Page 34 of A Stranger’s Gamble

Chapter Eleven

To Sophie’s relief, her aunt did not return home that evening. Still, she was taking no chances.

“Off with that dress,” Sophie told Beatrice after she had dressed to leave with Adam.

Beatrice frowned. “Is something wrong with my dress, miss?”

“Not at all.” Sophie spun her around and began unbuttoning the buttons.

Beatrice twisted, then whirled to face her. She backed up two paces. “You cannot mean—”

“You will sleep in my bed until I return tonight.” Sophie nodded toward her bed.

“But why?” Beatrice wailed. “No one will know you are gone.”

“Just in case my aunt decides to check on me when she returns home tonight. This is easy compared to what you had to do this afternoon. This time, all you must do is sleep?”

“Your aunt will not like being fooled,” Beatrice insisted.

“She will never know.”

Sophie managed to get Beatrice’s dress unbuttoned despite her protestations. Sophie hung the dress in the armoire, then slipped the nightgown over Beatrice’s head, tucked her hair into the cap and urged her into the bed.

“You need not worry about anything.” Sophie pulled the covers up to Beatrice’s chest, then blew out the candle on the side table and straightened. “Perfect. Not even my own father would know you aren’t me.”

She grabbed her cloak from the armoire, then picked up her reticule from the table and returned to the bed. “Rest well, Bea. I shall see you in a few hours.”

“Miss—”

“Hush,” Sophie said, then hurried to the door.

She slipped out into the hall, her thoughts on broad shoulders and dark brown eyes. She ducked into the servants’ stairs and descended to the kitchen. Sophie reached the kitchen and stepped onto the floor. A light flared. She cried out and took a faltering step backward into the wall, her gaze glued to the man standing in the doorway leading to the hallway.

“Father,” she breathed.

He glanced at her cloak. “Going somewhere, Sophie?”

Sophie forced herself not to glance at the back door where Adam surely waited. What would he do when he saw the light in the kitchen? Gone, no doubt.

“I—uh, yes, I was going for a walk,” she replied. “What are you doing here?”

“For a walk?” he said in a quiet voice Sophie had never before heard coming from her father’s mouth.

“Yes, you know how I love an evening walk,” he said.

His eyes flicked downward again, the returned to her face. “I have never seen you wear such a heavy, drab wool fabric. Could that be Beatrice’s dress?”

“Father—”

“Is what I hear true? ” he cut in. “Were you out dancing all night with a man? And at a tavern?”

Sophie’s head whirled. How had he found out? She recalled her name being called when she and Adam left the oyster cellars.

Jane Goodman.

The woman had clearly contacted her father.

Footsteps approached down the hallway, and her father stepped aside as Aunt Maddie entered.