She needed a good excuse for why she would eat something at this hour. “My stomach had been in knots earlier this evening over you and Jennette. I just could not eat.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “You keep food in your nightstand?”
/> “Don’t worry, it won’t attract the mice. Besides, I have two cats that roam the house and keep the mice in line.”
“If you say so.” He groaned. “I should leave before we’re discovered.”
She raked her hand through his thick chestnut hair. “You should,” she said with a sigh.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I won’t leave.”
“But you truly must,” she whispered. “I shall be ruined if you stay.”
“Ruining you is one of my favorite things to do.” He bent forward and kissed her softly. “But alas, I shall leave.”
She didn’t want him to depart yet. “Nicholas, what am I to say to Jennette? She’s bound to tell the others what I said and they shall all hate me for it.”
He wiped away a tear from her cheek. “I’ve known Jennette since she was a child. She is wild and unpredictable but one of the most tolerant women I know. Jennette will forgive you.”
“How can you be so certain? You know how stubborn she can be. What I said to her was dreadful.”
“She’s your friend. And if you speak with her tomorrow, or rather, today, she will understand.”
“I can’t tell her everything!” Why couldn’t he understand that? “I can’t tell her that I made that foolish assumption because you love her.”
He looked away from her. “Yes, you can.”
“She won’t believe me,” Sophie said bitterly. “She will think I’m mad.”
“I told her how I had felt about her,” he mumbled.
Sophie’s hand stilled on his cheek. “You told her?”
“Yes,” he answered, blowing out a long sigh.
She bit down on her lip. “That must have been incredibly difficult.”
“Jennette is a gracious woman and understood without making me feel pitied.”
She felt terrible about this mess she’d caused. Her damned jealousy was the reason. “I’m sorry my actions caused you to have to confess to her.”
“I should have done it a long time ago.”
She nodded but knew it would not have made a difference. Jennette was meant to be with Blackburn, not Nicholas. She wondered how he felt about Jennette now. Did he still love her? She wanted him to be happy and find a woman who could make him happy and feel loved. But she still had no idea who was destined for Nicholas. The only thing she knew was . . . it would not be her. She could not let him make such a terrible mistake. Marrying her would make him an outcast.
“Can you make a distraction so I can leave here without being seen?” he asked as he clamored out of bed.
Not trusting her stomach, she stayed in the bed and watched him dress. “I will call the footman upstairs and then you can go out the front door.”
“It will be locked,” he said flatly. “I shall go out the way I came in.”
“Be careful,” she whispered.
He turned and looked down at her intensely. “Always.”
Sophie blew out a long breath before knocking on Jennette’s front door. A footman opened the door and led her into the receiving salon. She bit her lip in anticipation of Jennette’s arrival. Instead of sitting on the settee, she paced the room.
“Are you here to apologize?”