Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
“In conversation, avoid too much eagerness to tell an anecdote.”
Dr. John Gregory, A Father’s Legacy to His Daughters
Sophia felt like she had exited her body and observed the events in the room unfolding from a distance.
From the moment she had taken the note, she ceased to hear or see anything but the handwriting on the page, realizing that she had been the cause of the danger.
Richard could have been killed. Even Ethan was in danger because she selfishly sought safety in the Balfour household and inadvertently brought her troubles with her.
Richard blamed himself for everything that had happened since the day of the wedding.
He was so certain he was the cause that Sophia never stopped to observe the patterns.
The bully tactics of the caricatures. The alteration of facts that caused angry paramours and husbands to target Richard.
Even the rock through the window of Richard’s study carried the mark of her brother’s hand, but she had failed to see it.
Failed to inform Richard of the danger she represented.
She rushed back into her body with a crash.
Her hand dropped the note, and she crumpled over in anguish, sorrow and regret coalescing to slash through her soul.
Emitting a wail of deep despair, she dissolved into a blubbering mess.
Richard’s arms engulfed her, but she tried to wrench herself away.
She did not deserve his solace because she had risked everything the man held dear to protect herself.
And she had not even warned him of the danger.
Sophia had underestimated how vindictive her brother could be.
Richard gathered Sophia into his arms. She tried to pull away, but he was not having it. He hugged her closer, attempting to soothe her. It was devastating to see her anguish, his strong woman, who brought peace into his household, reduced to heaving sobs.
“Calm yourself, Sophia.”
“It is all my fault!”
“Sophia, I need you to calm down. Please, my love. Whatever this is, we will sort it out.”
“I could have caused your death!”
“My love, Lord Wood could have caused my death. And your brother might have put him up to it. But you did not do this, Sophia. Please, calm yourself.”
Sophia sobbed in his arms with such gut-wrenching pain, he wanted to hunt down Cecil Hayward so he might pound the man into the ground.
He had no idea what the blackguard was about, but he did know he wanted to kill him.
Meanwhile, he must be content with making soothing sounds and caressing his hands up and down her slight back while she wept.
Finally, her storm of tears eased, and her head hung limp against him.
Perry walked over to hand him a handkerchief. Richard gently pushed Sophia back and used it to wipe at her downcast, swollen eyes. She would not look at him, an expression of guilt pasted across her face.
“Why would your brother target me? Did I offend him in some way I am unaware of?”
Sophia shook her head.
“Was he targeting me?”
Again, she shook her head.
“So, the cyprians in my bed, the caricatures, manipulating Lord Stanford and Lord Wood, the rock through the window, and the threatening note—these were misdirection to hurt you?”
She nodded.
“I feel I am missing some vital information?—”
“I should leave! I will go to Saunton Park, and my brother will surely follow me there! Then you and Ethan will be safe!”
Richard took her face between his hands and coaxed her to look at him. “My love, I am not leaving you vulnerable. Now that we know who is behind this, we will find him and end it. But Sophia, you have to explain what this is about.”
Sophia looked at him with such guilt and pain, it tore through him.
He wanted to comfort her, to make her feel safe.
It was his duty as her protector, but he knew she needed to explain the situation.
Not just so that he and Perry could take action, but because she carried some unnamed burden that wreaked havoc on her usual composure. His wife needed him to listen.
“Would you like Perry to leave us alone?”
She shook her head. “I put your household in danger. Perry should know what hangs over our heads.”
“Why would Cecil target you in this manner?”
She exhaled in a shaky breath before pulling out of his arms. She stood and went to stare out the window.
“I am not sure how to start. Where to start …” She paused.
“Ten years ago, my father died. He was a prolific gambler, and he drank too much. I was told he died of some sort of apoplexy while playing cards in the early hours. My mother was not a strong woman, and she died from a laudanum overdose within days of his death. Cecil is my father’s son from his first marriage.
He was sixteen and became very angry after our father’s death. ”
Sophia stopped, raising a hand against the glass as if she were peering into the past.
“What happened?”
