“Tell him to find a way around it. Dev — Captain Brookes — must return at once. We need answers right now. We need to know exactly what has happened, and if those gentlemen need assistance, we must get it to them as soon as possible!” Good Lord, she’d go herself if she had to!
God help her, she hoped assistance would be of some benefit at this point.
“Very well.” The butler seemed relieved to have been given instructions. He bowed stiffly and disappeared as quickly as he’d entered.
Sophia did not move for several minutes; rather, she just stood there frozen and listened as the household stirred into action.
It sounded as though an army were being deployed.
Only when the sounds died down did she turn and face the duchess.
“Sophia, can this possibly mean what I think it does?” The duchess was white as a sheet. Her eyes were glassy as she shook her head side to side.
This could not be happening.
Sophia clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking. “Let’s wait to see what Richards and Quimbly discover. The footman could well have been mistaken. What with the fog and the rain…” But what if it wasn’t a mistake?
The duchess had dropped her knitting into her lap and stared straight ahead, eyes unfocused. This proud, compassionate woman had already endured so much recently.
This cannot be happening.
Forcing her feet to move, Sophia walked over to sit beside her mother-in-law. The emptiness in her grace’s eyes was frightening. Sophia took the duchess’ hands in hers and, finding them ice cold, rubbed them for warmth. “We mustn’t jump to any conclusions at this point, your grace,” she said firmly. “You and I, we must be strong together. We will pray, and we will hope. Please, your grace, do not give up hope.”
And then the duchess looked into her eyes. “If they are gone, then Sophia, you are my only hope. I will pray every day that you are carrying Harold’s child. For if you are not, then I truly will have lost them all. My entire family.”
Sophia swallowed hard.
A Broken Heart
Leaving Sophia was one of the hardest things Dev had ever done.
Her eyes had pleaded with him, and yet her words had pushed him away. She’d told him she did not want a commitment from him. She was fearful their feelings might change with the passage of time.
His would not. He’d been with other women, even thought himself in love a time or two. But he’d never felt for anyone the way he did for Sophia. It was as though when he found her, he’d discovered a part of himself that had been missing his entire life.
No, his feelings for her would not change.
But he could not be so confident in her feelings. She was young, beautiful, and, for the first time in her life, would be free of her family’s manipulations. Although the duke and duchess hovered over her now, she would eventually be allowed a sense of freedom. She would meet new and interesting people, new and interesting men, and be allowed liberties she’d not known as a debutante.
The mere thought of this nearly had him turning his horse back toward Priory Point to lay claim to her.
But he would not.
He’d made decent time despite the rain and the poor conditions of the road. The journey was not a comfortable one, though. He traveled alone, but with a second mount to carry his bags. Rain crept under his collar and into the clothing he wore beneath his coat. If he tilted his head just so, a pool of cold water dribbled off the brim of his hat.
The horses, he knew, were nearing their limits. With no sun to tell the time of day, he guessed it to be late in the afternoon. He would stop at the next inn. The mud was not only dangerous for himself, but for the horses. Rather than simply changing them out and attempting to travel late into the evening, he would stop early for the night.
If he came across a suitable inn, that was.
He was already becoming soft, out of the army for just over a month.
He laughed ironically at himself.
Before he could ruminate over what he was going to do without Sophia in his life for an entire year, a sign for an inn ahead beckoned. Turning his head, water poured off his hat down the front of his coat.
He would stop.
He turned off the highway toward the two-story building and rode around back to the stables. Fortunately, a hostler, who was handy to care for Dev’s cattle, was able to inform him that rooms were available to let.
