Never Courted, Suddenly Wed (Scandalous Seasons #2)(50)

Mother reached over and took her hand. “We mustn’t be hasty and accept a lesser man.”

Sophie frowned. “Christopher isn’t a lesser man.” Granted he didn’t possess the ducal title held by Mallen, but most young ladies would trade their baby finger to wed the earl.

Her mother and brother exchanged a look. “He isn’t a duke, Sophie,” Geoffrey pointed out in a tone he might reserve for a small child.

She shifted, her stomach tightened at her title-grasping mother and brother’s ill-words about Christopher. It mattered not that a short while ago, she would have eagerly agreed with their unfavorable opinion of him. Something had shifted. Perhaps it was the universe. But, something had changed between her and Christopher.

She bit the inside of her lip, shamed by her family who prattled on about the Duke of Mallen and his recent visit. Whatever would they do when they discovered the Duke of Mallen had invited her for another walk through Hyde Park? Dance a lively country reel of happiness throughout Geoffrey’s office?

“Sophie?” Her mother tried to gain her attention.

Sophie shook her head. “I’m sorry. I was wool-gathering.”

Geoffrey and Mother exchanged a look. “Do you think you can bring the duke up to scratch?”

Not a chance in God’s good Earth. “Uh, yes?” The truth was that she’d merely suggested the duke’s name to her brother and mother as a means of ending their plans to see her wed Christopher.

Then, as if he were a mythical creature come to life, the young duke had shown up and added truth to the words she’d uttered to her family. Sophie expected she should feel…more than this apathy that plagued her. After all, how many times had she and her friend Emmaline yearned for suitors who would visit, recite poetry, bring flowers? Sophie had experienced that yesterday and remained oddly…empty.

She told herself it was her mother and brother’s desperate grasp at the Duke of Mallen’s title that sat heavily on her heart.

She told herself that.

But she knew she lied.

“Are we done here, Geoffrey?” Sophie asked with a touch of impatience. The last thing she cared to do was discuss a possible strategy to secure the most advantageous union. It was all so…calculated.

Geoffrey waved his hand. “Yes, yes. I wanted to tell you that I’m very pleased with you.”

He spoke to her like she was a small child who’d earned her parent’s favor.

A knock sounded at the door and Sophie looked up to where a servant stood framed in the entrance.

“Miss Winters has a visitor. I took the liberty of showing the Earl of Waxham to the Red Parlor.”

Sophie told herself that the joy that filled her was only because Christopher had rescued her from this meeting with her brother and mother.

Geoffrey waved his hand. “We’re done here, Sophie.”

She gritted her teeth at his high-handedness and took her leave.

As she made her way to the Red Parlor, she considered her meeting with Geoffrey. For whatever reason, the Duke of Mallen had decided to court her.

It defied logic.

And deterred Geoffrey from making a match between her and Christopher.

Sophie should want nothing more in the world than a match with Mallen. Just one step shy of royalty, he was witty, charming, and more handsome than a gentleman had a right to be.

Of late, she found she preferred Christopher’s too-long dark locks to Mallen’s golden halo.

She stepped into the parlor.

Christopher stood at the window, staring down into the street below, his hands clasped behind his back.

She used the moment as an opportunity to study him. This man before her, the one who’d rescued Duke, who’d defended her to Lucy, was so very different than the man she’d known over the years. All the girlish resentment she’d carried for so long had begun to fade.

As though he sensed her presence, Christopher spun on his heel. He smiled. “Hullo, Phi.”

Sophie expected after their recent meeting and the scandal she’d created in the park that he would be if nothing else, faintly disapproving. “Hello, Christopher.”

She stepped into the room and took a seat.

He studied her with an inscrutable expression. “I came to see how you fared following your recent swim.”

Her lips tugged at the corners. “I’m doing splendidly. Thank you for your assistance.”

Christopher sketched a bow. “I imagine your brother was quite put out with you.”

A frisson of guilt unfurled within her belly. She couldn’t very well explain that Geoffrey had been far more understanding because of the duke’s courtship. Suddenly uncomfortable, Sophie motioned to the seat across from her. “Please sit, Christopher. I’ll call for refreshments.” She didn’t wait but rather rang instantly for a servant to fetch tea and pastries.

He waited for the servant to take his leave and then slid into the seat closest to her. His finger beat a steady rhythm along his thigh, drawing her attention downward. Goodness, she’d never before noted how…how very masculine, how very muscular he was. She fanned herself. Young, unwed ladies weren’t to notice a gentleman’s legs. If her mother ever found out the unseemly direction her thoughts had wandered she’d have a tower built and lock Sophie away in it.

“I say, did you hear me, Phi? You haven’t developed a fever, have you?”