An Honourable Thief. Anne Gracie

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СКАЧАТЬ did not disgrace his family. It was the man himself who was the problem.

      Those shoulders…She shuddered. More suited to a labourer than a gentleman. And his skin, which he’d carelessly allowed the sun and wind to darken to an unfashionable brown colour. She glanced at the hands holding the wineglass and sniffed. He could have worn gloves, at least! Those hands—tanned, and covered with nicks and scars—a shameful testament to a youth spent in manual labour.

      She averted her gaze from her brother-in-law’s offending person and concentrated on his miserly habits.

      “Not everyone enjoys a life of monkish isolation and deprivation, Hugo. We have expenses, Thomas and I. The life of a fashionable person costs a great deal. You—” She cast a disparaging glance over his plain clothing. “You would have no idea of the demands on a gentleman’s purse.”

      The faint, disparaging emphasis on the word “gentleman” did not escape Hugo. But these days he was indifferent to it. His mother had been old Lord Norwood’s second wife, an heiress, with the stigma of trade attached to her. And Hugo was only the second son, after all, and with the blood of “dammed tradesmen” in his veins.

      Lady Norwood continued, “In any case, as Lord Norwood, Thomas has a position to maintain, and he has every right to the fruits of his inheritance! You have no business denying—”

      “Thomas’s inheritance, madam,” interrupted Hugo in a blighting tone, “was a shamefully neglected estate, a crumbling manor house, mortgaged to the hilt and falling apart with disrepair and a mountain of debts to go with them! The fact that Thomas was left anything at all was no thanks to my father and my half-brother, but to whichever far-seeing ancestor of ours established the entail which prevented them gambling away every square inch of land.”

      Amelia squirmed, uncomfortably. “Yes, I know, but that is all in the past, after all. And everything has changed now, and you have returned and can—” She broke off as she glanced at him and saw the look in his eye.

      She pouted and fiddled with her rings. “Well, I’m sure I am sorry about what happened to you, but it is not as if you suffered too badly—”

      “You know nothing about it, madam.”

      “Possibly not, but I can see you are very far from purse-pinched, after all. From all I have heard, I’m sure you could pay Thomas’s debts, and mine, and barely even notice it. We are family, after all.” She did not meet his eyes.

      His lips thinned, and he inclined his head. “Indeed. Such…belated…family feeling does you honour, I am sure. But I am not going to pay Thomas’s debts. Nor yours.”

      “No, you will not assist us in any way—”

      “I towed this family from the River Tick, madam, if you care to recall. And I have expressed myself more than willing to teach Thomas how to manage his estate and—”

      “Oh, yes—you would make of him a tradesman like yourself!” Amelia sniffed scornfully. “How Thomas would ever find himself a decent bride with the stench of trade about him I declare I don’t know!”

      Hugo stared indifferently at the wall above her head.

      “If you truly wished to help Thomas, you could settle a sum on him and then you need never worry about us again, but no! You will do nothing so straightforward! I think you enjoy having the power over us that you do!”

      Hugo’s brows snapped together. There was an element of truth in her accusation, he realised. Not that he wanted power, but Thomas and Amelia’s constant requests for money gave him some faint feeling of being part of a family. It was a pathetic thing to realise about oneself, he thought.

      “It would please me very well if I never had to see you or Thomas again.” Hugo drained his glass of wine. “I would be delighted to be able to wash my hands of the boy, but he is my only relative, after all, and I have a duty to him.”

      “Well, then, why will you not—?”

      “My duty is to ensure that Thomas learns not to get himself into the same spiral of gambling and debt that his forebears did!”

      “How dare you sneer at my son’s forebears—they were, at least, all gentlemen born!”

      “And gentlemen born live in debt, is that it? Thank God I had some common blood, in that case. No—we shall not brangle over the past.” He stood up and made for the door. “You have my last word on it, Amelia; you and Thomas must learn to live on your income, or find someone else to frank your vowels.”

      “Well, and so we shall if only you will go back to Yorkshire!” hissed Amelia waspishly. “You could not have come to London at a worse time!”

      Mr Devenish turned. “What do you mean?”

      “Thomas and I have found a solution to all our difficulties, and if you would just take yourself away, we will bring the whole thing off.”

      “What solution?”

      She did not reply, but concentrated instead on examining a small, dark oil painting.

      “What solution, Amelia?” he repeated in a deep, commanding voice.

      Amelia tossed her head and looked mutinous. Her half-brother-in-law waited, his silent gaze boring into her.

      “Oh, very well, if you must know, Thomas is taking the same solution as your father did for his difficulties. But the girl is proving very lukewarm and he will not be able to bring it off if you blunder in with your jumped-up tradesman’s blood and your ugly labourer’s hands, trumpeting your connections with us. You know they always want titles and the bluest of blood!” She sat down on her chair again in a flounce of silk.

      “Who always want titles and the bluest of blood?” Hugo’s rather hard grey eyes narrowed. “You don’t mean Thomas has decided to marry an heiress?”

      “Yes. Of course, he is far too young to have to make such a terrible sacrifice, but if you will persist in being so frightfully clutchfisted…”

      Hugo considered her announcement. It may not be such a bad solution, he thought. With the right bride, Thomas may be induced to learn to control his ruinous habits.

      As his financial advisor and uncle, Hugo could reasonably be expected to have an influence in the drawing up of the marriage settlements. He would ensure that the bride and any children she had would be protected from the results of Thomas’s extravagance. It might work, he thought. It all depended on the bride.

      “So, who is this heiress?” he said mildly.

      Amelia, obviously relieved by his calm acceptance of the news, sat forward excitedly on her chair. “Well, of course, nothing has been settled yet—and it probably won’t be unless you go back to Yorkshire immediately and not breathe a word to a soul!—but she has a diamond mine! She is—” Amelia’s smooth complexion glowed in triumph “—a nabob’s daughter!”

      Hugo frowned. “Which nabob? I’ve heard of no new nabob in town.”

      Amelia rolled her eyes at him. “It is not generally known. Anyway, there is no nabob—”

      “But I thought—”

      “He СКАЧАТЬ