Free How to Romance a Rake by Manda Collins Page B

unmarried daughter would eat Prinny’s pocket watch if it meant securing a viscount as a son-in-law. The fact that Lady Shelby was against the very idea meant that she had some other scheme up her elegant sleeve.
    Alec ran a weary hand over the back of his neck. He’d best visit his uncle sooner rather than later. The more he learned about his family’s responsibilities toward Mrs. Turner and little Alice, the sooner he would be able to set Juliet’s mind at rest. At least on that score.
    He’d consider how to prevent her mother from marrying her off to the loathsome Turlington later. For that he’d need assistance from Monteith and Winterson. He had little doubt that Cecily would find her aunt’s plans regarding Juliet’s matrimonial status objectionable. And Cecily with an objection was a force to be reckoned with.

 
    Four
    Alec ran his uncle to ground in his bachelor rooms at the Albany where he was looking much the worse for wear after a night spent at the gaming tables.
    “Come to ring a peal over my head, have you?” Roderick asked, his eyes narrowed against the anemic sunlight peeking through a chink in the drapes. Casually attired in a dressing gown and hunched over the small breakfast table, the older man scowled into his tea.
    Waving away the offer of refreshment from his uncle’s valet, who hovered nearby, and indicating that he should leave them alone, Alec surveyed his father’s youngest brother. “It is nothing to me if you wish to spend what little income you have in the pursuit of winnings that will never exceed your losses,” he said baldly.
    It was a mark of Roderick’s fatigue that he did not object to his nephew’s assessment of his nocturnal activities, merely shrugged.
    “But I did not come here to offer my opinion on your dissolution,” Alec said, crossing his arms over his chest. “I came because I want you to tell me what role you played in the dismissal of Miss Anna Turner from Viscount Shelby’s household.”
    “What makes you think I had anything to do with that?” Roderick asked, his expression shuttered.
    “Oh, come now,” Alec said impatiently, “I realize that the rumor mill is often wrong, but in this case, I know there was more fire than smoke. You were an intimate of Lord Shelby at the time, and I know your penchant for seducing innocents. You are distressingly like my father in that.”
    “I was hardly the only friend of Shelby’s with an eye for the tasty Miss Turner, nephew,” Roderick said. At Alec’s harsh stare, he shrugged and threw up his hands. “But if you must know the truth of it, I never touched the chit.”
    “I find that hard to believe,” Alec said. “What stopped you?”
    Embarrassment crossed the older man’s face. “If you must know, she did. Or rather, some other chap did. I sneaked up to her rooms to … ah … press my suit, and someone was there before me.”
    Alec unfolded his arms and leaned forward. “Did you see who it was?”
    “Of course not!” Roderick actually looked offended. “As soon as I heard the unmistakable sounds of shagging I left.”
    At least his uncle had some standards, Alec thought grimly.
    “Surely you had some guess as to who it might be,” he pressed. If his uncle weren’t Baby Alice’s father, then whoever was might be responsible for the music teacher’s disappearance.
    But Roderick shook his head. “I went back to the billiard room and every other man at the house party, with the exception of the servants and secretaries of course, was there. If the man I heard was one of the guests, he was damned quick about it.”
    Alec bit back a curse. He had hoped that his uncle would give him some information that would lead to Mrs. Turner’s whereabouts. But as so often happened with the man, he had only added to Alec’s frustrations.
    Pushing back from the table, Alec rose. “Thank you for the information,” he said grudgingly.
    “Not as if I have any use for it,” the older man said. “I presume