“Papa.” She paused. “You came.”
And that’s when she knew that something terrible must have happened. Jack Talbot did not hie across Britain with his wife and four daughters for a lark. A sense of wild foreboding threaded through Sophie, and she had the keen realization that this day would be the most important of her life. It was the day she said good-bye to King. And the day that her father changed everything.
Her father looked to the rest of the girls. “Find your rooms, girlies.”
They did as they were told, leaving in a squawking gaggle, along with the countess, to find rooms that were no doubt being aired for the first time in an age. If she weren’t so shocked by her father’s arrival, she would have been amused by the idea of the Duke of Lyne coming face-to-face with the Dangerous Daughters.
Once alone with her father, she asked, “Why are you here, Papa?”
“I came,” he said, “because I can’t take care of this.”
She blinked. “Papa, you know as well as I do, Society will find another thing to loathe in less than a week. It likely has already.”
“But Haven won’t.”
“Haven is an ass,” she said.
“That’s never been more true, kitten, but he’s a duke. He holds the purse strings.”
Her brows snapped together. “You’re Jack Talbot. You’re richer than all of them combined.”
Her father went silent. “Not without them, Sophie. That was the deal I struck for the title your mother wanted so badly. They invest, I mine. And you all become ladies. I can’t make money without the nobs. And you’ve done an excellent job of running them off. Calling Haven a whore did it better than I ever could’ve.”
Fear gripped her at the words. It made sense, of course. Titles weren’t simply doled out, not without requirements. “I thought it was a wager?”
He smiled. “It was. But Prinny made the terms. And I accepted them.”
“They’ve stopped investing?”
“Pulled their funds to a man. Haven took great glee in making it so. I received notice from thirteen of them by sundown after your excitement. The rest came in the morning.” He paused for a long moment before he approached her, and for the first time in her life, she saw Jack Talbot’s age. His worry. “You want your dowry? Your freedom?” He shook his head. “I want to give it to you. But there ain’t no dowry to be had, kitten. I can’t keep your mother and sisters in new clothes and gilded carriages and—” He looked to a nearby table. “Now why in hell do they need birdcages on their heads?”
She smiled, halfheartedly. “At least there’s no bird in it.”
“Don’t say that in front of Sesily, or I’ll have to find funds for birdfeed.”
She shook her head. “Papa. I thought we were—”
“You’d be surprised how quickly blunt flows out the door, kitten. Especially when the nobs want you gone.” He reached for her, and she went into the embrace. He smelled of leather and horseflesh, the scent wrapping her in memories of her childhood, when what was right was all that mattered. Jack Talbot had always been larger than life—a hero in every sense. He’d fostered Sophie’s love of books, embraced her desire for more than the aristocracy. And in all her life, he’d never once asked her for help. Perhaps she could have found a way to deny her sisters what they wished, but her father—he hadn’t an ounce of the dramatic in him. And if he was concerned for their future, so, too, was she.
He kissed the top of her head. “I was so proud of you for standing up for your sister. For yourself,” he whispered there. “But now . . . they have us by the bollocks.”
She pulled back, staring into his clear brown eyes. “Haven behaved abominably.”
“And I’d have beaten him blue, love. Don’t you doubt it. But the world was watching you. His world. You embarrassed him in front of it.”
I shall destroy you.
Her brother-in-law’s words, from the Liverpool greenhouse, echoed through her. And she’d taunted him for them.
I’d like to see you try.
He’d done it. Without hesitation. His name and title making him more powerful than they would ever be.
She shook her head. “I didn’t think.”
“You think now,” he said.
Jack Talbot might have been given the Earldom of Wight, but he’d never been given a son, and therefore, his five daughters had no future without marriage. They had no future. Not now that Sophie had ruined it.
She blinked up at her father. “What have I done?”
He offered her a little smile. “You acted rashly, my girl. You defended your sister in the moment without thinking of the long game. And we pay the price.”
She knew what came next before he suggested it. And later, when she faced the dark truth of what she had to do, she would admit her most private secret.
