This time when she lifted her glass, she gulped a large portion of her wine. After setting the glass back, she shook her head. “I don’t.”
“Then will you ride with me to Scotland and be married? I don’t care what anyone thinks. I just want you for my wife.”
Sophie looked away, her hand slipping from the top of the table to her lap, no doubt to be clasped by the other.
Something had changed. Her welcome kiss had been desperate. Was it simply because she was afraid her father had denied his suit, orwas there something else? She always told the truth, so he didn’t hesitate. “What’s wrong? Have you decided you don’t love me enough to be my wife?” Even saying the words had every muscle in his body preparing for her rejection.
Her gaze snapped back to him. “Oh, no. Never think that. I will love you until my dying breath. I could never love another. You are the only man I want.”
His body relaxed. If she loved him, they could overcome anything. “Tell me, then, what makes you hesitate.”
Again, she looked away and remained silent.
He rose and moved to sit next to her, taking one of her hands so she could clasp his and not be alone in her worry. “Rosalind, you can tell me.”
She finally looked at him, tears forming in her eyes. “My mother visited me while you were away. She told me information that has changed my life forever.”
His heart jolted at the hopelessness in her now-bright-green eyes filled with unshed tears. “Whatever it is, we can make it better. I promise.”
She shook her head. “This cannot be fixed.”
Cupping her cheek with his free hand, he brushed a kiss across her lips before whispering, “Tell me.” He held out his handkerchief.
She sniffed before sitting back and taking it. After she wiped her eyes, she kept her gaze on the cloth she held. “My mother was sworn to secrecy, but I coaxed her to tell me the truth. Lord Dowling is not my father. My father was a groom from my aunt’s stables. I am nothing more than a commoner.”
Surprised by the revelation, he stared hard at her, not seeing how it could be true, but knowing that she would never lie. True or not, it was of no matter. “We talked of this, remember? If there is love, social class doesn’t matter. Look at Mrs. Kingman. She is perfectly happy, though I imagine her home is a bit more complete than ours will be.But I promise it will be very comfortable, and in a few years, it will be restored to its former splendor. No, a better splendor because you will have helped make it so.” He smiled, pleased that what she thought was devastating actually wasn’t.
“No, you don’t understand. My mother was married to Lord Dowling, my older brother already four years old. I’m not simply a commoner—I’m a bastard.”
He sucked in a breath at her words. He couldn’t believe Lady Dowling had had the backbone to conduct a liaison with a groom while married to Lord Dowling. “Thatisstartling. Does Lord Dowling know?”
“He does. I was only allowed to remain under his roof because my mother took an oath to never tell anyone.”
He could see that Sophie was completely rattled by the news. He wanted to comfort her, but she kept leaning away from him. If he didn’t still have her hand, he was sure she would have fled by now. “You must know that your birth is a reflection upon your mother, not on you. You are clearly the lady they raised you to be.”
“You don’t understand.” She pulled her hand from his grasp and rose, tears forming in her eyes once more. “I cannot marry you. I cannot marryanyone. I’m beyond the pale. You must find someone else. Someone who is worthy. I am not.”
“Sophie. It is not so bad as all that. There are other women who have been openly a by-blow of their father and they have married well.” He stood, offering his hand again.
“Yes, but all who have been born of unfaithful wives have become mistresses or worse.” She shivered. “No. You must forget about me. Forget about Rosalind.” A tear fell down her cheek, proving her feelings for him. “There can be no future happiness for me. I love you too much to marry you. I’m sorry.”
He couldn’t believe she meant it. “You’re forgetting that no one knows. If we go to Gretna Green, then it won’t matter anywaybecause you will becomeLadyTamworth.”
She clasped her hands to her chest. “Don’t you understand? If we elope, there will be no dowry, and Lord Dowling will be furious. He will ruin us. He will reveal what I am for revenge.”
He didn’t expect anything less of a man who would marry his daughter off to best suit his own aspirations. If they wedded, Christopher didn’t doubt the man would try to hurt them in some way, but he wouldn’t let that keep him from Sophie. “We can overcome anything because we love each other. Remember Romeo and Juliet?”
“I do. And they both killed themselves. I don’t want that for you.”
“That was a bad example.” He searched for a better one.
Her brow furrowed. “It’s more that we are Orpheus and Eurydice. Yet another tragedy.”
He was well aware she’d read far more stories than he, but it didn’t matter. “We aren’t characters in a play or a Greek myth. We are human beings who love each other, and that is all that matters. Marry me.” He held out his hand.
She stepped back, shaking her head. “I can’t.” Tears flowed down her cheeks, clawing at his heart. And then she was gone, running out of the room.
Shocked, he stood frozen. She couldn’t leave him. He ran after her, sure he could convince her that what they shared between them could overcome even her birth, but when he reached the corridor, she’d disappeared.
