Chapter 8 Amelia Ridley
Amelia Ridley
Amelia looked over to Adesua with a knowing glance.
They knew Father’s tantrum was just the beginning of a long, drawn-out discussion.
At least Father didn’t know about Kavita possibly expecting.
That was another whole ordeal for her and Adesua to go through another time.
Amelia held on to Kavita and Adesua as they were dismissed to go about their day.
“Amelia, come to my office after dinner,” Father said abruptly before she could make her way out the door.
“Yes, Father.”
Who was she to argue at this moment? The only thing she wanted more than anything was to get out of the house.
Away from the stifling air of remorse and regret.
She couldn’t go too far, as dinner was a few hours away.
She grabbed Adesua’s and Kavita’s hands and kissed them both.
This was her little signal that it would be okay.
“I’ll see you both soon for dinner. Going to the stables to check on Mya.”
She did, in fact, check on Mya, but that wasn’t the reason Amelia went to the stables.
Her horse was the closest thing she had to a friend that wasn’t human.
She saddled and hopped on Mya, then headed next door to the Grants’.
She needed to see Jamison, even though she had been trying to avoid her deep feelings for him.
He was the only person who gave her a feeling of normalcy, and she needed that at this very moment.
The summer sun was still glaring even though dinner was quickly approaching.
When Jamison was home, he had a certain schedule that only Amelia knew.
He consistently checked on all his horses before nightfall.
She stopped Mya in her tracks when she saw him.
Every part of him was glistening, the muscles of his chiseled chest expanding as he stretched his hands out to loudly yell to the sky.
Jamison was a man who truly loved doing the unexpected.
That was what appealed to her the most—him not giving a care what high society saw him as.
Amelia saw his pecs tightening. She shamed herself for noticing.
Jamison turned, and now his bare back caused Amelia to blush and roll her neck in disbelief.
She dismounted and approached him from behind.
She craved the sacred love that he could offer.
The sweat beaded down his back as he patted himself dry with a ripped shirt, which he then placed back on a wooden post. Amelia didn’t know whether she should spook him or speak up, but seeing him quietly petting his horses gave her a soothing feeling, until the crack of a branch underneath her foot alerted him to her presence.
Jamison whipped his head around and slowly smiled.
“I thought my horse would be more loyal and warn me.” He kissed his steed while rubbing the top of her head, then fed her a carrot. “What are ya doing here, Ridley?”
“You didn’t hear what happened?” Amelia said, confused, as she moved closer.
“No, Mellie. You know I don’t keep up with whatever gossip is going on,” he said as he slipped on a white shirt that clung to every crevice.
Surely he had to have heard something from someone. Especially his father, who took pride in recounting any Ridley mishap.
“Let’s go to the beach. I’ll tell you what happened.”
Jamison nodded. Anytime he could get away with little words, he insisted on doing so. Amelia turned away, heading back to her horse.
“Where do you think you’re going now, Mellie?” Jamison yelled as he mounted his Clydesdale.
“Well, I thought you wanted me to meet you there?”
Jamison laughed. “Well, you thought wrong, now, didn’t you? Get up here.”
Amelia parted her lips and let out a brief gasp. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d ridden on the same horse as someone. She hesitated before approaching.
“Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite unless I tell her to,” Jamison said with a touch of playfulness.
She approached the box to get on, but instead, he grabbed her with one arm, and she swung her leg over the back of his horse.
Amelia had never been this close to a man before.
Even after the many years of her and Jamison’s so-called dating.
They were merely confidants who had exchanged a kiss here and there.
Jamison had never even tried to get with her in that way.
She knew during his time galivanting around the world, he’d had other women on his lap.
Of course, Metropolitan Musings journalists didn’t hold back whenever they saw him taking a woman who was not Amelia on a date.
It was one of the smaller reasons why they could probably never be together.
With the rumors of Dale dying on the Ridley estate already traveling through the streets of New York, she knew scandal would always chase them.
The public would soon suspect each of them, because such an act would make their American dream seem like a sham.
