Page 27 of Love’s Refrain at Roslyn Court (Noble Hearts #2)
Twenty-Seven
SOPHIA
A s much as she was tempted to spend the rest of the evening here with Isaac, wrapped in moonlight by the peaceful lake, and in his gentle embrace, Sophia knew they had to return to the frenzy of the reception taking place at the house.
Isaac agreed, reluctantly, and they began their slow walk back up the incline through the trees, their steps often interrupted by quick kisses and sighs of absolute contentment.
As they neared the edge of the woods, though, something else stopped their feet.
“What is that crowd?” Sophia asked, pointing ahead.
There, in the garden by the fountain, a veritable army of matrons had amassed, and from the din of their united voices, something was amiss.
“How disgraceful!” one voice rang out.
“With her mother, who can be surprised?” cried another.
Sophia and Isaac turned to look at each other in alarm.
“Whatever can it be?” Sophia whispered.
“We had better join them and find out,” her lover replied.
They set forth quickly now, their long strides taking them into the midst of the fray in moments. Nobody seemed to notice them, for all eyes were focused ahead?—
—to the cottage!
The little lamp still burned, its small flame dancing and bobbing within its glass cage, illuminating the window with its sporadic, flickering light. But now it showed something else as well.
Something—or someone—stood between the lamp and the window, and the resulting silhouette was what had caused all this outrage.
Isaac let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a groan. He was taller than most, and could see better than Sophia what was happening. In a moment, she too managed to peer around enough heads to see for herself, and she understood Isaac’s reaction.
It was not one person in that tiny cottage, providing unexpected entertainment for her aunt’s guests, but two.
And they were not putting on a puppet show for the crowds, but were wrapped in a tight embrace, kissing each other with a passion that matched Sophia and Isaac’s own from only a few minutes before.
“Shameless hussy!”
“Shocking…”
“Wicked girl!”
“I do not know how Lady Poole can allow her to stay in the house!”
“Indeed, I shall not.” Lady Poole’s voice rang out.
“Then they must marry,” came another shout. “And at once.”
“I shall demand it!” cried Lady Poole.
“We must stop them at once!”
And the army of matrons advanced in battle formation towards that little cottage, still not having discerned that Sophia was, indeed, standing among them.
She looked at Isaac again.
“It cannot be…” she began, and this time, he laughed out loud, finally following the women. Sophia skipped along with him. This was something she needed to see for herself.
By now, the women had reached the cottage, making no small noise. It was remarkable that the amorous couple inside had not heard them, although Sophia suspected they knew very well that they were about to be discovered.
As she watched, Lady Poole flung open the door, barged inside, and then at once, stumbled backwards, gasping and wailing, before sinking to the ground in a heap.
The lovers stepped out now, still arm in arm.
To the shock of most, they were not, indeed, Sophia and John Bladestock, but instead (and to Sophia’s delight), proved to be Louisa Poole and her beloved Jeremy Southam, both beaming widely.
“I believe I shall have my father’s permission now,” Louisa grinned, and pressed another kiss to Jeremy’s mouth, which elicited another round of horrified wails from the matrons and a small smattering of applause from those who wished this young couple every happiness.
With so many outraged witnesses, and with Louisa proclaiming that she had been well and truly ruined by Jeremy (a detail that Sophia did not quite believe, although she remained silent on the matter), there was no question that the two must wed, and as soon as possible.
Not even Lady Poole could object.
The lovers were dragged apart and hauled bodily into the house.
Sir Neville was summoned from his card game, and once informed about his daughter’s disgrace, Sir Neville agreed with his wife.
The two must marry at once. Raised to such distress over the matter, he even announced his intention to ride to the cathedral in Gloucester at first light to purchase a licence. No time must be wasted.
Neither Louisa nor Jeremy raised the first objection.
“That was exceedingly naughty of you!” Sophia chided her cousin later that night.
The party had ended rather quickly after the embarrassment of the hosts’ daughter, and after a haranguing that rattled the chandeliers, Louisa was sent to her bedroom with strict instructions not to leave it until summoned.
Sophia had crept along with her. Nobody paid much attention to her at the best of times, and she was all but invisible now.
She would announce her own news tomorrow; she doubted Lady Poole could survive two such shocks in one evening.
