aristotle .
    Miss Arbuckle's embarrassment faded, and her attention perked. Jonathan Blankenship was very much like Melvin Steffington, in that neither of them had been possessed of a womanizing bent—unlike the men's friends—all of whom had set up women as mistresses at one time or another. Well, all except for Felicity's husband, who never wanted any woman save Felicity. Unlike the scholarly pursuits that absorbed Jonathan's and Melvin's interests, though, Thomas Moreland directed his attentions to the making of a fortune—a talent for which he was most adept.
    Before Miss Arbuckle could comment, Glee continued on. "That's why I have brought my dear Mrs. Steffington here today. We must find out what means she used to encourage a declaration from Melvin."
    Were any other woman to refer to men by their Christian names, they would meet with censure. But not Glee Blankenship. Her lively personality won approval even from Society’s strictest critics.
    Catherine's shoulders shrugged. "I don't think I was aware of doing anything in particular. I do believe I was the first to fall in love, but I never dreamed I would be able to capture his heart. You know how that is, Miss Arbuckle, with serious-minded men like Jonathan and Airy."
    "Indeed I do. It's my belief that Jonathan Blankenship has never been interested in those of the female gender—in the same way most other young men are."
    "Exactly what I thought about Airy! And later I learned I was right. I was his first."
    All this talk of love and young men's other interests sent Miss Arbuckle's thoughts off in a direction in which they had seldom travelled. She found herself wondering if Catherine meant she was the first woman Melvin (Airy) had ever loved, or was she referring to being the first woman he had ever . . . gulp, bedded.
    "So, did you try to make him jealous?" Miss Arbuckle asked.
    Catherine did not reply for a moment, then Mary understood why. She was trying not to offend the plain spinster. For Catherine, with her flaxen hair and lovely face and figure, already had other suitors when she began her association with Melvin. Unlike Mary, who had never had a single suitor.
    Catherine finally shook her head. "Our relationship began upon a shared goal. I begged him to use his scholarly skills to help find the nearly priceless Chaucer that was stolen from me. That shared goal forced us to spend a great deal of time together." The lady sighed. "Soon I was deeply in love him."
    Felicity's brows plunged. "Can you perhaps pinpoint a certain occurrence that pushed him from friend to lover?"
    Catherine thought on this for a moment. "I suppose it was the kiss."
    "You kissed him?" a shocked Miss Arbuckle asked.
    A slow smile curled on Catherine's contented face. "He kissed me, actually. Then, he apologized profusely—when all I really wanted was more kisses."
    Miss Arbuckle sighed. If only she were pretty like Catherine