Seeing his wife was about to yield, Patrick bent at the waist to talk to Timmy.
“I need time to get things ready for you, Timmy. I know you told me you want to learn to ride, and I know of a pony that would be perfect for you.”
“Yes!” The boy threw his arms around Patrick’s neck. “I want a pony!”
“Well, when you arrive, I will have news for you about that pony, I promise.”
Timmy was happy to leave then, and after wrapping his arms around his sister’s legs, he walked away with Letty.
“You will see them in a few days,” Patrick said.
“I know.” But she didn’t sound convinced.
“Come, we will leave too.”
Patrick put Sophie in the carriage and handed her a pillow to rest her injured arm on.
“It is much better.”
“You had a bullet go through your arm two weeks ago. Even I do not heal that fast,” he said.
“That is a very arrogant statement,” she said, attempting to glare at him, but Patrick saw the fatigue on her lovely face andin the dark smudges beneath her eyes. Sophie was exhausted, worried, and many other emotions.
He was worried, too, because Jack Spode had not been found. His girlfriend, however, had been identified and was likely the woman who had called out to Sophie that day in the park.
Patrick had gone back to the Black Swan and bribed anyone who would talk to him. It was when he was leaving that a young lad called Liam who worked in the kitchens had approached him. He’d told him that his sister Louise was Jack Spode’s girl, and he was frightened for her because Jack was a mean bastard. Patrick left his address with the boy for if he came by any more information.
He’d turned up two days later at the servants’ door of Patrick’s town house in tears. His sister had been found dead in the Thames. The lad was now working in his stables, as his safety could not be assured if he returned to the Black Swan.
“Be vigilant,” Patrick said to his drivers, who were both heavily armed, and to the two men he’d hired to ride alongside the carriage.
He and Stephen believed Jack Spode’s hunting ground was London, but he would take no risks with Sophie or her family.
Climbing into the carriage, he took the seat across from her, but other than a glance his way, neither of them spoke.
He left her alone with her thoughts for a while, but Patrick kept his eyes on her. He marveled again at her birth. How had a woman born to a life of poverty and servitude become the lady she was today?His wife, Patrick thought with a deep satisfaction that he felt all the way to his toes.
“Patrick?” she said twenty minutes later.
“Yes, Sophie?”
“I was not born to this life, as you know, but?—”
“Sophie—”
“I need to say these things to you. Please let me speak,” she said. He nodded silently, watching as she thought about what needed to be said.
“I did not expect to become anyone’s wife and most especially not an earl’s….” Her words fell away.
Patrick felt a smile tug at his lips as she frowned.
“Well, not aliveearl. That is, ah, I mean…. Oh dear, that made me sound heartless. But I know you understand what I am attempting and failing to say, Patrick.” She glared at him now.
“There is no need for this, Sophie,” he said, moving to the seat beside her.
“I will try not to embarrass you and run your house…. Oh Lord, Patrick, how will I run your house when I have not learned how to do so? Letty does everything, and while I am learning, there is still a long way to go.”
“I have a competent staff that have run my estates and town house for many years unaided, Sophie. Yes, they will talk with you but will not expect anything from you until you are ready,” he said. “Plus, I may appear overbearing, but I assure you I am not.”