Amelia knew the announcement that she would take over the Ridley Line had ruffled some feathers.
Dale dying the day of the announcement could make it look like she was the aggressor, making sure no one was getting in her way.
Her chest pressed against Jamison’s back, making the sides of her hips tingle in ways she hadn’t felt before.
As they picked up speed through the fields, the breeze cooled her rosy cheeks.
Their bodies swayed in motion as she held on to his waist. Jamison dismounted, and Amelia immediately wished the pressure would return, but now she felt it in her heart.
This was the feeling of lonesome love that she’d never cared for.
Now she wanted it all with Jamison. He helped her down.
His horse immediately jumped into the water, splashing. Amelia laughed and then quickly straightened her face as Jamison stripped down to his undergarments. She turned away.
“Don’t tell me you have never seen your brothers run around the house with drawers on, now, Mellie,” he said in a low tone.
Amelia was sure no one would be there but them as she slipped her riding breeches down.
After all, she rationalized, the swimsuit she had at home looked just like her bloomers.
She waded into the water next to him. The horse splashed water in their faces as they laughed at their scandalous behavior in that moment.
This was the peace she needed. Amelia almost forgot about all the incessant issues at home, from her siblings giving her side glances when it was announced that she would be the future owner of the Ridley Line to Dale’s murder, Kavita’s possible pregnancy, and all the lies and secrets her siblings had gotten caught up in.
For once, she didn’t have to fix anything.
Even if it was just for this brief moment.
She looked at the sky, with the daytime moon shining bright through the baby blue hues. Maybe they would get married, but she remembered Jamison’s abruptness the other day at the Plaza, as if he hadn’t wanted a thing to do with her.
“Jamison, are you embarrassed of my family and me?”
He looked astonished, as if she had asked him to murder someone.
“Don’t ever ask me a silly question like that again. Now, tell me what happened yesterday.” He rose out of the water, returning to the shore.
Amelia pursed her lips in defiance. She knew something was off. If he hadn’t been embarrassed before, he might run now and never look back at her drama-stricken family.
“Dale is dead. We found him murdered in the maze—”
“Who is ‘we’?” Jamison interrupted. “And what do you mean ‘murdered’?”
The way he said the word “we” took Amelia aback.
It was as if he was disgusted by even the thought of a possible connection between her and a murder.
Amelia regretted her words, because no one had confirmed that Dale was murdered.
Even the chief hadn’t said so. But to her, the timing of his death was rather odd.
He’d targeted all her siblings in some way that night, along with a list of notable people, from politicians to celebrities.
Most of his coverage was damning. So murder was the only way for a devil like Dale to die.
Amelia’s face was now even redder than when she’d seen him undress.
She bit her lip in frustration over ruining such a peaceful moment.
“It was me and my siblings. I am not sure murdered is the right term, but it was horrible seeing his body like that. We found him at the pond in the maze,” she said, flustered.
Amelia saw Jamison clench his jaw. His face showed disappointment at this revelation, which she’d expected. The Ridleys having a scandal of this magnitude was something even Jamison couldn’t overlook, and she knew that.
“I mean, the police have already questioned us twice and let us be . . . I am sorry. I thought it would be okay to talk about this, but we must head back.” She stormed from the shore, slipping her breeches on.
Jamison ran after her.
“Mellie, come on, I was just curious. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She turned, her face filled with regret.
“Just forget I came here. I have to go back to my family. I don’t know, I just thought I would feel something different seeing you. Now I am even more confused than before I got here.”
Amelia didn’t have her horse, but that didn’t stop her from running as fast as she could toward home until Jamison was no longer in sight.
Every time she looked back, she noticed how he stayed in the same spot, looking as if he were waiting for her to turn back, but she didn’t.
She felt unclean as she returned to her room.
Maybe it was only her thoughts that needed cleansing, but she knew what usually cured her and her sisters in a moment of sadness: a long, relaxing bath with the finest oils and flowers.
Kavita knocked on the door and then proceeded to sit, in a daze, on the pink velvet ottoman.