“Is there something wrong?”
“No, of course not. It’s just that I am getting used to a new place; that is all,” Sophia assured him, but the latent fear in her voice betrayed her. The Duke did not seem to buy her explanation either, and he decided to press her further.
“Are you sure that is the extent of it?” He raised his eyebrow. “I do not mean to probe, but you appear visibly shaken, and while this environment is new to you, it is certainly not hostile. There must be something else going on.”
“You are quite the perceptive man, are you not, Your Grace?” Sophia replied with a sigh. Perhaps she was not such a great actress after all.
“I would believe so, yes, but you are dodging my question,” he pressed.
“If you really must know, then I had a small nightmare,” Sophia replied with a forced shrug. She did not want to make it appear as though it was a big deal, and she felt that it was far too early for her to admit this.
“Small enough that it made you run away from the room entirely and seek shelter in the library instead?” he questioned.
Sophia was surprised by his flair for drama. She had not expected him to embellish her words like that.
“That is one way to put it, correct,” she replied. “I just thought that it would be good to have a change of scenery. Surely you can relate if you have ever had nightmares.”
“I must say that my dreams are sparse, and I rarely remember them,” the Duke replied. “I prefer to live in reality.”
“Lucky you. Some of us are not as lucky,” she muttered under her breath, finding herself growing envious of the Duke.
What would she give to stop having these nightmares? As if it was not bad enough that she had witnessed the traumatic death of her family in front of her eyes, she had to now relive it in her dreams for the rest of her life.
“Would you say that the nightmares are a recurring event?”
Sophia had not expected the Duke to ask so many questions. If anything, she had expected him to be annoyed at being disturbed at this hour. It was a welcome surprise, however, as Sophia cherished the fact that she had someone to talk to at least.
“Well, sleep is a recurring event,” she tried to answer as diplomatically as possible, “so logically, nightmares must be too.”
“Is it too blunt to ask you what it was that you were having a nightmare about?” The Duke was staring at her directly now.
Under his intense gaze, she could not bring herself to hide any longer. Getting it off her chest would do her good.
“All my nightmares are about the same thing, Your Grace. They are quite predictable in a way,” she admitted with a frown. “I am always drowning in them.”
The Duke’s expression softened immediately.
“I am sorry to hear that, Madam.”
For a moment, Sophia wondered if he was going to reach out and touch her hand gently as a way of comforting her. She swore that she even saw his hand twitch, trying to move forward in her direction. But ultimately, he must have decided not to, and instead, a heavy silence hung in the air between them, punctuated only by the sound of their breathing.
“I know that there is something that we have not discussed, yet.” The Duke finally broke the silence, and Sophia’s heartrate began to climb. “I do not want to want to pressure you into telling me anything, but I believe it would be better if you did. I have only heard about the… accident… secondhand.”
“There are no shortage of rumors surrounding the incident,” Sophia admitted bitterly. “I will have you know that I have heard variations of it that I did not even think were possible. Fantastical ones. I remember one rumor where it was alleged that I pushed the driver out of the way and steered the carriage off the bridge.”
“I am sorry to hear that, Madam. That sounds overwhelmingly cruel.” His fist tightened. “I used to believe that the rumors about my family were harsh, but now that I have met you, I see that you seem to have it infinitely worse.”
“Lucky me,” Sophia remarked wryly.
“Since the topic has come up, would you mind telling me what happened that night?” he asked.
Sophia had expected to grow annoyed at his insistence. She usually did whenever someone pressed her too much to tell them the story. That was one of the reasons why she avoided social contact so much as she was sick of people asking her what had happened.
But for some reason, she did not feel that with the Duke. Perhaps it was the late hours of the night that had lowered her guard, or perhaps, deep down, she wished to share it with someone who would understand.
Whatever it was, Sophia decided to bite the bullet. She was going to bare her soul out to him.Why not?He was herhusbandafter all.
“Well, Your Grace, I suppose you will have to hang tight on your seat for this story,” she said sarcastically, “as it is not a pleasant one nor for the faint-hearted.”
