Andrew chuckled. “Today’s Modern Woman? That sounds like something out of that ridiculous Ladies’ Guide everyone is talking about.”
“Why do you say ‘ridiculous’?”
“Hmm, yes, perhaps that was a poor choice of word. ‘Scandalous, appalling, trash-filled balderdash’ is closer to what I meant.”
Andrew studied the couple for several more seconds, trying to decipher the apparently misguided Lord Nornick’s errors so as not to make them himself, but in truth he couldn’t figure out what the man was doing wrong. He was being polite and attentive-two strategies Andrew himself had deemed important in his own wooing campaign.
He turned back toward Lady Catherine. “I’m afraid I don’t see-”
His words cut off when he noted she was regarding him with raised brows and a noticeably cool expression. “Is something amiss?”
“I wasn’t aware you’d read A Ladies‘ Guide to the Pursuit of Personal Happiness and Intimate Fulfillment, Mr. Stanton.”
“Me? A ladies‘ guide?” He chuckled, torn whether he was more astonished or amused by her words. “Of course I haven’t read it.”
“Then how can you possibly call it ‘scandalous, appalling, trash-filled balderdash’?”
“I don’t need to read the actual words to know the content. That Guide has become the main topic of conversation in the city.” He smiled, but her expression did not change. “As you’ve spent the past two months in Little Longstone, you couldn’t know the stir that book has caused with the nonsensical ideas put forth by the author. You’ve only to listen to the gentlemen in this very room to realize that not only is the book filled with idiotic notions, but apparently it is poorly written as well. Charles Brightmore is a renegade, and possesses little, if any, literary talent.”
Twin flags of color rose on her cheeks, and her narrowed gaze grew positively frosty. Warning bells rang in Andrew’s mind, suggesting-unfortunately a few words too late-that he’d committed a grave tactical error. She lifted her chin and shot him a look that somehow managed to appear as if she were looking down her nose at him, quite a feat, considering he stood a good six inches taller than she.