AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Twenty-Three
Reginald slumped into the chair behind his desk and rubbed his temples. This sort of thing was the precise reason he’d hated thetonso much. He felt vaguely embarrassed by asking Matthew to help him make sense of it. Once, Reginald had thought Marcella’s early letters, where she’d made all those outlandish requests, were the height of haughtiness. The receipts on the floor were a physical manifestation of them.
“On the bright side,” said Matthew, ever the optimist, “it’s now quite clear why the estate is in financial ruin. We’ve found the problem.”
“Oh, it’s clear, all right. Apparently, it’s because my cousin refuses to stay in England for more than two weeks out of the year!” Reginald exclaimed. “Really, I should congratulate him for staying in Britain since I’ve returned. I’m sure it was a real hardship!”
Matthew sat on the edge of Reginald’s desk and looked over the papers with an expression somewhere between bewildered and dismayed. “You’ve inherited a mess, My Lord,” he said. “I’m sorry to say it.”
Reginald sighed. “I wonder if Father knew it was this bad when he insisted on me taking the title?”
“Considering the work it took to find these?” Matthew asked. “I doubt it. I’d be genuinely unsurprised to learn that your cousin simply used lines of credit and spent money without ever once glancing at his finances during his tenure as the Marquess of Hurrow. And it’s possible that we’re still missing records.”
“Would it be possible to pay them with Marcella’s money?” Reginald asked.
He felt so awful asking that. Marcella was so much more than her money. Reginald longed to leave the room and follow her to the library and to trace his hands along her delicate curves and kiss her once more. He would be a happy man if only he could spend his entire life devoted to pleasure and never once worrying about things like this.
Which is evidently what my cousin has chosen to do.
“Putting aside the questionable ethical dilemma of using the lady’s money without her even having knowledge of the estate’s finances?” Matthew asked.
“I will tell her at some point,” Reginald insisted.
Matthew nodded. “I expect you will. It might be possible to pay all the debt with Lady Hurrow’s dowry, particularly if you can get some of the creditors to accept a lesser amount. Sometimes, they’ll do that and relieve you of some interest.”
“Like with Reynolds?” Reginald asked.
Nathanial Reynolds was a mutual acquaintance who’d owed a significant amount of money and would’ve been thrown into debtors’ prison had his wife not pleaded with his creditors and persuaded them to take only the original amount of the loan without the accumulated interest.
“Yes, precisely,” Matthew replied. “You’ll want someone with experience to do that, though. You’ll also want receipts and contracts. If you don’t have those, a creditor could later claim that you chose only to pay a partial sum and that you still owe the rest.”
Reginald climbed to his feet and gazed at the papers with growing dread. “I suppose it’s pointless to expect my cousin to pay them, isn’t it?”
“I would assume so,” Matthew replied.
Reginald ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “I’m sorry. This must all seem so ridiculous to you. I’m worrying when surrounded by such luxury and all—all this.”
“I’ve always known thetonwas ridiculous and in their own world,” Matthew said. “You’re better than them, though. You’re better than your cousin, for sure.”
Reginald let out a bark of laughter. “I wish you’d been there to tell me that ten years ago. You might’ve changed everything.”
Reginald paused. He’d said too much. The least said about his relationship with his cousin Simon, the better.
“How would those words have changed everything?” Matthew asked.
“It doesn’t matter,” Reginald replied. “It was just a silly thought. When we were children, my cousin and I didn’t often get along well with one another. It appears that we still don’t, in fact.”
Matthew’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, and Reginald knew that the other man realized he’d tread onsomething.Of course, Matthew wouldn’t know exactly what. No one knew the truth about why Reginald had left, and if he had his way, they never would.
“I already made a list of the estate’s monthly expenses,” Matthew said thoughtfully. “We can look and see if there are areas which you could cut. You might be able to pawn or sell some things. I’m embarrassed to say it, but…”
But both he and Reginald had seen gentleman who were down on their luck. They were easy to find because when they went to Southwark’s pawn shops, hoping to sell their family heirlooms and jewels, they all had the same suspicious posture, as if they feared the wholetonpursued them.
“I could arrange it,” Matthew continued. “That would preserve your reputation, and no one would have to know.”
“It would take some time,” Reginald replied. “It’s an avenue to consider, though. I’m contemplating asking my Aunt Blaire about all of this. She might be able to give me some idea of how best to do this. Would it be cruel of me to ask her for money? Obviously, we can’t get returns on trips to Milan, but maybe she could persuade Simon to give us some of the art and jewels he felt the need to buy.”
“Ask him if he’d be willing to give me a bottle of that Hungarian wine. A hundred pounds! It must be impressive,” Matthew said.
