Mine Till Midnight Read online

  Rohan glanced at him alertly. “The Romany word for ‘life’ and also ‘death.’”

  Was that what Merripen’s name meant? Surprised, Amelia looked up at him. Merripen gave a slight shrug to indicate it was of no importance. She turned back to Rohan. “Sir, we’ve come to ask you a question or two regarding—”

  “I don’t like questions.”

  “I am looking for my brother, Lord Ramsay,” she continued doggedly, “and I desperately need any information you may possess as to his whereabouts.”

  “I wouldn’t tell you even if I knew.” His accent was a subtle mixture of foreignness and Cockney, and even a hint of upper class. It was the voice of a man who kept company with an unusual assortment of people.

  “I assure you, sir, I wouldn’t put myself or anyone else to the trouble, were it not absolutely necessary. But this is the third day since my brother has gone missing—”

  “Not my problem.” Rohan turned toward the door.

  “He tends to fall in with bad company—”

  “That’s unfortunate.”

  “He could be dead by now.”

  “I can’t help you. I wish you luck in your search.” Rohan pushed open the door and made to enter the club.

  He stopped as Merripen spoke in Romany.

  Since Merripen had first come to the Hathaways, there had been only a handful of occasions on which Amelia had heard him speak the secret language known to the Rom. It was heathen-sounding, thick with consonants and drawn-out vowels, but there was a primitive music in the way the words fit together.

  Staring at Merripen intently, Rohan leaned his shoulder against the door frame. “The old language,” he said. “It’s been years since I’ve heard it. Who is the father of your tribe?”

  “I have no tribe.”

  A long moment passed, while Merripen remained inscrutable in the face of Rohan’s regard.

  The hazel eyes narrowed. “Come in. I’ll see what I can find out.”

  They were brought into the club without ceremony, Rohan directing an employee to show them to a private receiving room upstairs. Amelia heard the hum of voices, and music coming from somewhere, and footsteps going to and fro. It was a busy masculine hive forbidden to someone like herself.

  The employee, a young man with an East London accent and careful manners, took them into a well-appointed room and bid them wait there until Rohan returned. Merripen went to a window overlooking King Street.

  Amelia was surprised by the quiet luxury of her surroundings: the hand-knotted carpet done in shades of blue and cream, the wood-paneled walls and velvet-upholstered furniture. “Quite tasteful,” she commented, removing her bonnet and setting it on a small claw-footed mahogany table. “For some reason I had expected something a bit … well, tawdry.”

  “Jenner’s is a cut above the typical establishment. It masquerades as a gentlemen’s club, when its real purpose is to provide the largest hazard bank in London.”

  Amelia went to a built-in bookshelf and inspected the volumes as she asked idly, “Why is it, do you think, that Mr. Rohan was reluctant to take money from Lord Selway?”

  Merripen cast a sardonic glance over his shoulder. “You know how the Rom feel about material possessions.”

  “Yes, I know your people don’t like to be encumbered. But from what I’ve seen, Romas are hardly reluctant to accept a few coins in return for a service.”

  “It’s more than not wanting to be encumbered. For a chal to be in this position—”

  “What’s a chal?”

  “A son of the Rom. For a chal to wear such fine clothes, to stay under one roof so long, to reap such financial bounty … it’s shameful. Embarrassing. Contrary to his nature.”

  He was so stern and certain of himself, Amelia couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “And what’s your excuse, Merripen? You’ve stayed under the Hathaway roof for an awfully long time.”

  “That’s different. For one thing, there’s no profit in living with you.”

  Amelia laughed.

  “For another…” Merripen’s voice softened. “I owe my life to your family.”

  Amelia felt a surge of affection as she stared at his unyielding profile. “What a spoilsport,” she said gently. “I try to mock you, and you ruin the moment with sincerity. You know you’re not obligated to stay, dear friend. You’ve repaid your debt to us a thousand times over.”

  Merripen shook his head immediately. “It would be like leaving a nest of plover chicks with a fox nearby.”

