One Night Scandal

Now that he was here, she would have to face him one more time. Somehow, she had to make him believe that she didn’t want to marry him. She had to be strong. This was the best thing for him.

And the hardest thing for her.

She took a long breath in and slowly released it. She finally understood why she saw his image in Venice and not since. He was never supposed to be anything but a brief affair for her.

Concentrating on him, she could feel his anger radiating from him even at this distance. The front door opened and male voices sounded from the entryway. She could feel his anger resonate from the front of her home. Footsteps shuffled along the hall indicating that only Hendricks was coming near.

“Miss Reynard,” Hendricks said from the threshold of her study. “Lord Ancroft is here.”

“Show him in.”

“Shall I bring tea?”

Sophie doubted this would be a casual conversation over tea. “No.”

“As you wish.”

This time, loud footfalls preceded Nicholas’s arrival. The closer he came, the more she felt his anger grow. She wanted to be able to ease his ire, but she was certain this conversation would only increase it.

“Lord Ancroft, ma’am,” Hendricks announced before turning and leaving them alone.

Nicholas closed the door behind him. “I can only assume you know what happened.”

“Yes.” She looked away from his handsome face, desperate to keep herself from blurting out news that would only make this decision harder. “Somerton called on me and explained what happened.”

“Of course he would do that for you,” Nicholas muttered as he crossed the room. He picked up the bottle of brandy. “Do you mind?”

“Not at all.”

He poured a large glass and drank it in one large sip before pouring another. He paced the room with the glass in his hand. “Why did you do it, Sophie?”

He was blaming her? “Why did I do what? Warn you that something dreadful would happen if you went to that damned ball? I did but you didn’t want to hear me.”

Nicholas sipped his brandy in a casual way that belied the underlying anger she knew he felt. “Why did you try to tell me my life was in danger when you knew for a fact that Miss Littlebury was going to compromise herself?”

“I did not know for a fact that compromising you was her intention. Only that I thought she was involved.”

He stopped his pacing by the fireplace and glared at her. The heat from his brown eyes burned her. “Of course you would know that since you told her she was my match!”

“I did no such thing!” No wonder he was so angry.

“Why would she lie about that?”

Sophie laughed coarsely. “Why would she lie? She compromised herself to ring a proposal out of you. And yet you believe her.”

He blew out a long breath and dropped to a chair. He leaned forward and raked his fingers through his hair. “You’re right,” he whispered.

“I did talk with her,” she admitted softly. “But I never told her you were her match. In fact, just the opposite.” She explained what she saw when she read Miss Littlebury.

“Why would you see me when reading her?”

“It might have been due to her plan to compromise you,” she answ

ered with a shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know everything about this intuition of mine. I can only tell people what I see. I don’t always know what it means.”

Like the blackness she saw with him. He was still alive so what did it mean?

“What am I to do, Sophie?”