“Lord Moreland, my mother’s brother, and his wife took us in.
Cecil is not a blood relation of the Abbotts, but they have always valued family above all else, so they took my brother in along with me.
They were not aware that Cecil started drinking quite heavily.
Perhaps he was drinking before my father’s death.
It is possible my father encouraged it when they spent time together.
I … I did not know what to do about it. He is my brother …
the only one I had left after my parents both … ”
Richard struggled to understand where the story would lead and how it related to their wedding, which had apparently set her sibling off on this rampage, but he remained silent to allow Sophia to find her way through the tale.
“Uncle Hugh gave him an allowance, which Cecil squandered on wagering—playing cards, placing bets at less-than-reputable clubs. The Abbotts were unaware of his decline. He fooled them with his polished manners, and they are not accustomed to dealing with someone so reckless in his habits …”
His heart skipped a beat. He did not like the direction this was going. Had the brother hurt her in some manner?
“When I turned eighteen and came out, Uncle Hugh gave me a generous allowance. Cecil needed to pay his gambling debts, and I had money. So he took it from me. When I threatened to tell my uncle, my brother … made it clear that I would regret it if I ever informed on him.”
Perry and Richard both stiffened, his brother casting him a questioning look. Richard shook his head to indicate he did not know, but he disliked the tone of her voice when she stated it.
“Sophia, my love, can you explain, how did he make that clear?”
“He hurt me,” she replied softly.
Richard jumped to his feet, agitated. Sophia needed to tell him the rest, which meant he needed to stay calm and let her finish.
Perry, noting his distress, asked the next question. “How … did your uncle not notice?”
“Cecil was always careful—he’d strike me where the marks wouldn’t show, like my face or stomach. Evidence was minimal.”
Richard ran a hand through his hair, his expression tense as he gestured for Perry to remain silent. The thought of his sweet wife suffering at the hands of someone who should have protected her tied his stomach in knots. “Has he been doing this all these years?”
“Nay, after the first few times, I started reading military texts and working on strategies to outwit him. I hid items of sentimental value I did not wish him to take. I hid pin money, too, and told him that Aunt Christiana was making me spend it all on expenses related to the Season. He eventually stopped coming to me for funds, but I believe the gambling continued.”
Richard drew a deep breath. Her resourcefulness was impressive, but he would have expected it from her. His sweet Sophia was no man’s victim.
“How did we get to today? Why did our wedding rile his wrath after all this time?”
“He uncovered the truth about my dowry and realized he could come to a financial arrangement with a fortune hunter. Stealing me from my bed and taking me to Scotland for a forced marriage was discussed.”
Richard stared at her in horror. “Leech!”
“Leech?” Perry hissed. “The wife killer?”
Richard nodded. “I interceded that night at the Yardley ball, or she would have been compelled to dance with him. The coroners in the matter of his wives’ deaths could find no evidence of foul play and the man has powerful friends, so he walks amongst us unscathed, but he must have orchestrated their deaths. ”
Sophia spoke in a low, sad voice. “Based on the conversation I overheard, he definitely had a hand in their deaths. He alluded to the possibility of my own.”
Richard shook his head in dismay, pacing back and forth while he tried to settle his thoughts.
“Is this what you meant when you said you needed protection?” Sophia nodded, her face still averted toward the window.
“Botheration! I thought you meant in a general sense that a woman needed a protector, or that you had concerns about fortune hunters pursuing you. I did not know you needed actual protection!”
“I was uncertain how much of a threat they posed, but once we agreed to wed, I took to sleeping in my cousin’s room and paid a footman to sleep in my bed. The night before our nuptials, Lord Leech attempted my abduction, but Thomas apprehended him.”
Richard and Perry looked at each other, aghast. They considered their dead father to have been the worst kind of scoundrel, but yet even he possessed innocence when compared to Sophia’s brother.
Richard could not believe she had lived under such intimidation.
He wanted to walk over to his wife and fold her in his arms to comfort her, yet he knew she needed to finish her story for her own peace of mind, so he clenched his fists and stayed rooted to where he stood.