Chapter 17 #2
Lady Pilkington laughed loudly and shrilly, cutting off any further exchange between the two. “So delightful it is to meet acquaintances when one least expects it. Ah, excellent—the carriages have arrived out front.” She shot a guarded glance at Lissa, who had fixed her eyes on Anthony.
He turned and reached for Sophia’s hand. She glanced at him in surprise, likely shocked at the presumption, but he was taking no unnecessary risks. He would keep her glued to his side until they saw the last of Lady Lissa. He didn’t trust her any more than he would a viper.
He lifted Sophia’s hand and tucked it into the crook of his arm and placed his other hand atop it. When she pulled slightly back, he muttered, “Stay with me.”
“Ah. You need a friend to waylay unwanted attention?” She focused straight ahead as they walked through the foyer and out the large double doors to the waiting carriages.
“Stop, Sophia,” he hissed. He was aggravated, worried, and finally at his snapping point. “You know very well I never meant a word of that letter.”
He registered her startled gaze as he eyed the long line of carriages.
At the back of the line were three large elephants equipped with howdahs.
He pulled her quickly to them and chose the last one, which held the smallest of the elephant saddles.
It carried only two people, but Sophia’s reputation was safe.
After all, what sort of ruination could happen to a young woman when she was seated atop an elephant for all the world to see?
The attendant touched the elephant’s knee, and the giant animal lowered itself so Anthony and Sophia could climb aboard. She sat back, breathless, and when the elephant lumbered upward she clutched Anthony’s arm with a muted shriek.
“What on earth . . .” she wheezed and stared down with her eyes opened wide. She swallowed. “Anthony, I don’t care for high spaces, I—”
He pulled her hand under his arm and linked their fingers together. “Shh,” he said. “You’re perfectly safe. The elephant moves very slowly.”
“What are you doing? Why are we not in a carriage with Major Stuart and Rachael?”
“Because I must speak to you alone. About several things.”
“Such as the Lady Seadon?”
There was something in her tone that gave him pause.
“I remember now,” Sophia said. “She had quite set her cap for you before you left.”
Ah. The questions raised about her tone were answered. “Regrettably, yes. But I never encouraged it, never desired her attention.”
She glanced at him and then looked straight ahead as the large party filed into the carriages and onto the other two elephants. “What is a woman to think, do you suppose, when a man comes home from war with a reputation like yours? She knows she is pretty, she knows you adore pretty women—”
“Sophia.” His jaw was starting to ache again. “Please, for the love of Heaven, let me explain. Once we start moving and there is some distance from the rest of the group, I have things I must say to you.”
She didn’t look at him, but he felt the tremor in her fingers.
He wasn’t certain if she was still afraid of the high perch on the elephant’s back or if her anger and frustration with him were at a breaking point.
He couldn’t blame her. As far as she knew, he had a woman in every port.
More than one. And although she hadn’t seemed to believe it before, Braxton had circulated the gossip again so effectively over the last two years that he could only imagine what she must have heard.
He massaged his eyes with his fingers and wondered how to extricate himself—all of them—from the mess.
Once the last of the guests finally settled in, the carriages began rolling forward. The procession was a long one, and it took some time before their attendant issued the command for their elephant to walk.
Sophia tensed again, squeezing his fingers tightly, though she was probably unaware of it.
“See,” he said, seeking to soothe her. “It’s rather rhythmic, like rocking in a chair or a cradle.”
“Only not nearly so smoothly,” she breathed and closed her eyes.
Soothing her clearly was not going to work. He opted for distraction and the bluntness of the truth and dropped his voice to a near whisper. “Sophia, I am a spy for Britain’s War Department.”
Her eyes shot open, and she slowly turned her head toward his. Her mouth grew slack, and she stared, unblinking. He wished she would say something. Anything.
“I am certain this must come as a shock to you, but I have been on assignment these past two years and have not been at liberty to disclose the truth of it to you or anyone. My reputation as a rogue—it is nothing more than a sham, a cover story to divert suspicion away from my true activities.”
Still, she stared.
“I wanted to tell you the truth. I have wanted to so many times.” He ran a hand through his hair, agitated and knowing he was blabbering like a fool and not giving her even a moment to process his admission.
“I was compelled to write you that letter because your safety came first—it still does—but there are things now that you must know—”
“A spy,” she interrupted, blinking once.
“Yes.” He was winded, as though he had run a long distance without stopping.
“That is your story? You’re a spy?”
He felt his own mouth slacken this time. “Well, yes, I—”
Her eyes narrowed, and she pulled against his fingers but he held tight to her hand.
“If you do not wish an association with me, Anthony Blake, I certainly do not care for one with you! You needn’t create outlandish tales, ridiculous tales, merely to put me off.
I have never begged for your affection, have never made demands on your time or friendship!
