The Rules of Seduction

by Madeline Hunter

  “He protected himself,” he said. “Tell me about this property where he lives.”

  She described Sunley Manor. “They appeared comfortable. I told him he must find a way to send his sisters some money.”

  “Oh, I am sure he is comfortable. More than passing so.” He turned on his side and cupped her chin in his hand. “You are not to return there. Not alone, at least, and not at all until I say.”

  “I told them that tomorrow—”

  “No. I forbid it. Do not get willful on me, Alexia. Do not disobey this time. You will not return tomorrow.”

  She did not mind this command. She was not sure she wanted to return to Sunley Manor ever again. She was joyed Ben was alive, but she did not like how the day had confused and saddened her. The entire experience had left her stomach in knots.

  He leaned over and gutted the lamp. She snuggled closer to him in the dark, relieved she had entrusted him with the secret, hoping she had done the right thing. “He is not happy. He called it a devil’s bargain.”

  “That is a fitting name for such a scheme. Go to sleep now. Tomorrow I will find Timothy if he is in Bristol, and I will decide what to do about Benjamin.”

  She had begun to doze when a thought occurred to her. “Hayden, he said he is not known by his name here but by another one. Not Mr. Morrison either, I don’t think. I do not know what name it is. I never asked.”

  “I think I know the name. I will be sure soon enough. I will know everything in a day or two.”

  She looked at his profile in the dark. She could tell his eyes were open. He had told her to sleep, but she wondered if he would.

  She nestled in. His warmth comforted her. He would know what to do now. After all, he already had guessed Ben’s new name. As she drifted into sleep, she vaguely wondered how.

  The bloody rogue.

  Hayden heaped silent insults on Benjamin Longworth while he stared into the night. He did not like being played for a fool, no matter what the reason, and Ben had been ruthless in doing so.

  It had all been a feint. The melancholy. The feigned drunkenness. Had Ben guessed that Hayden would suspect suicide? Had that been part of the plan or a miscalculation?

  The bastard. The idiot. He could have died trying to swim to shore. Of all the reckless, crazy things Ben had ever done, this had been the worst.

  Only it had worked. He had escaped Suttonly’s squeeze and been able to enjoy the fruits of his crimes. His mind’s eye saw the dispersals from the Bank of England again. The ones to Bristol had begun long before those to Suttonly. This whole plan was an old one, then, started very early, probably when the forgeries first began. Ben might have intended all along to disappear. Suttonly had only made that move imperative.

  Pennilot. That was the name on the Bristol account, and it was not an old debt of his father’s that he repaid with that money. He pictured Benjamin grinning boyishly as he chose it, amused by his own cleverness. Pennilot. A lot of pennies. A man with a lot of pennies was worth a lot. Longworth. Knowing Ben, the whole plan, from the forgeries to hiding the money to jumping off that ship, had been one big adventure, a grand game in which one impulse followed another.

  Except people had been grievously injured. Darfield and the victims of the forgeries. His own sisters and brother. And a dependent cousin who believed his lies of love.

  He felt Alexia’s breath on his shoulder and her warmth lining his body. He understood her mood tonight now. For the first time, they had not been alone in bed. Another had intruded. He had sensed the preoccupation that prevented her completion, the desperation of her embrace. Seeing Benjamin again had called forth the old love. It was not just a memory now.

  He took comfort in the fact she had confided in him. She had not kept Ben’s secret. She had told him as her husband and as Ben’s friend. She slept peacefully now, as if her revelation settled everything. He doubted it did. Ben could not allow Alexia to return to London knowing what she knew.

  She turned in her sleep. He moved behind her and formed his body along hers. He embraced her, careful not to wake her.

  He did not know what lure Ben might hold out to her, but one thing was certain. She would not go to Sunley Manor alone again. It was a wonder they had allowed her to leave today.

  He did not want to think Ben would harm Alexia, or any innocent person, but then, he would have never guessed Ben would commit the crime of utterance or steal a fortune. He would have never suspected Ben would let his sisters grieve over his death while he took his pleasure in Bristol. And this woman Ben had married might prove capable of worse than her husband.

  A lot was at stake, after all. Right now in Sunley Manor, Benjamin was calculating just how much.

  Alexia obeyed Hayden this time. She did not go to Sunley Manor the next day. She stayed at Alfred’s Hotel while Hayden left to learn what he could about Timothy.

  Morning waned and the sun rose high while she awaited his return. Hopefully Tim could be found before he wasted all the money from the Bank of England. No doubt he spent his days looking for secret accounts in Benjamin’s name, but he might well be spending his nights in gaming hells.

  Hayden had been very careful with her this morning. Careful and quiet but also firm in his commands. She was not to leave the hotel. She was not to travel to Sunley Manor. He told her coachman to refuse to take her, she suspected, just in case she chose to be willful again. She had not missed the lack of trust in the way he exercised his rights. She did not think it was her last disobedience that caused it.

  He assumed she would want to see Ben again. He thought the memories held a power over her.

  Did they? She tried to look beneath the shock and confusion and hear what her heart said about that. Bracing herself, she faced those memories squarely.

