She scowled and forced his face from her mind. Perhaps you didn’t have to like people to care for their view; perhaps it was all some strange fixation that would pass once she married.
Married.
And what of Papa’s wish that she marry the earl? Could she live with her own family disgrace, to save the captain and Dr Kapoor from the gallows?
Did she have any choice?
Phoebe’s head spun with too many questions she suspected had nothing at all to do with being heroic, and everything to do with being the worst kind of coward imaginable.
‘Which perhaps, after all, is all I am,’ she whispered before tossing the captain’s letter onto the fire, where it flared momentarily, before crumbling to ash.
ChapterTwenty-Four
Two weeks and one royal presentation until the wedding
It turned out that considering an Assembly Ball presentation, a betrothal announcement, a dawn phaeton race and an elopement to the Scottish border, all within the same twenty-four-hour period, was enough to give anyone the headache, let alone the least heroic of them all.
‘I have no idea why the captain should write to you, unless it was to offer his felicitations which, of course, I would understand as he is proper above all things.’ Sophie frowned over a luncheon of sandwiches and cake. Carefully, she sliced off the crust of her sandwich and popped it in her mouth. ‘I was the one to write the letter of urgency when Josephine had her excessively dramatic moment,’ she continued, ‘and I maintain, the only reason Dr Kapoor came so quickly – quite apart from his hippo… Hippo…’
‘Don’t recall a hippo?’ Matilda interjected through a mouthful of almond cake.
‘Hush, dear, don’t speak of hippos with your mouth full,’ Aunt Higglestone admonished.
‘Oh, Lord…’
‘Sophie!’ her aunt warned.
‘Don’t recall any of those, either,’ Matilda added, eye-spying her sister through a napkin ring.
‘I was just trying to think of that promise doctors make?’
‘The Hippocratic oath,’ their uncle supplied, behind an article about nectar-rich honeysuckle.
‘That’s it!’ Sophie exclaimed, stabbing another sandwich. ‘That’s what the captain called it. All doctors have to swear an oath, which obliges them to save lives, even in the middle of the night!’ She sliced another crust off her sandwich and popped it into her mouth.
‘How tiresome for doctors!’ Josephine chimed, her hollowed eyes dancing.
Phoebe smiled to cover her anxiety. The idea of leaving Josephine while she was still in recovery was only outweighed by the fact that the captain would be far more understanding than the earl, if she needed to return.
‘He wrote only to pass on his felicitations ahead of tonight’s announcement,’ she mumbled, over a pastry broken into so many pieces that no one noticed she hadn’t eaten a crumb.
Briefly, she imagined her betrothal announcement at the Ball and closed her eyes. All those congratulations to get through, all that scrutiny by ambitious mamas, only to sneak out at dawn for a race of honour, followed by an elopement scandal that Thomas would never forgive.
She still couldn’t believe she’d made up her mind to accept, and yet what real choice did she have? The captain and Dr Kapoor were in grave danger, and she would never forgive herself if something happened and she could have prevented it.
‘Is that all?’ Sophie jibed, prodding her sister in the ribs, before selecting a thin slice of fruit cake. ‘I was merely asking because I couldn’t see the letter when I looked in your dressing table.’
‘Sophie!’ Phoebe exclaimed, while Josephine and Matilda fell about laughing.
‘Sophie, dearest, it really isn’t polite to look for or read Phoebe’s letters without her permission,’ their aunt reprimanded, fanning herself. ‘And in truth, I’m sure both of you have a few other matters to consider just now, such as your formal presentation in a few hours? Oh, my dears, whatever would your dear mama and papa say if they were here? Your uncle and I are so proud of you!’
She beamed then, before turning her misty-eyed gaze on her husband, who grunted his assent, having moved onto a literary discussion on the benefits of hive-keeping.
Phoebe inhaled deeply, certain that whatever their dear parents might have said on the matter, would have been entirely retracted come morning.
* * *
Phoebe stared at her reflection in the Higglestone’s coach window, barely recalling the tree-climbing, adventure-bound girl she’d left behind in Devon.
