The Rules of Seduction

by Madeline Hunter

  Nor did she know what to do with the jumble of emotions assaulting her now. She could not sort through it. She feared that leaving this carriage held the danger of losing something important.

  A warmth covered her hand. Hayden’s glove lay atop hers in a gesture of comfort and possession. She looked over to his profile. He also gazed through the open door.

  He raised her hand to his mouth and kissed it. Then he passed it to the coachman.

  Rose waited right inside the portal, veiled by the old church’s shadows. She peered out at the carriage looming behind her gig.

  “Is he in there?” Her question bit the quiet of the church’s narthex.

  “Does it matter? I am here now. Just me. No man stands beside me. You look lovely today, Rose. But then, you always do.”

  Rose’s attention snapped to her. In the dim church light they faced each other. Alexia ached to move closer. She wanted terribly, desperately, to make things right with Rose at least.

  “You are most lovely yourself, Alexia. For all my vexation at your escort, that is what I thought as you approached. He is taking care of her, at least. She is finding contentment with her situation.”

  “Would you have preferred if I did not find contentment, Rose? Would it soften your heart if I were miserable?”

  “Yes.” A long sigh followed the hard reply. “No, that is not true. Oh, I have had my moments when I cursed your betrayal.” She laughed sadly. “Picturing you unhappy gives me no satisfaction, however. It would have grieved me if he had destroyed you too, and in such an irredeemable way.”

  She sounded more the dear friend now instead of the vengeful cousin. Alexia forgave her the insults to Hayden. Rose knew only the public man, the one who could be hard.

  “Will you allow me to embrace you, Rose? I have badly missed you.”

  A moment passed during which the ache became physical. Perhaps Rose felt it too. Suddenly they were in each other’s arms, laughing when their bonnets bumped, sniffing back tears.

  Alexia closed her eyes and inhaled with deep contentment. Her whole being glowed from the contact and love.

  They entered the church and sat in a back pew.

  “I apologize for making you come to this cold, damp pile,” Rose said. “However, Timothy…”

  “He is still ill?”

  “He is ill often enough to be useless. He is quite well other days. I prefer the sick ones, I confess.”

  “He is not cruel, I hope.”

  “Not cruel, just…sad. And angry. If you had arrived at our door, I do not know what would have happened. He was furious about the news of your marriage. He said horrible things. If he knew I had come to meet you…”

  “I am very grateful you came, Rose. I have been so alone since you left London. No friend can replace the woman I see as my sister.”

  Rose clasped her hand. “I came because we are like sisters but also for reassurance that this marriage was your will. Timothy says Rothwell must have…that the rogue importuned you. The sudden wedding, your dependence on him—well, Tim tells a lurid story.”

  Not a true story, however. She did not expect them to forgive Hayden, but she would not allow their imaginations to add to his crimes.

  “Rose, I was careless with my virtue. However, he did not importune me. I will admit that I succumbed to passion’s lure, probably because I had so little experience in its power.”

  “If there was a lure, someone held the line. I suppose I should give him some credit for doing the right thing after his seduction. He could have abandoned you, ruined. Too ruined to be his cousin’s governess, so without income or protection as well.”

  Alexia said nothing. If Rose admitted Hayden had behaved honorably in the end, she did not want to disabuse her of that conclusion.

  “But to marry such a man, Alexia. To be bound to a man with no mercy.” She made a face of distaste. “To share a bed with a man when there is no love.”

  “It is less horrible than we think it will be. Love has never been a requirement for marriage, and I am understanding why.”

  “That is useful to know. I have wondered of late if intimacy on those terms is tolerable.”

  Alexia did not like the sound of that. Rose appeared to still be contemplating the scandalous notion of becoming a courtesan.

  As if her allusion desecrated the church, Rose stood. “Let us take a turn in the churchyard. It is out this door over here.”

  The mist in the yard made little improvement over the damp in the church. They strolled side by side through spare plantings and rows of graves.

