Chapter 3

Sir Silas Crowther came down the passage at full speed. He was fifty-two, tall and well-dressed, with a handsome silver head and the kind of easy laugh that made strangers trust him on sight. He had been Amelia's guardian since her father died seven years ago, and in those seven years he had lost two houses, a carriage, his wife's jewels, and most of his friends at the card tables of Bath.He did not look at Lucien. To a man like Silas, a footman was a piece of furniture that happened to breathe."The Duke is in the drawing room, and you're up here playing nursemaid in that rag?" His eyes fell on her cropped hair and went wide with fury. "What have you done? What have you done to your hair, you stupid girl?""I sold it," Amelia said quietly. "For Kit's medicine. You promised to pay the apothecary a month ago, Uncle. You promised."Silas's hand closed around her wrist. Lucien saw her flinch, and he felt something in his chest go cold and very still."Listen to me carefully," Silas said, very softly now, which was worse than shouting. "That man downstairs is worth sixty thousand a year. If he leaves this house without a proposal, I will put the girl in a carriage to Bristol myself. The asylum takes children. They're very quiet there."Kit made a small, terrified sound. Amelia didn't. She just stood there, white to the lips, and said, "Yes, Uncle."It was the most frightening thing Lucien had ever heard, because it was the voice of someone who had said it a thousand times before.Silas turned to go and finally saw the footman. "You! What are you doing in the family wing?"Lucien bowed low, his jaw clenched so hard it ached. "Lost my way, sir.""Then find it before I have you thrown in the horse trough. And tell your master Miss Hartwell will be down directly."He was gone.Lucien looked up. Amelia was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands pressed over her face, perfectly silent. Then she took them away, smoothed her ruined hair, and stood."I'm sorry you saw that, Luke," she said. "He's under a great strain."She was defending him. After all of that, she was protecting her own tormentor's dignity in front of a servant.

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