The Haunting of Lady Sophie

by Marly Mathews

  A shiver ran up and back down her spine. His eyes clouded. There was no doubt in her mind now. The love enchantment had started to affect him and she weren’t careful it would wrap horrible tentacles around her as well!

  Lord, help her! He looked like he wanted to gobble her right up!

  Heat simmered between them. If she didn’t do something soon, the tension between them would combust and he would be ravishing her right on the spot where she stood!

  “I do mind. Now, give it back, Lord Percy!” she said, intentionally using the wrong form of address for him, which got his eyes to spark with fire.

  They were locked in a fruitless game of tug of war. His eyes held hers, and a smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, while his green eyes continued sparkling with mirth.

  “I will say one thing for you, Lady Sophie. You do have molten fire running through your veins. You shall make me a mighty fine wife, someday.”

  “I wouldn’t bet on that, my lord.” She stuck her tongue out him, and he had the gall to wink back at her! He pulled hard on the chain, and caused her to lose her balance and slam against his chest.

  His arms steadied her, folding her into his welcoming embrace. Her mind went blank. Terrifying titillating thoughts rushed through her head. She imagined what it would be like for him to ravish her senseless.

  Startling real images of them together swirled through her mind. Conflicting with how she felt toward him. In the images that swam before her, she could literally feel her love for Redding. It shocked her, and made her gasp aloud.

  “What…what is happening?” she asked shakily.

  He tipped her chin up so he could stare lovingly down into her eyes.

  Again, visions of herself with him overtook her sight. She saw herself happily running toward him, calling him by his Christian name, and telling him that she loved him with all of her heart and soul. Her vision cleared, and she was met once again with his present day visage. She felt rattled right down to her core. How could she be seeing such things?

  She didn’t have the gift of foresight. It just didn’t make any sense to her!

  His lips looked inviting enough. He tipped her chin up so he could stare deeply into her eyes. Their gazes locked, and she was hopelessly lost. She had to try snapping out of it. A lump formed in her throat, if only she could turn back the clock so this incident could never come to pass.

  “Why don’t you just call me Rupert? Formalities between us seem unnecessary,” he said softly.

  She looked out of the corner of her eye, and saw that Lloyd and Seraphina had pulled a disappearing act. She was alone, and at the mercy of whatever the Marquess commanded of her.

  At the moment, her willpower was nil. If he wanted her to kiss him, she would—if he wanted her to do more—she feared she would.

  Her honour would be utterly ruined, and she would have to live with the shame of it. She only hoped his lovemaking would be worth the risk.

  “I…I can’t…”

  “I am worth any risk, Sophie, darling.” Liquid fire sizzled through her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes.

  The Ruby was amplifying their bond. Making it possible for Redding to sense her thoughts given their close proximity. She sighed deliciously, and closed her eyes, as his lips claimed hers. She rode on the waves of pleasure that coursed through her. She wanted more of him, in fact, she wanted all that he could give!

  “Sophie Louisa Henrietta FitzCharles!” her parents spoke in unison.

  “Lord Redding, release my daughter immediately, sir!” Her father’s voice exuded fury. He sounded as if he were tempted to call him out to a duel.

  The magical moment of their blazing hot kiss was broken furiously short. Redding released his hold on her, and she wobbled precariously on her feet without his support. Her mother sounded horrified, and her father sounded as if he was about to use his full magical might on Redding.

  Her parents stood framed in the doorway. Both wore their dressing gowns and unlike her, they looked respectable, if not fit for company. Her mother had her hair plaited, and she had failed to put her spectacles on, so she squinted at the two of them, seemingly unable to believe the shocking sight that stood before her.

  Fortunately, her mother hadn’t brought her cane, and her father looked storming mad, but he was still half asleep, he kept fighting back yawning.

  If he had been fully alert, she knew that Redding probably wouldn’t still be standing on his feet, but rather he would be sitting on his ass. Her father was less conservative than her mother about his use of magic to inflict harm in the right situation.

