"Hiatt, Brenda - Daring Deception" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hiatt Brenda)

where another shock awaited him: instead of the tidy fortune he had been led
to expect, his uncle had left him a mountain of debt.

Gavin sold off the un entailed lands to pay the mortgages, and depleted his
own savings, but still there were bills unpaid.

Never one to rapine, he had eventually returned to Town and lived much as he
ever had.

Turning out the tenants to take up residence in Sea brooke House, he managed
to keep up a pretence of wealth so as not to be denied admittance to the
better clubs, where his chief hope of salvation lay. He did have one other:
as Lord Sea brooke, he found himself in even greater demand by the Town's
hostesses--and their daughters.

After the skirmishes of the spring, Napoleon had finally, irrevocably, been
defeated, effectively eliminating C_ravin's position with the War Office.
Already his credit was beginning to run out; soon the mamas of certain
heiresses would get wind Of it and warn their daughters away from him. And
now he found himself saddled with a new responsibility, one that honour would
not allow him to shirk and that made the recoupment of his finances
absolutely essential.

When the young buck before him had come into White's looking for a game,
boasting of his broad estates and vast fortune, Sea brooke was not the only
one who saw him as a wonderfully plump pigeon, ripe to be plucked. While the
others had been mainly amused by the young man's airs, however, Sea brooke
had perceived in him the miracle he so desperately needed. Now it appeared
that he had given thanks prematurely.

"And when, precisely, will you have control of your portion of the trust?"
he asked with more resignation than hope.

"Not till I turn five and twenty," replied Sir Thomas dolefully, poking at
the cards before him with one forefinger.

"Nearly four years. Frederica gets hers when she marries, but at the rate
she's going that may well be even longer. Surely there must be some way to
break this damned trust. A debt of honour, after all..."

"Your sister is unmarried?"

asked Lord Sea brooke casually, seized by a sudden inspiration born of dire
necessity.

"Tell me about her."

Miss FRED~ RICA CHF. gI'EI{rON Was having an extremely trying day. She had
been wakened before dawn by the shrieking of a housemaid, only to discover
that the silly girl's hysterics were precipitated by nothing more than the