Mine Till Midnight (The Hathaways #1)(72)

"One can only hope you feel better than you look," Amelia said.

"I'll feel better once I can find some decent refreshment. I've asked thrice for wine or spirits, and the servants all seem damnably absentminded."

She frowned. "Surely it's too early in the day even for you, Leo."

He extracted a pocket watch from his waistcoat and squinted at its face. "It's eight o'clock in Bombay. Being an internationally minded fellow, I'll have a drink as a diplomatic gesture."

Ordinarily Amelia would have been resigned or annoyed. However, as she stared at her brother, who seemed so lost and miserable beneath his brittle facade, she felt a rash of compassion. Walking forward, she put her arms around him and hugged him. And wondered how to save him.

Startled by the impulsive gesture, Leo remained still, not returning the embrace but not pulling away, either. His hands came to her shoulders, and he eased her away.

"I should have known you'd be maudlin today," he said.

"Yes, well?finding one's brother nearly roasted to death tends to make a woman rather emotional."

"I'm just a bit charred." He stared at her with those strange, light eyes, not at all the eyes of the brother she had known all her life. "And not so altered as you, it seems."

Amelia knew immediately what he was leading to. Warily she turned away from him and pretended to inspect a nearby landscape of hills and clouds and a silvery lake. "Altered? I've no idea what you mean."

"I'm referring to the game of hide-the-slipper you've been playing with Rohan."

"Who told you that? The servants?"

"Merripen."

"I can't believe he dared?

"For once he and I agree on something. We're going back to London as soon as Merripen is welt enough. We'll stay at the Rutledge Hotel until we can find a suitable house to lease?

"The Rutledge costs a fortune," she exclaimed. "We can't afford that."

"Don't argue, Amelia. I'm the head of this family, and I've made the decision. With Merripen's full support, for what that's worth."

"The two of you can go to blazes! I don't take orders from you, Leo."

"You will in this instance. Your affair with Rohan is over."

Feeling bitter and outraged, Amelia turned away from him. She didn't trust herself to speak. In the past year, there had been so many times she had longed for Leo to assume his place as the head of the family, to have an opinion about anything, to show concern for someone othei than himself. And yet this was the issue that had provoked him to take action?

"I'm so glad," she said with ominous quietness, "that you've taken such an interest in my personal affairs, Leo. Now perhaps you might expand your interest to other topics of importance, such as how and when Ramsay House will be rebuilt, and what we're going to do about Win's health, and Beatrix's education, and Poppy's?

"You won't distract me that easily. Good God, sis, couldn't you find someone of your own class to dally with? Have your prospects really sunk so low that you've taken a Gypsy to your bed?"

Amelia's mouth dropped open. She spun to face him. "I can't believe you would say such a thing. Our brother is a Roma, and he?

"Merripen isn't our brother. And he happens to agree with me. This is beneath you."

"Beneath me," Amelia repeated dazedly, backing away from him until her shoulders flattened against the wall. "How?"

"There's no need for me to explain, is there?"

"Yes," she said, "I think there is."

"Rohan's a Gypsy, Amelia. They're lazy, rootless wanderers."

"You can say all that when you never lift a finger?"

"I'm not supposed to work. I'm a peer now. I earn three thousand pounds a year just by existing."

Clearly there was no headway to be made in an argument when one's opponent was insane.

"Until this moment, I had no intention of marrying him," Amelia said. "But now I'm seriously considering the merits of having at least one rational man in the household."

"Marriage?"

Amelia almost enjoyed the look on his face. "I suppose Merripen forgot to mention that minor detail. Yes, Cam has proposed to me. And he's rich, Leo. Rich, rich, which means even if you decide to go jump in the lake and drown yourself, the girls and I would be taken care of. Nice, isn't it, that someone's concerned about our future?"

"I forbid it."

She gave him a scornful glance. "Forgive me if I'm less than impressed by your authority, Leo. Perhaps you should practice on someone else."

And she left him in the gallery, while the thunder rumbled and rain cascaded down the windows.

Cam stopped the driver on the way to London, wanting another look at Ramsay House before he departed Hampshire. He was in something of a quandary as to what should be done with the place. Certainly it would have to be restored. As part of an aristocratic entailment, the estate had to be maintained in a decent condition. And Cam liked the place. There were possibilities in it. If the slopes of the surrounding grounds were altered and landscaped, and the building itself was properly redesigned and rebuilt, the Ramsay estate would be a jewel.

But it was doubtful that the Ramsay title, and its entailments, would remain in the Hathaways' possession much longer. Not if everything depended on Leo, whose health and future existence were very much in question.