  “You seem to have found us in a spot of bother.” She dropped her hands to her sides. She knew she made quite the sight, and by the way her mother’s eyes stared at her in stunned disbelief, she could only imagine how bad she looked.

  “I can see that, Sophie, dear,” her mother said, stifling a yawn with her hand.

  Excited whispers carried to them from outside of the room. They were getting closer, which could only mean one thing, her sisters and Simone were awake.

  Thank God her brothers were spending the next few nights at Castle Rayne. At least she would be saved the mortification of them seeing her in this precarious situation. Her sisters and Simone spilled into the room and their shocked expressions made Sophie feel even guiltier than she had when her parents had discovered her.

  Simone looked the most aggrieved, and the fact that she had her hair in rags with a night cap covering most of her head and her nightly face cream that she concocted herself smeared liberally across her face put her at a distinct disadvantage. She certainly wasn’t the so-called prettiest FitzCharles girl at the moment.

  “Lord Redding?” Simone said incredulously, blinking her eyes furiously, as she looked at them both. She looked dumbfounded, and had she not being wearing green goo on her face she would have been as white as Seraphina. In fact, despite the cream on her face, she looked utterly shocked. Suddenly, Sophie’s mood improved.

  Life was funny that way.

  “Miss Simone, how nice to see you,” Lord Redding said. He looked between them, and gave her a glance that suggested he wanted her to help bail him out of his watery grave.

  Simone had decided that Lord Redding was hers, during the events of the Last Season, and during the upcoming season, she was convinced she would get a proposal out of him. Despite her poor prospects, she obviously thought her beauty would win over Redding.

  Redding, for his part, had only ever seemed annoyed by Simone’s presence, so she couldn’t figure out why Simone believed she had a chance with the man.

  Sophie’s mother kept telling her that a few dances did not constitute as an official courtship, but Simone would not be deterred. Nothing could possibly make her give up Redding—nothing, except for the Ruby matching Rupert and Sophie.

  Sophie smiled. This moment was probably the worst moment of Simone’s life—and it had suddenly become one of the best moments of Sophie’s life.

  “I…I don’t understand. What is going on?” Simone asked.

  Amelia giggled. “Isn’t it obvious, Simone? The man you had your heart set on, is off the marriage mart! He is going to marry our Sophie! Congratulations, Sophie!”

  “Yes. Congratulations, Sophie,” Charlotte murmured grudgingly. “We are all very happy for you the two of you.”

  “But…but…” Sophie blustered. “What if I don’t want him?”

  Chapter Seven

  What did Rupert have to do to get his own way when it came to Sophie? Showing a mild interest in Simone to stir Sophie’s jealousy had only served to work against him as the spell he had used to erase Sophie’s memories was apparently taking on a life of its own.

  Every time he made progress with her, it put her back into the mode of not caring a tinker’s fart about him. He could see her waging an inner war. She wanted to fall in love with him, but the blasted enchantment of his own making was keeping her from doing just that!

  He wanted to era
se the last three years and return to the way it had first been between them. He didn’t want Sophie ever thinking that he had eyes for Simone again. He actually couldn’t stand the girl, and thought he had made that quite clear to her at the Huntingdon Ball.

  “Damn my own bloody magic,” he muttered beneath his breath.

  Because of his memory spell, she still looked at him as if she expected him to push her aside in favour of Simone, as did Simone! He wanted to make it quite clear to them all, that he only wanted Sophie and had never been interested in Simone—and yet—if he could use Simone to push Sophie closer to him, then he would gladly do so. Whether it would work or not, was another matter entirely. His spell just might continue working against his efforts to win Sophie’s heart.

  If that was the game that Sophie felt like playing—then he would be more than happy to accommodate her.

