Which way were the kitchens?
Turning to her left, Sophia aimlessly meandered along the corridor.
When she came across a stairwell, she moved the candlestick to her other hand, picked Peaches up, and carefully maneuvered them both downward. The steps were steep, and the small dog had not mastered staircases. She most likely never would. Her legs were far too short.
At what she presumed to be the ground floor, Sophia placed Peaches on the floor and entered a different corridor. This one was oddly familiar, but she was not entirely certain why.
Ah, yes, she’d walked with the duchess through here. Peaches burrowed behind a curtain and revealed a glass-paned door leading outside into what appeared to be a small courtyard.
Perfect. It was perfect.
Not wanting to be locked out, Sophia propped the door open with a nearby rock, and Peaches dashed past Sophia into the moonlight.
Obviously, her little dog had been here before. Peaches sniffed around in a large circle and found a place to squat. Well, that was one less thing to worry about, anyhow.
“Good girl, Peaches,” Sophia whispered and then shivered a little. Although the day had been warm, a chill hung in the air. When Peaches returned, Sophia removed the rock and allowed the door to close. Only now that she was inside again, she had no idea how she was going to find the kitchens. Navigating one’s way about Prescott House was difficult enough during the daytime. She ought to return to her room and call a maid.
Perhaps the maid could bring her some ratafia.
Anything to stop the image of her husband and his lover together, replaying itself over and over in her now lurid imagination.
She did not hate Harold for what he had been doing. She did not hate him for being… of such a disposition.
But she was furious!
Furious with him, with Devlin — with all of them for keeping it from her!
Little detail she ought to know, perhaps?
For it did change things. Didn’t it?
It effectively extinguished any long-term possibility of her ever having any semblance of a normal marriage. Or, she thought most likely, children.
For she was more certain than ever that Brookes and Harold had been considering an annulment as the means with which to end this marriage… but that was out of the question. Ever since Dudley had mentioned the requirements for such…
Would she never be a mother? Could she embrace a life of infidelity for herself?
But for her want of children, and but for the emotions she had experienced with Captain Brookes, she most likely would never have any need…
Giving up on her quest for food, Sophia called to Peaches, who’d begun sniffing around curiously. “Let’s go back to bed!”
The animal ignored her completely.
She’d caught the scent of something interesting, it seemed.
“Peaches!” Sophia whisper-shouted. “Peaches!”
The little dog looked up again and then took off at a run.
In the wrong direction, of course!
Sophia followed her to that large rolling gate and groaned inwardly. Peaches had slipped through the bars near the floor.
Blast! The tiny fiend must have hidden a toy sometime earlier behind one of the statues. Gnawing at a mangled doll, her tail wagging happily, Peaches showed no sign of returning to Sophia anytime soon. “Come back here, Peaches!” Sophia whispered loudly. This was the last thing she needed tonight. She loved her pet, but, oh, sometimes! “You beetle-headed little monster, come out of there!”
At Sophia’s tone, Peaches paused, appeared to consider her mistress for but a moment, and then went right back to gnawing at the toy.
Not wanting to unlock the gate and push the noisy apparatus into the wall, Sophia got down on her hands and knees to attempt to reach through. If she could get a hold of the toy, then Peaches would follow it back to this side.