  “We’re not as helpless as all that,” she protested. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of the family … and so is Leo. When he’s sober.”

  “When would that be?” His bland tone made the question all the more sarcastic.

  Amelia opened her mouth to argue the point, but was forced to close it. Merripen was right—Leo had wandered through the past six months in a state of perpetual inebriation. She put a hand to her midriff, where worry had accumulated like a sack of lead shot. Poor wretched Leo—she was terrified nothing could be done for him. Impossible to save a man who didn’t want to be saved.

  That wouldn’t stop her from trying, however.

  She paced around the room, too agitated to sit and wait calmly. Leo was out there somewhere, needing to be rescued. And there was no telling how long Rohan would have them bide their time here.

  “I’m going to have a look around,” she said, heading to the door. “I won’t go far. Stay here, Merripen, in case Mr. Rohan should come.”

  She heard him mutter something beneath his breath. Ignoring her request, he followed at her heels as she went out into the hallway.

  “This isn’t proper,” he said behind her.

  Amelia didn’t pause. Propriety had no power over her now. “This is my one chance to see inside a gaming club—I’m not going to miss it.” Following the sound of voices, she ventured toward a gallery that wrapped around the second story of a huge, splendid room.

  Crowds of elegantly dressed men gathered around three large hazard tables, watching the play, while croupiers used rakes to gather dice and money. There was a great deal of talking and calling out, the air crackling with excitement. Employees moved through the hazard room, some bearing trays of food and wine, others carrying trays of chips and fresh cards.

  Remaining half-hidden behind a column, Amelia surveyed the crowd from the upper gallery. Her gaze alighted on Mr. Rohan, who had donned a black coat and cravat. Even though he was attired similarly to the club members, he stood out from the others like a fox among pigeons.

  Rohan half sat, half leaned against the bulky mahogany manager’s desk in the corner of the room, where the hazard bank was managed. He appeared to be giving directions to an employee. He used a minimum of gestures, but even so, there was a suggestion of showmanship in his movements, an easy physicality that drew the eye.

  And then … somehow … the intensity of Amelia’s interest seemed to reach him. He reached up to the back of his neck, and then he looked directly at her. Just as he had done in the alley. Amelia felt her heartbeat awaken everywhere, in her limbs and hands and feet and even in her knees. A tide of uncomfortable color washed over her. She stood immersed in guilt and heat and surprise, red-faced as a child, before she could finally gather her wits sufficiently to dart behind the column.

  “What is it?” she heard Merripen ask.

  “I think Mr. Rohan saw me.” A shaky laugh escaped her. “Oh, dear. I hope I haven’t annoyed him. Let’s go back to the receiving room.”

  And risking one quick glance from the concealment of the column, she saw that Rohan was gone.

  Chapter Two

  Cam pushed away from the mahogany desk and left the hazard room. As usual, he couldn’t leave without being stopped once or twice … there was an usher, whispering that Lord so-and-so wished to have his credit limit raised … an underbutler asking if he should replenish the sideboard of refreshments in one of the card rooms. He answered their questions absently, his mind occup
ied with the woman awaiting him upstairs.

  An evening that had promised to be routine was turning out to be rather peculiar.

  It had been a long time since a woman had aroused his interest as Amelia Hathaway had. The moment he had seen her standing in the alley, wholesome and pink-cheeked, her voluptuous figure contained in a modest gown, he had wanted her. He had no idea why, when she was the embodiment of everything that annoyed him about Englishwomen.

  It was obvious Miss Hathaway had a relentless certainty in her own ability to organize and manage everything around her. Cam’s usual reaction to that sort of female was to flee in the opposite direction. But as he had stared into her pretty blue eyes, and seen the tiny determined frown hitched between them, he had felt an unholy urge to snatch her up and carry her away somewhere and do something uncivilized. Barbaric, even.

  Of course, uncivilized urges had always lurked a bit too close to his surface. And in the past year Cam had begun to find it more difficult than usual to control them. He had become uncharacteristically short-tempered, impatient, easily provoked. The things that had once given him pleasure were no longer satisfying. Worst of all, he’d found himself attending to his sexual urges with the same lack of enthusiasm he was doing everything else these days.

