“Sophia,” he said softly. “What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. She didn’t want to talk to him.
“Tell me what happened,” he said.
“Why don’t you tell me, Lord Rendon?” she asked quietly, though the words had a bite to them.
His eyes widened. “You didn’t know.”
It wasn’t a question.
She didn’t want to hear his excuses. He’d known who he was all this time, and he hadn’t told her. That wasn’t something you should keep from someone, especially if you were spending time with them.
Maybe she’d been reading it wrong. Maybe he wasn’t trying to get to know her like she thought. Maybe that was simply her inexperience talking. Maybe he only saw her as a friend.
But even a friend should know who you were.
Did everyone at the café know who he was? Had they kept silent, too?
“Sophia, please.” He offered his hand. “Let me explain.”
There was a lump in her throat as she swallowed, unsure of what to say. Everyone in the kitchen was staring at her, which was the most attention they’d paid to her since she’d arrived. She felt like she was naked under their gaze, and she knew they would be talking about this for weeks to come.
They’d probably already been talking about her for weeks, ever since he started spending time with her.
Come to think of it, the girls in her room had been awfully quiet the past few weeks. She should have known then that something was wrong. She’d heard them gossiping before—the lack of it should have been a sign.
Now she knew. She hadn’t heard it because the current gossip was about her.
“Please,” he said again in barely a whisper.
The outer door opened, and a stable hand came racing in. “Where’s Sophia? Her dang goats are out again.”
Sophia’s eyes widened and she scrambled around Caspian and raced for the outer door.
Of course they’d gotten out right now. Why not? One more thing for her to worry about.
If Ivy got out of the courtyard, chasing her would be awful, and she did not want to deal with that right now.
It wasn’t until she was halfway to the barn that she realized Caspian was keeping pace with her. “Let me help,” he said.
She ignored him and grabbed the leads off the wall of the barn. One of the stable hands pointed to the main door and she ran, hoping the guards had prevented the goats from running out the front gate.
Thankfully, they were still in the main courtyard, but it looked like Ivy was in a fine mood as she ran and avoided the two stable hands who were chasing her.
Sophia hurried toward Ivy. She gestured for the stable hands to herd her toward the outer pen. If Sophia could get her pinned against a fence, it would be much easier to catch her.
It took forever, but she finally pinned Ivy against a fence with the help of the two stable hands and wrapped the lead rope around her neck.
One down. Two to go.
She handed the lead rope off to a stable hand and grabbed the other one she’d looped around her shoulders, preparing to go find Valley or Meadow, when she noticed Caspian already had both. He had a lead rope around Valley’s neck and was holding Meadow by the neck with his bare hand.
He was actually touching a goat?
If Sophia hadn’t been mad at him, she would have been impressed.
All three adults were accounted for. Hopkins and a stable hand were holding the twins, and Terra was settled into a nook near the barn, nodding off despite the chaos.
