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The coach lurched forward slightly and then smoothly continued down Park Street.
“I should probably speak with Christian,” Chase said.
“I was thinking the same thing a moment ago,” Gabe agreed. “But considering his nocturnal activities, he won’t stumble back into Weybourne House until dawn at the earliest.” At least that had been the pattern since Gabe had been staying there.
“Well, I’m certainly not going to Covent Garden to search him out.” Chase snorted. “I’ll just wait with you for him to return, whenever that is.”
Sophie rested her brow against the cool glass pane of her window. She sighed as the hack that had conveyed her home continued down Park Street, carrying Chase and…Gabe.On her life, she never in a million years would have thought she’d have come face to face with Gabriel Prideaux when she’d slipped from home a few hours ago in search of her cousin. When had Gabe returned from Canada? Why hadn’t he called on her upon his arrival? Had he just arrived that evening? She supposed that might be the only answer that wouldn’t break her heart all over again. Gabe had arrived too late in the day to call upon anyone except Chase, except…Well, except she didn’t really believe that. When he’d left her all those years ago, there had been a finality in his voice, one she’d never forget.
“Did you find Chase?” Charlotte whispered from somewhere behind her.
Sophie spun away from her window and nodded at her sister. “No one noticed I was gone, did they?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Papa’s been reading and Mama went to bed shortly after you left.” She crossed the floor. “You should change clothes, though. No reason to tempt fate.”
Fate. Had it been fate that led her to Chase’s door? To Gabe? They’d barely said a handful of words between them that night, but all of the conversations they used to have came rushing back to her memory. That very first time they were alone and how he talked forever about the speckled pink rocks at Hampton Hall. And every conversation after that, how much he adored the ancient Greek philosophers. How the waltz wasn’t nearly as scandalous as London matrons decried it. That Mary Wollstonecraft was a woman ahead of her times and would be lauded for centuries to—
“Sophie!” Charlotte complained.
Sophie shook the memories of Gabe from her mind and focused on her sister. “Yes?”
“Change out of those clothes before someone sees you.”
Yes, that probably was a good idea. Charlotte was always more sensible than Sophie. “Hand me my nightrail, if you don’t mind,” she said as she unbuttoned the front of her livery.
As her sister retrieved the nightrail from the edge of the four-poster, Sophie shrugged out of the jacket and tugged at the strip of cloth that bound her breasts.
“What did Chase say?” Charlotte asked, draping the nightrail over her arm. “Is he going to help us? Is he going to help Priscilla?”
Chase hadn’t said that exactly, though Sophie suspected he didn’t want to make any promises until he knew what he was up against. He was also more sensible than she was. Careful and methodical. “I have no doubt that he will try.” She stepped from her calf-skin shoes and quickly undid the fastenings of her borrowed trousers.
Charlotte lifted her nightrail out to her. “No one saw you like that, did they?”
Sophie heaved a sigh. “Matthew Greywood and Gabriel Prideaux.” Then she slid the garment over her head to avoid seeing whatever expression her younger sister wore.
“Good heavens!” Charlotte breathed out. “Did they recognize you? Will they say anything?”
“Mr. Greywood suspects it was me.” Sophie smoothed her nightrail down her body. “I don’t think he’ll say anything.” In fact, he’d been very sweet making certain she knew he would help her if she had need of him. And Gabe… “Major Prideaux knows for certain it was me. He was with Chase when I arrived. But he won’t say anything.” She did straighten then to find a pitying expression alit in her sister’s eyes.
“I didn’t realize Major Prideaux was in Town.”
“Neither did I.”
Charlotte scowled then. “Well, he’d better not come here. It would be impossible for me not to give him the most severe dressing down of his life. Kissing you like he did and then running off to join the 9th like a coward.”
“I don’t think they have any cowards in the 9th.” Sophie picked up her discarded pageboy attire from the floor. “And you’re not supposed to know that he kissed me.” Or the number of times he’d done so.
Charlotte scoffed. “Well, I do know it. And I remember how you sobbed yourself to sleep every night for the longest time over him, villain that he is.”
Sophie smiled sadly at her younger sister’s loyalty. “My dear Charlotte, your devotion is more than I am owed, I’m certain.” After all, she’d kissed Gabe just as passionately as he’d kissed her. If she’d been slightly less reckless in those days, perhaps she could have prevented her own broken heart.
“Nonsense,” Charlotte declared. “I’m simply as devoted to you as you are to me. Now tell me—” she tugged Sophie toward the four-poster “—everything. What did Chase say? Is he going to confront Grandfather? Is—”
A laugh Sophie didn’t really feel bubbled up from inside her. “No oneconfronts Grandfather.”
“Lord Avery did,” Charlotte said. “Mama said as much this evening.”
“Yes, and we see how that turned out for Lord Avery.” Sophie settled in the middle of her bed. “Having to steal Arabella from her bedchamber and then race with her to Scotland before Grandfather could catch them.”
