Page 101 of Better Than a Duke
“Thatwas why you choked?” he snapped, his fists clenching. “I thanked her for saving you.”
“Well, you didn’t know.” Rebecca reached across the table and put one of her small, sticky hands over his.
His fingers, now streaked with what smelled like orange meringue, opened again. “And why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she said you would lie to me, and then you’d feel bad about marrying at all and you would never be happy again, and that I’d already killed Mama. And then she started insinuating about boarding school.” Rebecca sighed, her slim shoulders lifting and falling. “I have been very worried over the past few weeks.”
That absolute horror of a woman. “I don’t doubt it,” Iris said, brushing a tear from her eye. “You are a brave young lady. And I’m very glad you’ve told your papa everything.” She took a breath. “Edmund, have you? Told me everything?”
“Not quite,” her son said. “We made the squirrels escape on purpose, to try to let Lord Hentrose see how horrid Lady Pauline really was. It didn’t work, though. She didn’t scream and start cursing at us like we’d hoped.”
“And Eddie knew how horrible the duke was, and his family, and we decided we couldn’t let you marry him, no matter how much money he gave you.” Rebecca put her free hand around Edmund’s shoulders.
“Especially after he said I would have to go away to boarding school, too, because I was on your teat.”
“You’re ten, for heaven’s sake,” Iris snapped, then subsided again. She could be furious later.
“After Lady Becks told me about her conversation with Lady Pauline,” Mrs. Brubbins said, walking into the kitchen, Mr. Fredericks with her, “I agreed to help. Hand me my papers if you so wish, Lord Hentrose, but I could not let that awful woman be in your daughter’s life.”
“You might have told me your concerns, Martha,” Beckett said brusquely. “You are not a child.”
“I gave both children my word, as did Mr. Fredericks, before they would confide in us. I wouldn’t ever betray Lady Becks’s trust, unless it meant her safety. And thankfully, we nipped it before that could happen.”
“So your plan was to ‘nip’ our respective betrothals before they could happen, and without us ever knowing?” Lord Hentrose lifted an eyebrow. “I enjoy a good jest, but this is too much.”
“Outside of your presence, my lord,” Butler took up, trailed into the room by Bradley and George and Mrs. Alliday, “Lady Pauline made it quite clear that we were not up to snuff. That your household was too lax. So I suppose there is some selfishness in this, as well. I… I am proud of my position here, Lord Hentrose, and I didn’t wish it gone simply because I cleared my throat when Lady Pauline told Lady Becks she would be out of the house soon.”
“She said that when she was mistress of this house, she wouldn’t allow me to make desserts any longer because she didn’t want a fat husband,” Mrs. Alliday contributed. “And no more of me making orange meringue for a pie, even though you say it makes your toes tingle.”
“Orange meringue pie makes your toes tingle?” Iris asked, a smile slipping past her before she could rein it in.
“It does,” Beckett confirmed.
“That’s good to know.”
He glanced sideways at her. She wanted to add that she would make certain they had orange meringue pie every night, but at any moment he might recall that he wanted a wife who could guide Rebecca into Society, and not into a wrestling match. That while he’d escaped Pauline, a better choice—much better than her—could well be out there, waiting with perfectly coifed hair and not a single ill-mannered word or thought.
“Is there perchance anything else we need to know, children? Staff?” he asked.
Edmund grimaced. “Well, at first we just wanted the two suitors gone,” he admitted, lowering his head. “But then Becks and I decided that we wanted to be brother and sister, and that you two should fall in love and get married instead.”
Iris blinked. “Is that so?”
“Yes.” Rebecca nodded. “We thought we were winning when Papa bought Delilah Biscuits for you, but then Lady Pauline walked up and took her away. And one of us was supposed to go out in the garden and see you kissing tonight, so you would have to marry each other, but—”
“But then everybody screamed and we couldn’t get outside. And Bradley wouldn’t even let us in the morning room.” Edward scowled at the footman. “So that part of our plan didn’t work.”
“All of you were involved in this?” Beckett asked, indicating the lot of them.
“Yes, my lord. As the head of staff I take full responsibility for this fiasco, and I beg you not to send Bradley and Mrs. Alliday and George away.”
“Just how many of my staff were involved in this?”
“Just us in here,” Rebecca broke in. “We tried to keep our size reasonable.”
“Was that why you kept telling me I needed to accompany you when Beckett and Becks invited you to go about London?” Iris asked her son. “So you could encourage Lord Hentrose and myself to fall in love?”
Edmund nodded. “You laugh together all the time. And you both like lemon ices, and horseback riding, and—”
