Not normal at all.
Sebastian turned to stare at Jane.
She gave him a weak smile.
Sebastian frowned back at his brother, and Jane changed her initial opinion. He could look as intense as Rhys. “Rhys, what the hell are you talking about?”
“This is Jane Harrison.” Rhys came to stand beside her.
“The lady to which I have been betrothed.”
When Sebastian just stared at him.
Rhys clarified, “From America.”
When his brother still didn’t speak, Rhys turned to her. “I am sorry. Sebastian is often considered the gregarious member of the family. But apparently today he is—”
“Freaked out,” Sebastian suggested.
Rhys shot his brother a puzzled look. “Freaked out?” He said the words as if that phrase was totally unfamiliar to him, but then he smiled at Jane apologetically. “I should also add that while he is gregarious, Sebastian often says things which are best just disregarded.”
Sebastian didn’t respond, although his facial expression said the same thing he’d already voiced. His brows were drawn together, and his hazel eyes were opened very wide. He looked— freaked out.
That had to be a good sign; if Rhys was truly insane, then presumably Sebastian would not be unnerved by this behavior.
Right?
She hoped so.
“Rhys,” he finally said. “I think Jane would probably like to have some… tea.
Tea and—kippers.
So I’ll take her to the kit—dining room and get her settled. Then I will talk to you about all this—amazing news.”
Rhys debated,
then
nodded. He touched Jane’s cheek, his fingers gentle,
his
thumb close to the fullness of her lower lip. “Will you be all right? My brother is relatively harmless.”
She nodded, fighting the urge to nuzzle her face against his large hand. She was truly pathetic. Any sane person would be running. Maybe she was the one who was crazy.
He glanced at Sebastian. “Although, he does not know how to dress in front of a lady”—then he cast a wry look at himself and his own state of undress—“but nor do I.”
Sebastian still sported that same muddled, yet concerned look. “I’ll make an effort
to
be more modest around your— Jane.”
Rhys nodded as if he thought that was a good idea, but Jane noticed he didn’t make the same pledge.
“I will let you and Sebastian
get
acquainted.”
“The dining room is this way,” Sebastian said, gesturing down the hallway.
Jane followed him, looking back over her shoulder once. Rhys still stood in the center of the hallway, watching her. A look laden with desire and something very like wonder made his amber eyes seem to glow.
Again her insides did a little flip.
This was ridiculous. She should not be reacting to Rhys this way. She didn’t know him. She didn’t remember how they’d ended up back together—and in bed.
Yes, he was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen, but she had to be sensible. And sensible women didn’t have relationships with men who were possibly crazy.
Although he hadn’t seemed crazy when he’d saved her.
Or when he’d walked her back to her hotel.
And Jane knew crazy.
As if he’d been reading her mind, Sebastian said, “My brother isn’t normally a nut.”
He’d led her into a large room with dark wood
paneling
and two windows hidden behind burgundy velvet drapes. The light in the room came from two elaborate chandeliers dangling over a long, heavy, dark wood table surrounded by a dozen ornately carved chairs with burgundy velvet backs and cushions.
He closed the door behind them.
She turned from surveying the room. “I don’t know your brother very well, but he did save my life last night, and although I can’t remember much else, I know he wasn’t insane.” She couldn’t say why she felt so strongly about that fact, except for maybe because she’d lived with someone not quite sane. Jane’s father hadn’t been certifiable, but he had been a little strange.
“He saved your life?”
“Yes, I didn’t use very good judgment and trusted a man I shouldn’t have. Fortunately Rhys realized this guy was not a nice person. He followed us and…” She took a deep breath. Again, she was so t
hank
ful that Rhys had been there. “He stopped the guy from doing something awful. Then he walked me back to the hotel where I am staying, and he left.”
“But he must have come back? Or you went to find him?”
She shook her head. “That’s the thing. I don’t remember seeing him again. I did leave the hotel and head back toward the bar. But I never encountered Rhys.
At least not that I can recall.”
She frowned, confused. “But I suppose I must have.”
“Yes you
were
with him again. I mean, otherwise, you wouldn’t be here now.”
His words were obviously true, but there was something about the way he said them that struck her as strange. A certainty that almost implied he knew more than he was saying.
But then he smiled at her, a nice, encouraging smile, and she decided she was reading too much into his simple agreement to her own ponderings.
“Okay, well, let me show you to the kitchen,” he said, leading her through the dining room to another door. “I think we have tea and sugar. There might even be bread and butter or jam or something.”
Jane nodded, thinking that it was odd that he seemed so unsure of what was in his own kitchen. But then maybe he just didn’t cook. Or eat at home.
“Help yourself to anything. I’ll go talk to Rhys, and hopefully, I can get some answers out of him. Or at least figure out why he’s acting so strange.”
Jane nodded, but she didn’t move. She just looked around the kitchen, suddenly overwhelmed by the weirdness of the situation—of the past two days.
“It will be okay, Jane.”
She offered him a forced smile as he left the kitchen. She did appreciate his comforting words. It had to be pretty odd for him, too. He must be really shaken up about Rhys.
Sebastian grinned as soon as the kitchen door swung shut behind him.
Wasn’t this turning into another interesting
evening.
Rhys, his detached, surly and annoyingly gloomy brother,
had
saved a mortal life. Unbelievable!
Rhys adhered to one cardinal rule:
never get involved with mortals
. At least no mortals outside of the ones he used as his food source. And they were always the dregs of society.
