Amelia answered in a glum tone. “It seems that the widow had no previous interest in the house, because it was a shambles. But now that it’s been restored so beautifully, she has informed our solicitor that she intends to move in and take possession.”
Leo was filled with outrage. “I’ll be damned if I’ll let anyone take Ramsay House from the Hathaways. If necessary, I’ll bring this to chancery at Westminster.”
Merripen pinched the corners of his eyes wearily. “Chancery won’t take it.”
“How do you know?”
“Our solicitor has talked to the copyhold specialist at his firm. Unfortunately, there was never an entail placed on Ramsay House, only on the original manor home.”
“What about purchasing the copyhold from the widow?”
“She has already stated that no amount of money would induce her to part from it.”
“Women’s minds are frequently changed,” Leo said. “We’ll make her an offer.”
“Very well. But if she refuses to negotiate, there’s only one way for us to keep this house.”
“I can’t wait to hear this,” Leo said.
“The last Lord Ramsay made a provision that you would retain the copyhold, including the house, if you married and produced legitimate male issue within five years of ennoblement.”
“Why five years?”
Win answered gently. “Because in the last three decades, no Ramsay has managed to live longer than five years after receiving the title. Nor have any of them sired a legitimate son.”
“But the good news, Leo,” Beatrix said brightly, “is that it’s been four years since you became Lord Ramsay. If you can stay alive for just one more year, the family curse will be broken.”
“And furthermore,” Amelia added, “you have to marry and sire a son as soon as possible.”
Leo stared at them all blankly in the expectant silence. A disbelieving laugh escaped him. “You’re all mad if you think I’m going to be forced into a loveless marriage just so the family can continue living at Ramsay House.”
Coming forward with a placating smile, Win handed him a piece of paper. “Of course we would never want to force you into a loveless marriage, dear. But we have put together a list of prospective brides, all of them lovely girls. Won’t you take a glance and see if any of them appeals to you?”
Deciding to humor her, Leo looked down at the list. “Marietta Newbury?”
“Yes,” Amelia said. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t like her teeth.”
“What about Isabella Charrington?”
“I don’t like her mother.”
“Lady Blossom Tremaine?”
“I don’t like her name.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Leo, that’s not her fault.”
“I don’t care. I can’t have a wife named Blossom. Every night I would feel as if I were calling in one of the cows.” Leo lifted his gaze heavenward. “I might as well marry the first woman off the street. Why, I’d be better off with Marks.”
Everyone was silent.
Still tucked in the corner of the room, Catherine Marks looked up slowly as she realized that she was the focus of the Hathaways’ collective gaze. Her eyes turned huge behind the spectacles, and a tide of pink rushed over her face. “That is not amusing,” she said sharply.
“It’s the perfect solution,” Leo said, taking perverse satisfaction in annoying her. “We argue all the time. We can’t stand each other. It’s like we’re already married.”
Catherine sprang to her feet, staring at him in outrage. “I would never consent to marry you.”
“Good, because I wasn’t asking. I was only making a point.”
“Do not use me to make a point!” She fled the room, while Leo stared after her.
“You know,” Win said thoughtfully, “we should have a ball.”
“A ball?” Merripen asked blankly.
“Yes, and invite all the eligible young women we can think of. It’s possible one of them will strike Leo’s fancy, and then he could court her.”
“I’m not going to court anyone,” Leo said.
They all ignored him.
“I like that idea,” Amelia said. “A bride-hunting ball.”
“It would be more accurate,” Cam pointed out dryly, “to call it a groom-hunting ball. Since Leo will be the item of prey.”
“It’s just like Cinderella,” Beatrix exclaimed. “Only without the charming prince.”
Deciding to calm the brewing squabble, Cam lifted his hand in a staying gesture. “Easy, all of you. If it happens that we lose Ramsay House—God forbid—we can build another one on the freehold portion of the estate.”
“That would take forever, and the cost would be enormous,” Amelia protested. “And it wouldn’t be the same. We’ve spent too much time restoring this place, and putting our hearts into it.”
