Amelia Hayes

Amelia Hayes, a character in The Unexpected Heiress series, was your Your Character's older sister and the fiance of Francis Somerset. She is first seen in Chapter 1.

Appearance
Amelia has long brown hair tied together, brown eyes and tanned skin. She wears white and beige dress and a golden diamond necklace.

Personality
According to Lord Ashbourne, Amelia was a flexible person who adapted quickly to new environments. John says that she was the friendly, outspoken type. Hugh says she was full of verve and quick-witted. He believed she had a shrewd mind for business and wanted to learn the family trade, but her father wouldn't allow it. He felt that she resented being left out merely because of her gender. Baron Pritchard says that she had a keen sense of strategy but also got very involved in games and was a sore loser.

Amelia had two sides to her: one side - the perfect lady who had impeccable table manners, and the other side - a fierce personality unafraid to debate foreign affairs (once even "talking circles around" a viceroy) and unwilling to back down. According to Hugh, she refused the attempts of the nobility to shape her into the person they thought she should be. Effie says Amelia was able to work a room with a balance of genteel grace and American zest. Baron Pritchard says Amelia had a keen sense for strategy and would get invested, and hated losing.

If you befriend the bookstore owner in Windcroft Village, she can mention that Amelia was a voracious reader, who was particularly fond of romance novels. At least once a week, the bookstore owner would need to order custom shipments for her. She once ordered a book on the entail system, tying in to her interest in politics and her independent nature.

The Unexpected Heiress

 * Chapter 1: Windcroft Manor
 * Chapter 2: Blood Relatives (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 3: Lay of the Land (Mentioned)
 * Chapter 4: Roses & Thorns (Mentioned; Physical appearance determinant)
 * Chapter 5: Without a Trace
 * Chapter 6: A Sordid Affair
 * Chapter 7: Belle of the Ball (Mentioned)

Your Character
Amelia was your older half-sister. As you reveal to the Somersets during your first dinner with them, Amelia's mother and father divorced when Amelia was a baby. Eventually, her father remarried your mother and they had you. When your mother died, he then remarried Delia, who bore him two sons. The two of you were quite close growing up, often playing together. One of the games you'd often play was make-believe, and the two of you would make up fancy-sounding names for yourselves, though you would keep your first names the same. You later wonder if this informed her choice of an alias.

When your mother was alive, she would tell Amelia and you that 'Blood does not run thicker than water.' Because even though she was not related to Amelia by blood, she considered your sister to be her daughter nonetheless. When Francis tells you that Amelia's last words were 'Blood runs...', you are confused as you don't understand the reason she would say that.

Francis Somerset
Francis Somerset was Amelia's fiance. In Chapter 2, if you have Effie snoop around Francis's room, she finds rough drafts of love letters and scratched-out lines of poetry from Francis to Amelia. Francis hopes that she will eventually love him as he loves her. When he is London, he tells her that he misses her smiles and her laughter. Effie also finds risque sketches of Amelia in nightgowns, smiling demurely at the artist; and Effie is unsure if Amelia actually posed for him or if they are visualizations.

In Chapter 3, if asked, Hugh will say that she appeared to like Francis but might have wanted more time to get to know him. If you choose to eavesdrop on him during the garden party in Chapter 4, you find out that he has been investigating Amelia's death, though he has kept the investigation a secret due to insufficient evidence and concern about who might have been involved in her death. Her death was too sudden to make any logical sense. He tells you, "I truly loved Amelia. I just want to do right by her. And if someone killed her... I want them brought to justice."

In Chapter 6, you have the option to tell Francis that Amelia stayed at the inn in Windcroft village. If you don't, you tell him in Chapter 7 to brace for a worst case scenario that Amelia was cheating on him and possibly pregnant. When you do, he does not believe it but accepts your words and knows that finding out the truth about what happened may be devastating. He tells you that he tracked down the small shop that sold the perfume bottle but the owner doesn't remember who purchased it.

Hugh Crawford
According to Effie, Hugh was one of the few people that Amelia seemed truly herself with. Not a noble and not kept to the same standards, they bonded over feeling out of place in the company that they kept. He treasured her companionship but never thought about her romantically.

In the last few months of her life, they grew more distant. During that time, he knew she was always busy and that something was worrying her, but she wouldn't tell him. At the end of Chapter 3, he reveals Amelia tried to make a withdrawal that your father wouldn't authorize so he had to turn her down. In turn, she had to borrow the huge sum of money from Aunt Maude, who deposited the money in multiple small transactions. He says that Amelia then directly transferred the large amount to another person.

After speaking to the bank teller, Hugh discovers that Amelia was accompanied by a man with dark hair and bright green eyes to the bank. You two deduce that it is possible that because women are not allowed to open bank accounts in their own names, she could have had a male friend open one on her behalf.

Effie Ainsley
Effie was Amelia's lady's maid. During her time there, Effie states Amelia insisted on going into town without a chaperone.

Whittenby household male servant
When Amelia stayed at the Whittenby manor during one of the social season's hunts, she had an admirer, according to Effie's friend, Franny. He wrote her a note, which was found in her room by a maid, where he professed his love. "I need to see you. I know it's risky because of all the lies, but my heart can't wait any longer. Meet me by the stables at midnight. I pray you'll be there." Amelia did not show up at the stables, and the male servant was scolded and warned, but he remains employed by the Whittenby household.

In Chapter 7, you and your love interest (or friend you chose to accompany) find a man with dark hair and bright green eyes in the kitchen. It is the Whittenbys' chauffeur.

Trivia

 * She shares the same first name as Amelia Sr. and Amelia from Rules of Engagement.
 * She and her family (MC, Delia, and Devon) share their surname with Selma Hayes from Baby Bump, Book 1.
 * In Chapter 1, the day she died is revealed as May 5, 1913. That is also the same day she wrote you a letter which Effie gives to you when you retire to your room.
 * In Chapter 4, it is revealed that she was murdered via poisoned perfume she received as a wedding gift that morning. The poison affected her respiratory system and did not cause any external nor internal bleeding.
 * In Chapter 2's premium scene, you relive a memory of Amelia. You were six years old in 1900, and Amelia was twelve, which reveals Amelia was six years older than you. This makes Amelia approximately 25 years old.
 * Amelia's younger character model resembles young Kavya Mistry from The Elementalists: Winters Past.