Morris frowned. "If he does, he'll regret it. I may not be as close to the king as he is but I am still a duke and can make life hard for him and his daughter. We'll return to Dovehaven tomorrow and tell everyone that it was you I compromised. We'll say we're getting married and that will restore Lady Beth's reputation."
She nodded, supposing his words made sense.
He kissed her again. "Do you trust me?"
She nodded again and kissed his lips.
He stood and began to dress when there was a knock at the door. "I'll be right back." He left the room only to return moments later. Something had disturbed his mood. "I need to get to the castle immediately. I will send a maid back to help you dress and carriage to bring you to the castle."
Sophia stood and frowned. "What's the matter?"
"Don't worry. I'll handle it." He kissed her head and left.
Sophia sank onto the bed and put on her chemise as she waited. She knew she could get the corset on by herself, though it wouldn't be as tight as it had been before and thus couldn't be sure if the dress would fit properly, so she decided to wait.
She didn't have to wait long for another knock to sound at the front door. She found a robe in the wardrobe, put it on, and rushed from the room. She opened the door, ready to greet the maid but was surprised to discover that it wasn't the maid at all.
"Lom?" she asked the man who stood before her. "What are you doing here?"
He glared down at her, his dark eyes harsh. He walked into the house without permission and turned on her. "It's obvious to me now why you forgot to meet with me last evening."
Sophia closed the door to keep the cold out and pulled her wrap more tightly over her body. "Why are you here?" How had he known to come to the dowager house?
"Is that your only concern?" he asked her, his anger building. "I pour my heart out to you and you wonder why I'm here?" He took a step toward her. "Tell me, is it his title? It is because he is a duke that you prefer him over me?"
Sophia shook her head in confusion. "Helsby, I already told you that I could never be with you. You lied about being married."
His expression changed to great sorrow in the blink of an eye. "I didn't mean to lie but there was no other way to have you." He reached out for her.
Sophia took a step back. "You need to leave. This is Morris' property. You're not to be here. Return to the party."
"I only wanted to be at the party because you were there." He advanced.
Sophia moved down the hall and entered the sitting room. She placed her body behind the couch. As she'd feared, Lom followed her. His eyes were strange. She tried speaking to him calmly. All she needed to do was wait for the carriage to arrive. The driver would be male and would be able to remove Helsby from the property. "You need to return to your daughters, Helsby."
"I don't give a damn about those girls! I didn't care for their mother. I only care for you." He moved so he was standing on the other side of the couch, facing her directly. "Don't you care for me, Sophia? You said you loved me once. Surely, you could love me again."
Her stomach fell. "I'm sorry, Lom, but it's over."
He glared. "It's the duke then. You prefer him over me."
She shook her head. "You're not listening to me, Lom. I'm not with you because you are a liar."
"And you think because he's a duke he'll always tell you the truth?" He laughed. "Men lie. Don't think that just because you're a viscount's daughter that he'll wed you. He'll simply fuck you like I was doing." He changed again, gentling. "I want to marry you." His hands went to his heart for emphasis.
She thought it best to not tell the man that she was marrying Morris and looked out the window to see if she could see a carriage approaching, anything in the darkening landscape. She saw no one.
"Waiting for him to return?"
She jumped to find Lom standing next to her.
He grabbed her. "He doesn’t care about you but I do. You'll see. We're going to be happy, Sophia. I'll make you so very happy." He started toward the door.
Sophia shook her head and dug her feet into the ground. "No, Lom." She tried to struggle but couldn't fight him without exposing her body. But when they made it to the hall, she stopped caring about decency and began to struggle with all her might. "Let me go!"
He slammed her into the wall, once, twice. "Calm yourself, Sophia. You're not being reasonable. I plan to take care of you. Don't you understand that?"
Pain ripped through her neck and she forced her mouth closed as the urge to cry grew. She stopped struggling, seeing as he was stronger, and allowed him to drag her out into the cold. Without shoes, her feet met the snow-covered ground and the wind made a chill sweep down from her hatless head.
"Don't worry. We're almost to my carriage." A second later, he had her inside and they were off.
Sophia took a moment to realize that the driver might stop at her urging and opened her mouth to shout. She was silenced by the sight of a knife.
"Please, don't make me use it. I love you, Sophia." His eyes roamed her body as though he could see through her clothes. He drew his brows down. "I know he touched you but that's all right. I'll still have you, though we'll have to wait and see if you're carrying his child. We'll kill the thing before we consummate the marriage." That he was so cold made her want to vomit.
However, Sophia was very glad she'd taken the tea at that moment but had no plans to share that there was no way she could be pregnant. Waiting to know if she was pregnant would give her time, weeks to form a plan of escape.
"My family has a house up in Scotland not far from Gretna Green. How convenient. We'll stay there and return once the marriage is official." He smiled at her. "Won't you say it for me at least once? Surely, you still love me."
She said nothing.
He kept smiling. "Don't worry. In time, you'll change your mind." He pulled up the bench and handed her a blanket.
