A Debutante's Guide to Rebellion by Kathleen Kimmel Page A

different plan of attack is called for,” Mr. Blackwood said.
Ezekiel,
she told herself. If she was planning to elope with the man, she might as well commit the scandal of referring to him by his first name. “Your mother’s plan necessitates that you and my uncle be alone, correct? And for a period of time sufficient to imply some misdeed has occurred.”
    â€œThat’s right,” Eddie said. “I expect she’ll arrange for us both to be in some secluded room, then burst in with her most gossipy friends.” She was, in fact, utterly certain that her mother had planned exactly that. She could even predict which ladies she would have accompanying her. Lady Halbrook for an appropriate level of shrieking, Lady Cassandra Brent to absolutely insist there was no possible way to pretend it never happened, and Lady Marden to spread the rumor like a fever through the city.
    Lady Copeland would first insist that she was certain nothing untoward had happened. Then she would assure them that surely, surely this could be forgotten, there was no need to inconvenience Lord Averdale and shame her daughter. But the others, so carefully selected, would insist and push and sigh and exclaim, and in the end she would have simply no choice but to insist that Averdale marry Eddie, as the only possible solution. If she had truly wanted to, Lady Copeland could have cowed her friends into covering up a double murder, never mind a simple moment of scandal. But of course she would go to no such effort.
    It was a pity that women were not allowed in the armed forces; Lady Copeland’s skill set would have been far more useful on a battlefield, and at least then she would have been serving interests other than her own.
    â€œI shall warn my uncle,” Ezekiel said. “But insist that he attend the ball. Your mother will be forced to let you out of her sight if she has any hope of success. Then . . . then I could replace him. It would be the two of us caught in the scandal.”
    â€œIt wouldn’t work,” Eddie said with a sigh. “If it was you, she would only cover it up and find some other way.”
    â€œThen we elope,” Ezekiel said matter-of-factly. “I will have a carriage waiting. I have visited the Brent home several times. I am familiar with its layout. I shall map the most efficient routes to the exit. By the time your mother returns to complete the tableau, we shall both be gone. We can go to Scotland directly, and be wed before anyone has the chance to stop us.”
    Eddie ought to have told him he was mad. Instead she tilted her head, considering. “You’re certain that your uncle will help us? Because we will need his help, if we’re to accomplish it.”
    â€œNo,” Ezekiel said. “But I will attempt to persuade him.”
    â€œIf you fail to, make sure that he doesn’t attend. Or go into any rooms alone, at the very least,” Eddie said.
    Ezekiel paused. “I thought that you wanted to marry him,” he said. “Perhaps it would be better to allow your mother’s plan to reach fruition.”
    â€œI wanted to marry
someone
,” Eddie said. “But not like this. I should hate to have him angry with me on our wedding day.”
    â€œIt’s not you he would be angry with,” Ezekiel said. “You would be as much a victim as he.”
    â€œFew people would see it that way,” Eddie said. Everyone would say that she had arranged it herself, or at the very least conspired with her mother. She did not have friends to defend her, nor a reputation to offer any protection.
    â€œWe could stymie the attempt, without eloping,” Ezekiel said. “You needn’t marry at all.”
    â€œI told you. I want to marry.”
    â€œYou needn’t marry
me
,” Ezekiel said. “I do not wish you to feel that you are in any way obligated.”
    â€œNor are you,” Eddie said quickly. Of course he