‘The landlord has only this parlour available for breakfast guests,’ the coach driver said in a wheedling tone, ‘and there are no other hotels open.’
Sophie closed her eyes in disbelief, while Lu Lu scowled.
‘Well, come in if you must, but sit over there, out of the way!’ Lu Lu scolded, before planting herself at the pretty parlour table. ‘And do not eventhinkabout touching the pastries, for I am quite famished!’
For a short while, Sophie drowned her thoughts in the bottom of a pretty coffee cup, while Lu Lu put pay to a good number of the aforementioned pastries. Then the faint sound of fresh wheels reached through the courtyard window.
She glanced up swiftly, her skin growing clammy with fresh fear, and wondered if it was the moment of truth. She’d only wanted to take care of her family the only way she had left, but instead of fixing everything, she’d made it far worse. Lord Rotherby’s dark eyes surfaced amid her thoughts, glinting at her in the candlelight, and her chest ached intensely.
‘There’s no point in hiding, for I know you’re both in there!’
Sophie looked across at Lu Lu, hardly trusting her ears as the imperious voice echoed along the corridor.
‘Aurelia?’ she said in disbelief, as the voice was followed by a sharp rap on the door, before it flew open to confirm the new arrival was indeed Lady Aurelia Carlisle.
For a second, no one said anything.
She was still dressed in her Versailles finery– an exuberant affair comprising the duck-egg blue satin gown, overlaid with numerous layers of net and lace until Sophie wasn’t entirely sure where the dress stopped and Aurelia began. Yet, it was all painted with a fine spray of mud, while her pearl-netted curls were askew, her rouge streaked, and her china-blue eyes glinting murderously.
Sophie blinked as Lu Lu beamed.
‘Aurelia!’ Lu Lu exclaimed delightedly, ‘have you come all the way from Versailles? Oh! And Madame Montmartre too?’
Sophie’s gaze widened as the revolutionary modiste suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking decidedly the worse for wear.
‘How lovelyto see you again, Madame Montmartre,’ Sophie said in a rush, her brain whirling with a thousand possible excuses as to why she might not be quite ready to joinla révolution. ‘We were so anxious for you when you left… and do excuse me, but are you quite well? It looks as though you may have been in a skirmish?’
Sophie cast her gaze up and down the volatile revolutionary, who was now dishevelled and muddied, as though she’d encountered some fierce loyalists along the way.
‘Was it the barouche driver?’ she asked with a frown.
‘Mais oui. It was thisrudebarouche driver,’ Madame Montmartre stormed in, gesticulating at Aurelia. ‘I’d half a mind to run my sword through her, but it is the bodice, you see, it is very fine lace so I could not bring myself to do it. And she says she is a friend of yours so…voilà!’ She flung herself into a chair beside Sir Weston.
‘Wait, soyouwere the barouche driver?’ Sophie asked Aurelia in astonishment. ‘And you drove all the way from Versailles– after us? But what of the viscount or…’
Sophie faltered, unable to say Rotherby’s name on top of the sudden, intense fear seeping through her bones. Whether from comfort or vanity, she’d convinced herself one of them was in pursuit, and now she had to face the possibility that neither were able to do so.
Aurelia smiled contemptuously, before pulling an ivory-handled dagger from her skirts, prompting a series of gasps around the room.
‘I have pursuedyou all the way from Versailles,’ she said dangerously, ‘without so much as a change of undergarments, and all you can ask is,where is Lord Rotherby?’ She brandished the dagger in the air. ‘Hopefully he and the viscount are fully impaled on the end of each other’s swords by now, for they are nothing to me!’
‘Aurelia!’ Lu Lu scolded reprovingly, as a second gasp rippled through the room.
‘You are speaking of my own very dear Dominic, and Sophie’s brother-in-law too. Pray, do not forget your manners,ma chérie!’
‘I forgot my manners the night Miss Sophie Fairfax forgot hers and stole my plan, though how Lord Rotherby ever mistook her scheming face for mine I’ve no idea!’ she snapped.
‘It was dark!’ Sophie protested.
‘Well, there must have been thick fog in both your heads but I care not! I’m so over the Fairfaxes and your husband-thieving games. What I cannot forgive is that you think nothing of stealing my cherished friend, while running away with another half-wit! And don’t deny it– I saw the two of you carry her to your coach.’
Sophie blinked as a faint memory stirred.
‘I also have an old beloved friend in Paris who has much influence with Lord Rotherby…’
And in a rush, Sophie realised she’d been staying with the friend Aurelia had mentioned at the exhibition– a friend she actually appeared to care about far more than anyone knew.
‘Non, non, ma chérie,’ Lu Lu protested. ‘Sophie did not steal me, and she was certainly not running away with that greatstupide,thatimbécile! How could you think so? In truth, I thought him my friend also, but now I know I’d rather remain a widow for the rest of my days than marry Sir Weston!’ she exclaimed with a look of disgust.
