“Your Majesty,” he began, his deep voice suddenly stricken with a strained raspiness.
“Yes?”
He sucked in a deep breath, scrubbed a hand across his mouth, then deflated with a gusting exhale. After casting a disgruntled look in Sophie’s direction, one she resented and shot right back at him, he bowed his head. “I am ever obedient to you, Your Majesty. As always.”
“Excellent. Today has proven to be just as satisfying as I had hoped.” The queen lifted a silver bell and rang it, causing both her dogs to bark. “Now, now—decorum, Mercury and Phoebe. We must always maintain proper decorum.”
As soon as her secretary opened the door, she gave a nod. “My guests are ready to leave, Edwards. Show them out, then we have much to accomplish and little time in which to accomplish it, so do not dawdle.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Edwards stepped aside and opened the door wider while casting an expectant look Sophie’s way.
She assumed the others were included in his unspoken invitation to leave the premises, but at the moment she didn’t really care. All she knew for certain was that she needed to get out of the queen’s presence so she could scream. With her teeth clenched so tightly that her jaws ached, she rose and gave the monarch a deep curtsy. “Your Majesty.”
Queen Charlotte gave a dismissive nod.
Or, at least, Sophie thought she did. With her mind and emotions in such a turmoil, all she knew for certain was that she needed to escape so she might figure a way to free herself from becoming leg-shackled to the most irritating man in all creation.She snatched up the letters from the blackmailer and stuffed them back into her reticule.
She rushed past Edwards, skimmed down the stairs, and shoved through the door out into the rain, not giving the slightest care if she became soaked to the skin. She ran up the path toward Kew instead of getting into the carriage.
“Sophie!” her mother called out. “Sophie, you must stop this instant!”
A strong hand closed around her arm and, gently but firmly, pulled her to a stop. “Lady Sophie, this is folly. You risk becoming quite ill by running off into the rain.”
“At least then we would both be free of a marriage that neither of us wants.” She yanked her arm free, wishing she had a sword to challenge him to a duel. Everything in her screamed to battle for the world she had worked so hard to protect all these years.
Nash stared down at her, his expression unreadable. “Come back to the carriage. To your mother.”
“No.”
He glanced back at the queen’s cottage, then turned to her again. “Do you want the queen to see you behaving like this?”
“She already thinks I am an unimpressive, mindless spinster. I hardly think I can descend much lower in her esteem.” For the first time that day, Sophie was thankful for the rain. It hid the hot tears streaming down her face. “Leave me in peace, Sir Nash. We may be forced to marry, but that hardly means we must tolerate each other’s company.”
His still-unreadable expression hardened into an irritated scowl. “You forget, my lady. I am charged with ensuring you are kept safe.”
Before she could respond, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder as if she were a sack of grain.How dare he!“You will put me down this instant!” She pelted blows across hisback, knocked off his hat, pulled his hair, and twisted his ears. She contemplated biting him but decided against it. Instead, she squirmed and battered him with every ounce of rage, insult, and hurt feelings he had ever foisted upon her all those years ago.
Nothing fazed him. He marched back to the carriage and unceremoniously tossed her inside. She landed on her bum in the floor between the seats. Before she scrambled to her feet, he slammed the door, latched it, and banged on the side for the driver to take off.
She fought her way to the window and hung out of it, shaking her fist at him. “I hate you!” she roared. “And I always will!”
He didn’t bother reacting, just marched to his horse after retrieving his hat, mounted up, and followed them.
“That was quite the display,” her mother remarked in a calm tone, as if speaking about the weather.
Flopping back into the seat, Sophie glared at her. “Prepare yourself, Maman. That was only the beginning.”
Chapter Two
The scrawny, fiery-hairedduckling who had annoyed him to no end ten years ago had become an intoxicatingly beautiful swan. Nash stared at the back of the carriage while rubbing his ear that still stung from the vicious twisting she had given it.
Gads, but Sophie was incomparable. If he had known she would bloom into such a desirable woman, he would not have shooed her away like the annoying little buzzing bee she had been. The thought gave him pause. Apparently, by teasing, nettling, and, more often than not, completely ignoring her, he had created quite the fierce enemy that the past ten years had done nothing to mellow. And now she was to be his wife. A wife who not only despised him but swore they would never be in each other’s company if she had her way about it.
Never in all his days had he ever feared becoming leg-shackled in such a manner—ordered by Her Majesty, no less. While it was true his family was landed gentry, he was naught but a mere knight who currently owned nothing but his horse. At least, not until his father passed and grudgingly left everything to him because there was no other son, daughter, or cousin to leave things to. Still, being hunted by marriage-minded mamas had never been a problem. What mother wished her daughter saddled with the likes of him?
He snorted as the fault in his reasoning became clear. The mother hadn’t wanted him for her daughter. The queenhad. But the queen had also said he would soon be the next Earl of Rydleshire. To resolve whatever mysterious problem endangered Lady Rydleshire and Lady Sophie. He shook his head. The more he thought about it, the more muddled everything became.
Another disgruntled snort escaped him as he recalled the rest of what the queen had said.Have the fourth Earl of Rydleshire pronounced expired without an heir.Was the man already dead, or was that Her Majesty’s subtle way of ordering the earl’s demise? And was he supposed to do it? What had the man done to displease the monarch so? The third Earl of Rydleshire had been assassinated by an enemy spy, but before his death, the man had been lauded as one of the best agents of the Crown.
