Married to the Rogue (Season of Scandal #3) - Mary Lancaster Page 0,28

tricked into that house by a false summons purporting to come from the princess, and she spent the night locked in a room with the other ladies for their own safety. Far from participating in the orgy, they had nothing to eat or drink all night and fled when it quietened down at dawn.” He cast his cousin a challenging look. “Willing to tell that to my grandfather?”

“Tell him yourself, old man,” Dudley invited, and indeed the sound of stately footsteps could be heard approaching the door. “But take my advice. Don’t wind him up.”

Christopher had already resolved on civility unless his grandfather lapsed into insult, and so merely welcomed him with a smile and poured him a glass of sherry. There was no further time for conversation since Deborah and Gates arrived then, and he was obliged to introduce the latter.

As he did so, he noticed his grandfather’s gaze flickered to Deborah, and then came back for a second glance.

Christopher didn’t blame him. She wore a simple evening gown of dusky pink silk with a single string of pearls at her throat. Her shining blonde hair was becomingly dressed to emphasize the delicate features of her face. Her calm, gray eyes and pleasant smile concealed whatever turbulence went on beneath.

Christopher swelled with pride in her. She looked ladylike, dignified, and beautiful. The contrast between this reality and whatever harpy his grandfather had imagined was complete. And only Christopher could have known what it cost her.

Without asking, he took her a glass of sherry, which she accepted gratefully with a fleeting smile, but she did not cling to him. Instead, she sat near his cousin and asked him if his chamber was comfortable.

“Perfect, I assure you, ma’am,” Dudley replied.

“We’ve begun redecorating some of the bedchambers,” she explained. “In fact, a large part of the house, so I’m afraid you will find it all a bit chaotic and inconvenient.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “It is visitors who must be inconvenient at such a time.”

Normal social politeness had been restored, Christopher thought wryly. His cousin’s words acknowledged her as lady of the house and placed his grandfather firmly in the role of visitor. Which was sensible, for there was really nothing anyone could do to change matters. Although there were endless possibilities for unpleasantness if his grandfather chose to take them.

In fact, over dinner, his grandfather seemed to be biding his time where Deborah was concerned and chose to pick a quarrel over the school instead.

“So you’re the poor dupe my grandson has roped in to run this ridiculous school?”

“I shall be running it, yes,” Gates said with a faint smile. “Although I don’t consider myself a dupe, and I respectfully take issue with the description of ridiculous. In fact, it was I who laid the idea before Mr. Halland.”

“Well, it’s a dashed silly one,” the old gentleman retorted. “Waste of time and money. There may be merit in teaching the lower orders to read, write, and count, though most of the time, even that isn’t necessary, to educate them beyond that is pointless. For one, they have no aptitude, and for another, even if they did, there is no opportunity for them to work. What gentleman would employ a laborer’s son to educate their children? Or have such a person ordained in the Church? Who would trust a quack with such a background?”

He smiled thinly. “Even if you manage to educate these people—and I take leave to doubt you will—all you will achieve is a group of over-educated young men, unemployed and unemployable. Too discontented to go back to laboring and so with nothing else to do but foment trouble among their own class and threaten the proper order of society.”

“That is speculation and opinion, sir,” Christopher pointed out. “Not fact. We hope to have the evidence to prove you wrong before too much longer.”

“Having run through your entire fortune in the effort,” his grandfather said with contempt. “And you won’t do it. The very idea is flawed, and I very much doubt you will ever get it off the ground. What poor man is going to give over his son to be educated for years when he could be working and contributing to the family?” Without warning, he swung on Deborah. “You want to tell him this, my dear, before he spends your pin-money along with all the rest on this foolish enterprise.”

She may have felt like a hunted deer suddenly facing a gun, but she showed no sign

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