She took it quickly and stared out the window, her heart breaking at the knowledge that every passing second took her further away from Morris. He had no way to know who'd taken her and no way to know that when she didn't return to the castle it wasn't her way of rejecting him. She loved him and she hoped he knew that.
And she also hoped that someone would find her before it was too late.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
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Morris waited in the sitting room for Lord Ashford and his family to be brought in.
Lord Ashford began to speak the moment he crossed the threshold. "How dare you! I thought you an honest gentleman but apparently I was wrong."
"I never lied to you." Morris motioned for the women to have a seat on the couch. A maid brought them tea as he went on. "I said I would speak to you about my decision the next time we met. I had no intentions of meeting you that night at dinner. That's not nearly enough time."
"So you ran from your responsibilities." Ashford crossed his arms.
Morris took a seat by the fire, feeling a great calmness, thanks to the hours he'd spent with Sophia... and thanks to the happy atmosphere he'd been greeted with when he walked through his doors. The party had gone on in their absence and his staff looked to be having a great time drinking his wine. He'd smelled an abundance of savory and sweet offerings coming from one of the common rooms and he was glad. Julius, Rollo, Frank, and Maura mingled with the group as though there were no difference in their stations and laughter filled the castle as it hadn't done in a long time.
It made his love for Sophia grow to the point of bursting and made it quite easy for him to deal with Lord Ashford now. "I'm not responsible for Lady Ashford. As I said before, I never touched her. The woman I did touch will be here in a little while to clear Lady Ashford's name. We will see that no harm comes to the woman's reputation."
"Who is the lady?" Lady Ashford
asked.
"Not a lady." Lady Beth glared. "A madam." She said the words with a bad taste in her mouth. "Do you think it went unnoticed that both you and Madam Sophia were missing? I'm sure everyone at Dovehaven believes you've skipped out on me."
Morris lifted a brow. "I gave clear instruction that you were not to mention our arrangement to anyone." He looked at Lord Ashford. "Were you unable to keep your word, my lord?"
Ashford's eyes widened. "I said nothing and neither did my family. My daughter is only being dramatic. No one knows of our meeting yesterday." He gave his daughter a hard look. "Mind your tongue."
Beth averted her gaze.
Morris said, "It isn't as though only Sophia and I went missing from Dovehaven anyway. At least six of us were not present this morning. There's no need for people to gossip about just two people."
"So, were you not with Madam Sophia after all?" There was hope in Lady Ashford's eyes.
"I'm not marrying Lady Beth," Morris said finally. "I did not compromise her. There's no reason she can't go on to find love with someone else."
"Love is for commoners," Lord Ashford said. "It's what gets them through when their bellies are empty at night. We men and women of Society understand other values, like the importance of bloodlines. Madam Sophia's father may be a viscount but he still married Savia Bellini, an opera singer of all things."
Morris was surprised. He'd not known Sophia's mother was a singer. Of course, he'd never heard Miss Bellini's voice himself since she'd died when he was young but he'd heard nothing but good things about the woman's voice, it being compared to angels and the like. He wondered if Sophia could sing and planned to ask her.
"Lord Cort."
He looked up as a footman rushed in. The look on his face was not pleasant. Morris stood and walked over to him.
"Madam Sophia was not at the dowager house when we arrived."
He frowned and tried to come up with a reason for this.
"Something wrong?" Lord Ashford asked.
Morris turned to him. "If you all would excuse me." He closed the door the sitting room and walked into the foyer. He addressed the footman. "What do you mean she wasn't there?"
The footman bowed. "We looked in every room but it was as though she vanished."
It didn't make sense.
Morris' gut twisted at the thought that she'd changed her mind and fled him instead of face him again but he couldn't believe that was what happened. She'd said she loved him, and he had to have faith in that.
The maid he'd sent came over as well. "Your Grace, her gown was on the floor in the room when I entered. Surely, she didn't leave in nothing but her chemise?" The words put fear in his blood. He'd been right to trust Sophia. Something else was amiss.
"What's going on?" Lord Ashford came out of the room. "You wouldn't be running from your responsibilities again, would you?"
Anger made Morris anger swiftly and with less caution. "Your daughter's responsibilities are all her own. She followed me around that party like a lost dog, so if anyone could claim seeing us together that is her fault, not mine. I never gave your daughter the impression that I wished to have her in any way, so whatever she's told you is a lie."
"How dare you?" Lord Ashford's face was red. "I ought to call you out!"
"Please do so. It's rare that I miss a shot."
Ashford took a step back, knowing that Morris' words were true. Everyone knew he was a master of the hunt. If there was going to be a duel, it would end with Ashford laying in the box.
"The only question that remains, my lord, is if you aided your daughter in her lies," Morris said.
Lord Ashford shook his head. "I would never... I didn't know."
Morris lifted a hand to silence him. "Not another word. Not another word about me or Madam Sophia. There will be no more rumors."
Ashford’s anger became cool. "You'll regret this. When I speak to the king—"
"I'm a duke," Morris told him. He hated bringing up the obvious but at times men forgot whom they addressed. "I've enough wealth to see that you lose everything."
Ashford swallowed.
