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“Very good, madam.” Diane gave her a curtsy and turned towards the bed. “I’ll straighten out the bedding, and then I’ll get along with my work. If you need me when you get back, let me know.”
“Of course.”
Sophia left her room, heading downstairs. While it was late enough that the servants had probably been up for a couple of hours, it was still too early for her family. She couldn’t remember anyone but her waking up before nine in the morning unless it was Christmas or their birthday.
Neither were very big events, but the excitement had everyone jumping up and down in glee at knowing it was an important day. Especially when it came to her sisters; they all loved being the centre of attention.
Particularly Aimee. She was probably the worst for it.
Sophia wished things were different between her and her sister. They were close in age, only eighteen months apart, but they couldn’t be any more different. Aimee was short and petite, much like their mother, with raven-black hair and brown eyes with a prickly, abrasive personality that she was quite good at hiding for the most part.
Sophia was a redhead like her father, tall and slim, and could keep herself stoic and collected at the best of times. Not to mention she had a rosy-brown glow to her skin, which the ton really frowned upon; women were supposed to be milky-white when it came to their skin, not brown as a nut. Sophia didn’t really care what people thought; she liked the look. She certainly looked healthier for it.
It was a shame things were going wrong between them. Sophia still wasn’t sure why Aimee started behaving differently. When they were little, because they were so close in age, they were close. Aimee was her best friend, and they shared practically everything.
Then Aimee came back from her first Season, and she was a completely different person. She was snooty and snobbish, turning her nose up at Sophia and not listening to her whenever her sister started talking about the things happening in the garden. She didn’t even care about flowers unless it was the right one from a suitor. Language, when it came to flowers, meant everything; even Sophia knew that.
She had hoped that her sister wouldn’t turn into another copy of her sisters, all of whom had changed and looked down on everyone once they started entering Society properly. The ton seemed to make people shift personalities. Sophia hadn’t liked it, especially when she went to her first Season a year later.
Although she could see why people changed, she was determined that it wouldn’t happen to her. Witnessing what her sisters ended up becoming, Sophia didn’t like it. She preferred not to do it at all.
For the last four years, Aimee hadn’t been her close sister. They had been strangers living in the same house. Sophia didn’t know what to think about that, except that she wanted her old sister back. They used to have a lot of fun, and she felt like she had lost her best friend. Aimee didn’t appear to care. It was all about the money.
Sophia thought it was stupid. What was wrong with being yourself? That had to be allowed at some point. Surely, people didn’t expect the facade to keep going once they were married? Sophia wondered if Aimee would be able to keep it up once she finally did marry.
Then again, given how Lady Westbury and Aimee had been talking the day before, it was going to happen soon. Some poor unfortunate was going to get a surprise once the mask slipped if they liked Aimee as she was before.
Sophia wasn’t going to try and figure out her sister or her family. If they wanted to behave as they were, then it was nothing to do with her. She was content to be on her own and doing her own thing.
The viscount ignored her existence, and Lady Westbury barely noticed she was there. The only people who cared where she was were the servants. Sophia knew this was a sad turn of events if the household staff were more family-like than her own family.
If she had been born a boy, then things might have been different. But it was what it was, and Sophia couldn’t change it.
Leaving the house by the side door, Sophia headed across the grounds and up a slope towards the woods bordering their property on one side. It was shady and secluded, a perfect place to sit and look at everything far below. It also made the creativity part of her flow, and Sophia found herself sketching many pictures in her notebook, ready for later.
And she had quite a bit to do before she ended up finishing her painting in the summer house.
Heading up the slope, Sophia went into the trees and found the place she normally sat, under a huge oak tree overlooking the small valley beneath her. This was the middle of Cambridgeshire, and this was probably the only hill they had in the whole county. It certainly had a beautiful view.
Settling down and tucking her skirt around her legs, Sophia opened to a fresh page, found her pencil, and began to sketch the scene before her.
#
Thomas stood at the edge of the Westbury estate and looked down at the house, just on the outskirts of Eaton Socon. So, this was the home of Aimee Burke, the daughter of Viscount Westbury. The woman he had been matched to marry.
And he wasn’t really looking forward to meeting her.
Thomas hated that he was a grown man, closing in on thirty years of age, and he had his parents trying to match him up with a woman he had never met before. He had heard stories about Miss Aimee Burke, but that was about it. And they weren’t really impressive, on his side.
Apparently, everyone in the family was a snob. They were always on the lookout for money and how to get more. Viscount Westbury was the richest man of his status in the east of England.
According to his own parents, he was a beneficial contact, and Thomas would do them a favour getting married to their second youngest daughter. Then they would be able to marry into a wealthy family.
He knew they were trying to find someone for him to secure the family’s future, but this was a little too much. Thomas didn’t want to get married. He didn’t really believe in love or marriage. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t exist.
There had been a time a while back where he had thought it did, and Thomas had been willing to embrace it. But that hadn’t happened. And then, in his most vulnerable moment, he had been steered towards a loveless and arranged marriage.
Well, sort of. He still needed to meet Aimee Burke and go through the motions, but he didn’t want to. If his father hadn’t asked him for this favour to help them out, Thomas would have said a few more words that would have been very unkind. He wasn’t good at telling his father no.
