The Rules of Seduction Read Online Free

funds too? I did not check the small accounts.”
    Longworth’s face reddened.
    “You are a scoundrel, Longworth. Thank God on your knees tonight that I owe your dead brother a debt of duty and honor.”
    Timothy was not listening. His eyes glazed as he looked into the future. “Irene was to come out this season, and—”
    Hayden closed his ears to the litany of grief that was coming. He had devised a way to save Longworth’s life and to avoid revelations that would make the current panic burn out of control. He could not spare Longworth the ruin this solution would entail.
    A profound weariness saturated him, one born of a long night full of calculations and anger and moral deliberations. “Sit. I will tell you how much is needed, and we will determine how you will repay it.”

CHAPTER
TWO

    R
uined.
    The word hung in the air. The room went silent.
    Alexia’s blood chilled. Tim appeared very ill now. He had retreated to his chamber after Lord Hayden left today but had risen from his bed this evening. He had just summoned her and his sisters to the library and informed them of this disaster.
    “How, Tim?” Roselyn asked. “A man does not go from this”—she gestured to the house around them—“to ruin in one day.”
    His eyes narrowed and bitterness hardened his voice. “He does if Lord Hayden Rothwell decides he does.”
    “Lord Hayden? What has he to do with this?” Alexia asked.
    Timothy stared at the floor. He appeared limp from lack of strength. “He has removed his family deposits from the bank. Our reserves were not sufficient to pay it out, and I had to pledge all I have to supplement the reserves. Darfield too, but his pockets are deeper. He paid part of my obligation and took my share of the bank in return. Still, it was not enough.”
    Alexia battled a mind-scathing fury. What did it matter to Rothwell where all that money rested? He had to have realized what this would do to Timothy, to all of them. He entered this house knowing that he intended to destroy the Longworths’ futures.
    “We will manage,” Roselyn said firmly. “We know how to live more simply. We will release a few servants and eat meat only twice a week. We will—”
    “You did not hear me,” Timothy snarled. “I said I am
ruined
. There will be no servants and no meat at all. I have
nothing.
We have
nothing.
”
    Roselyn gaped at him. Irene, who had been listening with a confused frown, startled as if someone had slapped her. “Does this mean I don’t get my season?”
    Timothy laughed cruelly. “Sweet, you can’t have a London season if you aren’t in London. The scoundrel is taking this house. It is Rothwell’s now. We are going back to what little we still have in Oxfordshire to starve there.”
    Irene began to cry. Roselyn stared in mute shock. Timothy’s laughter dissolved into a sound between a cackle and weeping.
    Fear crept through Alexia. Timothy had not once looked at her since she entered the room. He avoided her eyes now. A quiet panic pattered in her chest, wanting to become something bigger.
    Roselyn found her voice. “Timothy, we can live in the country again. We still have the house and some land. It will not be so bad. It was not starvation.”
    “It will be worse than before, Rose. I will have debts from this to pay. A good part of the rents will go to that.”
    The beat quickened and spread to Alexia’s blood. She flashed hot and cold. The fate she had feared since her father died had finally found her. She held on to her composure by a hair.
    She would not make Timothy say it. That would be unfair, and poor repayment to the family that had given her a home.
    She stood. “If your situation will change so drastically, you will not need the burden of one more mouth to feed. I have a small amount saved and it should keep me until I find employment. Now I will go to my room so you can freely discuss your plans.”
    Roselyn’s eyes misted. “Do not be silly, Alexia. You belong with us.”
    “I