A Matter of Scandal
Chapter One
Visitors never came to west Hampshire during the Season. Not on purpose, anyway.
Thus the three massive coaches bumping down the rutted lane that ran from Westminster to the main road had to be lost. Very lost.
Hiking her brown muslin skirt up a little because of the mud, Emma Grenville hurried into the field at the edge of the road. Expensive-looking vehicles like that weren't liable to turn aside for the headmistress of a girls' school. And they were a magnificent sight. Elizabeth and Jane would wish they'd gone walking with her this morning, as she'd encouraged. Three grand coaches gracing west Hampshire in the summertime -- who would have thought?
The first vehicle rocked by her without pause, a red dragon and sword emblazoned on the door and the flimsy curtains drawn. Nobility, she thought, her curiosity deepening. As the second coach neared, the small, balding driver tipped his hat at her and grinned.
For heaven's sake -- she was staring like a milkmaid on her first trip to market. One of the most basic lessons she ... read full excerpt from: Matter of Scandal, A ebook