  “How is Irene faring?” Alexia asked.

  “I slapped her last week. She was pouting and acting childish, and I lost my temper and slapped her. I hated myself for days. She has only just begun speaking to me again.”

  “I daresay she acted less childish in the intervening days.”

  Rose chuckled. “Oh, yes. And one cannot whine if one is being silent out of pique. I try to remember that this is hardest on her. She knew little else but luxury in her life.”

  “I would like to be allowed to help her.” She broached the subject with caution and waited for Rose’s reaction.

  “You have to know that Timothy will never allow it. To accept charity from Rothwell, on top of everything else—it would send him to his grave, and I fear he would take us with him.”

  “You speak as if he has gone mad. Surely he is not dangerous.”

  “Bitterness can turn a person’s mind, and I fear it is turning his. He has even begun to blame Ben for all of this. Ben, who is long dead. If that does not suggest a touch of madness, I do not know what it says.”

  “How can he blame Ben? I realize that Hayden might have stayed his hand if Ben lived, but—”

  “He says we would have had enough to survive this if Ben had not sent all that money to Bristol. You can see how he is irrational. Ben paid one of our father’s debts. He behaved with honor, but Tim now finds blame.” She slid an arm around Alexia’s waist. “Let us spend the time left on more pleasant conversation. Tell me about your new silks and jewels. I may hate the husband who bought them for you, but I am glad you are finally indulged. I will eat them with my imagination and try them on in my mind.”

  “I must go if I am to return home by nightfall,” Rose said.

  They sat on a bench in the yard. The cold had long ago numbed Alexia’s fingers, but she did not want to end this interlude. This last hour had been much like old times, sharing casual talk of simple things.

  They trailed back to the side church door. Hayden had been waiting in the carriage all this time. She did not think she would find him any softer upon rejoining him.

  When they reentered the church, she tried again to offer help. “I understand that you cannot accept anything from my husband. I have a little of my own, however. Our settlement secured my old income to me. I have also been thinking that I will continue making hats, very discreetly. I would like you to accept a few pounds from me on occasion that would be my own money, not his.”

  Rose paused at the front portal. She leaned over and kissed Alexia’s cheek. “It is all of a pot now, isn’t it? Your money is his. Will you be so discreet that even he does not know? No, dear cousin, let us not rely on deceptions that might expose you to his anger. You and I will be friends as circumstances permit, but I will not accept money from you.”

  They opened the portal and walked outside. Rose halted at once, staring straight ahead.

  Hayden’s carriage had moved. It waited right at the end of the short stone path that led to the church. Hayden stood beside it, biding his time. Rose’s gig was gone.

  He walked toward them. “Miss Longworth, I perhaps have been too bold. Your driver grew impatient and was set to come find you. Rather than have you disturbed, I paid the man and let him depart.”

  Rose appeared fit to kill. She glared daggers at Hayden.

  Alexia glared a few of her own. “Perhaps it would have been wiser to allow the man to seek my cousin o
ut. Then she could have decided her own course of action.”

  “I knew how important this meeting was to you, my dear. I sought to give you both whatever time you wanted.” He gestured to the carriage. “We will be staying at Aylesbury Abbey tonight, Miss Longworth. We will take you home.”

  “I must decline.”

  “It is on our way and no inconvenience.”

  “It is not your convenience that forces my refusal.”

  “Nothing forces your refusal but pride, Miss Longworth. I will sit with the coachman, if that will allow you to accept.”

  They waited for Rose to come around. Alexia could see her weighing the options, debating if she could hire another gig in town immediately, considering the compromise Hayden offered.

  “He will not be in the carriage with you,” Alexia whispered. “And we will have a little more time together.”

  Reluctantly, Rose allowed Alexia to coax her into the carriage. Hayden closed the door and climbed up beside the driver.