“Especially Merripen,” Win added quietly.
Merripen gave her a slight shake of his head. “It’s only a house.”
But they all knew it was more than a structure of brick and mortar … it was their home. Cam and Amelia’s son had been born there. Win and Merripen had been married there. With all its haphazard charm, Ramsay House was a perfect expression of the Hathaway family itself.
And no one understood that better than Leo. As an architect, he knew well that some buildings had an inherent character that was far more than the sum of their parts. Ramsay House had been damaged and restored … it had gone from a neglected shell to a thriving, happy home, all because one family had cared. It was a crime that the Hathaways would be displaced by a pair of women who had invested nothing in it, through what amounted to nothing more than a legal sleight of hand.
Swearing beneath his breath, Leo dragged his hand through his hair. “I want to have a look at the ruins of the old manor home,” he said. “Merripen, what’s the best way to reach it?”
“I’m not certain,” Merripen admitted. “I rarely go out that far.”
“I know,” Beatrix volunteered. “Miss Marks and I have ridden there to sketch the ruins. They’re very picturesque.”
“Would you like to ride there with me?” Leo asked.
“I’d love to,” she said.
Amelia frowned. “Why do you want to visit the ruins, Leo?”
He smiled in a way he knew would annoy her. “Why, to measure for curtains, of course.”
Chapter Six
“Thunderbolts,” Beatrix exclaimed, entering the library where Leo had been waiting, “I can’t go with you to the ruins after all. I’ve just checked on Lucky, and she’s about to have her babies. I can’t leave her at such a time.”
Leo smiled quizzically, replacing a book on a shelf. “Who’s Lucky?”
“Oh, I forgot you hadn’t met her. She’s a three-legged cat who used to belong to the cheesemaker in the village. The poor thing got her paw caught in a rat trap, and it had to be amputated. And now that she’s no longer a good mouser, the cheesemaker gave her to me. He never even named her, can you imagine?”
“Given what happened to her, the name ‘Lucky’ is something of a misnomer, isn’t it?”
“I thought it might improve her fortunes.”
“I’m sure it will,” Leo said, amused. Beatrix’s passion for helping vulnerable creatures had always worried and touched the other Hathaways in equal measure. They all recognized that Beatrix was the most unconventional person in the family.
Beatrix was always sought after at London social events. She was a pretty girl, if not classically beautiful, with her blue eyes, dark hair, and tall, slender figure. Gentlemen were attracted by her freshness and charm, unaware that she showed the same patient interest to hedgehogs, field mice, and misbehaving spaniels. And when it came time for active courtship, men reluctantly left Beatrix’s engaging company and turned to more conventional misses. With each successive season, her chances at marriage diminished.
Beatrix didn’t seem to care. At the age of nineteen—nearly twenty—she had yet to fall in love. It was universally agreed among the Hathaways that few men would be able to understand or handle her. She was a force of nature, unhampered by conventional rules.
“Go take care of Lucky,” Leo said gently. “I don’t expect to have any difficulty finding the ruins by myself.”
“Oh, you’re not going alone,” she told him. “I arranged for Miss Marks to accompany you.”
“You did? And she was willing?”
Before Beatrix could answer, Catherine entered the library, her slim figure dressed in riding clothes, her hair pulled back in a tight braided chignon. A sketchbook was clasped beneath her arm. She stopped short at the sight of Leo, who was wearing a gentleman’s riding coat, close-fitting breeches, and well-worn boots.
Her wary gaze went to Beatrix. “Why haven’t you changed into your riding habit, dear?”
Beatrix replied apologetically, “I’m sorry, Miss Marks, I can’t go after all. Lucky needs me. But it’s just as well—you can show Leo the way even better than I.” Her sunny smile encompassed them both. “It’s a fine day for riding, isn’t it? Have a good outing!” And she left the library in her long, lithe stride.
Catherine’s slender brows rushed downward as she looked at Leo. “Why do you want to visit the ruins?”
“I just want to look at them. Hang it all, do I have to explain myself to you? Just refuse if you’re afraid to go somewhere alone with me.”
