Page 8 of Better Than a Duke
He nodded. “You may have the right of it. Don’t tell Rebecca, but her unrelenting assault is beginning to weaken my fortifications.”
“It will be our secret, my lord.”
Beckett took a breath. It was too early in their acquaintance to be certain, but Lady Pauline showed promise. Evidently one out of every sixteen or so females his mother hurled at himcouldbe more than a giggle with eyelashes. Lady Pauline Grenedy had her wits about her, and she plied them with grace and sensibility. At the same time, he’d offered for Lydia after ten days of acquaintance. He wouldn’t be doing that again.
This time he would be led by logic and fact. And as much as he loathed her spiderwebs, his mother could be trusted to look out for the family’s best interest in everything, and therefore perhaps in this one instance he could trust her. More than himself, certainly. He required a partnership, not quickening heartbeats and humming nerves. “Call me Beckett,” he said.
She smiled. “Pauline.”
CHAPTER TWO
“I’ll wager you two shillings that I can put ten biscuits in my mouth,” young Edmund’s voice came from the direction of the kitchen.
“At the same time,” Rebecca, longtime foe of trickery, added.
Following the voices and laughter, Beckett stepped into the large room in time to see his daughter solemnly shake hands with the young self-styled orphan. “At the same time,” the lad agreed.
“Are you leading this young man astray?” Beckett asked, catching Mrs. Brubbins’s amused smile and nodding.
“I’m leading him to biscuits,” Rebecca stated, pushing a plate of the sweet treats in front of Edmund. “Ten. All at the same time.”
“Is this the first wager?” Beckett asked, leaning against the wall beside the governess.
“Lady Becks won the first wager by stuffing five biscuits into her mouth. Master Edmund has challenged in an attempt to win his shilling, plus hers, back again.”
“Have you met him previously?” he said, lowering his voice.
She shook her head. “I thought I glimpsed a boy peeringthrough the gaps in the garden wall once or twice, but this is the first time I’ve seen him emerge—though of course I’ve only been here a week. He’s well-mannered, seems well-educated, says he’s a starving, ill-treated orphan, and claims to be ten years of age.”
“No, you can’t break them first. Whole cookies, Eddie.”
The boy made a growling sound that caused dry biscuit crumbs to shoot out of his mouth. That made Rebecca giggle, which made the boy giggle, and pieces of butter biscuit went all over the kitchen table. “No fair!” Edmund coughed. “You made me laugh!”
“I win.” Rebecca held out her hand, palm up. “Two shillings.”
“I don’t have two shillings. I only had the one, and you won it off me already.”
Rebecca scowled at him. “You can’t make a wager if you can’t cover it. That’s proper wagering rules.”
“Well, I would’ve won if you hadn’t made me laugh, and then I would have my shilling back.”
That seemed sound reasoning. Digging into a jacket pocket, Beckett produced two shillings. “I’ll cover your wager, Edmund,” he said, flipping the coins one at a time to Rebecca, who caught them out of the air. He tossed an additional one to the boy. “And I’ll make you whole again, as my daughter knows quite well how many biscuits fit in her mouth at one time.”
“Thank you, Lord Hentrose.” Swiping his blond hair out of his eyes, the boy pocketed the coin. “I don’t generally wager with females, but Becks is a prime article.”
“We’re making some space in the library so I’ll have my own shelf, because my books won’t all fit in my bedchamber,” Rebecca said, bouncing out of her chair. “Do you want to see where they’re going to go?”
“I like to read about horses and Derby racing. Do you have any of those?”
“I have so many books about horses that Papa says altogether they weigh more than a horse.”
With Rebecca in the lead, the two young ones ran out of the kitchen. “Two of them, now,” Mrs. Brubbins said, hurrying after them. “Already thick as thieves. We’re all doomed.”
Snatching one of the untouched biscuits and grinning, Beckett left the kitchen to go upstairs and change clothes for Parliament. A little additional chaos in exchange for Rebecca having someone nearby with whom to play seemed a fair trade.
Halfway to the foyer, he found the butler straightening portraits along the wall. “It looks like we’ve had a gale blow down the hallway, Butler.”
“If we’d been a ship, my lord, I fear we might have capsized.”
