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.
The prickles of ire and shame told me he was semi right. My father was sweet and kind, but not good at dealing with problems. Neither was my mother, which made everything important fall to Fredrick. Not that he didn’t fully take on his position and like everyone looking to him, but my parents didn’t help by letting him because they didn’t want to deal with it.
“I will find a way,” he huffed, tugging at his cuffs. “All I ask is you do not tell anyone about this.”
My mouth parted.
“No. One,” he ordered. “Your father, the prince, your mother, or Landen. They don’t need to know.”
“This involves them too.”
“Spencer, promise me.” He tilted his head with authority. “Give me a chance before you drag the whole family in. You know it will only cause more stress and drama. How do you think your mother or aunt will respond to knowing we are completely broke?”
Not well. They were not built to handle crises or being penniless.
“I will figure it out. I will visit Lord William and speak to him.”
“You think he will help?”
“He might give us a little more loan to pay off the debt collectors.”
Wow… we were in deep. “A loan for a loan we already can’t pay back to him.” I have the means and the money to protect you, Spencer, or destroy you.
“Let me.” My throat closed, barely getting it out. My chest ached with the thought of going to him, but I knew I was the only hope for my family. Fredrick would just make it worse. William wanted me to beg.
“What?” He jolted back, his head shaking. “No!”