Sophie frowned as the awkward tiger pressed a familiar miniature crossbow into her hands.
‘Guvnor says yer have a right to be angry, miss, and if he doesn’t arrange things to your sat’sfaction, miss, well, you can shoot ’im, or anyone else you choose, with ’is blessing, miss.’
For a moment, Sophie said nothing. Then she took the crossbow and drew in a deep breath.
‘I will come then, but only so I may arrange my future to my satisfaction, and to that purpose, female company will be infinitely more useful.’ She tucked the crossbow into the pocket of her jade muslin.
‘Right y’are, miss,’ Horace said, regarding her with new respect.
‘And Horace?’
‘Yes, miss?’
‘It was entirely his lordship’s own fault that I shot him.’
‘Yes, miss.’
ChapterFifteen
MADAME MARIE-LOUISA DUPRES
The following day
Madame Marie-Louisa Dupres was so very captivating that Sophie was a little suspicious at first. However, her suspicions were swiftly allayed by her very respectable Parisianmaison, in a respectable Parisianarrondissement, and after a while even she had to accept that Rotherby seemed capable of conducting respectable female relationships.
‘Oh, la! My Dominic said you were too good for him, and I thought to myself, this cannot be true. No lady is too good for my Dominic. But now I see he did not lie at all,ma chérie. No wonder it has sent him careering all over France in, what is it you English call it? Aspin?’
Sophie could think of several other choice words to describe Lord Rotherby’s behaviour but instead she only smiled at the alluring girl with thick ebony hair, lustrous skin and a vivacious laugh to match. To Sophie, she looked a beguiling, lost princess from one of Josephine’s heroic novels.
‘Now, we will be very best friends,n’est-ce pas? And you can tell me aboutallyour adventures, for I warrant there have been a few with my Dominic…’
A few more enquiries swiftly elicited the fact that Madame Marie-Louisa Dupres– or Lu Lu, as she preferred– was about as distant a relation to her precious Dominic as she could be without making a complete nonsense of the claim. She’d grown up on the outskirts of Paris, the only offspring of a distant second cousin, and been wed for six months before the dreaded smallpox had claimed her sickly, older husband.
‘However, it is not at all sad,’ she reassured Sophie, with a dazzling smile. ‘For now I am at liberty to attend as many parties and soirees as I please, without any provoking debutante rules.’
Sophie smiled politely, wondering if Lu Lu was drawing quite the right conclusion from her very short marriage, but had to applaud the spirit all the same.
More surprisingly however, it seemed as though Lu Lu was the closest thing Lord Rotherby had to a confidante, and knew their whole sorry tale already.
‘The problem is,’ Sophie confided, pirouetting in a rather fetching taffeta gown Lu Lu had persuaded her to try, ‘I know he has gone to look for that dreadful pastor but I cannot marry his lordship under any circumstances. I need help finding work as a modiste, or a seamstress? Lord knows, I’d probably settle for a governess just now!’
Sophie bit her lip, recalling her poor progress with mathematics, while Lu Lu regarded her incredulously.
‘Is it possible you donotwish to marry my dear Dominic?’ she whispered, her eyes as round as Aunt Higglestone’s precious china teacups.
Sophie swallowed. She’d avoided a direct question so far, yet there seemed to be little other way to convince his adoring relation.
‘I appreciate his lordship’s effort torectifythe situation,’ she replied carefully. ‘But I cannot imagine anything worse than for someone like his lordship to be tied to someone like me, because of one mistake. I have always been determined to make a love match, while his lordship intends never to marry at all. We are, quite simply, a recipe for disaster, and I believe tying our lives together will only exacerbate a situation that is already beyond retrieval.’
Her tone was hollow and her expression set, but she’d said it, and when she lifted her gaze Madame Dupres was smiling.
‘Ahh, but you must not worry,ma chérie!’ she gushed, squeezing Sophie’s hands. ‘We will fix this, and you know,l’amourcan spring from the most curious and unexpected of places. Why, only yesterday I had a visit from anoldEnglish acquaintance who turned out to be quite the surprise! He was so very delightful and proper,he made all the French gentlemen of my acquaintance seem mostuncivilised.’
Lu Lu paused to blush prettily and Sophie wondered if she could possibly be speaking of Sir Weston. He was, after all, the most properly mannered English gentleman of her acquaintance, and it would be no surprise if they knew of each other through Lord Rotherby.
‘And dear Dominic issowild and wilful, but he can also be kind and good– as well asverydetermined once his mind is made up,’ she said, waggling a jewel-clad finger. ‘But, if you remain set against this marriage I will help you, after this week’scerclesat Le Palais des Tuileries, where all Paris will be in attendance! And please, no more talk of being amodisteorgovernesswhen this isParis?Quelle horreur!I think we can set our sights a little higher than that! Indeed, you may not wish to marry my dear Dominic, but unless Paris learns of your situation you are quite safe with me– and that means there is no reason why we cannot find you another husband. Come, at the very least we will have a little fun,n’est ce pas?’
* * *
