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Archie blinked at her outburst then barked with laughter again. ‘Of course he isn’t! Rafe would never do such a thing. He’s taken Socrates for a walk so he can get his bearings and...’ His voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘So he can do his business outside rather than in the middle of Rafe’s study like he did this morning.’
‘Oh.’ The image of Rafe striding the grounds with her curmudgeonly cat on a string made the corners of her mouth twitch too. ‘I take it he left him his calling card.’
‘He did!’ Archie thumped the table this time as he giggled. ‘And Rafe stepped in it when he went to deliver Socrates his breakfast!’
Poor Rafe—but she couldn’t help laughing too.
‘I am amazed you slept through that commotion,’ added the cook, also grinning. ‘Thanks to your cat it’s been an eventful morning, although it is probably just as well as the air was filled with all manner of expletives which are wholly unsuitable for a lady’s ears.’
‘Oh, dear. I do apologise. If you point me in the direction of a bucket and scrubbing brush, I shall clear up the mess.’ And face the remains in the study. It had been pathetic to avoid them in the first place when what awaited her in that room wasn’t going to be anywhere near as terrible as what awaited her down the lane. But then avoidance was what she always did.
A realisation which pulled her up short because there was no skirting around the inescapable fact that she and Aunt Jemima were now homeless, no matter how much she might wish to ignore that frightening truth. Her aunt might well be taken in by her father on sufferance but Sophie...
No!That skirted too close to all manner of things for comfort and churned the murky seabed filled with monsters. So she pushed it back down to smile at the cook. ‘I should probably also clean poor Rafe’s boots.’
‘Oh, the mess is all long gone, my dear, so do not trouble yourself. Why don’t you put your feet up and read a book in the drawing room?’
Archie tugged at her sleeve. ‘I am going to the stable to help Mr Ruddock exercise the horses in a minute if you want to help, Sophie? They need a good run because they didn’t get one yesterday.’
‘Thank you but no. I think I’ll take a walk instead.’ She needed to blow the cobwebs out of her mind which seemed so filled with fog she could barely think straight. A brisk walk would restore her equilibrium and lift her mood. She hated feeling so despondent and lost.
‘All right—but don’t go down the lane.’ Archie pulled a face of horror. ‘Rafe has given strict instruction that you are not allowed to go there and see the dreadful state of Willow Cottage all alone.’
