Chapter 129: Scandals, oh scandal!
Lady Percival who was known for her sharp tongue and even sharper wit, was caught in a heated argument with
Lady Jane Fairfax over the last glass of champagne. The rather loud argument was only overshadowed by the
even louder music in the background.
The exchange ended with Lady Jane dumping the contents of the glass over Lady Percival’s head, much to the
amusement of the onlookers.
Lord Fairfax turned all shades of red and he carried his intoxicated wife out of the hall amidst chuckles from
onlookers.
Sigrid urged Mauve to move things along, it was a ball, such incidents were not unexpected.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the auction is not over. We have entered the second phase and in the line up, we have
the third prince Benjamin Roland." Mauve announced loudly.
Hardly had Benjamin cout when bids started rolling in, each doubling the previous one. He was in a black T-
shirt similar to the one Roland had donned. Where Roland had displayed an uncomfortable smile, Benjamin's was
charming.
He played along with the excited crowd, flexing his biceps, turning around slowly with his arms spread out. He
even blew kisses at the ladies and winked which fueled the madness.
He was an unwed prince with two open positions for main wife and secondary consort, nearly every single
woman in attendance wanted to occupy one of those positions.
"Fifty thousand gold coins." Kitty Anderson shoved another young lady aside as she moved to the front.
"One hundred thousand gold." Emmah countered.
"One hundred twenty thousand." Bernadine Rosewood jumped up and down.
Her mother pushed her hand down and she frowned. She did not want her nineteen year old inexperienced
innocent daughter anywhere around the roguish prince.
"Two hundred thousand gold." Countess Beatrice Smith called out in an authoritative voice.
The price stunned everyone, it was too much money to pay for one dance. The male guests thought the women
had lost their minds and the poor fathers and brothers out of whose pockets the gold was going to cfelt
their hearts aching.
"Your grace, Lady Beatrice. As an older married woman, shouldn't you leave this opportunity for us?" Kitty asked.
Her question broke the chain of silence and mumbles in the room. It caused an eruption of noise when Lady
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBeatrice responded in a way that was unexpected.
"He won't want you even if you drop your dress and..."
The musicians covered the rest of the sound with loud abrupt music which was only played for five seconds. Still,
it was safe to assthat this was going to be added to the list of scandalous things that had occurred at the
bachelor’s auction.
"Two hundred thousand going once...."
"Three hundred thousand gold." Olivia Thorin bid. "And a recipe for my mother’s orange pudding."
"Pudding!!" Someone exclaimed.
Chortles and guffaws traveled in the hall and for a few seconds, a lot of people forgot about the fact that she had
just offered a staggering amount of money.
"Would you look at that, she wants to buy a prince so cheaply."
Emmabh raised her hand but before she could respond, Sigrid gave Mauve the signal to end it.
"Sold." Mauve declared.
"That's not fair." Emmah whined. The prminister was willing to go as high as one million gold coins to pay for
the date.
His grand plan was to invite the prince to his hfor the date and then he could be caught in an embarrassing
position with one or two of his daughters and the king would have no choice but to grant a marriage.
Emmah and the prminister tried to move through the crowd to complain but it was too late. Mauve led
everyone in an applause and Roland bowed.
"That is the highest bid of the night, and wow!!!" The herald exclaimed. "Another round of applause for Miss
Olivia and her extraordinary pudding."
Once again, the guests laughed, a lot of unhappy young women forced themselves to laugh.
"If they ever get married, we hope the pudding will make an appearance at the wedding reception and we will all
get to taste it." Mauve joked and laughed.
The bidding continued, and one after another the bachelors were sent off with the winners to interact. It did not
take long for another scandalous event to occur.
In a secluded corner of the ballroom, a young couple was caught in a passionate embrace. The couple, none
other than John Thorin and Lady Abigail Givenchy. Not a lot of people were aware that John was courting her. She
had won the bid and they had gone off to interact. They thought that they would not be seen but their stolen kiss
did not go unnoticed, and the whispers spread like wildfire through the crowd.
Crown Princess Sigrid, the gracious hostess, simply smiled and raised an eyebrow, letting the couple know they
had got themselves in trouble.
Roland just shook his head and laughed, when he told his wife that their would no absence of couples caught
kissing at the ball, he did not imagine that his brother-in-law would be one of those people.
He bent his head Sigrid’s way and said, "You do realize that your brother will have to go and propose marriage to
her tomorrow or Count Givenchy will descend on the Thorin duchy with his knights."
Sigrid nodded. "lI am aware."
Her lips raised in a cunning smile, it
had been her idea for her brother to
court Abigail in the first place. She
had also told John i) fastén Ce
&afordhisy Of course, she did not
think that he would do it this way,
This was John! he knew better than
to be caught kissing an innocent
young woman. There was no way
they had been caught accidentally.
The final scandalous moment of the
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evening cwhen the king's
favorite jester, nq) decigét'to
= red :
i) therquction(a e last bachelor.
Dressed in his usual motley attire, he
leaped onto the stage and began to
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmperform a series of acrobatic tricks,
much to the delight of the guests.
However, his antics took a turn for
the worse when he accidentally
knocked over a UPI Epstedribon
es pp0E lying into the
crowd. The first one landed on Lord
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Joshua Wright's head and sof
the frost dripped down his surprised
face. The content is on
novelenglish.net! Read the latest
chapter there!
The rest of the guests erupted in laughter as they dodged the airborne snacks, and Jolly Jack took a bow, his face
a picture of sheepish delight.
After the playful moment, Mauve the good host announced the total sum of coins which had been collected. It
was one million and three hundred thousand gold, more money than anybody had ever collected at a charity
auction ball.
The amount surprised the guests and pleased the king. He gave Sigrid a smile and nod of acknowledgement.
In the hall, with serious business closed, the royal musicians started playing new music that had all the guests
on their feet, dancing while discussing the events of the night.
The king and Elarin joined the dancers, the queen slithered away angrily. In a way, it was the very last scandal of
the night.
Everyone was certain that everything that had occurred would be in the papers the next day and they could not
wait to see what was written about them or what pictures had been captured.