Lady Percival who was known for her sharp tongue and even sharper wit, was caught in a heated argument with Lady Jane Fairfax over the last glass 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 glass 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 Roland." Mauve announced loudly.
Hardly had Benjamin come out when bids started rolling in, each doubling the previous one. He was in a black T-shirt similar to the one Roland had donned. Where Roland had displayed an uncomfortable smile, Benjamin’s was charming.
He played along with the excited crowd, flexing his biceps, turning around slowly with his arms spread out. He even blew kisses at the ladies 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 occupy one of those positions.
"Fifty thousand gold coins." Kitty Anderson shoved another young lady 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 nineteen 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 to come 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 played for five seconds. Still, it was safe to assume that this was going to be added to the list of scandalous things that had occurred 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 exclaimed.
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 declared.
"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 plan 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 to complain but it was too late. Mauve led everyone in an applause and Roland bowed.
"That is the highest bid of the night, and wow!!!" The herald exclaimed. "Another round of applause for Miss Olivia and her extraordinary pudding."
Once again, the guests laughed, a lot of unhappy young women forced themselves to laugh.
"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 and laughed.
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 occur.
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.
Roland just shook his head and laughed, when he told his wife that their would no absence of couples caught kissing at the ball, he did not imagine that his brother-in-law 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 place. She had also told John to hasten the relationship. 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 accidentally.
The final scandalous moment of the evening came when the king’s favorite jester, Jolly Jack, decided to join the auction as the last 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 accidentally knocked over a tray of frosted moon pies, sending them flying into the crowd. The first one landed on Lord Joshua Wright’s head and some of the frost dripped down his surprised face.
The rest of the guests erupted in laughter as they dodged the airborne snacks, and Jolly Jack took a bow, his face a picture of sheepish delight.
After the playful 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 playing new music that had all the guests on their feet, dancing while discussing the events of the night.
The king and Elarin joined the dancers, the queen slithered away angrily. In a way, it was the very last scandal of the night.
Everyone was certain that everything that had occurred 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.