Laurie Brown by Hundreds of Years to Reform a Rake Read Free Book Online

returned to drawing and redrawing
     lines on Amelia’s diagram.This was harder than it appeared. A Regency hostess must have felt as if her social standing depended
     on putting together a jigsaw puzzle blindfolded and wearing heavy work gloves.
    Josie tossed the notebook onto the table. She hadn’t figured out the first problem with the married couple, never mind the
     feuding duchess. It hurt to admit defeat. Especially since her intellect was the one area of her life where she’d always felt
     confident. She folded her arms and slumped back in the seat. “I’ll never get this.”
    Deverell raised one eyebrow.“Giving up already?”
    Josie wanted to stick her tongue out at him.
    “Don’t be discouraged, dear. As Deverell said, you’ll never need to act as hostess.Truly, you’ll do just fine. Simply pay
     attention to Deverell’s mother and follow her lead.”
    Amelia’s sympathetic tone and expression only deepened Josie’s depression.
    Deverell sat back with an insincere smile. “I quote your President Roosevelt, ‘If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on
     the porch.’”
    Drat his superior attitude.How Josie would love to take him down a peg or two. “I do believe the correct quote is ‘If you
     can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen,’” she said.
    “Other than wordage, is there a difference?”
    The man didn’t know when to stop. He was asking for a set down. Josie sat up straighter and assumed a nonchalant pose. “Are
     you claiming the difference between right and wrong is simply a choice of words? Is accuracy a matter of semantics?”
    “I see that modern women, just like the women of my time, take a man’s words and twist them to their liking.”
    Josie knew she had won the first point in this round when Deverell had been reduced to gender bashing to form a response.
     He nodded his acknowledgment of her triumphant smile.
    Pushing aside a dangerous glow of pleasure, Josie reminded herself of her reasons for cooperating with the ghost in the first
     place. She’d already wasted half the evening.
    Lost in her thoughts, she followed Amelia into the dining room. Josie realized that Deverell had maneuvered her into taking
     up the gauntlet, manipulated her into accepting his challenge.
    One point for Deverell in round two. Although he was unseen, she knew he was near. Just as she knew he wore a triumphant grin.
     She nodded graciously in recognition of his point. The score was now tied, but the evening was still young.
    “As you can see, dining à la Russe was the style,” Amelia said as they entered the dining room and were seated across from each other near the head of the table.
    The footman, in actuality the gardener’s nephew George, who had been pressed into service and who had received a crash course
     in his new duties, nervously placed the napkins in the ladies’ laps and served the soup and wine.
    “I think we can dispense with the usual practice of the footmen standing in attendance in case a dinner guest should need
     anything.” Amelia dismissed George with a reminder that she would ring the bell when she was ready for him to return.
    George backed out, his oh-so-serious expression spoiled by a last minute grab to keep his white wig in place.
    Josie breathed silent thanks that she wouldn’t have yet another witness to her first efforts using the awkward-looking two-pronged
     forks and huge spoons. No wonder the napkins were so large.
    “All the dishes are on the table when the guests enter the dining room.What we would consider a complete meal from soup to
     nuts was presented simultaneously, savory and sweet together. This course would then be followed by two or more removes, so
     called because every dish, and even the tablecloth,was removed and replaced by fresh linen and more dishes.”
    “There are a lot of dishes,” Josie said, looking down the long table that would comfortably seat a football team. Every square
     inch of the center was filled with a