Twenty-Four #2
“Listen here, you little bitch.” His hand shot out again, yanking her back with fury.
“You’re just a little girl trying to play in the big boys’ club.
” He grabbed her arms roughly, shaking her, his eyes wild.
“I will not lose everything to a stupid child! I will kill you!” His face contorted with rage, an expression I had seen many times before.
Right before he’d turned his wrath on Landen. Beating him.
Oh. Holy. Shite.
Instinct kicked in, lurching me at them in a blink. My nails clawed into his hands.
“Let her go!” I bellowed, shoving his chest. For a second, it was like he didn’t even recognize me, a feral snarl on his lips as he continued to shove Eloise around.
“Fredrick!” I screamed, my palm slapping his face. Holy hell, did I just slap my uncle? “Let. Go. Of. Her. Now!”
He went still, blinking at me, his nose huffing with exertion and anger.
“Let go of Her Highness,” I growled, stepping between them, my chin high.
I could see the moment of understanding flicker over him. The realization of what he just did. Assaulting the Royal Princess…
She could have him dragged away to jail forever with one word.
His arms dropped away, panic widening his eyes. “Spencer.” He whispered my name like a plea.
I turned around to face Eloise, terrified of her response. Friendship in this world was fleeting and unstable. She could turn against my whole family for this.
“Are you okay?” My gaze moved down her, searching for any damage.
“Yeah.” Her eyes stayed on my uncle, not trusting him. “I’m fine. Been manhandled far more than that, though the other was enjoyable.”
“Eloise?” I touched her arm, drawing her attention back to me.
She looked at me for a few beats before her head nodded. “I’m fine, Spence.” Her words eased my shoulders down, knowing she didn’t put me in with my uncle. “Not like my head wasn’t already cracking in two. And I haven’t even had tea yet this morning.” She exhaled, rubbing her head.
“Go.” I nodded to the palace. Her gaze drifted back to my uncle and then to me. She didn’t even have to ask, her expression saying it all. “I’ll be fine.”
“Too hungover for this shite anyway.” She nodded, stepping away then paused, turning around. “Lord Sutton… you are never to step foot on these grounds again. Nor will you ever address me. You are done.” Her princess demeanor pushed back her shoulders.
I saw my uncle’s head bow forward in despair, his whisper of “Yes, Your Highness,” could barely be heard.
Eloise departed, her shoes crunching over the gravel. When they drifted away, I spun around, embarrassment, confusion, and rage puffing up my body so violently I couldn’t even speak. Folding my arms, I glowered at my uncle.
“You were never supposed to see that.” He set his body up tall, his expression stern. The Fredrick I grew up with back in place. “This was personal business.”
“Personal?” I exclaimed. “You just shook the Princess of Great Victoria! Threatened to kill her.”
“Please, stop being so dramatic, Spencer. You sound like Landen.” He took a step, brushing me off like a silly juvenile.
“No,” I barked, grabbing his sleeve, stopping him. “You are going to tell me what is going on. I saw you last night at the event. I know what Eloise does. Is that why you were there? Gambling?”
“It’s none of your business what I do. You are a child. I am the grown-up in the family.” He traveled around me.
“It is my business if you are gambling our estate away!” I spat at his back, halting him in place. “I know we are struggling for money.”
“You know nothing, my dear,” he replied.
“I know more than you think.”
“Really?” He swung around. “And what is it you think you are privy to?”
“We’re broke.”
“Who told you that?” He tried to laugh, but it sounded strained.
Dad had hinted at it, but for some reason, I used another name. “Lord William.”
My uncle turned into a statue, not even blinking. He stared at me.
“Stay away from Lord William.” His voice eerily rolled over like the fog.
“Believe me, I was not seeking him out.”
“No. Stay away from him, Spencer.” Fredrick stomped back toward me, his shoulder curling. “He is cunning and dangerous.”
“I can handle myself.” I stood my ground against my uncle’s formidable persona. He always frightened me before, but after my time here, he felt small and not as daunting as I used to think of him. “But I need you, my uncle, my family, to tell me the truth.”
His throat bobbed, not responding.
“What have you lost?” I folded my arms, feeling for once like the adult here. “Not just last night, but in all.”
“Spencer…”
“Tell me!” I demanded. “I have every right to know. That is my home too. My legacy as well as Landen’s and Olivia’s.”
Silence.
“Tell me!” I bellowed.
He stirred, jaw crunching down.
“TELL ME!”
“Everything,” he wailed, his arms flying out.
The single word clipped the air between us like scissors.
My chest heaved with dying hope. “What do you mean everything?”
“I mean everything,” he bellowed, moving and speaking in a frenzy, spilling everything out. “There’s nothing left. The land, house, even the furniture and animals! There is nothing left.”
Grief punched into my chest, filling my eyes. My home. My horses. The place I grew up, taught my sister to ride, played with the lambs in the spring with Landen.
Our legacy. Gone.
“We are living on borrowed credit,” he hissed like it was insulting. “Last night, I used the last of the credit to dig us out. It was supposed to be a sure thing. The odds completely in our favor. But the horse was disqualified.”
I dipped my head, understanding clearing my hazy mind. “And let me guess, Lord William is the one who gave you the loan?” Please, please say I’m wrong.
“He was the only one who would help. Believe me, I despise that man, but there was nowhere else to turn. I had no choice.”
My lids shut, the truth hammering into my gut.
“I guarantee you will be on your knees in my office, begging me to help you. That you will do anything.” Lord William’s claim repeated in my head, his smug face, knowing one day I would learn the truth.
“How much I’m going to enjoy when that stubbornness is groveling at my feet.
I have the means and the money to protect you, Spencer, or destroy you. ”
Bloody. Fucking. Hell.
Lord William was laying his terms down on the table without me even realizing the transaction. He made sure when I found out I knew exactly what I could do to save my family. How I could stop this. And if I didn’t go to him, he’d expose us.
“Oh god,” I muttered into my hand, feeling the weight of the position I was inadvertently put in.
“I’ll fix it. No one needs to know.”
“Will you?” Incense flung my arms out. “All you’ve done is drown us more in debt.
Not once thinking about your family, but yourself!
Too ‘respectable’ to get a real job.” I curled my fingers, my nails digging into my palms. “How many offers have we gotten to turn Chatstone Manor into a tourist site? Dozens, maybe hundreds. But no… instead you wanted your name in glory again. To be revered as a figure in this country! So what did you do? You gambled away not just Landen’s inheritance, but mine and Olivia’s.
Our money, our home. This is all on you! ”
“Oh, poor baby. You will be living in a castle someday, wanting for nothing!” He flung his hand toward the palace.
“And it wasn’t all on me. As if your father would have done anything!
” Fredrick moved to me, his face streaked with fury.
“He may not have been the one making the bets, but his impassiveness, doing nothing to keep us from sliding further into the red, was just as bad. And your mother and my wife just continue to spend money we don’t have to keep up appearances.
At least I tried to save this family!” He plunged his finger into his chest.