  It was a long, quiet ride back to the Longworths’ house. Rose refused to be drawn into conversation. She kept glancing to the carriage roof, as if she sensed the man whose weight hovered above them.

  Alexia practiced the scolding she would give her husband, but halfway to the house she lost the heart for it. He had only tried to be kind. He wanted them to have as much time as possible. Surely Rose would see that, if she would just open her eyes to more than his injury of them.

  It was too much to expect. A family pinching pennies could hardly think kindly of the man who had sent them into impoverishment.

  When they approached the lane to the house, Rose opened the trapdoor and called for a stop. Without ceremony she opened the door, kicked down the stairs, and alighted. She was halfway down the lane before Hayden climbed down.

  “She does not want Timothy to see the carriage,” Alexia explained. “He would make her life hell if he knew she had ridden with us.”

  “I expect so.” He watched her turn a slight bend in the lane and disappear. He closed the door. “Wait here. Find a blanket and keep warm. I should not be too long.”

  “Too long where?”

  He pointed to the roof visible amid the trees. “There. I have business with Timothy Longworth.”

  He waited at the door. Eventually they would open it. If they did not, he would enter on his own.

  The door finally cracked ajar. Rose’s face appeared, ashen and worried. “Leave. Please leave. You have no right—”

  “I have come to see your brother, Miss Longworth. It is in his interest and yours that he learn what I have to say.”

  “He will never speak to you. Now you must go.”

  She began to close the door. He grasped its edge with his hand. “Tell him that Benjamin left at least one bank account that was not among his papers. I know where it is.”

  Rose appeared skeptical, but she opened the door and allowed him to enter. She brought him to the drawing room, then left.

  “You will roast in hell, you know.”

  He swung his attention toward the young voice that damned him. Irene stood in the threshold, wearing a petulant expression.

  “You have ruined my life. Your cousin sleeps in my bed and will have my season, and I will never marry now since I have no fortune and…and…” Tears started to spill, interrupting her harangue. She wiped her eyes in vain and continued to charge blindly. “Rose says Alexia had her reasons to marry you, but I can’t think of one good enough. It was hateful of her to do so. You of all men. Nor will she forgive you, not really, not ever. She loves us, not you. She—”

  “That will be enough, Irene.” Rose’s scold caught Irene unaware of her sister’s reappearance outside the drawing room. She pivoted around to face Rose’s severe expression.

  Irene began weeping in anger and frustration. “He…he…”

  “It is not a child’s place to upbraid him, and right now he is a guest in this house. Go to your chamber now.”

  Irene ran off. Rose entered the drawing room. She did not apologize for her sister. Hayden assumed she had agreed with every impertinent word.

  “Timothy will be down soon. Can you occupy yourself until then?”

  “Easily.”

  “Then I will leave you to do so.”

  He did so by wondering what Rose and Alexia had talked about during those hours in the church. He doubted his wife had defended him against all charges. There had been much truth in Irene’s immature ravings. Nor will she forgive you, not really. She loves us, not you.

  He had no obligation to make amends, but he would mitigate the damage if he could. For Alexia’s sake he would, and for Rose and Irene. The ladies did not know Timothy was a criminal, nor would they ever, most likely. They did not know how he had brought this suffering on his family and how close he had walked to the gallows.

  When Longworth entered the drawing room, it did not appear his delay had been spent on grooming. Unlike his dashing appearance at their last formal meeting, he looked unkempt. Cravat askew and eyes shot with red, he walked in the slow, deliberate manner of a drunk trying not to stagger.

  “Rothwell.”

  “It was good of you to make time for me, Longworth. Are you sober enough to understand what I have to say?”

  Longworth laughed. “Same words, same man, same answer, Rothwell. I’m too damned sober.”

  Hardly. But not too damned drunk, which was what mattered.

  “Bit of a row down here a while ago. Was Irene yelling at you?”

  “She blames me for your ruin. So does my wife. You lied to them.”

