Jo Beverley - [Rogue ] (53 page)

Book Four

Excerpt from

Forbidden

The Company of Rogues

Book Four

by

Jo Beverley

New York Times & USA Today

Bestselling Author

FORBIDDEN

Reviews & Accolades

"Ms. Beverley breaks just about every rule in the book and makes us beg for more in this enthralling love story."

~Romantic Times

"FORBIDDEN is a delight to read. Any woman would be able to understand Serena's horror at the thought of another marriage like her first, and her inability to trust

Francis in the beginning."

~Romance Reviews Today

"Nobody does Regency better than Jo Beverley, and this latest tale adds to the argument that she may just be the best."

~Rendezvous

Three people sat at breakfast in the chill and dusty dining room of Grove House in Sussex. The burly Allbright brothers noisily washed down rare beef with porter. Their sister, Serena Riverton, huddled in a heavy shawl nibbling toast and drinking tea whilst reading a book of poetry.

Will Allbright stared blankly into space as he chewed and slurped, but his older brother, Tom, muttered as he went through the day's post.

"Duns, duns, duns..." He tossed three letters toward the smoky fire. "Ah, this is more like it." He tore open a letter and read it greedily. "At last! Hey, Serry, Samuel Seale wants to marry you."

His sister looked up, revealing a remarkably beautiful face. "What?" Then she went pale and rose, pushing back from the table. "Oh no, Tom. I won't. I won't marry again!"

"No?" the man asked, filling his mouth with food again. "What're you going to do, then, Sister? Ply the streets?"

Serena Riverton shook her head desperately, shocked almost to witlessness by this turn of events. "I can live on the money Matthew left me."

Her younger brother Will, who was rather simple, turned to look at her. "That's already gone, Serry." He seemed surprised she didn't know, almost regretful. Serena knew better. In all their selfish lives, her two brothers had never regretted a wrong unless it got them into trouble.

In looks they were both John Bull—big, solid, ruddy-faced men in simple country clothes. They had none of John Bull's solid worth, however.

As she stood there numbly, Will shoved a final hunk of bread into his mouth and rose from the table to warm himself in front of the hearth. Having effectively blocked the sparse heat of the fire, he pulled out a guinea and began to toss it.

Serena dazedly watched that glittering coin and tried to find a footing in all of this. "Gone?" she echoed. "How can my money be gone? My husband is only three months dead. Where can it have gone?"

But even as she spoke, she knew. Gone where all the money in this dilapidated house went. To the tables, on a roll of the dice, on the speed of a horse, on the speed—for heaven's sake—of a cockroach!

She tore her eyes from Will's coin to glare at Tom. "That's blatant thievery!"

He forked up another lump of red beef. "Going to put the Runners onto me, Serry? 'Twouldn't do you a maggot of good. There's no getting blood from stones."

Stones, thought Serena wildly. That's what they were. As heartless as stones, and as stupid.

"You couldn't have lived on it anyway," said Will. Flick, spin, catch. Flick, spin catch.... "Three thousand? Loose change, that's what three thousand is."

Tom grunted agreement. "Who'd have thought Riverton'd go through his fortune like that? We expected you to be a rich widow, Serry, or we'd have never been so keen to get you home again. Three thousand'd hardly keep you in gowns." His small eyes roamed over her very expensive russet cloth dress.

It was expertly cut—as she knew only too well—to display her figure, but she hadn't expected to be looked at like that by one of her brothers.

Serena clutched her heavy wool shawl around her for protection. "It would keep me in gowns very well," she said through her teeth. "I'm sure it's beyond your comprehension, Brothers, but it is possible to live a decent life on the mere interest of three thousand pounds."

"It'd be a damned dull one," said Will in amiable incomprehension. "You wouldn't want that, Serry."

Serena stalked forward and snatched his spinning guinea out of the air. "Yes I would, Will." She turned on Tom. "I want my money back. If you don't repay me I will take you to court."

He burst out laughing, spitting food all over the table. "You need money to take someone to court, Serry, and even if you won it'd be years before the matter'd be settled. You won't get far in the meantime on Will's guinea."

"It's a start." Serena tightened her grip on the coin, but Will grabbed her wrist.

"That's my lucky piece!" She resisted, but he roughly twisted her arm until she cried out and surrendered the coin.

Serena backed away again, tears in her eyes, holding her stinging wrist. She was forcibly reminded of her brothers' bullying cruelties. She'd been fifteen when she left her home, but she remembered. Why had she thought matters would be different now she was a grown woman?

Tom saw her fear, and his eyes glinted with satisfaction. "Perhaps Seale'll pursue your rights for you, Serry."

She met his eyes. "There is no possibility of forcing me into another marriage, Tom, but especially not into a marriage with Samuel Seale."

"Don't fancy him, eh?" Tom seemed genuinely surprised. "Not a bad-looking man for his age, and rich as Croesus. All those mines, you know. Thought you'd prefer an older man like your first husband. You always seemed content."

"Content?" Serena repeated faintly, her mind dizzied by such a vast misunderstanding.

"Right-o, then," said Tom. "We'll wait for other bids."

"You will?" Serena was astonished to have won; then she took in his words. "Bids? What bids?"

Tom tapped a letter that lay open on the table beside his plate. "Seale offered ten thousand. Pretty fair, really. Father got thirty the first time round, but we won't get that now you're not a virgin."

"Thirty thousand pounds?" Serena heard her voice climb toward hysteria. "Father sold me to Matthew Riverton for thirty thousand pounds?"

"Guineas," corrected Will conscientiously, once more flicking his coin. "Towed us out of River Tick nicely at the time. Didn't you know? Course, you were only fifteen. Twitty little thing."

Serena put a hand to her head and choked back a cry. Twitty little thing. She'd realized years ago that she had been a stupid child to go so blissfully into a marriage, thinking only of new gowns and excitement, and the feather in her cap of being the first of her group to wed.

But to have been sold....

Thirty thousand pounds. No, guineas. No wonder Matthew had been enraged when she refused to dance to his tune. When she tried to refuse....

"Face facts, Serry," said Tom. "Snap up Seale. We're up to our ears in debt again, and you're not such a prize now. You've still got your looks, I'll grant you that, but your maidenhead's gone. And most men want a wife with a dowry and the ability to give him children. You've neither."

"I had three thousand pounds," she said bitterly, but it was the other that struck like a blow.

Barren. She was barren. As if it were yesterday, she remembered the doctor making that pronouncement like a hanging judge. And she remembered Matthew's rage. "Barren! What plaguey use is a barren wife? Especially one that takes no pleasure in bed-work!"

His treatment of her had changed from that point on. For the first few years of the marriage he had merely been rough and careless of her feelings. After the doctor's verdict, however, he had started to demand more, to demand services that went far beyond her marital duties.

If Serena could bear children she might re-marry for that joy, but since she could not, she would never again enter such a state of legalized bondage.

But if she was penniless, what was she to do?

What could she do?

At the very least she had to leave this room before she gave her brothers the satisfaction of seeing her in tears.