***
“Good lord! What’s happened to this bottle of brandy,” Samuel barked, seeing the decanter that he filled just a few days before was almost empty.
Amelia was on her way from the kitchen after doing the dinner dishes, and stopped short hearing Samuel’s scowl.
“Perhaps you’ve been drinking more than you thought?” Johanna suggested. She was lounging on the couch poring over the responses to her invitations to the barbecue.
“I drink the same every night, my dear. The bottle lasts a week. This was gone in three days.”
“I do remember giving Amelia a glass the other night,” the young woman looked at the cautiously approaching Amelia. “Did you need it to sleep since?”
“No, no, I didn’t,” she immediately replied, though strangely her denial sounded more like a confession than the truth.
