A Matter of Scandal Read Online Free

integrity.”
    “But isn’t—”
    “No, Mary,” Emma called toward the stage, standing. “It’s ‘as a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear’—not an ‘antelope’s ear.’”
    “‘Antelope’ sounds more poetical.”
    “Yes, my dear, but Mr. Shakespeare decided to use ‘Ethiop.’”
    “All right.”
    Mary repeated the line correctly, and Emma sat again. Since yesterday, those green eyes had taken up a preposterous amount of time better spent on rehearsals and budgets and organizing summer curriculums. No one in the area had heard a whisper about Haverly’s guests, or about the golden lion in particular, and she hadn’t been successful in conjuring a reason to go visit Lord and Lady Haverly and find out about them. It was too silly, anyway—she’d never indulged in such delicious, shivery daydreams even as a young girl. Hopefully she wasn’t going to become soft-headed before she turned twenty-six.
    A tap on her shoulder made her jump. “Yes, Molly?” she asked, turning in her seat.
    The maid handed her a note. “Tobias said Lord Haverly sent this.”
    Emma took the paper, that same ridiculous feeling of anticipation running through her again. Trying not to appear as though she was hurrying, she opened the missive and read it—and her heart began thumping even faster. “Hm. It seems Lord Haverly would like to see me as soon as possible.”
    “Ooh! Maybe you’re to meet his guests!” Elizabeth popped up over the back of the seat again.
    “Lord Haverly and I often converse on various matters concerning the Academy. I shan’t speculate.” She rose again. “Miss Perchase?”
    “Yes, Miss Emma?” The Latin instructor poked her head around the edge of the curtains.
    “Please take Nurse’s lines for me, through the end of the Act.”
    “Me?”
    Emma made her way to the back of the small auditorium. “Yes. I need to call on Haverly. Molly, have Tobias saddle Pimpernel.”
    “Yes, Miss Emma.”
    As she went upstairs to change into her riding habit, Emma’s heady excitement continued to grow, and she tried to combat the giddiness with logic. He— they —probably wouldn’t even be at the manor house. On a day this fine, she certainly wouldn’t stay cooped up inside if duty didn’t require it.
    Out in the yard, Tobias Foster, the Academy’s stable hand and jack-of-all-trades, handed her up into the saddle. With a cluck to the sorrel mare, Emma set off down the road toward Haverly.
    Even before the earl’s visitors had arrived, she’d intended to call at Haverly. The Academy’s stable roof needed mending, and so did the ivy-covered wall bordering the north end of the property. The school could afford the repairs, but she would rather use the funds elsewhere. As landlord, Lord Haverly had offered to help her with such costs in the past, and she wanted to ask if he would at least stable the school’s five horses until the roof work could be completed.
    When she reached the manor she left Pimpernel with a groom and went around the front of the house, climbing the shallow steps of the main entry. The butler opened the door before she reached it, and she smiled at him.
    “How do you do that, Hobbes?”
    He stepped aside so she could enter the cool, high-ceilinged foyer. “I have very sharp hearing, Miss Emma.”
    “I see.”
    His stern face cracked into a half smile. “And you were expected.”
    Except for a few servants passing through the hallway, Haverly seemed quiet and deserted. A small, guilty twinge of disappointment soured Emma’s mood as she followed Hobbes to the earl’s small office. She always enjoyed chatting with both Lord and Lady Haverly, she reminded herself. The guests and their whereabouts didn’t matter. While the butler went to find the earl, she wandered over to the window.
    The white pieces of the chess set on the table there had advanced by one, and after a moment’s study she shifted her black bishop. She and the earl had been playing the same game for almost two