With that said, he closed the door before Clarissa had a chance to say anything else.
The carriage started back down the driveway, and Gabriel watched it go. It felt good to admit the truth finally. He was no longer the rake of old, no longer a bachelor known for womanizing and all sorts of wicked deeds. Sophia had changed him, and that was something to smile about.
Then he turned and spied the empty manor looming over him. The windows were dark. The building sat still. There was a hollow presence about the manor, as if to walk inside would see him swallowed, chewed up, and spat back out.
It was one thing to admit that he had changed, but another to do anything about it. And sadly, as Gabriel sulked back inside, he came to realize that this change of his was too little, too late. He was alone, it was all his fault, and there was nothing he could do.
A rake no longer, married to a woman who did not want him, Gabriel was alone. The irony was thick, and it echoed throughout the empty manor as he closed the door behind and braced for a long and lonely life.
In truth, it was nothing less than he deserved.
CHAPTER 27
“What do you think you are doing?” Sophia’s mother, Lady Ashbury looked up at Sophia with a questioning scowl; eyebrow raised, pursed lips, it was a look that Sophia was growing all too used to.
“Ah…” Sophia hesitated.
All she was doing was pulling out her seat to sit down for breakfast. It was something that she had done one hundred times before and would do one hundred times again. Certainly not something worthy of the ire that she found herself on the receiving end of.
“Close your mouth, dear,” her mother commanded of her. “You look like a fish. It is unbecoming.”
Sophia did as she was told, still standing behind her chair, still frozen as she was half-committed to pulling it out from the table before sitting down.
“Now, tell me.” Her mother placed down her knife and fork on either side of her plate and folded her hands on her lap. “What have you done wrong just now?”
Sophia’s brow furrowed as she considered. “I am not sure, Mother.”
“Think harder.”
Sophia did a quick recount of her morning. Easy to do, as she had only been awake for two hours. Those two hours saw her busy with her usual morning routine, one that had been trained into her since she was a little girl. She rose with the sun. She bathed thoroughly. She then dressed in a pre-chosen outfit. And only once she was looking perfectly presentable did she make her way downstairs to break her fast.
Not before her mother or father were seated, however. She knew that she was not to be the first to sit down. This was their home, they were in charge, and she was always to wait until at least one of them was there before she joined them.
I know I have done nothing wrong, as does my mother. All this is, is a way to punish me, and to remind me of my place.
It took all the control that Sophia had not to glare at her mother.
“I am not sure, Mother,” she said politely. “For which, I am sorry. If you are happy to tell me how I have erred, I will endeavor to correct it for next time.”
“You should know by now,” her mother said. “You are not a little girl anymore, Sophia. The fact that you still require instruction…” She sighed as if the thought hurt her. “It is no wonder the Duke kicked you out.”
Sophia clenched her jaw in anger but was careful not to let that anger show. Just as she was careful not to unleash it on her mother. This was not Rothbury Estate, she was not free here like she was there, and she certainly would not get away with doing as she pleased, how she pleased it.
Here, there were rules, and it was imperative that she stuck to them.
“My apologies,” Sophia said through her clenched jaw. “I will aim to do better from now on.”
Her mother clicked her tongue dismissively and looked away from her daughter as if with disgust. “You did not ask permission to join the table, dear. You barged into the room like a drunken sailor, taking rather than asking, as you should have done. I do not know how things were done at Rothbury but here, there are rules. And these rules are to be followed.” She snapped her head up and cocked a questioning eyebrow. “Do I make myself clear.”
Sophia’s pulse quickened and the urge to speak out surged. Again… she refrained from that urge, burying it deep so that she could hardly hear it.
“My mistake,” Sophia said politely. “Mother, may I join you at the table?”
“Of course you can, dear.” Her mother picked up her knife and fork and went back to her breakfast. “And thank you for asking.”
It was lucky that her mother was back to focusing on her food because the glare that Sophia fixed her in as she sat down was one that would certainly have called for repercussion. Not that this would be the first time such a thing had happened.
Sophia had known that her mother and father would be upset with her when she returned. And not just because her marriage had failed, but because it was sure to reflect badly on their reputation across the ton – that was, without fear of exaggeration, their chief concern.