  *****

  Sophie smiled and winked at him, earning a fiery gaze from him in return. If he believed she was about to help him mend the fences with Simone, he had another thing coming. In fact, she would probably drag him down the altar just to spite her prissy snobbish and at times, bitchy cousin.

  And now, now she was apt to believe Reggie. Simone had to be her half-sister. She just hadn’t decided how to deal with that information, not to mention how to get past it. She would have to confront her father at some point, and she had to tell her other sisters that Simone was not their cousin. She had no idea how they would even deal with it. If only calm and composed Sylvie was still alive, she would know exactly what to do in this instance.

  Whenever the circumstances of Simone’s birth came up every one in the family would hush up as if they couldn’t quite make themselves go through the sad tale again. As Sophie had matured, she often wondered how much of the story was fact and how much of it was fiction. She sometimes believed they didn’t want to go over the story again because they were afraid they would leave out some of the made up bits, and accidentally let out the truth.

  Now that she knew the damning truth, she was lost. How could she possibly embrace Simone as her sister? Moreover, did she even want to?

  When she thought about gaining a sister, she never once dreamt it would be Simone. She wanted Sylvie back. She didn’t want someone like Simone to take her place!

  On numerous occasions, she had asked her aunts about Simone’s father, believing they would know something about the mysterious FitzCharles cousin, but they would tell her the same thing everyone told her, that Simone’s father had been the youngest son of her father’s first cousin. Faced with a very meager inheritance, he had gone to India determined to make his fortune there.

  Once there, he had met a daughter of a military man, and had engaged in an impractical affair with her, resulting in her falling pregnant with child, and the rest of the story they all knew. Simone had been tragically orphaned and sent back to England to live with her father’s Aunt Alby, for a very brief amount of time.

  Alby had disappeared one night and Simone had come to live with them just prior to Sophie and Sylvie’s birth.

  How could they have all lied to them? She wanted to rage against her family, but she had to take it all one step at a time. Right now, she had to deal with Redding. After which, she might be able to deal with Simone. She could always pretend that she didn’t know about the true origins of Simone’s creation, and instead continue to go along with the story that her father had fabricated.

  He knew that she knew the truth now. Despite that, she doubted he would actually out himself as Simone’s father. Because if it ever got beyond the family the scandal would rip her family apart! Not that Simone didn’t already try to do just that.

  When her brothers, Arthur and Trevelyan were home, Simone regularly pitted them against each other in an effort to stir up mayhem. She basically left Sophie’s younger sisters alone to do as they pleased but not Sophie.

  As the eldest daughter, Sophie was seen as her competition, and Simone was terribly jealous of her. She wanted everything that Sophie had and wouldn’t stop whining until she got it. She even had inquired as to why she could not have the title of Lady Simone, and her father had been forced to explain to her over and over again that as a ‘cousin’ she could not have that title, as her father had not been a duke like he was.

  Instead, Simone had done all she could in her power, to slowly push Sophie out of the family by alienating her from the Beau Monde. She had taken the invites to balls Sophie rightfully should have received.

  She had robbed Sophie of her place in the haut ton, making everyone believe that she as the prettiest girl in the Rayne family should be given all of the honours that would have gone to Sophie, and by doing so, she had wrapped her father around her pinky finger, as he pitied her for being orphaned at birth. Now Sophie realized he pitied Simone for being his bastard.

  She hated that Simone continually set her up for the fall to be blamed for things that Simone had done and her father always believed that Simone was innocent. While her mother clashed with her father at every turn when it involved Simone, her mother had little patience toward Simone and now Sophie knew why.

  When they were children, her mother had treated Simone as one of her own. Her attitude had only changed toward Simone as Simone’s harsh personality had slowly taken shape, and she had started to target her own children, using them as pawns her petty little games.

  The fact that her mother had accepted her father’s bastard into the family in the first place, made her admiration for her mother grow even more. It hurt Sophie immensely that someone as vile as Simone could set her father against her and in turn disrupt the marital bliss that her father and mother shared.

