Page 19 of The Ruin of Miss Amelia Burrowes

Amelia turned away, only to be stopped by the gawking stares of others in the gallery. Immediately, she wished she’d worn a shawl rather than a Spencer so she could draw it around her as a type of protection, inadequate though it might be. She felt so exposed now, with all eyes trained on her. Panic made her heart beat like the wings of a frantic bird against a windowpane. Blood pounded in her ears. If she swooned in so public a place, she hoped she would simply die right here and now rather than suffer the lingering death her shame would bring her.

“Amelia?” The soothing sound of Nathan’s voice brought her back from the brink of disaster. “What is wrong, my dear?”

She turned agonized eyes toward him. “Can we please leave, Nathan?”

“Of course, sweetheart.” Without any further inquiry, he immediately tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and led her back through the galleries, outside onto the busy sidewalk. “Is that better?”

She nodded, still somewhat overcome.

“Then let us stroll toward Gunter’s. An ice will be soothing to you, I daresay.” Nathan kept glancing at her but said nothing else. Bless the man for giving her time to recover before having to tell him the shameful truth of what had happened.

As they walked, her heart stopped its racetrack rhythm and her breathing slowed to normal. “Thank you for understanding that I needed to leave the gallery without asking me to explain.”

“I will never press you, Amelia, if you do not wish to tell me something.” He kept them to their leisurely pace. “It’s the only way I know to deal with a woman, having learned it the hard way with my sister. Woe be to Haversham if he ever tries to force her to tell him anything before she’s good and ready.”

Amelia chuckled at that and suddenly felt immeasurably better. Nathan could raise her spirits like no one else she knew.

“Are you now ready to tell me what happened?”

She nodded. “I received the cut direct from my mother’s acquaintance, Mrs. Sheldon.”

“I see.” His eyes were focused straight forward, but his whole body tensed. “And you have not met this Mrs. Sheldon before now?”

“I have been in the country for ten years, Nathan.” Amelia sighed. If not for the wonderful man whose arm she held onto for dear life, she would’ve wished herself back at their home, The Burrow, this moment. “I’ve not met anyone outside our village and market town since the summer of my come out.”

“Forgive me, my dear. I keep forgetting you have not been in London for such a while.” He turned them into Berkely Square. “So Mrs. Sheldon has not seen you since that summer, but she obviously knows of the scandal.” Nathan knitted his brows. “I’d hoped the ton would have mostly forgotten about it, but I fear now that is not the case. And not having forgotten, they are not ready to forgive it either, if we take your mother’s acquaintance as the Society weathercock.” He patted her hand. “But we will take action to remedy this, my dear. Trust me. And look there.” Nathan pointed to a smart black curricle across the street from the entrance to Gunter’s. “Allies.”

Amelia couldn’t see who was in the conveyance, but Nathan turned them toward it, so he obviously knew the owner.

“Well met, Haversham.” They came alongside the curricle just as Lord Haversham put a large mouthful of some purple ice into his mouth. The distraught gentleman made several hilarious faces as he struggled to down the ice without freezing his mouth.

His companion, Miss Locke, was laughing outright at his antics, her lemon-looking ice held in her hand. “You are well caught out, Haversham. Take care your whole head doesn’t freeze.” She beamed at her brother. “That was excellently timed, Nathan. I told him not to eat such big bites, but does the man listen to me?”

“Perhaps he’ll take heed from this incident and succumb to the inevitable in the future.” Nathan chuckled as he waited for his friend to be able to speak.

“What is inevitable, my lord?” Amelia was diverted enough to be able to ask.

“That Haversham listens to my sister and does as she bids him.” He shrugged. “It took me long enough to learn. I’d hoped he’d be smarter than I was, but now I think not.”

“You are all insufferable wretches, save for you, Miss Burrowes.” Lord Haversham wiped his lips and breathed through his mouth, gulping in the warm afternoon air as though it was a lifeline. “This elderflower ice is exquisite. Am I to be faulted and frozen simply because I wished to eat more than a spoonful at a time?”

“Apparently you are.” Miss Locke took a dainty bite of her ice, shooting her companion a speaking glance.

“What flavor of ice may I get you, Miss Burrowes?” Nathan turned to her, his mouth puckered as he tried not to smile at the banter between his sister and friend.

Suddenly, Amelia was hungry for her favorite. “Chocolate, please.”

Nathan’s brows shot up. “I would never have pegged you for a traditionalist, my dear. I’d have thought bergamot or perhaps even brown bread would be to your taste. Where is your sense of adventure?”

“Not in iced confectionery, I assure you.” Amelia made a face. “Brown bread sounds truly hideous for an ice.”

“Then I shall have to put myself forward for the experiment.” Nathan squared his shoulders then sighed. “I will say I prefer parmesan, but today, brown bread it is.”

“Oh, no, my lord.” Amelia giggled and hung onto his arm. “You needn’t sacrifice yourself. Choose whatever flavor you prefer. We need not be adventurers today.”

“I hear and obey, my lady.” Nathan bowed and hurried across the street, dodging nimbly between a landau and an ox cart.

“You have made the greatest change in my brother, Miss Burrowes.” Miss Locke turned her intense blue eyes on Amelia, causing her to quake in her shoes. She wasn’t entirely certain she wasn’t afraid of Nathan’s sister.