Sebastian shuddered, just thinking about it. They didn’t use the word
dregs
for no reason. Lowlifes tasted like the residue at the bottom of the barrel—vile and stale as if their life forces were decaying with each evil act they’d done.
But Jane had done no evil acts. Not a one. That fact was clear in her very scent—she was wholesome.
The last type of mortal with whom Rhys would entangle himself.
But he most definitely had. They had somehow gotten entangled with each other. Sebastian could smell that, too. Both of them reeked of unbridled lust.
Sebastian grinned again with amusement. Who knew his brother grim even had a sex drive. Sebastian had always believed
Rhys’s
thoughts of sex had been cast aside to make more room for all his languishing.
Apparently not.
Rhys had just required the right lady.
But who was Jane? Sebastian’s steps slowed, and his smile slipped.
Great.
Rhys had a romantic interest, but Jane’s story certainly hadn’t clarified what had happened in the alley last night.
He could deduce that the male mortal in the alley was the guy who had attacked Jane, which was why Rhys had gone dental on the guy. But he still didn’t know who had attacked Rhys or why. And he had no idea why Rhys was acting so weird earlier. He thought Jane was his betrothed. And he’d even smiled a couple times. Rhys never smiled.
So much was still unexplained. Who was he kidding? Nothing made sense. He really hoped Rhys had snapped out of his lust-induced delirium and had some sort of explanation.
It didn’t take long for Sebastian to find Rhys—in the library, a large room full of books and music, and
Rhys’s
favorite room in the apartment.
Rhys sat in a chair, leaning back against the cushions, legs crossed, looking unusually relaxed. Two glasses of scotch were already poured and waiting on the table.
“There you are,” Rhys greeted with a broad, warm smile. “I thought we might have a drink to celebrate.”
Sebastian blinked. He couldn’t recall the last time he had seen that smile, certainly not since Rhys crossed over.
And Rhys celebrating?
Brooding was about as celebratory as Rhys got.
“Is Jane settled with her tea?”
“Yes. She’s fine.”
“Good.” Rhys stood and crossed to the giant stone fireplace that took up most of one of the walls. He picked up a fire poker from the hearth and stirred the smoldering ashes. Then he tossed a log onto the orange coals.
“She is lovely, is she not?”
“Jane? Yes.” Sebastian studied his brother. Why was he talking so stiltedly? And when had his English accent gotten so pronounced? They’d both lost their accents almost totally over the decades.
Rhys returned
to
pick up his scotch. Then he crossed back to the fireplace, leaning an arm on the mantel. He took a sip of the golden liquid,
then
sighed. “I am quite pleased with the match, I must say. When Father had told me that he had arranged for me to wed an American, I had been more than a little outraged.”
Sebastian remembered, even though the incident had happened nearly two hundred years ago. Was that why Rhys was talking and acting so strangely? Somehow he believed he was back in nineteenth century England?
“I was picturing a hulking woman who pushed a plow through the fields all day,” Rhys told him, and it took a moment for Sebastian to realize what he was talking about.
“A woman with no social graces,” Rhys continued.
“A savage, in truth.
But out of respect for Father and Mother, I would have married her.”
Sebastian almost chuckled at that. Man, Rhys had really dodged a bullet on that one.
Rhys’s
image of his American fiancée was dead on. Sebastian couldn’t recall her name— Bertha, he seemed to think. And she
had
been a hulking, abrasive and very unattractive woman.
In fact, Sebastian wished he’d remembered ole Bertha earlier. When Rhys was lamenting being a vampire, which he did often, Sebastian could have reminded him that he could have lived and died in the arms of big Bertha.
Which brought him back to the mystery of who Jane was and what happened in that alley last night. Jane didn’t know. And it was pretty darn obvious Rhys had no clue either as he was quite happily back in merry old
England
.
Sebastian concentrated on Rhys. He couldn’t sense anything physically wrong with him—even his maimed neck had healed completely. So why was he acting this way? Rhys was too
angsty
to be insane. Insanity would normally be way too fun for him.
“Where are Christian and Elizabeth? I want them to meet Jane. They will love her.”
Suddenly
Rhys’s
current predicament didn’t seem quite so amusing. He had somehow forgotten the past two centuries.
And all the painful things that had happened in that time.
Elizabeth
’s death.
Christian’s hatred toward them both—but especially Rhys.
The loss of his siblings had devastated Rhys, but he’d subsisted, not ever returning to the Rhys whom Sebastian had known in life, but he kept going. Somehow Sebastian didn’t think Rhys could survive losing them all over again.
Wait, if he didn’t remember
Elizabeth
’s death, and he didn’t remember his rift with Christian, then he certainly didn’t remember he was a vampire. He didn’t have a clue that he was
undead
.
“Sebastian,” Rhys asked sharply. “You are a thousand miles away. Did you hear me? Where are Elizabeth and Christian?”
“They are—at the country estate,” Sebastian said quickly. What the hell was the name of that old place?
“At
Rothmere
?”
That was it. “Yes. Remember, Christian took
Elizabeth
there, because her friend was having a house party?”
Rhys frowned, obviously trying to recall. “
Elizabeth
is always attending this or that. I cannot keep track.”
Sebastian took a swallow of his scotch. This was too weird. Who knew a vampire could even get amnesia, but that appeared to be exactly what Rhys had.
Rhys walked over and turned on the floor lamp beside a tan, overstuffed chair.
Sebastian watched him closely, expecting him to react to the whole concept of electric lights—an invention they didn’t see until the late 1800s, nearly fifty years after their
undeaths
.
But Rhys didn’t react. He sat down and refilled his glass. He held up the decanter to Sebastian.