AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Across the room, her cousin Lady Rosalie Ratcliffe caught her eye and sent Sophie a tentative smile.
“Oh, there’s Lily,” Cassie said before she started for the shy girl by the window.
A moment later, Mama and Papa headed toward Aunt Eleanor; and Charlotte linked her arm with Prissa’s. “I see Hellsburg is as popular as always,” her sister muttered.
“I was just thinking the same thing,” Sophie admitted.
“Odious man,” Prissa agreed, and as she’d lived with him for a time, she knew even better than most the truth of that statement.
Rose quickly crossed the room, hugged Sophie to her and whispered in her ear, “Do you have any idea what this is about?”
Sophie pulled back from her cousin and shook her head. “Neither does Prissa,” she replied softly, gesturing to Charlotte and their cousin beside her.
Rose released a breath, but her expression of worry did not fade away. “All afternoon, Sarsden has been bemoaning the general state of affairs in London.”
“The general state of which affairs?” Sophie asked. After all, Rose’s brother-in-law was the sort that complained about nearly everything. He truly was a tiresome fellow, one who could only be taken in small doses.
“The criminal element.” Rose shook her head. “Did you know Gillingham wasstabbed?”
Stabbed? Sophie’s eyes went wide and she shushed Rose to keep Prissa from overhearing their conversation. But she hadn’t known that awful fact. “I thought he drowned,” she whispered.
“He might have,” Rose continued, “but he also had a dagger in his back.”
Sophie couldn’t help but glance back toward Prissa and Charlotte once more. “The poor girl.”
“Mmm,” Rose agreed. “And Benedict had his pocket picked twice within the last month.”
Not that Rose’s brother’s pockets being somewhat lighter was anywhere close to Prissa’s brother having been stabbed and thrown into the Thames. But it was still a bit surprising. “Goodness!” Sophie touched a hand to her heart. Londondidseem more dangerous than it had been in the past. “What is the world coming to?”
Her cousin shook her head. “That is what Sarsden has been bemoaning all afternoon. He is quite determined to retire to Oxfordshire, but Zinnia is being rather stubborn about the whole thing.”
Rose’s oldest sisterdidadore Town life. London might have to burn to the ground again before Zinnia would agree to leave it. “As we’ll all be in mourning the next couple months, retiring to the country might be preferred. At least—”
Beside her, Charlotte suddenly grabbed Sophie’s hand, and Rose’s gaze was quite focused to the threshold. Sophie glanced in the same direction, and…
She was once again robbed of her breath. Why in the world was Gabriel Prideauxhereof all the places he could be?
“Who is that with Chase?” Rose breathed out. “Theyarehandsome, aren’t they?”
Sophie’s traitorous heart pounded in her chest in agreement. Blast him for that! Until yesterday, it had been four years since she’d laid eyes on Gabe, but now she’d seen him three times in the last twenty-four hours, which was deucedly inconvenient. She would be quite happy to retire to Oxfordshire herself if she could somehow keep from encountering the handsome major at every turn, not that she had a place in Oxfordshire to retire to, but that was beside the point. Anywhere had to be better than London, standing in her grandfather’s drawing room with Gabe’s dark gaze focused rather pointedly on her.
He’d been back a fortnight, anentirefortnight and hadn’t sought her out even once. Blast him for making her heart pound when it shouldn’t.
“Sophie?” Rose prodded.
But speaking would be nearly impossible, especially as her bodice felt tight all of a sudden and her knees were most assuredly weak.
Luckily, Charlotte had heard the question as well, and she leaned in close toward Rose.
“Lord Kelling andMajor Prideaux,” she grumbled Gabe’s name, “And a wise girl would stay away from the pair of them.”
“Kelling?” Rose swallowed nervously. “Isn’t he mad?”
Goodness, was Kelling there too? Sophie had completely missed him as her entire focus had been captured by Gabe just as soon as she’d spotted him.
“That is what they say,” Charlotte replied, sounding the slightest bit waspish. “But as he’s Chase’s dear friend, I’m not certain if I’d readily believe those rumors. Our cousin might surround himself with fickle libertines, but I’ve never known him to associate with raving lunatics.”
Each time Gabe saw Sophie, he wasn’t sure how he’d ever had the strength to leave without her. He hadn’t had a choice in that, of course, but just being so close to her now, he couldn’t pull his gaze from her. She was so breathtakingly beautiful. The starkness of her gown only seemed to make her more alluring. Her eyes seemed bluer, and against the flickering chandelier light, her hair seemed to be the most magnificent spun gold he’d ever seen. He remembered the feel of her strands through his fingers and he’d have given everything he had to be alone with her in that moment, not that she wanted anything to do with him anymore. She’d made that more than clear at Pall Mall that afternoon, but that didn’t mean Gabe’s heart didn’t still ache for her.