“But it was also very clever. Whose idea was it?” Sophia did have to congratulate her cousin for taking matters into her own hands, when her family was so set on disappointing her.
Louisa did not even try to hold back the smile that spanned from ear to ear.
“It was Mama’s, of course! She was so determined that there must be a compromise, and I decided to oblige her. Jeremy took some convincing, but you must admit, the results are excellent.”
Sophia tutted at this, but Louisa merely flopped back on her bed with a laugh.
“Dear Jeremy. I found him the moment he and his father arrived. Mama was trying to keep me at her side, but most of her attention was on poor Isaac, to stop him from wandering, and it was no great chore to escape her for a few moments. When the dancing began and Isaac made his escape, I sought Jeremy out at once. We went directly to the cottage to enact our plan.”
Now Sophia could not stop from laughing.
“You are shameless, indeed. I ought to be angry, but I am, instead, irrationally proud of you. But were you not afraid that something would go wrong?”
“At the very worst, we would be as we had been before, hoping to last out the year and a half before I could marry without Papa’s permission. But the only real impediment to our plan was you.”
“Me?” Sophia was aghast.
“You, indeed, my wonderful cousin. You nearly slept through our diversion. We thought you would never leave the cottage at all. But Mama was so busy worrying about you that she forgot to keep an eye on me!”
Breakfast at Roslyn Court was a strained affair.
Louisa was commanded to appear before her parents to explain herself, and at her request, Sophia stood by her side.
There was little more to be said, beyond those words that had been issued last night.
Jeremy, who had been sent from the house after their discovery, had likewise been summoned, this time to discuss the settlement.
Sophia suspected Louisa would bring very little into her marriage, but despite being working people, she knew the Southams were well-to-do, and the couple would want for nothing.
This tongue-lashing went on until, a little past eight o’clock, Mrs Oswald came to inform Sir Neville that Jeremy Southam was waiting for him.
“Where is he?” the baronet spat out.
“He is in the passage outside your study, sir.”
“Has the bench been replaced?”
“No, sir. It is still in the salon from last night’s… events. He is standing.”
“Good. Let him stew. I shall attend to him shortly. And then I am off to Gloucester to see to a licence. Damn it all!”
Lady Poole gasped at the expletive, but her show was met by a glower.
“If you are to Gloucester, Sir Neville, perhaps I may join you.” Isaac’s calm tone sliced through the brittle air.
“Oh, Major Hollimore,” Lady Poole gushed. “You have come to save us, and will marry Louisa after all! She is a good girl, if,” she narrowed her eyes, “somewhat sullied.”
Louisa, for her part, bit back a grin that had Sophia fighting her own laughter. Her cousin knew her secret and approved.
“No, indeed, madam,” Isaac replied. “Miss Poole has chosen her husband, and I have no wish to ruin another’s happiness. Rather, I thought I might procure a licence for myself as well.”
“What?” the baronet and his wife cried out at the same time.
“I have decided to marry, after all.” Isaac’s tone was mild; he was taunting them, Sophia was certain.
“And whom, sir, have you decided to marry?” Lady Poole asked, her eyes flickering to where Sophia still stood next to Louisa.
“Why, Miss Bradley, of course. I could hardly marry somebody else after she accepted me last night.”
Lady Poole’s wails were surely heard in the village.
Sophia was sent from the house. She had expected as much, and had spent much of the night packing her clothing and most treasured items, and the trunks then sent down to the cart with Isaac’s belongings, which still sat waiting by the back courtyard.
She would appeal to Mrs Ashburton for shelter for a few days, until she and Isaac could wed, and if that failed, would take a room at the inn where Isaac had accommodations.
She hardly cared about her reputation now.
And it would give the ladies of the neighbourhood something to talk about other than Louisa’s scandal.
“You are laughing, my dear one,” Isaac said to her as they sat, arms about each other, on the cart’s bench as the driver guided them down the lane and away from Roslyn Court.
“I can hardly be sad, being beside you, my love,” she responded. “But I shall never forget the look on my aunt’s face when she discovered that all her machinations led to two weddings, exactly as she had schemed, but only the wrong ones!”
Isaac turned his warm eyes on her and licked his lips. She had to kiss them; there really was no choice.
“You are my light, Sophia. You have brought me peace and have shown me that there is still joy in the world. I shall spend my life striving to make you happy.”
She kissed him again.
“You already have.”