A Matter of Scandal Read Online Free PDF

you’ll excuse me.”
    With a flounce of her green riding skirt, she stalked off down the road again. Grey watched for a moment, admiring the angry sway of her hips. After her bonnet, her dress would be the second thing he removed. A girls’ school headmistress. She probably starched her shift. The thought had the unexpected result of arousing him, and he tugged on Cornwall’s reins to follow her.
    “For your information, I do approve of educating females.”
    She kept walking. “How wonderfully condescending, Your Grace.”
    Greydon swore under his breath. “YourAcademy,” he continued, trying to maintain a grip on his temper and his damned unexpected lust, “doesn’t educate females.”
    That got her attention. She faced him, folding her arms across her small, pert bosom. “I beg your pardon?”
    Her breasts were just the right size to fit a man’s hands. His hands. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but—”
    “Oh, I intend to.”
    “—But you instruct your students in etiquette, do you not?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “And dance? And polite conversation? And dress?”
    “Yes.”
    “Aha. You know as well as I that all that nonsense is for the ultimate purpose of enabling your students to marry—and to marry well. You, Miss Emma, are a paid matchmaker. And in less polite circles, you would be called worse.”
    Her face went white. He hadn’t meant to be so biting, but she kept making him lose his train of thought—he had no idea why he was lusting after a prim headmistress. Now, he supposed, she would swoon and expect him to catch her. Grey sighed, taking a step closer in anticipation.
    Instead, she laughed. It wasn’t an amused laugh, by any stretch of the imagination, but it was the last thing he expected to hear. Women, as a rule, didn’t laugh at him.
    “So, Your Grace, if I might reiterate,” she said, her voice clipped, “you disapprove of women who feel they need a husband to make their way in the world, despite the fact that this is exactlywhat society has dictated since before the Norman Conquest.”
    “I—”
    She jabbed a finger in his direction. “And at the same time, you deride me for taking up a career which leaves me completely independent from the male of the species.” She stalked closer, glaring up at him. “What I think, Your Grace, is that you like to hear yourself talk. Thankfully, that does not require my presence. Good day.”
    He suddenly realized they had reached the Academy grounds, and swiftly stepped back as the heavy wrought-iron gate banged shut with a clank Miss Emma Grenville must have found utterly satisfying. A moment later she and her horse vanished behind the high, ivy-covered walls.
    Grey stood where he was for a moment, then turned and swung into the saddle to head back to Haverly. He couldn’t remember ever having been shut down so efficiently, even by his mother—who was renowned for her razor-sharp tongue. And surprisingly enough, he was as amused as he was infuriated and aroused.
    One thing was for damned certain. He was going to see Romeo and Juliet on Thursday. Miss Emma Grenville was not going to escape that easily.

Chapter 3
    “M en perform only one necessary function in the world,” Emma growled. “I have no idea how they managed to convince themselves of their superiority in every other aspect of creation, just because of a stupid accident of biology.”
    “I assume your conversation with Lord Haverly did not go well, then?”
    Glaring toward Haverly didn’t seem to be causing the estate to burst into flames, so Emma stalked away from the office window and plunked herself down at her desk. “They want to triple our rent, Isabelle.”
    The French instructor’s pencil tip snapped off. “ Zut! ”
    The curse startled Emma out of her black ruminations. “Isabelle!”
    “Beg pardon. But triple? How can the Academy afford that?”
    “We can’t. And we won’t pay it.”
    Isabelle set down her examination papers. “Did Lord Haverly