One of his greys skittered to the side, probably annoyed by the strange twitch in his hand. She was right, of course. They should have sat in stony silence, giving the impression that theirs was the worst union ever conceived. At the very least, they should have come up with tentative ways to end their betrothal. Ideas that they could explore. All they had done was talk and laugh, and eat ices. ‘I enjoyed our afternoon.’ It seemed important for her to know that at least.
There was a long pause before she said, ‘Thank you. I did too. When we first met, I thought we would have nothing in common, what with you being the entertainer that you are and me being the boring sister.’
‘The boring sister. What do you mean by that?’ He was surprised his voice was able to ask the question calmly. It was unfathomable to him that such a wonderful, sparkling woman could have such a low opinion of herself. If he ever found out who had made her feel that way, he would make sure they knew exactly how badly they had wronged her.
‘Everyone knows I am nothing like my family. If I did not have my mother’s hair and my father’s eyes, you would think I was a changeling.’ She laughed but there was no humour in the sound. ‘My sisters are more like you, full of fun and I am… not like that.’
‘You have not been even slightly boring since I met you.’
‘That is because our meetings have been under extremely unusual circumstances. Everything I have done since moments before we first met and now has been wildly out of character. I have never lost track of time or—’ she swivelled in her seat, clearly checking to see if anyonecould hear her words, although how they would on a moving carriage was beyond him. Her maid was watching the streets, pretending she couldn’t hear a word, but even so, Sophia whispered ‘—drunk brandy.’
‘Do not forget that you stole that brandy and that you ended up sprawled across a library floor.’
‘Lord Christopher!’ Her gaze swung to her maid, who was clearly suppressing a smile. ‘Please!’
‘Dispense with the “Lord”. A betrothed couple would not be so formal, especially if one of them has thrown brandy at the other.’ He was grinning now; there was something about her shocked disapproval of him that made his stomach fizz.
‘I do not think you are taking this seriously.’
‘Oh, believe me, I am.’ He had never taken anything this earnestly before. By the time this false engagement was over, Sophia Jacobs would know her worth. She would understand that a woman like her was worth a thousand of him. The idea that anyone would end a real engagement with her was utterly ridiculous. For now, he would concentrate on the more pressing matter: convincing her that he was not as much of a wastrel as she believed. ‘Surprisingly, not every day of my life involves racing pigs. A lot of my time is spent doing perfectly respectable things like reading investment reports.’
‘Really?’
‘You do have a low opinion of me.’ For some reason that didn’t deflate him. He hoped he wasn’t a conceited man, but it was far more normal for him to have women fawning over him than not. Her reaction was amusingly refreshing.
‘No, I do not. Perhaps I did have at the beginning, but now I think I judged where I should not have done. All I meant by my commentwas that I would have thought you would have a man of business to do your work for you.’
‘If a decision has to be made involving my money, then it should be mine to make, otherwise it is not my profit; it is his. And I know not everyone feels like this, but I happen to enjoy mathematical problems. Anyway, enough of that. We are getting sidetracked again.’
Pulling the greys to a stop, he turned to face her. ‘I have a proposition for you.’
‘You do.’ She shifted uneasily and his mind unhelpfully conjured up images of what she might think he was about to suggest. He blinked them away, not wanting to think about how soft her skin looked.
‘It is not unsavoury, I promise. Do not write to Robert for at least four weeks.’
Her fingers twisted around themselves. He was surprised she was planning to do so anyway. It made no odds to him whether she did or not, but as it was rather scandalous for her to write to an unmarried man, it seemed out of character for her to make such a move. She must be desperate to get away from this betrothal, which was good, perfect even, and no cause for him to feel crushed.
‘Four weeks. Why on earth…?’
‘Let me finish. If he does not turn up in that time, you write to him. We will come up with something together, something that appeals to his heroic instincts. Something that means he must come to London to save you from marrying. In the meantime, we will look into other ways to end this, ways which do as little damage as possible.’
‘Hm.’
‘Does thathmmean, “Well done, Christopher, you are a genius?” or something more complimentary?’
‘It means I am thinking.’
He waited. Other carriages trundled past, but he did not turn to look at who might be in them. It was strange, but when Sophia was in front of him, he was less interested in what was going on around him. Perhaps it was her expressive features that kept him facing her. Or maybe it was because he had no idea which way she was going to go.
‘What will we do during the four weeks?’
‘We shall have to be seen together, but we can make the excursions enjoyable.’
‘I would not want any farmyard animals involved.’
‘The pig racing only occurred once. Hell, I wish I had never done it and not just because you throw it in my face every few minutes.’
‘You do?’
