He nodded, then hesitated. “Or we could just go to bed, and hope they are gone in the morning.”
Despite the situation, her mouth twitched, but she tugged him towards the drawing room. Might as well get it over with.
“Mr. Langford?” Spencer interjected the moment their words stopped. “Your father has arrived too. He is with his solicitor in the study, but I was asked to send for him the moment you returned.”
Andrew swallowed, but nodded. “We will be with the Renards.”
Without discussion, they assumed a united front, her arm in his as he opened the door. Already, Sophie was mentally cringing. Could her pride take any more this evening? She feared she was a breath from curling up in a ball and crying.
Her father was pacing the back wall, but turned upon their entrance. Mother sat on a cream chair, her narrowed eyes on Sophie.
“Sophia,” she said, her tone pinched.
“Mother,” Sophie returned in an even tone, doing her utmost to don her mask of serene civility. Heavens, but she hated how small she felt this night. How small she always felt around these two, who should have been a safe haven.
“Mr. Langford, a word,” Father said, studiously not looking at Sophie.
“If it concerns me, Father, you might speak to us both.”
“This is business for the men, dear, leave them to it,” Mother said.
Sophie cringed at the term of endearment, because it was a stark reminder that her mother did not hold her dear. Had not for quite some time, not since it became clear that Sophie would not be a model of feminine perfection like her two older sisters had been.
What would life have been like had her parents supported her dream?
“No,” Andrew said, not moving, though Father had started for the door. “I quite agree with Sophie. If it has to do with her, she ought to be here for the conversation.” Bless Andrew and his implacable confidence.
Father’s jaw tensed, but he nodded and sat. Andrew saw Sophie settled on the sofa, then sat beside her. Sophie’s eyes widened when he left hardly any space between them.
“You two are not married,” Father said, looking between the two of them. It was not a question.
“Did you travel all this way to inform us of that?” Andrew asked, and Sophie could have stared. She’d never seen anyone treat Father in the same manner he treated them.
Father ground his teeth. “Sophia’s mother was informed of an unsettling rumor, and we felt it was dire enough to come in person.”
And then the door opened again, and Andrew’s father entered. His expression was inscrutable when it passed over Sophie to land on Andrew.
Guilt surged. Sophie had used this man ill. He had provided her a place to stay in Weybridge, had always been kind to her, and she had enacted this farce with his son unbeknownst to him. In his own home.
That had to be why they were here. Had Mrs. Haverwick written moments after leaving the theater the night before? She must have, or else word got to Mother and Father in another avenue. Regardless, the jig was up.
And the absolute insanity of what she’d done was shown in crystalline light. She had faked a marriage. Lived alone with a man, had him in her room… all for a job she did not like and that treated her as if she were nothing more than the dung on a horse’s foot.
Andrew stood to shake his father’s hand with a steady gaze. How was he not quaking with the understanding of what they’d done? What she would not do for a modicum of his calm.
Then he sat by Sophie, looking at each of their parents in one. “So, you are here because you’ve learned Sophie and I are married.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Andrew could feel Sophie’s shaking leg beside his own. His anger from the Whitcomb’s served him well here, though; it kept him from buckling beneath the clear anger in her parents' eyes. Even his own father’s.
He was not about to let anyone else rain down censure on Sophie. This particular failing was all his own.
“Well, the unfettered truth is that we are not yet married,” Andrew admitted.
Mr. Renard sat forward, anger darkening his eyes as his mouth opened.
“How dare you!” Sophie’s mother burst out. “How dare you live with our daughter in such an abominable—you’ve ruined her reputation! You’ve destroyed us!”