That she’d never in her life wanted anything more.
“How do we survive it?” she asked.
There was a long silence before her father answered. “Eversley.”
Chapter 19
BEYOND THE BEDPOST—CUMBRIA
CASTLE CONFESSIONS!
That night, long after the house quieted, Sophie waited for her thoughts to do the same.
She sat straight up on the edge of her bed, clad in one of Sesily’s dressing gowns, a beautiful grass green satin covered in pearls and feathers, with a matching silk nightdress and slippers.
It was a costume more than anything else—a uniform. She was to use it to do what countless other women had done in similar frocks. Land herself a husband.
Willing away the distaste that came at the thought, she stared at the door between her rooms and King’s. She’d done all she could to put off approaching him, bathed and changed the bandage on her shoulder, dried her hair by the fire, combed it until it gleamed. It was late enough that he was no doubt abed, no doubt asleep, without thought of her.
They’d barely spoken in the hours since her family had arrived. He’d taken his leave immediately, no doubt grateful that his responsibility to her was complete. They’d dined with him, his father nowhere to be found, her sisters more than willing to fill whatever awkward silences arose with their chatter about London and Society.
King had remained quiet, answering only those questions that came directly to him.
Her sisters had known better than to engage him.
There’d been a moment when her mother had inquired after their journey—why it had taken such a long time. King had looked to Sophie in the aftermath of the question, surprised that the countess seemed not to know that she’d been shot and convalesced in Sprotbrough.
There hadn’t been a time to tell her family what had happened, strangely, as a bullet wound had seemed trivial when compared to the wound her family suffered. The one she would cause for King.
She’d watched him throughout dinner, memorizing his face, his eyes, the way his lips curved around his words. She wanted to remember all the little moments she could amass before tonight. Before she knocked on that door and changed their lives forever.
If she could find the courage to do it.
If she could find the willingness to do it.
Perhaps he would refuse her.
Relief flared at the idea. If he refused her, her family would have to try another way. If he refused her, she could leave, and find another life. She’d never have to return to London. To Mossband. She could disappear, and they could live their lives without her.
He could live his life without her.
She would have to live her life without hi
m.
The thought ached in her chest, her heart somehow beating there, in spite of it, and she exhaled, standing and crossing to the adjoining door. She could end this now. She would knock; he would refuse her; she would leave.
Even though she desperately wanted him to accept her.
Not like this.
No, not like this. But the idea that she would never see him again, never touch him again, never be near him again . . .
It was torture.
She put her hand to the door, palm flat against the cool mahogany, and she lowered her forehead to the door. Breathing deep, imagining that she could smell him there, on the other side, soap and spice and King.
How much she wanted him, and how little she wanted this.
She straightened and lifted her hand, preparing to announce herself, when a knock sounded on the main door to her chamber.
She pulled her hand back from its task as though she’d been burned, immediately putting distance between her and the entrance to his rooms. She crossed to the door and opened it to reveal Seraphina, her hands at her stomach.
The eldest Talbot sister was out of breath. “I was afraid I had missed you.”
Sophie stood back and waved Sera into the room. “I have been . . . postponing.”
Sera crossed to the center of the bedchamber and turned to face Sophie as she closed the door, locking them both inside. “Do you love him?”
The question surprised Sophie, and it was a moment before she found her reply. “Does it matter?”
Sera sat on the edge of the bed, catching her breath. “It does, rather.”
Sophie crossed and poured her sister a glass of water, watching as she drank deep before saying, “Why?”
“If you don’t, you shouldn’t do this.”
Sophie shook her head. “You think I’ll find another who loves me?”
“I think you shouldn’t marry a man who doesn’t care for you.”
It was too late for that. “It is easy for you to say such a thing. Nothing about my actions will change your future.” Sophie sat next to Seraphina. “I’m so sorry, Sera. If I hadn’t—”
Sera reached over and took Sophie’s hand, clutching tight. “You defended me. No one else would have.” They were both lost in the memory before Sera chuckled. “And he deserved it.”