“Is that right?” She looked at him with derision. “I thought you would have been pleased.”
“Who says that I am not?”
“You did, just now.”
“No,” he said calmly. “All I did was point out how rambunctious you have become. Doing as you want, acting how you wish, caring not for others as you do it.” A casual shrug. “Someone is getting carried away with themselves.”
“I am not!”
He laughed and had another mouthful of wine. “I did not say it is a bad thing. Just pointing it out…” Gabriel winked at her.
Sophia pretended to glare at her husband, as if his words upset her. She knew he was only joking, just as she knew how much he enjoyed seeing her act this way.
It had been so for a full week now, since that rather ill-judged afternoon where she went for that ride through the storm. At the time, it was done to prove a point, needing to remind herself that she was capable of living her own life and that nobody could tell her what to do. Of course, she probably should have listened to the stableboy when he warned her, just as she should have listened to her own common sense screaming at her to turn around before she hurt herself.
Not all actions were without consequence, and that was a lesson learned the hard way.
That does not mean all consequences are bad, however. Yes, I very nearly hurt myself, and yes I might have even died. But the result has made the danger worth it, and should the same situation arise again, I would not hesitate to do exactly as I did.
She and Gabriel were finally in a good place.
Dammit, Sophia was in a good place. Before this, all talks of freedom had felt forced, said because she felt she had to, not because she had believed it. When she and Gabriel were fighting, she had felt like a prisoner still, trapped in a marriage she did not want with a man who wanted nothing to do with her.
Now… well, things were decidedly different. They were better.
“I was thinking I might go for another ride,” she said simply, after which she picked up her own glass of wine and had a purposeful sip. “To the edges of the estate at the very least.”
“The weather should be fair tomorrow,” Gabriel said.
“I would not care either way.”
He rolled his eyes. “And you expect me to save you again. Is that right?”
“Who says I will need saving.”
“I have seen you ride,” he noted with a wry smile. “Even if the weather is fine, I doubt you will make it more than five hundred yards before you fall and hurt – I am joking,” he hurried when he saw the outraged look on her face. “Just a joke.”
“Keep joking,” she warned him. “I was going to invite you on this ride, but now I am not so sure I want you there.”
“Oh no.”
“That’s right. How does it feel?”
“Like a knife shoved right through my heart.”
They were seated at the dining room table as they waited for their supper to be served. They ate together every night now, such a commonality by this stage that there was no need to ask each evening if they would be. It was simply assumed.
Importantly, this was not a routine that Sophia felt she had to stick to. If she wanted, she could eat whenever she wished, with whomever she felt like. And Gabriel knew this to be true. He encouraged it.
Rather, Sophia ate supper with her husband because she wanted to spend time with him. What was more, he wanted to spend time with her too.
Gabriel sat at the head of the table, and Sophia sat to his immediate right. The light was soft, there was no music to accompany their meal, and it was just the two of them. Once, such a situation might have been awkward. Not so long ago, a part of Sophia had hated Gabriel and everything he stood for.
How things have changed… and for the better, no less.
Sophia was not the same girl she was when she had married Gabriel. And while she had married him because she dreamed of transforming into who she was now, she had not seriously thought it was possible. There was always that small part of her that yearned for the strictness, that coveted it because she thought she must do. But Gabriel had changed that about her, and she had changed him too.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Gabriel began. “But tomorrow, I am busy.”