And now because you see a woman from your past who you wish to keep at bay, you concoct this .
. . this . . . bizarre scheme so that I will stay by your side and make it appear as though you are spoken for? Ha!”
“Sophia, shh—”
“I should march straight up to Lady Seadon and say, ‘Here! Take him, please, because he is a philanderer and a liar and you are welcome to him because I want none of it!’”
He clapped a hand over her mouth and smiled at the four people on the elephant ahead of them who had craned their necks around at her outburst. “Sophia,” he said through his teeth.
He felt the sharp sting of a bite and yanked his hand away.
“Do not attempt to placate me or hush me,” she hissed, and he was grateful she had lowered her voice.
“I am not a child! I am a woman of marriageable age and when I think of the gentlemen I have brushed aside because I was convinced I could never feel deeply for anyone again, I am ill! I might have fallen in love with someone else, might have had a chance at happiness! I have wasted my youth, and for what? A liar!”
At that, he laughed. “Sophia, you have not wasted your youth—”
“Do not laugh at me! Do not even look at me. I want to get down from this elephant.”
He had never seen her so furious. And cad that he was, he couldn’t help but think she’d never looked more beautiful. “You cannot get down from a moving elephant.”
“Then tell him I want to stop.”
“Tell the elephant?”
She ground her teeth. “Tell the attendant who is driving the elephant that I want to get down.”
“No. And stop moving around so, you’ll frighten the beast.”
She stopped moving immediately, and he felt guilty for using her fear against her. “Now, before we arrive at the Club, please tell me the details of the package you received.”
She glared at him. “Giving up your pretense already, are you? I suspect you realized it for the pathetic scheme that it was.”
“It is not a scheme; it is the truth. Every word. We can discuss it later, but I would like to know about the broken toy and note that Major Stuart brought to me.”
She deflated, then, her shoulders dropping. She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead with fingers that shook. He pressed the hand he still held between his two and rubbed his thumb lightly across her knuckles.
“Someone sliced Chestnut completely in half, and I do not know how to explain it to Charlie. I do not know who did it, or why, and the note makes no sense to me at all. I can only assume someone seeks to keep me from discovering his identity through Charlie, but now I am afraid that the boy’s life is in danger more than I fear the danger to my own life.
I am horrified that someone would be so cruel as to destroy his favorite toy, his security. ” Her voice trembled.
“We can fix the toy,” he said and continued his slow massage of her hand. “It will not be exactly as new, but perhaps we can explain that it was hurt but it has been mended. We can even affix a bandage to it and tell him the wound was sustained whilst Chestnut was doing something heroic.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Something like spying for God and country?”
He couldn’t help but smile, but he did his best to hide it.
She didn’t sigh, or faint, or meekly accept whatever he might say.
She came at him head-on as would a hissing cat, and he much preferred that.
Now he knew the state of her heart for certainty.
At least the state in which he’d left it.
Reclaiming it might prove to be more of a challenge than he’d imagined.
“We shall fix the toy,” he repeated, “and I think it best if you keep away from Charlie for a time. In fact, I believe Dylan may suggest to you and Rachael both that you should consider returning home.”
She shot her attention back to his face. “Did he tell you that?”
He nodded. “I hate to say I agree with him. Captain Miller is most certainly dead, and I believe you are in danger.”
“Major Stuart is delusional—you are delusional—if you believe I am leaving until the matter is settled with that boy. Rachael can return home if she wishes, but I am not going.”
He ought to have expected it and didn’t know why he was surprised. “Dearest—”
She flared her nostrils at him, and he held his hand up in supplication.
“Sophia, you know Jack is your guardian. I must write to him, and ultimately he will decide whether you remain here or go home.”
She cocked a brow and looked him squarely in the eye. “I shall marry someone here, then. I have already received half a dozen proposals from men I could tolerate well enough, and I have only been here a week. I will remain here and continue to help Charlie and the Denney sisters.”
He frowned. “Who have you met that you could tolerate? And half a dozen? I thought there were two!”
“I don’t see how that is any of your business. You are not my brother, after all.” She laughed but there was no humor in it.
He winced. “It makes absolutely no sense for you to tie your fate to a man you feel you might ‘tolerate well enough,’ merely to remain with people who have, until a few days ago, been complete strangers to you.”
“The man tells me he’s a spy and then dares reference my ill use of common sense.” She stared straight ahead, again tugging on her hand.
Still he held it tight, knowing she had her wits about her enough to realize she couldn’t fight him without causing a ruckus other people would see.
It was brutish of him, but desperate times called for brutish measures.
He had her captive on the back of an elephant, they had the rare liberty of conversing alone without ruining her reputation, and he would hold her hand as though it were the last opportunity he might ever have.
Which may well be the case, because the odds of success at maneuvering her alone onto an elephant again were slim.