On A Wicked Dawn Read Online Free PDF Page A

“Very good, my lord. I’ll inform Mrs. Higgs.”
    Luc nodded and watched as Cottsloe retreated, silently closing the door. Sinking into his pillows, he spent a moment thinking grateful and fond thoughts of his butler and his housekeeper, who had stood unwaveringly behind the family throughout their time of need.
    From there, his thoughts wandered to his change of circumstances, his new life . . . to the events of the past night.
    Mentally checking his faculties and his physical state, he confirmed everything was in working order. Bar a faint headache, he felt no aftereffects from the previous night’s excesses. His hard head was the only physical characteristic he’d inherited from his wastrel sire; at least it was a useful one. Unlike all the rest of his father’s legacy.
    The fifth Viscount Calverton had been a dashing, debonair ne’er-do-well whose only contribution to the family had been to marry well and sire six children. At forty-eight, he’d broken his neck on the hunting field, leaving Luc, then twenty-one, to take over the estate, only to discover it mortgaged to the hilt. Neither he nor his mother had had any idea the family coffers had been ransacked; they’d woken one morning to find themselves, not just paupers, but paupers heavily in debt.
    The family properties were all prosperous and productive, but the income was eaten by the debts. There had been literally nothing left on which the family themselves might survive.
    Bankruptcy and a sojourn in Newgate threatened. Out of his depth, he’d put aside his pride and appealed to the only person who might have the talent to save them. Robert Child, banker to the ton , then aging, semiretired but still shrewd—no one knew the ins and outs of finance better than he.
    Child had heard him out, considered for a day, then agreed to help—to, as he put it, serve as Luc’s financial mentor. He’d been relieved yet surprised, but Child had made it clear he was only agreeing because he viewed theprospect of saving the family as a challenge, something to enliven his declining years.
    He hadn’t cared how Child wanted to see things, he was simply grateful. Thus had commenced what he now considered his apprenticeship in the world of finance. Child had been a strict yet immensely knowledgeable mentor; he’d applied himself and gradually, steadily, succeeded in eroding the huge debt hanging over his and his family’s future.
    Throughout, he, his mother and Child had had a firm understanding that no circumstance, no detail, could ever be allowed even to hint publicly at the family’s state. While he and his mother had agreed readily on the grounds of the social consequences, Child had been even more adamant—one whiff of poverty, and they would be dunned, their secret would out, and the flimsy house of cards that he and Child had painstakingly erected to keep the family ahead of their creditors would come crashing down.
    By unstintingly applying themselves to keeping up their facade, with the costs initially underwritten by Child himself, they’d succeeded in maintaining their status. Year by year, their financial position had improved.
    Eventually, as the burden of debt had shrunk, under Child’s guidance, he’d moved into more speculative investments. He’d proved adept at sizing up risky opportunities and making large profits. It was a dangerous game, but one in which he excelled; his latest venture had proved more rewarding than his wildest dreams. His ship had very definitely come in.
    His lips twisted wryly as his mind scanned the years—all the hours he’d spent poring over account books and investment reports in his study while the ton imagined he was indulging with opera dancers and Cyprians in company with his peers. He’d come to enjoy the simple act of creating wealth, of understanding money and how it grew. Of creating stability in his family’s life. The