Ruined by a Rake by Erin Knightley

behind his desk and sat, inspecting Nick as if he were the foulest of creatures.
    “As of this moment, you are expelled from this family. I hereby banish you from this house and from any other property I own. If you try to step foot on even a square inch of my land, I will have you thrown in gaol. Furthermore, I forbid you to see your mother, or any other member of this family.”
    A boulder settled deep in Nick’s gut, making it hard to breath. He gritted his teeth, struggling to maintain a neutral expression. If this was the price of restoring Eleanor’s choices for her own life, than so be it.
    Malcolm leaned forward over his desk, resting his elbows on the polished wood and lacing his fingers in front of him. “And lastly,” he said, a hint of malevolent pleasure lifting one side of his lip in a sneer, “A letter will go out in tomorrow’s post addressed to my solicitor. This time next week, your commission will have been sold.
    “Welcome to the life you should have had, Norton. I hope you choke on it.”
     
    ***
    Aunt Margaret paced from one side of the room to the other, her face drawn with worry as her fingers mangled a lace handkerchief. “I don’t understand, Eleanor. Why on earth would he have done such a thing? Ruining your chances like that,” she said, shaking her head. “He has always been a bit of a scoundrel, but I always felt he was a gentleman at heart.”
    Heedless of her fine silk gown, Eleanor sat in a heap on the settee, pressing a pillow to her middle. The myriad of emotions rushing through her all at once made it hard to think, let alone make sense of what had just happened. What should she do? What did this mean for her sister and her?
    Her heart ached bitterly. What on earth had Nicholas been thinking? She wouldn’t be surprised if Malcolm met him at dawn over this.
    Peering up to her aunt, she shook her head. “He was trying to save me.”
    If only she had told Nicolas the whole truth of the situation. Eleanor squeezed her eyes shut. He may have had some ridiculous notion of helping her, but what if Libby was the one forced to pay the price?
    Aunt Margaret stopped dead in her tracks. “ Save you? From what?”
    “From having to marry Lord Henry.”
    She blinked, dumbfounded. “But you wanted to marry. You told me yourself you were finally interested.”
    It was Eleanor’s turn to be at a loss. “What? No, I didn’t want to marry. Uncle Robert was forcing me to. You know how I feel about marriage after Mama and Papa.”
    Aunt Margaret put a hand to her mouth. She looked beyond appalled. “Oh my dear! I had no idea. I thought at long last you had changed your mind. I thought you had finally seen the goodness marriage can hold.”
    She’d been on Eleanor’s side after all? Something inside of her eased, making things just a little less awful. “No—I mean, I’m sure that it can be, but I never wanted to risk it.”
    “Then why—?”
    “Because Uncle threatened that if I didn’t, he would summon Libby from school, forcing her to marry instead.” The words burned her throat like whisky.
    The fury in her aunt’s eyes was a balm to her soul. “Over my dead body.”
    Eleanor gasped—it was the most passion she’d seen in her aunt since Mama died. She seemed fully alive again, like the formidable woman she had once been.
    “He ruined your mother’s life by forcing her to marry your father. She was determined that you and your sister would not suffer the same fate. Before your debut, she made Robert swear that you and Libby would be free to choose your own husbands—if you even wanted one at all.”
    Eleanor swallowed against the emotion that clogged her throat. Mama had done that for her?
    A small, unexpected smile deepened the lines bracketing her aunt’s thin lips. “She threatened if he didn’t, she would marry a Tory and take up the plight of the working class, handing out pamphlets on the street if need be. She would have done it too, I swear to it. Robert