Where was Mollie?
“I’m so sorry, Sophia,” Hopkins said, approaching her with Ned in his arms. The baby goat struggled to get down, but he held tightly. “I was trying to put Mollie back and they all bolted out the gate.”
“Where’s Mollie?” she asked, looking around wildly.
She couldn’t lose her favorite.
What if she’d jumped into the well? Or snuck out of the courtyard in the hubbub? Sophia scanned the whole courtyard and then looked toward the barn, her jaw dropping when she noticed a brown baby goat dancing along the top of the barn.
“How did she even get up there?” she asked as she made her way to Caspian and looped the extra lead around Meadow’s neck.
Caspian let out a laugh. “Of course she’s on top of the barn. Why is she your favorite?”
Sophia rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. At this point, she’s not going to be my favorite anymore.”
“I’ll get her,” Caspian said, handing her the lead rope for Meadow.
Sophia had forgotten she was mad at him until his hand brushed against hers and a hot wave of emotion swept through her.
She didn’t want his help.
“I’ll get her. The goats are my job, Lord Caspian.”
He turned to her, heat flaring in his eyes. “Don’t call me that,” he said. “That’s not what I want you to call me.”
“It’s the truth, though, isn’t it?” She hated the way her voice broke. “And you didn’t tell me. You lied to me.”
Caspian shook his head, reaching for her, but he dropped his hands before touching her. “I never meant to lie to you, Sophia. I had no idea that you didn’t know.”
“Why should I believe that?” Sophia said, her voice breaking again.
Caspian laughed, even though it wasn’t funny. “Honestly,” he said, “I don’t really believe it myself. I just assumed that someone would have told you who I was. I assumed that someone would have mentioned I was coming home, or even mentioned that Liliana’s brother had just arrived. I never for an instant thought that you didn’t know who I was, and I am so sorry that you had to find out this way, because I never meant to keep my identity a secret.” His voice cracked as he added, “Please believe me.”
Sophia sniffed as tears threatened to fall. “I can’t believe that you were Lord Rendon’s son this whole time,” she said, “and nobody thought I should know.”
Caspian took a step closer, though there wasn’t much space between them to begin with. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I wish you had known.”
“Why?” she asked, and it felt like the answer would change everything.
“I’m sure feeling like I kept this secret from you must hurt more than I know. I would never want to hurt you, and I’m sorry that it took so long for the truth to come out, because I’m falling in love with you, Sophia. I started falling a long time ago, and I don’t know what I’ll do if you can’t forgive me for this.”
Sophia swallowed.
He was falling in love with her?
She turned away from him to collect her thoughts. She looked up at the top of the barn, where Mollie was still prancing and jumping. “Let’s save the baby goat,” she said, her voice sounding funny to her own ears. “Liliana will never forgive me if Mollie gets hurt.”
Caspian waited a moment before nodding and hurrying away.
Sophia watched him go, clutching the lead ropes in her hand, before nudging Valley and Meadow to get them walking back to the barn.
She could let him save Mollie while she decided if she wanted to speak to him ever again.
She wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe that he wouldn’t purposely keep his identity from her, and she wanted to believe that he hadn’t known. But it still felt like he’d been keeping it from her, and she didn’t know how to reconcile that deception with the Caspian that she knew…and was falling in love with.
It didn’t make sense, but neither did her feelings.
Maybe this was just part of loving someone.
