She was met with a surprise when she went to return her room keys. The innkeeper jerked her head at a chair near the front doors where a young lady sat with her hood up.
“She’s been waiting for you for some time, Lady Ashcroft.”
“Excuse me?” Elizabeth looked in confusion at the cloaked woman in the corner.
The girl stood and threw back her hood.
It was the quiet Lady Sophie, the heavy-set blonde girl who was often the target of the queen’s comments.
“I have something for you,” Sophie said nervously, pulling a fistful of jewellery out of her pocket. “I want to help.”
“I cannot accept this, Sophie.”
“You were nice to me when the others weren’t. I thought we were friends.”
“We are friends.”
“Then take it!” Sophie said insistently.
Elizabeth had spoken to her a few times at social functions ,but would have never considered her a close friend.
“I am already twenty-five. I am afraid.” Sophie’s voice crumbled.
Ah.
“I am sure there is a lovely gentleman out there for you, Sophie.”I’m sure the same thing won’t happen to you, were the words Elizabeth chose to leave unsaid.
Sophie clearly thought this act of kindness would change her luck.
Elizabeth didn’t have the heart to tell her otherwise—that luck had nothing to do with it.
Sophie grasped her hand and placed an emerald ring and a necklace in her palm. She closed Elizabeth’s fingers around the jewels, as if that finalized it.
“There.” Sophie sniffled and nodded.
“Thank you, Sophie. I hope I will see you again,” Elizabeth said, feeling rather touched.
Elizabeth didn’t know what the girl was waiting for, so she climbed into the waiting coach with the others.
Glancing back, she saw a tearful Sophie wave goodbye.
They had one more stop before leaving Rhodea.
Two days of travel later, they arrived in Briarton. Their carriage came to a grinding halt on her parents’ manor drive, and Elizabeth felt a growing sense of trepidation. With a heavy heart, she looked at the manor she had grown up in, heart twisting.
Not giving herself a chance to second-guess what she was doing, she strode up to the front doors and knocked loudly.
The housekeeper opened the door, her eyes flying wide.
“A moment, Lady Elizabeth.” The housekeeper curtseyed and hurried out of sight.
Soon her mother came running, shrieking, “LIZZY!” Her mother embraced her like she had been worried sick, even though it was by her own actions that she had been forced to leave.
“WILLIAM! Lizzy is home!” her mother called. Her mother snapped her fingers at the housekeeper and bade her to hurry and fetch her father.
“Come in, come in, would you care to stay for tea? Excellent!” her mother said cheerfully.
Ushered into the dining room, Elizabeth sat with her mother and father with tea and biscuits. An awkward silence stretched between them, and she found she was content to remain quiet until her mother broke it.
