He sighed. This was not going the way he’d hoped, not at all. “Perhaps it might be best if the two of you simply avoid one another.”
Sophia threw up her hands. “How am I supposed to do that if she shows up unannounced and follows me andthreatensme?”
“She didn’t mean to, and I honestly wonder if she just happened to be in the same places you were around town.”
“I didnotimagine it.” She stared at him a moment, her expression changing almost instantly from annoyance to disbelief. She wrapped her arms around herself. “You didn’t ask her to leave town?”
“No. I thought . . .” Whatdidhe think? That it was rude to force her to go, to insist she humble herself and take his money? It seemed so wrong after her disappointment in arriving here to find him married. But her ongoing presence clearly bothered Sophia, even if she had been nothing but kind and welcoming and understanding at first. And could he blame her? He began to second guess his decision not to insist to Miss Timperman that she return home.
“You thought that you wished you’d married her as you’d intended.” Sophia finished his sentence for him, her words so quiet that Matthew almost thought he’d imagined them.
But that accusing look in her eyes said otherwise.
“No,” he said, taking a step toward her. “Of course not. Why would you think that?”
“It makes perfect sense. Why you’ve defended her. Why you don’t believe me. Why would you? After all, I was deceiving you when you first met me. At least Miss Timperman was honest, even if she did change her mind—twice.”
“Sophia.” He reached for her arm, but she shook it away, stepping out of his grasp toward the door.
“Please don’t touch me.” She gulped, half hiccup and half sob. “This was too good to be true. I should have known it.”
“It isn’t. I don’t want Miss Timperman. I wantyou.” His voice strained on the last word, desperate to let her know how he felt.
But she shook her head. “That’s why you haven’t tried to kiss me again. That’s why you won’t make her leave.”
“That’s why I . . .” He ran a hand over his face, trying to make sense of her words. “I was trying to respect the agreement we’d made when we married. To give you time. And we have no privacy here. And— Sophia!”
But she’d gone inside.
He pulled the door open just in time to see the door to their bedroom shut. He paused outside it, trying the door only to find it locked. “Sophia!”
“Leave me be.Please, Matthew.”
“I’d rather talk to you,” he said through the closed door, bracing a hand against it.
But she didn’t answer. He called her name again, but only silence ensued.
“Matthew.” Mama stood in the doorway to the kitchen. “Give her time. Talk to her once she’s had a good cry.”
“I don’t . . . I was trying to do the right thing. But it was wrong.”It was all wrong.
Mama nodded. “Marriage is hard. Leave her be for a while, and then together you’ll figure it out. I promise.” She slipped back into the kitchen.
Matthew stared at the closed bedroom door.Give her time. It was sound advice.
But something inside told him time was the one thing he didn’t have.
He shook away that thought. He’d go for a walk. And then he’d come back and maybe then she’d speak with him, and he’d convince her that she was the only one he wanted. It would work.
Ithadto work. Because if she gave up on him, he wasn’t certain he’d ever be all right again.
