He needed to leave her alone.
Chapter seven
Sophia
SophiaandCaspianbeganthe walk home in comfortable silence, though the comfort soon faded. Sophia wasn’t sure what had changed, but Caspian was more withdrawn than usual.
He hadn’t been the same since Thea had pulled him aside in the café. What had she said to him to put him in this mood?
“Thank you for dinner,” she said after a moment of silence that lasted far too long. “It was delicious.”
“Yes, it was,” Caspian said shortly. “I’ll have to ask for her recipe and see if Cook can make it for us.”
Sophia laughed. “I don’t know if she’ll give it to you.”
Caspian shoved his hands into his pockets and gave her half a smile. “If I was her, I wouldn’t give out that recipe. Maybe if you asked for it—she likes you better than me, I’m sure.”
That seemed like an understatement. “She didn’t seem very happy to see you, did she?” Sophia asked.
Neither had Dietrich. She would have to ask them why they didn’t like Caspian the next time she was there. He had been a perfect gentleman so far, and she saw no reason not to like him. But maybe they knew something she didn’t know. She was new to town, after all. Maybe there was more to the story.
Maybe that’s why everyone was so surprised to see him, why Thea had pulled him aside to talk to him and why Dietrich was glaring at him.
It would do her no good to get involved with a scoundrel.
It was hard to tell much about him from the limited time they’d spent together, and she knew nothing except that he had been a guard in Riyel for two years.
It was time to change that. If she learned more about him, maybe she could discover why nobody seemed to like seeing them together.
Nobody except Beatrice, who had done nothing but smirk at her the entire night. Beatrice seemed to think that they made a cute couple, like one of her romance books, but romance books didn’t happen in real life.
And Beatrice might be disappointed, especially since there seemed to be some reason for Thea and Dietrich to dislike him. She trusted their opinion—because if she couldn’t trust Thea and Dietrich, who else could she trust?
Probably not Caspian.
The thought made her feel something. What feeling exactly, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t hurt. Maybe uncomfortable…but it went deeper than that.
Whatever the feeling was, she wanted to trust Caspian.
She would have to do something to determine whether he was worthy of her trust, starting with talking to Thea and Dietrich.
“I suppose we should probably pretend we didn’t eat in town and still go to dinner,” she said, looking up at him. He hadn’t answered her question.
“I think we may have to,” he agreed. “I don’t know how much I’ll be able to eat after Thea’s pot pie, though.”
“It was so filling,” Sophia said. But if she didn’t make an appearance at dinner, someone would notice.
Probably.
Maybe not.
She didn’t want to find out, though. It was easier to avoid being noticed.
As they approached the manor and made their way through the gates, Sophia glanced up at him one more time.
Perhaps Beatrice was onto something. He certainly was handsome.
But if she couldn’t trust him, it didn’t matter how handsome he was.
