Chapter 5 #3
Without meaning to, Roman glanced at the connecting door. Blast.
Lyness followed his gaze. It was easy enough to see the light coming in from the next room. “Ah. Perhaps you did not miss it, then.”
“Athena pushed the door ajar,” Roman said defensively.
The dog in question rose and walked to Lyness, pushed her snout happily into his hand.
“Athena? Has she started listening at doorways?” Lyness rubbed between her ears. “That doesn’t sound like her in the least.” His brother stared at Roman with silent patience.
“I meant to announce myself.”
“Mm.”
“Or close the door.” But he had not. How odd for him.
“And yet, you did not.” Lyness glanced at Athena. “Not like him, either. You are both quite strange today.”
Roman straightened in his chair. “She has a clear head. Excellent self-expression.”
“Athena?” Lyness raised his eyebrows. “I never doubted her.”
With a huff Apollo would be proud of, Roman clarified, “Miss Mayweather.”
“Ah. My new acquaintance. Yes.” Lyness crossed to the chair by the fire and sat down without invitation.
“She does. Clearer than anyone else in that family, from what I can gather. She understands precisely what the problem is and precisely what solving it would require.” He paused.
“The people with the authority to resolve it do not appear to share her understanding.”
“Her father.” Roman twisted his pen again.
“And her brothers, to a degree. The elder one seems more interested in the appearance of managing things than the actual managing. According to her, at any rate.” Lyness looked at the fire, and Roman remembered the man at the Star Inn, and his somewhat dramatic way of letting the whole room know he was sulking.
No, he could not imagine Mr. Leopold Mayweather rallying to fix his family’s predicament.
Lyness continued, “She is not asking for charity. She is asking for enough information to do the work herself, if anyone would allow her.”
Roman was quiet for a moment. “What did you make of her situation?”
Lyness regarded him with the expression of a younger brother who has learned when not to ask questions. “Gentry. Large family. Father of independent but apparently dwindling means. No prospects of her own that I am aware of.”
“No prospects,” Roman repeated.
“None she mentioned.” Lyness watched Roman for a long moment. “But then, you heard all of that. Didn’t you?”
The fire settled with a soft collapse of embers as he lost himself in thought. Athena came to his side and dropped her head on his knee, her big brown eyes gazing with sympathy he did not deserve.
Roman scratched her ears anyway. “Let us hope Miss Thomasine Mayweather can find a solution to her problems.”
Lyness blinked. Then, very carefully, he said, “I beg your pardon? I do not believe she mentioned her first name. How did you know it?”
Roman picked up his pen. “It is not important.”
“Roman…”
He looked up again, stomach clenching. “I heard it somewhere. That is all.”
“There is apparently a gaggle of Mayweathers. How would you know which sister I spoke to?” Lyness crossed his arms and arched both eyebrows, a look clearly indicating he was not going to forget this point.
“It is inconsequential.”
But that would not put his brother off. “Not if my brother, the man who knows more about the names of architects from centuries ago than he does about the fashionable set in London, remembers a woman’s name.
” Lyness waited. “I have nothing else to occupy my time today, Emily is visiting one of her sisters for a fortnight. If you make me wait too long, I will mention it to Mother—”
“Do not bring Mother into it.” Roman instantly dropped his pen. “It is truly nothing, Lyness. A few days ago I spoke to her and one of her young brothers for two minutes, if even that much time passed, when the boy pounced upon my dogs with the usual curiosity a child shows large, furry creatures.”
With a chuckle, Lyness leaned more comfortably in the chair. “Many a child has fallen prey to that curiosity. Very well. I find that plausible. And she introduced herself? Unusually bold.”
“No.” Roman rose from the writing desk and took the chair opposite his brother, unable to escape the temptation of continuing the conversation about her. “It would not have been appropriate. Obviously. I had Jones look into it.”
His younger brother did not bother to hide his surprise. “Why?”
Why indeed.
Apollo had woken when Roman moved, and now ambled over to settle before the fire next to his mate.
He settled close to her, immediately going back to sleep.
Athena adjusted slightly, stretching one paw toward them.
Dogs were not romantic, exactly, but the affection between the two always settled something inside Roman’s chest.
“Roman? You cannot ignore a question and think I will stop asking.” Lyness’s dry tone pulled Roman back to the present.
“She liked the dogs.”
“I beg your pardon?” Lyness leaned forward. “She liked the dogs?”
“Yes.” Roman stared at the two enormous hounds and sighed even as his cheeks burned. He was completely aware of how ridiculous he sounded. “It was a fleeting moment. Not even a real conversation. But…she liked the dogs.”
Lyness made a noise of vague interest, and let the matter drop at last.
Which was more than Roman could do. His own mind was turning over the Mayweather situation the way he often did with puzzles of political or historical natures.
Merely because he was curious, of course. Not because he intended to do anything about any of it. It was not his business. Not in the least.