“Perhaps we’ll join them after I catch up with Theo and Mildred,” Sophia said, watching the men leave the room.She almost missed it, so subtle were the hand movements, but Mr.Huntley slipped a coin to Marshall, who swiftly tucked it in his waistcoat pocket.
Mr.Huntley bribed the footman to seat him next to Mildred?
Excellent.
Despite the gallant entreaties of the men to join them for a walk to the beach, Sophia, Mildred, and Theo headed to the drawing room.Theo retrieved her workbasket along the way.They sat in a tight circle on the sofa and a chair pulled up close.
“I have been worried about you,” Sophia said, grasping Mildred’s hands.“Where did you go?”
“There’s a folly on the estate next door, beside a pond,” Mildred said.“It provides shelter from the wind and rain, and no bats overhead.”
“And no smugglers traipsing by,” Theo added.“Imagine my surprise when I took the shortcut across Lady Lyttelton’s estate on my way here and spotted her.”
Sophia huffed out an impatient breath.“We need to solve the issue of your engagement, soon.We have no idea how Mr.Thorpe might respond if he or any of his staff found you on his property, and I’m not convinced it’s safe for you to go back to the cave.”She fought the impulse to shudder, as the memory of being trapped in the cave-in, alone in the dark, threatened to overwhelm her.
“And what about his dogs?”Theo added.“They might give you away.”
“The dogs seem to like me,” Mildred said calmly.“Even the one that’s big enough to saddle and ride.She looks ferocious but is actually quite gentle.”
Theo harrumphed, and pulled back the cloth on her workbasket.“I wrote to my Aunt Mary in Newton Poppleford, and learned she has a copy of last year’s edition ofDebrett’s.Yesterday she brought it to me herself.”She rolled her eyes.“Both my aunt and my parents still hold out hope I will find a match instead of another teaching position.”
They thumbed through until they found the entry for the current holder of the title Earl of Wingfield.
“Let’s see,” Sophia said, scanning the correct entry.“Born 1767—”
“Good heavens, he’s nearly half a century old!”Mildred wailed.
“—no marriages, and no issue.Succeeded his father in 1811.Something, something, created earl in 1659, more boring family history.Heir presumptive is—” Sophia’s breath caught in her chest.
“Who?Who is Wingfield’s heir presumptive?”Mildred demanded.
Theo took the book from Sophia’s lax fingers and read the paragraph.Her head shot up, her mouth falling open in shock as she stared at the two women.
“You have me on tenterhooks!Who is my fiancé’s heir presumptive?”
Passing her the book, Sophia jabbed her finger on the page to point out the relevant line.
Mildred read, her brow furrowed, until she dropped the book in shock.“This is too, too cruel.”She held her hand to her forehead and swooned against the back of the sofa, then abruptly sat up again.“Wicked Wingfield’s heir presumptive is his cousin, Mr.Matthew Huntley?MyMr.Matthew Huntley?”
She got up and paced a circle around the sofa.“My father affianced me to a man known as Wicked when there is a superb specimen like Mr.Huntley so close in the family?Oh, how could Father be so cruel!”She dramatically swooned on the sofa again.
“This could work to our advantage,” Sophia slowly said, tapping her bottom lip with one finger.
Theo tucked the book away in her basket.“How?”
Mildred sat up straight.“Yes, how?”
“I’ve noticed how attentive Mr.Huntley is to you.”
Other than a blush stealing across her cheeks, Mildred did not respond.
“Perhaps we can persuade him to talk to his cousin.”
“To what end, pray tell?Transfer the engagement from one man to the other?Pass me around like a horse being sold at auction?”Mildred sniffed in disdain.
Theo pinned her with a steely stare.“Would you rather be a filly in Wicked Wingfield’s stable, or Mr.Huntley’s?”
Mildred dropped her chin.“I see your point,” she whispered.