  She could not deny that seeing Ben had freed the girl whom she kept imprisoned in her heart. A giggle had wanted to bubble through her too often yesterday. Ben could still evoke that in her, but it was a mere echo of a silly excitement from the past.

  She looked over at the bed. There was nothing silly about what happened there. Nothing shallow about the power of that passion. Benjamin had tickled her heart like a light spring breeze. Hayden lured her essence into the deep mysteries of a hot summer night.

  She closed her eyes and thought about her last night in London. She could not picture herself doing those things with Ben. Ben was all about laughs and kisses and flattery, not the soul-stirring unity that she experienced with Hayden. Hayden’s inner man was a wonder to know and a mystery to be explored. She did not think Ben had any inner man at all.

  She wished Hayden would return. She wanted him with her now, solid and real. She wanted him to soothe away all her distress and confusion as he had last night.

  “Alexia.”

  She opened her eyes. A man stood just inside her room. It was not the man she wanted.

  Benjamin smiled at her. Did she only imagine that his expression appeared cautious? It was hard to tell, because he wore a hat low on his brow. Its brim cast a shadow over his face.

  “Mr. Alfred allowed you up here? Did he tell you which room was mine?”

  He removed the hat. “I slipped up, and I saw you sitting by the window when I was down in the street. Please forgive me, but I had to see you. When you did not return to Sunley Manor, I decided to come to you.”

  “I thought you never came into town.”

  “Very rarely. A high collar and a low hat go far in hiding a passing face, however.” He advanced on her. “Why did you not come back this morning as you promised?”

  “I needed to think about my discovery. I wanted to recover from the shock of it before I spoke with you again.”

  “Is that what you were doing there, thinking and recovering? You appeared so serious.”

  “I am a rather serious person now. It was always in me, but circumstances have made it more significant.”

  He laughed lightly. “You were never so serious with me, darling.”

  “I was v
ery serious. It may have been a game to you, but not to me.”

  His face fell. “A game? Is that what you think? I knew that I should have spoken more openly yesterday. I did not toy with you, Alexia. You stole my heart completely.”

  Not completely, but his declaration touched her anyway. Her pride liked hearing she had not been too stupid.

  “I wish you did not come, Ben. It was unwise. Your wife will not be pleased.”

  “She knows I came. She is worried that you will betray me. She wants me to beg you not to do so.”

  “She worries a lot about a small thing. If your family knows you live, what harm is there? Your sisters and I can keep your secret. The man to whom you owed that debt will never find out.”

  “It is more complicated than that. I must ask you to trust me, darling. I cannot risk the world learning.”

  “And I cannot promise others will not learn. One has already.” She glanced pointedly around the chamber.

  Ben’s gaze followed her direction to the man’s brushes on the dressing table and the boots standing outside the wardrobe. His face flushed. “He is here? You never said that he had accompanied you.”

  Hayden walked in the door just then. “She did not know I was coming. I arrived last night.”

  Ben pivoted. They faced each other. Time inched forward.

  “It is good to see you alive and well, old friend,” Hayden finally said.

  Ben tried one of his dazzling smiles. “There is an explanation.”

  Hayden sighed deeply. She doubted Ben noticed, but she did. His expression of forbearance revealed how this reunion pained him. He looked much as she had been feeling.

  “Of course there is an explanation, Ben. However, there is no excuse.” He walked over to Alexia, ignoring Ben for a moment. “I received the information I sought. I should locate him this afternoon.” He raised his voice. “I am speaking of Timothy, Ben. You remember Timothy, don’t you?”

  “Of course I remember my brother.”

  “Why don’t we seek him together, Ben? It will not take long. If you traveled this town’s streets to visit another man’s wife in secret, you can risk it to see that your brother is safe.”

  “Are you suggesting—See here, Rothwell, I will not allow you to insult her by insinuating—”

  “I do not insult her at all. I merely impugn you.” Hayden strode to the door. “Come now. We can argue as we go. Alexia, do not allow anyone in. Bar the door this time, even to servants.”

  “You were damned rude in there,” Ben blustered as soon as he and Hayden reached the street.

  “I found a man in a bedchamber with my wife. I have a right to be rude.”

  “She is my cousin.”

  “You were more than a cousin to her.”

  “If Alexia told you that she and I shared a tendre, she must have misunderstood my concern for her. You know how women can be, especially ones who have been left on the shelf. It is a damned shame when a man cannot visit his cousin without having scurrilous suspicions raised.”

  Ben’s insistence that he had been tragically misunderstood took them all the way into Hayden’s waiting carriage.

  “Alexia is not a woman who would build dreams on nothing. Be glad I did not thrash you up there. Pray I do not now.”

  “That is a hell of a welcome back.” He sank back on his cushions. He had the audacity to look hurt. “But I understand you are still too shocked to know your own joy.” He beamed a smile and leaned over to clap a firm hand on Hayden’s shoulder. “Damnation, but it is rum to see you. I am almost glad that Alexia confided in you, since it allows this reunion, even though I told her that I cannot let the whole world know.”

  “I am not the whole world. Just one man, and the last one you should fear knowing.”

