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“I-I cannot say …”
“I can, but I would like you to tell me. I would like to get to the bottom of this, and I think you know what is going on between us—do you?”
“Stop, oh please, I don’t know!” She wanted to run from him and was saved at that moment by Sophy, who came rushing at them.
“Sassy, oh Sassy, I need a favor.” Sophy touched the marquis’s sleeve. “I really need the favor from you, Justin. Percy and Lord Grey are impossible. I am in dread of their drawing swords at any moment. Do go and see if you can manage them, please?”
Sassy saw the flicker of irritation in the marquis’s bright blues as he said, “Really, Sophy, as much as I would like to oblige you, I must point out that Percy is a man fully capable of handling himself. And as to that puppy forever hanging about, he needs some schooling!”
“Oh, but, Justin, you don’t understand. They are raising their voices in the midst of the crowd, and it won’t do.”
“I should think you would be thrilled to have two suitors doing open battle over you,” the marquis said dryly.
Sophy seemed too taken aback by his refusal to help to say anything; however, Sassy jumped in. “Ah, now, my lord, anyone can see that Sophy is not flattered by their behavior and does not wish to have her name bandied about in public. It won’t do, and it won’t help either suitor shine in her parents’ eyes, now will it?”
This gave his lordship reason to pause. He inclined his head. “Your powers of reasoning—and persuasion—leave me no choice but to obey,” he said with a smile in his eyes for her as he bowed. When he came up their gazes locked. “But we will take up where we left off, and soon, my beauty,” he whispered softly, “very soon.”
“Well!” Sophy declared, linking her arm through Sassy’s. “You certainly have him twisted around your finger. I cannot recommend him to you, though, for I find him ill mannered.” Sophy giggled and added, “And still what a feather in a woman’s bonnet when he looks her way.” Sophy gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes.
Sassy found she liked this new side of Sophy and laughed. “You are incorrigible. You already have two very estimable gentlemen paying you court, and more for all I know.”
Sophy laughed. “Oh I am sorry for my behavior yesterday. I was out of sorts, and then there you were, so beautiful, and Percy was being attentive to you …”
“I take it Percy is the one you are interested in much more than Lord Grey?”
“I adore Percy. I have never loved any other man or will love any other man. It has always been Percy, but I shan’t be allowed to marry him. My family thinks I must have title and wealth beyond imagination, and I cannot think of a solution. I suppose I shall have to marry Lord Grey and take Percy as a lover.”
Sassy gasped. “Sophy! No—how can you plan such a thing?”
“It is done all the time. I have heard about it from all my friends, and I hear my mother and her friends talking incessantly about friends who made marriages of convenience and have taken lovers. My aunt told me something of the sort just the other day.”
“She didn’t! Oh, I am persuaded she could not have.”
“She did. She said, Sophy, you must make a marriage of convenience, and after a time, if you are discreet, you may go on as you please. So I ask you, Sassy, what else can that mean?”
“Oh, Sophy, I am sure that wouldn’t do for you. Imagine having to kiss a man you don’t love and then have him … have him … well …?”
Sophy grimaced. “I know, I know. And I have thought of that, because when Percy kisses me, it takes me away and makes me w
ant more—more kisses, more touching, and intimacy—but when Lord Grey kissed me the other day, it was horrid. I so wanted to slap his face.” She wrung her hands. “What is to be done? Mama says I may have a separate bedroom from my husband if I wish, but what if he visits me and I don’t want him to? And Percy? Percy would be raw with jealousy. Only look at him when Lord Grey kisses my hand, and he doesn’t know about him kissing my mouth, and—”
“Oh Sophy, a solution must be found,” Sassy said on a note of distress.
“Do you know, you are the only friend who has understood? My other friends tell me I am foolish and that I could do what my aunt says I should.” She shook her head. “I think I would detest such a life—” She cut herself off. “Oh—there is Mama waving. Sassy, Mama is having an ‘at home’ today. I want you to join us, for you and I shall be friends forever. Please do come … please?”
“You are very kind to invite me, but, Sophy, I don’t think your mama would approve of you inviting me.”
“Nonsense. Mama says she knows your mother’s side of the family and that they are very high in the instep. She also said that they just might wish to re-establish you in the family, because she heard talk about it.” Sophy shrugged. “Besides that she and Miss Graves have been friends for years, and she has her over for tea all the time. I would take it as a favor if you would drive home with me and Lord Grey so that I won’t be alone with him. I can’t go with my parents, as they are the ones that trapped me into going home with Grey, and if I went off with Percy, Mama would go off in convulsions, and—”
“I see,” Sassy said, putting up her hands and sighing. “What a mess, to be sure.”
“Oh, I knew you would understand,” Sophy wailed thankfully.
A young choirboy appeared at that moment, cleared his throat, and said loudly, “Excuse me, but Miss Sallstone says she is leaving, if you would like to return to the school with her.”
Miss Delleson took over and said, “Thank Miss Sallstone and tell her that I am abducting Miss Winthrop for the afternoon and shall see to it that she is returned to Netherby safely later—much later. Thank you.”
The boy ran off, and Sophy said with some excitement, “Oh, we shall have such fun, although if Mama notices the way the marquis is looking at you—even now, she will not be pleased and will pitch Lord Grey at me even harder.”
