Page 115 of Depraved Boys

Leopold shook his head. “Her father was the bank’s chairman, and he didn’t have any sons to take up his position. My great-uncle is serving as the interim chairman right now, and Mother holds all my votes until I’m deemed fit to take up the reins.”

“Oh.” I wrapped my arms around my middle. “That’s sexist.”

“Indeed.” He blew out a breath. “The worst part is that she would have made an excellent chair, but the board of stuffy old men won’t acknowledge all that she’s achieved from being head of the UK branch.”

We rounded a corner and crossed into a road lined of tall, Georgian townhouses with stone-faced walls covering the ground floors. From what I knew of Brunswick Bank, it was a global, family-owned institution that operated from a small number of branches. I supposed that being relegated to a lower position for being female had turned her bitterness toward her son.

“That explains their sour faces,” I muttered.

He shrugged. “Mother wants my sister to become the next heir, but that’s never going to happen with the succession policies that favor men. Now, she’s doing everything she can to secure both their positions when I become the chairman.”

“When’s that?”

“At the age of thirty.” He grimaced and opened the door to the parking lot. “If I marry earlier, twenty-five.”

I stepped into the darkened building and walked alongside Leopold to the elevator. “I’ll bet she’ll arrange a marriage to a girl who’s just like her.”

“Or someone pliable.” He pressed the call button.

I shook my head. Things were different in centuries-old dynasties. Mom and Dad would never dictate who I dated as long as he was of an appropriate age and without a criminal record. Even though Leopold was as wealthy as a duke and would own a considerable share of a bank, I didn’t envy him one bit.

As we stepped into the elevator, I wondered whether Leopold’s mother exerted control over him by not letting him have a car. He had also said that Master Chang’s clinic was on an authorized list. Did that mean he couldn’t use the card in most other places?

That evening in the swimming block, he had been particularly keen to earn a share of Geraldine’s ten-thousand-pound challenge. Perhaps his mother didn’t give him a cash allowance.

The elevator reached the top floor, and I bit down on my lip. Other people’s financial affairs were none of my business, and I wouldn’t bring up the subject if it was a sore point for Leopold. We stepped out, and he unlocked the jeep’s doors with Sebastian’s remote.

After settling into the front seat, I asked, “Isn’t your sister supposed to be at school, too?”

His hands gripped the steering wheel. “She lives at home and is a day student at Chelsea Ladies’ College. Mother keeps her close.”

And she sent Leopold away to the other end of the country. The academy was only thirty miles from the border of Scotland. “Sorry.”

He shook his head. “It’s for the best. I hated feeling like an interloper at home.”

“What about your father?”

Leopold barked a laugh. “Uncle Bertram?”

My brows drew together. This was already sounding like a peculiar arrangement. “He’s still alive, isn’t he?”

“Mother’s trusty PA, henchman, and former husband. It was a marriage of convenience that was supposed to last until I was born, but she had a son.”

“Right…” I couldn’t imagine growing up with Dad taking on Uncle Trevor’s role. I also didn’t understand what was so bad about Leopold having been born male, so I waited for him to continue.

“She wanted a little girl to prolong her hold on grandfather’s shares. If her only child was a girl, then the board would have had to wait until that daughter gave birth to a son, which would give mother control over the bank until her grandson turned thirty.”

I rubbed the side of my head and grimaced. “But she had a boy.”

“I should count myself lucky she didn’t abort me and try again.”

My insides cringed with discomfort. This entire situation sounded awful. “Was she a cruel mother?”

“Nannies brought me up, and mother spent her spare time with Beatrice.” He drove through a maze of backstreets, some with frost-covered garden squares bordered by wrought-iron walls. “It wasn’t until I joined the academy and befriended Sebastian that I understood what it meant to be part of a family. The Garraways were great.”

We drove past a deserted, frost-covered Regents Park, and a chill permeated my bones. What would it have been like for Leopold to see his mother being a parent to his sister while he was relegated to nannies? Part of me wondered if that was why he had never formed deep attachments with girls, but I didn’t dare ask for fear of sounding judgmental.

“What was Sebastian’s family like?” I asked.