Read Online Victoria and the Rogue by Meg Cabot - Free Book Online

would be made to suffer the consequences,
    had caused many a cook who had for years terrorized her employers with threats to quit if her food was
    criticized to quake with terror. Already the warning had been passed from cook to cook throughout the
    land: only those with a stout heart and a steady hand with a basting brush need apply for work in the
    household of the new Lady Malfrey.
    No one blamed Beatrice, of course, for her niece’s reputation. The young lady was an orphan, after all,
    and had had the misfortune of having been raised in India like a little heathen, since for all intents and
    purposes, her uncles had ignored her until she grew too strident in her criticism of them for them not to
    pay attention. Then they had promptly shipped her off for their poor sister to deal with. Such a pity, too,
    because her dearly departed mother had been such a great beauty, such a gentle creature… so gentle, in
    fact, that she was quite hopeless with the help….
    Sadly, Jacob’s speech was just winding down as Victoria and her cousin approached.
    “At best, sir, your niece will be dragged down to his level,” the captain was pontificating. “At worst, her
    reputation will be ruined, and she won’t be able to show her face in a single decent household in all of
    London.”
    Victoria bitterly regretted having missed the beginning of this speech. It sounded quite a good one.
    “Er,” Rebecca’s father was heard to reply. “Um. Ah.”
    “Show some spirit, Uncle Gardiner,” Victoria urged him, with enthusiasm. “Tell him to save his breath to
    cool his porridge.”
    But her uncle only turned very red in the face, muttered something about going in search of punch, and
    departed. Jacob Carstairs turned on Victoria with blazing eyes— really blazing, the way a tiger’s eyes
    blazed just as it was set to pounce—and said in a very deep and commanding voice, “If your family
    won’t do anything to keep you from making this excessively foolish match, Lady Victoria, I can assure
    you I will.”
    “Oh, Captain Carstairs,” Rebecca said, batting her eyelashes worshipfully at the young captain. Really,
    but Victoria was going to have to put an end to this absurd fixation of her cousin’s very soon indeed. “It
    is so kind of you to take such an interest in my cousin’s welfare.”
    It was at that point that Jacob Carstairs, who’d seemed livid with rage, appeared to remember himself,
    and, dropping the furious gaze, looked a bit ashamed… as well he ought, thought Victoria with some
    satisfaction.
    “Your concern for my future is much appreciated,” she said, a little let down that this, then, were all the
    fireworks to which they were to be treated. “But I can assure you, you have nothing to fear. I am quite
    capable of making my own decisions, Captain. I have been doing so all my life, you know.”
    Captain Carstairs only shook his head. “There are dangers here in England you’ve never dreamed of,
    my lady. And I’m not talking about scorpions or quicksand. Or,” he added even more ominously, “tureen
    of beef two nights in a row.”
    This sounded thrillingly portentous… enough so that Victoria’s pulse quickened, and she leaned toward
    Jacob Carstairs eagerly.
    “What do you mean?” she asked breathlessly. “Captain Carstairs, do you know something about my
    fiancé that I don’t?”
    But Jacob crushed her hopes of finding out that Lord Malfrey had a hidden deformity or a mad twin
    brother with whom he occasionally traded places by saying curtly, “Only that he is not a man of honor.”
    This was such a disappointing response that Victoria rolled her eyes. “Is that all?” she asked.
    “Isn’t that enough?” Captain Carstairs demanded, his dark brows furrowed.
    Rebecca, who’d been standing nearby the whole time, piped up with, “It is a very serious accusation,
    Vicky. I am certain it is not one the captain would make lightly.”
    “I’m sure you are right,” Victoria said, so as not