Behind the Courtesan(4)
“There is nothing wrong with my food.”
“Excellent.” She linked her fingers on the tabletop and relaxed back in the chair.
“You still can’t eat in here. You are a single woman with no chaperone and this will soon be a room filled with men.”
Her sharp smile softened and for a moment she felt real humor. “A chaperone? I am almost thirty years old, Blake. Well past needing someone to watch out for me.”
“These aren’t the nabobs you’re used to, Duchess, these are working men—rough, uncouth, impolite to say the least. I can’t have you in here with them.”
“Oy, that’s a bit harsh.” The first man who offered to buy her a drink jumped to his feet and puffed his chest out.
“Sit down, Peter, this doesn’t concern you.”
“It does if you’re insulting us, or saying that we’d be anything but perfect gennel-men to the lady. It’s not every day one of her kind comes a callin’.”
Sophia bristled. What happened to just being nice?
“This doesn’t concern any of you,” Blake told them again.
One of the men circled around to the back of her chair and gripped it between her shoulder blades. “If Blake here is going to be rude, you could always come stay wiv us.”
So the heat from the stranger’s hand wouldn’t penetrate her dress, she leaned forward and shook her head slightly. “Thank you but I’m sure Blake will rediscover his manners at any moment.”
“Murray, go and sit down.”
Murray took a menacing step in Blake’s direction. “Are you going to make me?”
“Do you want to be barred again?”
Murray thought about it, his bloodshot gaze switching from Sophia and then to Blake. He eyed her again one last time, up and down with a look that turned her stomach, and then finally sat back down.
“I make the rules here and the rule is, no unescorted females, lady or otherwise, in my bar.”
“The sooner you bring me something to eat, the sooner I shall return to my room.” This time she meant it. Wounded pride and hunger had fueled her to impulsiveness, but now she longed for the solitary confines of her room.
Blake’s hands crashed down on the table as he leaned over her. “Have you no use for manners at all?”
“I said please the first time I asked,” she pointed out, his loud display only slightly frightening.
Just then the taproom door slammed open, a healthy gust of damp cold air blowing across the scene inside. “What’s going on here?”
Sophia peeked beneath Blake’s arm. “Matthew?”
Blake muttered something beneath his breath that sounded a lot like another insult but Sophia ignored him, forcing him to step back as she rose to greet her brother and the woman half-hidden in his shadow. “What are you doing back?”
Matthew folded her into his arms for a second time, squeezing her hard. “I wanted you to meet my wife and didn’t want to wait for tomorrow. This is Violet.”
Sophia took in the girl with a golden halo of curls framing a perfectly flawless face. She wondered what Matthew had said to his wife to prompt her visit, especially as they had not previously met. “It’s lovely to meet you, Violet.”
“And you,” she returned, but made no move to embrace her or kiss the air by her cheek.
Sophia understood Violet’s reaction and didn’t press a situation that would make the heavily pregnant woman more uncomfortable. It was the same notion of scandal and propriety that had kept Sophia from attending their wedding. Or at least that’s the excuse she had given at the time she declined their invitation.
Regardless of the rising tension now, she didn’t want them to leave. “I was about to have an early supper, would you care to join me?”
“In the back parlor,” Blake interjected through gritted teeth.
Sophia didn’t want to surrender, but she couldn’t suppress the excitement that infused her over spending a few hours alone with her family. “Very well, the parlor.”
She turned her back before Blake’s inevitable look of triumph could reach her. He’d won this round, but if there was to be another, she would fight with everything she had to show him she wasn’t a woman to be ordered around or treated with fragility.
* * *
As Blake watched the trio wander off down the corridor, he was left with feelings he hadn’t expected either. What rocked him to his core was seeing Sophie sitting in the bar where just two nights before a man had nearly killed another. This wasn’t a sitting room where ladies took tea. It showed him she certainly did need someone to watch over her. The women who ate here after dark came with their husbands, to be protected if need be. Even Violet, one of his closest friends after Matthew, wasn’t allowed to eat on her own there. There was no way Peter or Murray’s actions were protective. Why hadn’t Sophie seen their leers?
There wasn’t enough time in his day to warn every customer to stay away from the beautiful creature in the corner.
He nearly groaned out loud as he rubbed a hand over his forehead. He shouldn’t think of her as beautiful. He shouldn’t think about protecting her either. She’d already made it quite clear she didn’t need or want his input. But what more could he do? Throw her to the wolves? No. Even he wouldn’t do that and especially not now she was a guest at his inn. He had to keep her out of sight and out of the tap for the duration of her visit.
Anyone seeing the look on Violet’s face upon meeting her sister-in-law couldn’t mistake the discomfort there. As much as he wished otherwise, Sophie would have to stay with him until the babe was born.
He pondered the dilemma as he went to the kitchen and heated the leftover stew she would have received cold. He poured ale into four mugs, watered down two of them, and then placed them on a serving tray for Dominic to deliver. By the time the food was ready and four bowls were full, he still had no idea how to keep her out of the way.
It was understandable that Violet didn’t want a courtesan in her home even if said courtesan was family. She had her standing in the village to think about and there was the fact that her pregnancy had been a difficult one. He didn’t think the women of the village would heap the sins of another onto Violet’s head, but women could be crueler than men.
When Matthew had first warned him he’d asked Sophie to visit, Blake had been pleased for him, but then his brain started to work away in the frustrating way it did, churning up the betrayal and the hurt. His best friend had begged him to try to find a way to forgive. Matthew had known having his sister back in their lives would be difficult, even so he was determined to make everyone consider giving her a second chance.
Much easier said than actually done.
He finished the tray with a plate of bread and then headed with it toward the parlor still minus a way to keep Sophie out of trouble. It left a sour taste in his mouth that he would care that much anyway.
It wasn’t that he was a monster, quite the opposite, but Sophie had devastated him when she’d left. Had they been a few years older, they would have had the banns read and been happily married, so sure he was of their future. Instead she’d disappeared in the dead of night.
Months later an envelope had come to him with another letter inside addressed to Matthew. He didn’t even warrant a “Hello, how have you been?” Never had she sent a letter to him to say, “Sorry for ripping your heart out.” How could she do it? How could she forget him and what they could have had and turn to a life of prostitution?
He’d better be careful lest the question accidentally slip out over dinner.
With his foot, Blake pushed the parlor door open and then slowed as a wave of tension greeted him. Despite the laughter brother and sister shared, the scene seemed uncomfortable.
Though Violet managed a small smile, Blake had known her long enough to see she would rather be anywhere else. The woman usually chattered on about this and that constantly. Her silence was another obvious sign of her discomfort. Was Matthew ignoring his wife or could he just not see it?
“Blake, Sophie has been regaling us with the events of the afternoon.”
He scowled in her direction. “She has, has she?”
“We did get off to a bit of a bad start,” she said, the mischievous gleam in her eye extra bright in an otherwise shadowed room.
He put the tray on the table with a clang and crossed his arms over his chest. “A bit?”
Matthew cleared his throat. “Blake, please sit and eat with us.”
Sophie’s smile drooped just as Blake’s lifted. “Don’t mind if I do.”
They ate in silence for a few moments and Blake was glad to have a moment to gather his thoughts. They were all over the place. On the one hand he was happy that Matthew had reunited with his sister but on the other hand, Matthew had his wife to think of. A wife who was clearly stuck in the middle of this very awkward situation. These were the moments he wished he was a member of their family rather than a close friend. He wanted to speak his mind and tell everyone what he really thought, that they couldn’t play at being a contented family after the damage her departure had left. But he wasn’t family, and he’d already said too much to Sophie as it was.