“Afraid of you? Not in the least.”
Leo gestured to the doorway in a parody of gentlemanly manners. “After you, then.”
As a result of the strategic importance of the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire was filled with ancient castles and picturesque ruins of forts and Saxon dwellings. Although Leo had known that there were remains of an old manor on the Ramsay estate, he hadn’t yet found the opportunity to visit them. Among the concerns of farming, the accounting of rents, rates, and labor, the timber cutting and the architectural commissions Leo took on occasion, there hadn’t been much time left for idle touring.
Together he and Catherine rode past fields of flowering turnips and wheat, and clover pastures where fat white sheep grazed. They crossed through the timber forest to the northwest of the estate, where heavy streams cut through green hills and limestone crags. The ground was less arable here, more rock than loam, but its location was a solidly defensible position for an ancient fortified manor home.
As they ascended a hill, Leo took covert glances at Catherine. She was slim and graceful on horseback, guiding the horse with a smooth economy of motion. An accomplished woman, he mused. Poised, articulate, competent in nearly everything she did. And yet when another woman would have advertised such qualities, Catherine went to great lengths to keep from drawing attention to herself.
They reached the site of the original manor, where the remains of ancient walls protruded from the ground like the vertebrae of fossilized creatures. Inequalities in the scrub-covered ground marked the locations of the manor’s outbuildings. A shallow circular ring, approximately twenty-five feet wide, revealed the dimensions of the moat that had surrounded a sixty-square-foot elevation of land.
After dismounting and tethering his horse, Leo went to assist Catherine. She disengaged her right leg from the pommel and took her foot from the stirrup, letting Leo control her descent. She alighted on the ground, facing him. Her face lifted, the brim of her riding hat partially shadowing her opalescent eyes.
They stood together with her hands on his shoulders. Her face was flushed with exertion, her lips parted … and all at once Leo knew how it would be to make love to her, her body light and supple beneath his, her breath rushing against his throat as he moved between her thighs. He would bring her to ecstasy, slowly and ruthlessly, and she would claw and moan and sigh his name …
“Here it is,” Catherine said. “Your ancestral home.”
Tearing his gaze from her, Leo regarded the crumbling ruins. “Charming,” he said. “A little dusting and sweeping, and the place will be as good as new.”
“Will you go along with the family’s plan to find a bride for you?”
“Do you think I should?”
“No, I don’t think you have the makings of a decent husband. You haven’t the character for it.”
Leo’s sentiments exactly. Except that it rankled to hear her say it.
“What makes you a fit judge of my character?” he asked.
Her shoulders lifted in an uncomfortable shrug. “One can’t help hearing about your exploits when all the dowagers and matrons are together at the balls.”
“I see. And you believe every rumor you hear?”
She was silent. Leo expected her to argue, or insult him. To his surprise, however, she stared at him with something like remorse. “You have a point. And whether the rumors are true or false, it was wrong of me to listen.”
Leo waited for her to follow that with some stinging insult, but she appeared genuinely chastened. Which was a surprise. It made him realize there was much he didn’t know about her, this solitary and serious young woman who had hovered at the edge of his family for so long.
“What do the gossips say about me?” he asked casually.
She gave him a wry glance. “Your prowess as a lover is much vaunted.”
“Oh, well, those rumors are definitely true.” He clucked his tongue as if shocked. “Do dowagers and chaperones really prattle about such things?”
Her slender brows arched. “What did you imagine they talked about?”
“Knitting. Jelly recipes.”
She shook her head and bit back a smile.
“How tedious these affairs must be for you,” Leo said. “Standing at the side of the room, listening to gossip and watching everyone else dance.”
“I don’t mind it. I don’t like dancing.”
“Have you ever danced with a man?”
“No,” she admitted.
“Then how can you be sure you wouldn’t like it?”
“I can have an opinion about something even if I haven’t done it.”
“Of course. It’s so much easier to form opinions without being troubled by experience or facts.”
She frowned but kept silent.