  “Told me to, didn’t you? Said I should come up with whatever lies I wanted to keep them from knowing the truth.” He grinned. “I figured it was better they hated you than me.”

  “I want you to tell Alexia the truth.”

  “Causing problems for you, is it? Sorry, I can’t do that. She would find a way to let Rose know. You can’t tell her either, can you? Gave your word of honor, as I recall. You will forgive me if I am not sympathetic to your quandary.”

  Hayden had not expected anything different from Longworth, but this blithe refusal made him want to thrash the man.

  “Rose said you dangled a bank account to get me to receive you.” Longworth threw himself on the divan and sprawled. “Is there money in it?”

  “Some. Not enough.”

  “Of course not enough. There will never be enough. That is my punishment, isn’t it? To never get out from under this.”

  “With industry, you could. If you did not succumb to your illness so willingly, you could.”

  “Do not preach. Rose does that enough for five men. Where is this account?”

  “The Bank of England.”

  “It is odd the records were not with his other financial papers.”

  “Not so odd, considering the use to which this account was put. You learned your scheme from Ben, I have discovered. He had been at it a long time. This account was where he placed the money he stole.”

  Longworth scratched his ear. “I wondered where he put it. There should be a lot, though. More than enough.”

  “He spent some and also paid off the income due his victims, just as you did. There were other dispersals of a private nature. Three thousand remains, however. It should help.”

  Longworth nodded, closed his eyes, and drifted into a reverie. Hayden wondered if he was falling asleep. He opened his eyes, however. “Gin has my mind a bit fogged, but even so, this is not making sense.”

  “How so?”

  “If you know he was doing it, then you know which funds he sold. Why would you let me have the three thousand? Why isn’t it going to making those people whole?”

  “The account is under Ben’s name, and you are his heir. I cannot keep you from having it even if I want to. As for his victims, I will make them whole myself, to protect his name.”

  Longworth whistled. “A lot of money. So you will cover Ben’s criminal debts but not mine.”

  “Since
he is dead, Ben cannot cover his own. Also, he was my friend and you are not.”

  “Should still be a lot more than three thousand. I worked it out after he died and I was stuck covering that income from his earlier schemes. I had a good sense of how many he had done, so to speak. Seems odd there isn’t more in that account.”

  Hayden knew too well where a lot of the money had gone. It had enhanced Suttonly’s fortune. “I do not think you will find any other hidden treasures. There were transfers to banks in Bristol and York, a good amount over time, but the accounts were not in his name.”

  Tim’s disappointment showed. “The money to Bristol repaid one of Father’s debts, so that is no good. Who got the money in York?”

  “A Mr. Keiller. Ben sold out his funds very early, the records show. He was one of his earliest victims, but it appears Ben paid the man back completely.”

  Longworth entered into another distraction, this time while he stared at the carpet. He emerged with a shrug of resignation. “Then I am left with only the three thousand.”

  “For your sisters’ sake, I am sorry it is not more.” Hayden reached into his waistcoat pocket and retrieved a small piece of paper. “Here are the details on the Bank of England account. It will save you time if you have them.”

  He set it on a table and walked to the door.

  “It is odd that you married Alexia,” Longworth said lazily. “Doing the right thing, I assume, but that was odder still. She isn’t a woman to turn a man’s head, let alone yours. Someone like you doesn’t need to seduce governesses. Ben thought her pretty, but I think she is very plain.”

  Hayden stopped and turned back to Longworth. The impulse to thrash the man spiked again. “I doubt you would recognize any person’s worth beyond their financial wealth.”

  Longworth grinned slyly. “Wish I had thrown Rose at you. You’d have gotten a beautiful wife while you did the right thing, and I would have gotten a rich brother-in-law.”

  He chuckled at his own cleverness. Hayden left the drawing room in disgust. As he made his way to the door, he passed the library and spied Miss Longworth’s golden head bent to a book. He retraced his steps and entered unannounced.