“I knew Rowan would be the right match for you, too,” her aunt said with another of those smug grins. “And that if I could have him use our bargain—”
Sophie’s smile fell and she stared at her in confusion. “Wait…Rowan knew of our bargain?”
Louisa clapped a hand over her mouth. “Damn,” she said through her fingers. “I should not have said that.”
Sophie sat still, shock flooding her. Her hands shook, her blood pounded in her veins, her head spun and hummed.
“You look as though you’ll faint,” Louisa said, concern heavy in her tone as she caught Sophie’s hands and squeezed. “Rest back, darling, breathe.”
Sophie tried, but breath felt impossible. “When?”
Louisa shifted. “When what?”
Spearing Louisa with a fierce look, Sophie snapped, “When did you tell him about our agreement?”
“The day after his brother’s ball.” Her aunt frowned. “You are angry with me.”
“Yes!” Sophie burst out, shaking her hands away and standing to pace the room. “How could you? Our agreement was between you and me—how could you bring someone else into it? Especially someone like Rowan Sinclair?”
“Your fiancé,” Louisa reminded her gently. “Sophie, come now. My subterfuge worked out, did it not? You love him, don’t you?”
Sophie swallowed. Love him. She had been avoiding thinking about that since his proposal. He hadn’t said that word, though his sweetness had touched her heart so very deeply.
“I—”
“Look into your heart,” her aunt whispered. “Where you are so afraid to go after what happened between your mother and father. Do youlovehim?”
Sophie squeezed her eyes shut, but tears still swelled and slid down her cheek. “Yes,” she admitted, and then gasped in a breath. “Yes, I love him.”
She heard Louisa rise, heard her come across the room. She didn’t open her eyes until Louisa wiped a tear from her cheek. “I told Rowan and I will tell you: love is a war. I only equipped him with certain advantages. What happened after that is—”
“Real?” Sophie whispered. “I want it to be, but what if he used what you told him against me? What if it is all a manipulation for his own means?”
“And what would those be?” Louisa asked, wrinkling her brow.
Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t.”
“You may be angry with me, but please don’t let this give you an excuse to distance yourself from him,” Louisa said with a smile. “Go talk to him. Tell him what I told you. Allow him at least the opportunity to explain himself. Doesn’t he deserve that? Don’tyou?”
Sophie shivered. “I’ve closed myself off for so long. Now I’ve opened myself to a man who…to be honest, he terrifies me, Aunt Louisa. In the best ways, but terrified still. He can see me, and he shares things with me. He makes me want things that I always saw as dangerous and he makes me promises that I so want him to keep.”
“Then give him the chance,” her aunt said. “Go to him.”
Sophie gasped in the breath that she’d been unable to find earlier and managed a weak smile for Louisa. “Unchaperoned?”
Louisa’s arched brow was her response. “Your scandal is already afire, my dear. And since you will marry, I see no reason not to look the other way.”
“Very well. I will go.” She got up. “There is no time like the present, I suppose. I’ll march over there and confront him and…and…”
“And see what he says,” her aunt finished gently. “Once you have, come home and I will apologize again for my interference.”
Sophie kissed her cheek. “I hope I will need no apologies, and will come home happier than ever.”
But as she left the room to make her arrangements, Sophie couldn’t help the leaden feeling deep in her stomach. The fear that when she confronted Rowan, his answers wouldn’t be satisfactory and her illusions of love would fade away like music on the wind.
Sophie smiled at Rowan’s butler as she stepped into his foyer just an hour later. She liked her future husband’s servants and she wanted them to feel the same way about her. “Good afternoon, is Mr. Sinclair in residence at present?”
The man’s face fell and he glanced over his shoulder as if he were concerned. “He is not, my lady, I am sorry.”
