<h4>Chapter 129: Scandals, oh scandal!</h4>


    Lady Percival who was known for her sharp tongue and even sharper wit, was caught in a heated argument with Lady Jane Fairfax over thest ss 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 ss 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 Rnd." Mauve announced loudly.


    Hardly had Benjamine out when bids started rolling in, each doubling the previous one. He was in a ck T-shirt simr to the one Rnd had donned. Where Rnd had disyed an ufortable smile, Benjamin’s was charming.


    He yed along with the excited crowd, flexing his biceps, turning around slowly with his arms spread out. He even blew kisses at thedies 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 upy one of those positions.


    "Fifty thousand gold coins." Kitty Anderson shoved another youngdy 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 neen 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 toe felt 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 Beatrice 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 yed for five seconds. Still, it was safe to assume that this was going to be added to the list of scandalous things that had urred 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 eximed.


    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."


    Emmah raised her hand but before she could respond, Sigrid gave Mauve the signal to end it.


    "Sold." Mauve dered.


    "That’s not fair." Emmah whined. The prime minister was willing to go as high as one million gold coins to pay for the date.


    His grand n was to invite the prince to his home for 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 prime minister tried to move through the crowd toin but it was toote. Mauve led everyone in an apuse and Rnd bowed.


    "That is the highest bid of the night, and wow!!!" The herald eximed. "Another round of apuse for Miss Olivia and her extraordinary pudding."


    Once again, the guestsughed, a lot of unhappy young women forced themselves tough.


    "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 andughed.


    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 ur.


    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.


    Rnd just shook his head andughed, when he told his wife that their would no absence of couples caught kissing at the ball, he did not imagine that his brother-inw 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. "I am aware."


    Her lips raised in a cunning smile, it had been her idea for her brother to court Abigail in the first ce. She had also told John to hasten the rtionship. 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 identally.


    The final scandalous moment of the evening came when the king’s favorite jester, Jolly Jack, decided to join the auction as thest bachelor. Dressed in his usual motley attire, he leaped onto the stage and began to perform a series of acrobatic tricks, much to the delight of the guests.


    However, his antics took a turn for the worse when he identally knocked over a tray of frosted moon pies, sending them flying into the crowd. The first onended on Lord Joshua Wright’s head and some of the frost dripped down his surprised face.


    The rest of the guests erupted inughter as they dodged the airborne snacks, and Jolly Jack took a bow, his face a picture of sheepish delight.


    After the yful 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 ying new music that had all the guests on their feet, dancing while discussing the events of the night.


    The king and rin joined the dancers, the queen slithered away angrily. In a way, it was the veryst scandal of the night.


    Everyone was certain that everything that had urred 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.