Page 51 of A Stranger’s Gamble

Chapter Seventeen

Sophie awoke to morning sunlight pounding onto her face She was certain the blinds had been closed when she’d gone to bed. She blinked and discerned a figure near the window. Sophie turned her head the other way.

“Close the blinds, Bea, please,” she begged.

“Up, my girl,” her aunt said. “We have much to do today.”

Sophie snapped her eyes open and turned her head toward her aunt. She faced Sophie, the sun streaming in through the window behind her.

“Aunt Maddie? What time is it?”

“Eight,” Maddie replied.

“Eight?” That was early even for when she was home in Invergarry. “I went to bed late. I need more sleep.”

“We are going shopping today.”

“Not more dresses?” Sophie groaned.

“Your father has much more than dresses planned for you today,” her aunt replied.

Sophie turned onto her back and closed her eyes. “He is angry I left the party. I sent a note telling him Lord Emerson was kind enough to bring me home.”

Lord, if her father knew how that ride had gone….

“Indeed, your father was very angry that you left the party—especially in the company of one of the most eligible young men in Edinburgh,” her aunt said. “But his mood shifted dramatically when he received the signed marriage agreement from Lord Monthemer this morning.”

Signed marriage agreement?

Sophie bolted upright. “What are you talking about?”

Her aunt crossed to the table near the armoire where sat a tray with a silver coffee pot two cups and saucers and a few pastries. Maddie poured coffee in the cups, then added sugar and milk to both and brought one of the cups to Sophie.

Sophie accepted the cup, then set it on the nightstand. “What are you talking about?”

“Where is the confusion?” her aunt asked. “Lord Monthemer has accepted the terms of your marriage.”

Sophie stared. “But— How is that possible? You said it was but eight in the morning. When did this happen?”

Her aunt seemed to consider. “I believe it was about three o’clock this morning.”

“Three o’clock this morning?” Sophie cried. “That—that is ridiculous. Who decides to sign a marriage agreement at three o’clock in the morning?”

Maddie shrugged. “A man who feels there is no time to waste, I imagine.”

“I don’t understand. What in heavens name made him do it?”

“When he realized how sought after you were, he”—Maddie shrugged—“he realized someone else might take your father up on the offer to marry you.”

“Someone else?” she repeated. “Who?”

“Why Lord Emerson, of course.” Maddie sat on the edge of the bed. “Very clever of you to have Lord Emerson drive you home last night.” She leaned forward and said in a conspiratorial whisper, “Nothing makes a man want a woman more than when another man wants her.”

“You cannot be serious,” Sophie whispered.

But her aunt couldn’t have been more serious.

Fifteen minutes later, Sophie sat in the chair opposite her father’s desk, the signed marriage agreement in hand.