  Finding female companionship was never a problem—Cam had found release in the arms of many a willing woman, and had repaid the favor until they had purred with satisfaction. There was no real thrill in it, however. No excitement, no fire, no sense of anything other than having taken care of a bodily function as ordinary as sleeping or eating. Cam had been so troubled that he’d actually brought himself to discuss it with his employer, Lord St. Vincent.

  Once a renowned skirt-chaser, now an exceptionally devoted husband, St. Vincent knew as much about these matters as any man alive. When Cam had asked glumly if a decrease in physical urges was something that naturally occurred as a man approached his thirties, St. Vincent had choked on his drink.

  “Good God, no,” the viscount had said, coughing slightly as a swallow of brandy seared his throat. They had been in the manager’s office of the club, going over account books in the early hours of the morning.

  St. Vincent was a handsome man with wheat-colored hair and pale blue eyes. Some claimed he had the most perfect form and features of any man alive. The looks of a saint, the soul of a scoundrel. “If I may ask, what kind of women have you been taking to bed?”

  “What do you mean, what kind?” Cam had asked warily.

  “Beautiful or plain?”

  “Beautiful, I suppose.”

  “Well, there’s your problem,” St. Vincent said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Plain women are far more enjoyable. There’s no better aphrodisiac than gratitude.”

  “Yet you married a beautiful woman.”

  A slow smile had curved St. Vincent’s lips. “Wives are a different case altogether. They require a great deal of effort, but the rewards are substantial. I highly recommend wives. Especially one’s own.”

  Cam had stared at his employer with annoyance, reflecting that serious conversation with St. Vincent was often hampered by the viscount’s fondness for turning it into an exercise of wit. “If I understand you, my lord,” he said curtly, “your recommendation for a lack of desire is to start seducing unattractive women?”

  Picking up a silver pen holder, St. Vincent deftly fitted a nib into the end and made a project of dipping it precisely into an ink bottle. “Rohan, I’m doing my best to understand your problem. However, a lack of desire is something I’ve never experienced. I’d have to be on my deathbed before I stopped wanting—no, never mind, I was on my deathbed in the not-too-distant past, and even then I had the devil’s own itch for my wife.”

  “Congratulations,” Cam muttered, abandoning any hope of prying an earnest answer out of the man. “Let’s attend to the account books. There are more important matters to discuss than sexual habits.”

  St. Vincent scratched out a figure and set the pen back on its stand. “No, I insist on discussing sexual habits. It’s so much more entertaining than work.” He relaxed in his chair with a deceptive air of laziness. “Discreet as you are, Rohan, one can’t help but notice how ardently you are pursued. It seems you hold quite an appeal for the ladies of London. And from all appearances, you’ve taken full advantage of what’s been offered.”

  Cam stared at him without expression. “Pardon, but are you leading to an actual point, my lord?”

  Leaning back in his chair, St. Vincent made a temple of his elegant hands and regarded Cam steadily. “Since you’ve had no problem with lack of desire in the past, I can only assume that, as happens with other appetites, yours has been sated with an overabundance of sameness. A bit of novelty may be just the thing.”

  Considering the statement, which actually made sense, Cam wondered if the notorious former rake had ever been tempted to stray.

  Having known Evie since childhood, when she had come to visit her widowed father at the club from time to time, Cam felt as protective of her as if she’d been his younger sister. No one would have paired the gentle-natured Evie with such a libertine. And perhaps no one had been as surprised as St. Vincent himself to discover their marriage of convenience had turned into a passionate love match.

  “What of married life?” Cam asked softly. “Does it eventually become an overabundance of sameness?”

  St. Vincent’s expression changed, the light blue eyes warming at the thought of his wife. “It has become clear to me that with the right woman, one can never have enough. I would welcome an overabundance of such bliss—but I doubt such a thing is mortally possible.” Closing the account book with a decisive thud, he stood from the desk. “If you’ll excuse me, Rohan, I’ll bid you good night.”