  Her parents were a love match. It was a proven fact given the Ruby had matched them up years ago and now that she had the opportunity for revenge against Simone, she was not above taking it and making the best use of it that she could.

  However, she had to make Redding think she hated him. To make him believe anything else would give away her true intentions.

  But good old Simone had to steal the spotlight by dashing out of the room like a wounded damsel straight for the staircase. Running back up the several flights of stairs in record time to her bedchamber, wailing like a stuck pig as she went.

  “Simone really shouldn’t wail like that her tears will make her face cream run,” she said sarcastically.

  Alexandra tittered and her other sisters smothered their giggles. Curiously enough, she could have sworn she heard Redding let out a low rumble of a chuckle as well. Finally, her sisters followed Simone, seemingly knowing that they were not welcome in the colourful tableau the four of them created.

  Alexandra lingered in the doorway, staring earnestly at Sophie, she was conflicted, and she probably didn’t want to leave Sophie alone with their parents for fear of what would happen. That and the fact that Alexandra desperately wanted to know more about Lord Redding. She might be of a quiet nature, but her curiosity usually got the better of her.

  “Alexandra,” Constance said softly, “you may leave now.”

  “Yes, Mama,” Alexandra said obediently, quickly leaving them alone.

  Sophie folded her arms across her chest. She smiled broadly, and for once in her life felt like braving a scandal that would set the tongues of the ton wagging like mad. Her bravado wavered when she caught her mother and father looking severely at her. They both feared she’d lost her mind, she knew it by the expressions they wore.

  “Lord Redding…how nice of you to pay us a…visit. However, I do not like the subject of your late night visit. Pawing at my daughter is a tad much. An apology is required, no matter how much you might be under the influence of the object you attempted to pilfer from our home.” Constance’s eyes flew to the open safe and then rested on the priceless family heirloom that Rupert still held in his hand.

  “I am no thief,” he stated.

  “We know you aren’t, my boy,” her father said, earning a reproving glare from her mother.

&
nbsp; Her mother seemed as if she was pulled in two different directions. On the one hand, she wanted to maintain her calm, and save face with such a respected and powerful member of the nobility, and on the other hand, by the anger dancing in her eyes, her mother was hell-bent on bending the Marquess out of shape.

  By contrast, her father just looked like he was in mildly grumpy, because his sleep had been disturbed. The fury had gone out of him as soon as he had seen the gem in Redding’s hand, and that seemed to justify his actions, at least in his eyes.

  Besides, her father had invited Redding, and he rarely stayed angry for long. However, he did hate being woken up for anything other than the house being on fire. Granted, if he knew he was coming, this tired thing might just all be a charade. After all, he was awake enough to lower the protective enchantments on the house. Her father was a wily fox sometimes.

  “I can explain…” Redding started, obviously realizing what a predicament he had created first by breaking into their house, and then kissing Sophie brazenly while she was in her nightgown!

  “I wish you wouldn’t,” Sophie whispered beneath her breath. If she wanted to save him from the wrath of her mother’s magically induced rage, she had to get him out of the house as soon as possible.

  “We know why you are here, my boy. And I can see the Dragonwyck Ruby judged in your favour!” Her father said, his eyes widening as he realized his mistake.

  His favour? Were they bloody kidding her? He had wanted it to turn out like this? Her heart raced. Her mother looked like she wasn’t surprised in the least bit, she might not be surprised, but she was still ticked off.

  “When you arranged this, Robert, couldn’t you have invited the man at a decent hour? I hate being roused from my slumber like this!”

  “I am sorry, my dear,” Robert said, looking sheepishly at Constance.

  Still, her mother looked quite irate. With no witnesses aside from her family, they could do whatever they wanted.

  “Why don’t you leave while the getting is good? You don’t want to know what awaits you now that my Mama has caught you in the act. If you think I am full of fire, my mother is a bloody volcano when she gets going,” she whispered.