Morris went on. "I live in a castle that was given to my family from Henry VIII and have one the oldest titles in the peerage." Kings and queens had risen and fallen and so did the families who held titles but the Kidd family remained.
Ashford looked away.
Morris didn't stop. "The only reason you are so close to the king is that a few of us titled gentleman have taken steps to keep our presence away from Society but that's going to change." The Men of Nashwood were hardly seen at the parties and balls but Morris could see now how that had weakened his position. "Be prepared to see more of me and we shall find out who the king prefers: the company of a man who forces his daughter to play the wanton in the hopes of a title, or the company of me; a man whose family has a long history of defending the winning side of every war that was fought for the English throne."
A wary expression crossed Ashford's face. Then he bowed. "Good evening, Your Grace."
Morris turned back to the footman, Jack. He recalled the man being addressed by Sophia earlier at the dowager house and had noticed Jack grinning during Morris' speech to Lord Ashford but Jack sobered when Morris looked at him.
"Gather the footmen who are less intoxicated than the others and start a search for Sophia."
Jack bowed.
The front door opened and Morris was surprised to see the rest of the Men of Nashwood arrive along with the Spinsters. Aaron led the crowd of them and something in his gaze put Morris on alert.
"Is Lord Helsby here?"
Morris frowned. "No, why?"
Aaron looked around. "He left the party. Where's Sophia?"
Morris stilled then turned to the footman who was at the end of the hall. "Jack, wait."
Jack turned and looked at him.
Morris motioned him over then turned to Aaron. "What happened?"
"I was following Helsby to make sure he didn't do anything foolish," Aaron said. "Then in the next instant, he was gone. I went to his daughters, surprised that they'd been left behind, and asked where their father had gone. They informed me that he'd told them he'd gone to get them a new mama."
Morris closed his eyes. "Helsby must have taken Sophia from the dowager house." It was no wonder she'd left her gown. He must have forced her to go. He opened his eyes. "Where do you think they'd go?"
Rollo, who'd come into the room with Julius, Frank, and Maura, said, "You heard Aaron. The girls need a mother. He's likely to go to a place that gets them just that... and him a wife."
"Gretna Green," a few of them said together.
"I'll go," Morris said.
"We'll all go," Lorena said. "She's our friend."
Morris started for the door. "I don't care who goes but I'm leaving now without delay." He was not surprised when three other carriages followed his. It seemed everyone was going. The friends who'd ridden to Kidd Castle with him were the same who filled his carriage.
"We'll get there in no time," Frank said.
Morris nodded. "I don't want us to waste time sleeping anywhere. We'll switch horses at inns and keep going." He looked out the window and knew the journey would be slow through the snow. Thankfully, Kidd Castle was north, weeks from London, which meant it would only take them a matter of days to get there.
"When we stop to change the horses, I'll have a look around the inns for them," Rollo said.
"As will I," Julius agreed.
Morris covered his face. "What is the man thinking? He can't force Sophia to marry him. It will be unrecognized by the courts when they find out she was forced into it." What Morris feared most was the man touching her against her will. That broke his heart more than anything else. "I just want her safe."
"We'll get her back." Julius put a hand on his arm.
Morris took the strength his friends offered and prayed he made it in time.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
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Sophia woke with the feeling of climbing out of a well. She was sure that Helsby had slipped something into her tea during their last meal. It was the only way to explain the strange tiredness that had come over her. Even now, she struggled to right herself. She heard voices and looked outside the carriage. Her heart dropped at the sight of a blacksmith's building. Lord Helsby and another man, who had to be the blacksmith, were speaking outside.
They’d made it to Gretna Green.
Lom was using his kind charm to talk the man into doing the ceremony. It was known in Scotland that anyone could marry two people so long as there were witnesses but in Gretna Green it was common for the blacksmith to do the honors.
She pulled up her blanket, which took great strength and moved to look out the other window. Frozen pastures met her eyes with a few small buildings in the distance. The village was not very large and with the holiday, Sophia hoped there weren't many about, which would keep them from finding witnesses.
Lom's face in the window made her jump back.
He smiled and climbed in. "The blacksmith says he can do it as early as tomorrow. Apparently, we are not the only people who’ve come to wed. He’s quite busy but a few coins managed to move us up the list. There will be plenty of witnesses."
"You do know any marriage we have will be annulled, don't you?" She leaned back in her chair and put her feet directly on top of the warm brick. Helsby had brought her the heat and replenished it during the long journey, along with giving her men's breeches and a shirt. She'd been forced to put it all on over her chemise, since he refused to allow her to have a moment to herself.
They'd made one stop during the days it took them to get here and he remained close to her at all time, a sharp knife poking at her back as a reminder. They'd taken their meals in the room they'd shared that night and though he'd tried to pull her into conversation, Sophia had resisted speaking to him unless necessary. She'd been glad when he'd given her the bed and had taken the floor. She knew he'd done it out of kindness, hoping the gesture would break her resolve, but with every passing moment, Sophia grew to hate him more.
Miss Sophia's Spirited Spinster's Society Page 18