  “What about finishing the accounting?”

  “I’ll leave the rest in your capable hands.” At Cam’s scowl, St. Vincent shrugged innocently. “Rohan, one of us is an unmarried man with superior mathematical abilities and no prospects for the evening. The other is a confirmed lecher in an amorous mood, with a willing and nubile young wife waiting at home. Who do you think should do the damned account books?” And, with a nonchalant wave, St. Vincent had left the office.

  “Novelty” had been St. Vincent’s recommendation—well, that word certainly applied to Miss Hathaway. Cam had always preferred experienced women who regarded seduction as a game and knew better than to confuse pleasure with emotion. He had never cast himself in the role of tutor to an innocent. In fact, the prospect of initiating a virgin was distinctly off-putting. Nothing but pain for her, and the appalling possibility of tears and regrets afterward. He recoiled from the idea. No, there would be no pursuit of novelty with Miss Hathaway.

  Hastening his pace, Cam went up the stairs to the room where the woman waited with the dark-faced chal. Merripen was a common Romany name. Yet the man was in a most uncommon position. It appeared he was acting as the woman’s servant, a bizarre and repugnant situation for a freedom-loving Roma.

  So the two of them, Cam and Merripen, had something in common. Both of them worked for gadjos instead of roaming the earth freely as God intended.

  A Roma didn’t belong indoors, enclosed by walls. Living in boxes, as all rooms and houses were, shut away from the sky and wind and sun and stars. Breathing in stale air scented with food and floor polish. For the first time in years Cam felt a surge of mild panic. He fought it back and focused on the task at hand—getting rid of the peculiar pair in the receiving room.

  Tugging at his collar to loosen it, he pushed at the half-open door and entered the room.

  Miss Hathaway stood near the doorway, waiting with tightly leashed impatience, while Merripen remained a dark presence in the corner. As Cam approached and looked into her upturned face, the panic dissolved in a curious rush of heat. Her blue eyes were smudged with faint lavender shadows, and her soft-looking lips were pressed into a tight seam. Her hair had been pulled back and pinned, dark and shining against her head.
r />   That scraped-back hair, the modest restrictive clothing, advertised her as a woman of inhibitions. A proper spinster. But nothing could have concealed her radiant will. She was … delicious. He wanted to unwrap her like a long-awaited gift. He wanted her vulnerable and naked beneath him, that soft mouth swollen from hard, deep kisses, her pale body flushed with desire. Startled by her effect on him, Cam made his expression blank as he studied her.

  “Well?” Amelia demanded, clearly unaware of the turn of his thoughts. Which was a good thing, as they likely would have sent her screaming from the room. “Have you discovered anything about my brother’s whereabouts?”

  “I have.”

  “And?”

  “Lord Ramsay visited earlier this evening, lost some money at the hazard table—”

  “Thank God he’s alive,” Amelia exclaimed.

  “—and apparently decided to console himself by visiting a nearby brothel.”

  “Brothel?” She shot Merripen an exasperated glance. “I swear it, Merripen, he’ll die at my hands tonight.” She looked back at Cam. “How much did he lose at the hazard table?”

  “Approximately five hundred pounds.”

  The pretty blue eyes widened in outrage. “He’ll die slowly at my hands. Which brothel?”

  “Bradshaw’s.”

  Amelia reached for her bonnet. “Come, Merripen. We’re going there to collect him.”

  Both Merripen and Cam replied at the same time. “No.”

  “I want to see for myself if he’s all right,” she said calmly. “I very much doubt he is.” She gave Merripen a frosty stare. “I’m not returning home without Leo.”

  Half amused, half alarmed by her force of will, Cam asked Merripen, “Am I dealing with stubbornness, idiocy, or some combination of the two?”

  Amelia replied before Merripen had the opportunity. “Stubbornness, on my part. The idiocy may be attributed entirely to my brother.” She settled the bonnet on her head and tied its ribbons beneath her chin.