Never Courted, Suddenly Wed (Scandalous Seasons #2)(56)

“Sophie, come along, now,” her mother barked.

Sophie jumped to her feet, but not before Christopher reached for her hand, and leaned down to whisper, “I’ll do right by you, Phi.”

She managed a jerky nod, knowing that equated to an offer of marriage.

Even though he didn’t want to, he would wed her. It was as though a vise were being squeezed about her heart. He would do right by her…but not because he desired a match with her.

“Sophie,” her mother said again. “Come.” Mother wrapped her fingers around Sophie’s forearm and all but dragged her from the room, and through the same halls Sophie had wandered ten, twenty, thirty minutes ago? Some point in Christopher’s company, time and reality had all fallen away.

A half-sob, half-laugh lodged in her throat.

Her mother shot her a silencing look.

They didn’t speak again until they were safely ensconced within their carriage.

Sophie slid into the seat opposite her mother. She pulled back the red velvet curtain that covered the window and peered at Lady Brackenridge’s townhouse, awash in candlelight. The glow radiated off the carriage window. Sophie rested her head against the glass, expecting the surface to feel warm against her skin. Instead, the cool of the glass chilled her already trembling form.

“Drop that curtain, Sophie,” her mother snapped.

Sophie did as she was bid. She held her palms up. “Mother…”

“Not a word. Not a single word.” Rage poured from her mother’s blue eyes.

She tried again. “I’m sorry…”

Her mother’s bitter laugh interrupted her paltry attempt at an apology. “Do you think an apology can fix what you’ve done this evening, Sophie?”

“Christopher will offer for me,” Sophie said. Surely that certainty would appease her mother and brother’s ire. Not that she wanted a husband whose hand had been forced in such a public manner. There were, however, certain scandals a young lady’s reputation could not weather. Being discovered alone, locked in an intimate embrace with a gentleman…tears flooded Sophie’s eyes. She blinked them back.

“You don’t comprehend the damage you’ve done, Sophie. Your brother and I have been very tolerant of the scandals you’ve created over the years. But this,” her mother hissed. She slashed the air with her hand, “this is beyond the pale. For if Waxham doesn’t offer for you…”

“He will!” He’d said he would, amidst a sea of witnesses. She couldn’t imagine the man she’d come to know would so callously abandon her to weather this scandal on her own.

“For if he doesn’t,” her mother went on as though Sophie hadn’t spoken. “You’ll be ruined and no one will want you.”

This wouldn’t serve as a time to remind Mother that she’d hardly been sought after before this scandal.

The carriage door opened and Geoffrey climbed inside. Sophie curled her fingers into tight little fists until her nails dug painfully into the soft flesh of her palm. The door closed behind him with an ominous click.

He slid into the seat beside their mother, giving him a direct vantage of Sophie. His gaze, however, remained fixed on the velvet curtain that shielded them from view.

The carriage lurched forward and Sophie’s stomach went with it. She swallowed down the bile that surged to the back of her throat.

“I hope you’re pleased with what you’ve done,” he said at long last.

Sophie shook her head until she realized Geoffrey’s hard stare remained fixed on the garish, red fabric.

“I’m sorry, Geoffrey.”

Geoffrey’s silence stretched until Sophie wanted to toss her head back and scream. She could take the disappointment dripping from his blue eyes. She deserved that. She would even welcome it if he railed at her until his voice rattled the windows of the carriage.

What she could not take was this portentous, stony silence.

The carriage jerked to a stop.

Sophie folded her hands upon her lap and studied her interlocked fingers until a servant opened the door.

Mother accepted the servant’s help. Geoffrey followed, and then held a hand up to Sophie. “Await me in my office,” he said, his tone low.

She nodded and made her way up the steps of their home, through the front doors.

The old butler caught her eye and gave his head a slow, pitying shake. She swallowed hard. It appeared word of her ruin had already made its way here. Sophie all but ran to her brother’s office. She closed the door behind her.

Mother and Geoffrey were most certainly off in discussion about Sophie’s latest scandal. Her mother and Geoffrey had made it quite clear that her response merited more than an apology. Beyond that, Sophie didn’t know how else she could try to make the situation right.

She pressed her fingers into her temples and forced herself to relive the moment when she and Christopher had been discovered.

Except, God forgive her, the taste of Christopher still lingered upon her lips, his touch still burned her skin.

She didn’t want him to wed her out of a sense of obligation and that was what his offer on the morning would amount to. Yet, she’d discovered only too late that she wanted him to court her and more than that—wanted him to want her; the way he’d wanted Emmaline.

Her heart turned over at the reminder of his affection for Emmaline. Oh, he’d spoken about his respect for the Duke of Mallen when discussing his courtship of Emmaline, but Sophie had known with a woman’s intuition that there’d been more there. Mayhap not on Emmaline’s part but on Christopher’s…and it ravaged her bruised heart.