  Ben smiled his way to indifference while he took inventory of the carriage appointments. He examined the upholstery, curtains, and woodwork so long he might be buying the equipage. It was the studied business of a man ill at ease.

  “Where are we going?” he asked.

  “To a tavern. This reunion deserves a good deal of drink, don’t you think?”

  “Like old times. I knew you would come around once you…well, once you got past—”

  “Once I got past the urge to beat you bloody because you deceived me in the worst way? You let me think you died, and you allowed me to believe I left you to do so.”

  Ben rearranged his body on the bench, as if the carriage walls crowded him. “Is my brother going to meet us at the tavern?”

  “I am fairly certain that we will find Timothy before the day is out.”

  The carriage stopped on a street of shops and businesses. Ben glanced out the window and his face flushed. They were in front of a tavern frequented by lawyers and tradesmen, the sort who would spend their days in the City if this were London. Across the street and up several doors was the entrance to Ketchum, Martin, and Cook, a county bank.

  Hayden led the way out of the carriage and into the tavern. Finding a table next to the window, he positioned himself so he could see the street in front of the bank.

  They called for ale, silently awaited its arrival, then sat facing each other over their pints. Ben looked over his shoulder at the facade of the bank only once, but every glance he sent Hayden contained growing caution.

  “You have not said one word about your family’s circumstances,” Hayden said. “Alexia told you what happened, what I did, but you have expressed no anger and asked no questions.”

  “I was angry yesterday when she told me. I know how these things can go, however. Any crisis makes men worried, and this was a bad one. Over seventy banks have failed, after all. You had a responsibility to your family and decided the risks you saw were too great. I do not blame you. If my brother had proven a better banker, it might not have been necessary.”

  “That is damned understanding of you. I should have you talk to my wife and explain all that. She blames me most severely.” He drank his ale while he checked the window’s view again. “Of course, she does not know what really happened. The truth is that my family’s money is still in that bank. Timothy told her a lie that I am bound by honor not to correct.”

  Ben looked relieved. “I told her Tim had most likely lost it all on gambling and such. I knew you would not destroy them like that. Not my family.”

  “Oh, I destroyed them. There is no question there. I sent them packing to Oxfordshire with little pride and less money. Oddly enough, it was intended as a kindness, as the lesser of two paths to ruin.”

  “I am sure you did your best.” His tone communicated finality. No need to explain, old friend. Whatever you did is fine with me.

  “Ben, I discovered that Timothy had committed utterance and embezzled money from bank patrons. His theft is why he is ruined. It was sell out and take on debt to reimburse his victims, or swing.”

  Ben’s reaction would do a comic opera actor proud. “You shock me with this accusation against my brother. Utterance? Theft?”

  “He was forging names on securities, selling them, keeping the money, and continuing to pay off the income.”

  “You have distressed me beyond composure. This is not my brother’s character.”

  “He has the character for it, but it takes more than a lack of honesty to effect such a sophisticated swindle. The problem, and I should have seen it at once, is that while Tim could talk himself into stealing tens of thousands of pounds, he is not brilliant enough to figure out how. His character was up to it but not his mind.”

  Ben frowned, perhaps deciding if he should defend his brother’s mental capabilities. “No doubt he read about a previous, similar embezzlement.”

  “It has only happened once before that is commonly known. I expect other banks may have found ways to compensate prior victims of similar crimes, all without the thief ever standing for judgment. No bank could survive the scandal if it became known.”

  “It doesn’t sound like a complicated scheme. Tim could have devised the
scheme on his own.”

  “But he didn’t, did he? He learned it from you.”

  Ben went still. He gazed at his ale and no part of him moved, not even his fingertips resting on the glass.

  “How much do you know?”

  “Not that you were still alive, but most of the rest.”

  He sighed deeply. “The more I thought about what Alexia had told me, how you ruined them, the more I worried. All night my certainty grew that you had discovered it all. I knew you were not likely to make a move that would force the bank to fail. How did you find out?”

  “Timothy made the mistake of forging my name and selling funds on which I was trustee.”

  “Damn.” He slammed his fist on the table. “The idiot.”

  “Hell of a thing, isn’t it? When the student does not learn the niceties from the master.”

  He received a snarling glare for that, but Ben could never remain angry long. “I suppose we should all thank you for not prosecuting him. Although…”

  Although if he had, there would have been a run on the bank and it would have failed and closed. Maybe no one would have ever learned that the older Longworth brother had done the same thing. Should the earlier thefts come to light, they would have been blamed on the executed Timothy, not the dead Benjamin.

  Ben rested back in his chair. His relaxation implied remaining on his guard had been an effort and he was happy to drop it. “The first time was a loan of sorts. An attempt to settle a debt honorably. I wanted to get out from under the last of my father’s obligations. Unfortunately, it was a big one, to a financier of the worst kind. The little land left and the house in Oxfordshire had been pledged as surety, and he was going to take it in his impatience. So I looked for a way to pay it off fast and completely. I always intended to make them whole.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “One of the first discovered what I had done. He allowed me to reimburse him, but in order to do so I had to forge more names, sell more securities—well, by then I was in deep.”