By the time it finished, he’d had as much of this courting display as he could stand. He pushed his chair back and pretended not to see the knowing looks as he stalked to the makeshift dance floor and waited for Sophie and the baron to reach the edge.
He bowed as they approached even though every instinct he possessed told him not to make himself vulnerable in front of the competition. “Lady Sophie, won’t you do me the honor of granting me the next dance?”
He half expected her to tell him to go to hell, but of course she couldn’t do that in front of anyone else, so instead she just pursed her lips and reluctantly extended her hand. He tucked it into the crook of his arm before she could snatch it back and swept her away from Sylvestor.
The first notes of the new song began, and he could have wept in gratitude when he realized it was a waltz. They whirled together, her floral scent wrapping around him,tantalizing his senses. Her skirts swished, and she was soft everywhere they touched.
Her eyes, however, were blue fire threatening to burn him up.
“Are you trying to play with my heart?” she hissed.
“What? No!”
How could she think that of him?
Oh.
Well, he supposed he had been running hot and cold.
“You’re confusing me.” They swayed apart, and she waited until they were closer again to continue. “Either decide to marry me, or this farce of a courtship needs to end immediately. It hurts too much to hope.”
His heart squeezed and his stomach dropped. He’d never intended to treat her cruelly, but in attempting to do the right thing, he kept making mistakes. “I can’t stand to see you with Baron Sylvestor.”
She twirled out, their arms stretched between them, then moved gracefully back into his hold. “So do something about it.”
It wasn’t that easy.
But he also couldn’t allow her to walk out of his life when there was a possibility the loss would crush him.
“I’m going to the library,” she murmured, tilting her chin toward him, her lips plump and pink. “I’ll wait there for half an hour. If you’re willing to discuss our future, join me. If we have no future, then do me a favor and stay away.”
His breath caught and his heart hammered against his ribcage. Every part of him wanted to meet her there but it would be irresponsible to do so.
He hoped she didn’t notice the tremor in his hands as panic swelled in his chest. He hadn’t expected her to issue an ultimatum, and he had no idea how to respond.
Sophie torefree of Nicholas the instant the dance ended. She motioned to her mother that she was retiring and stalked out of the room. The corridors in Nunhaven were constructed in a grid-like pattern and she followed the one that led to the library.
The door was already ajar, candlelight flickering inside. She half expected to see someone browsing the shelves as she entered, but the space was devoid of people. She strode to one of the reading chairs and threw herself onto it.
She had a few minutes to consider how she might be able to persuade Nicholas to give them a chance at a happy future together.
Rubbing her temple, she gazed into a dancing candle flame. This would be so much easier if she had any idea what was holding him back. He’d never specified why he wouldn’t marry, just that he refused.
She’d assumed that he didn’t want to commit to anyone, but she was beginning to suspect that the reason was deeper than that.
If it was the possibility of a monogamous relationship that bothered him, there wasn’t much she could do about it. She wished she were the blasé sort of woman who could assure him that she didn’t care if he took a mistress after they were married, but she wasn’t.
If they married and she discovered that he’d been unfaithful, there was every chance she’d burn his house down and dance in the ashes.
So, that wasn’t an option.
But if, as she suspected, something else was preventing him from proposing to her, then she needed to know what.
A knock on the library door startled her, and she jolted upright, hurrying to tidy her skirts, her heart tripping with the knowledge that he’d come for her.
“Lady Sophie?”
Her heart sank. That wasn’t Nicholas’s voice.
