Page 17

L etty had assured Sophie that she must attend Lord and Lady Shubert’s garden party. Apparently, it was the event of the season. The couple was known for their extravagance and outrageous themes.

“Oh my,” Sophie said as they wandered down the lawn to where the other guests were.

“This year Lady Shubert has outdone herself!” Letty said, clapping her hands, clearly excited.

Sophie could say, without a shred of doubt, she had never seen anything like what lay before her.

Everything was Egyptian, right down to the giant pyramids made of satin surrounded by half-naked men wearing small loincloths.

Each wore a long dark wig and had gold bands around their biceps.

Many of the women present were gazing at them in both shock and delight.

It wasn’t often half-dressed men were in attendance at a society gathering.

She’d thought theatre fascinating, but this was something else entirely.

“Come, we shall wander, and I will then find my friends, and you can be swept off your feet by a handsome man,” Letty said.

“I have no wish to do that, thank you very much,” Sophie replied.

“My mouth is watering looking at that outrageously long table filled with food,” Letty said, pointing to yet another tent and ignoring what Sophie had just said.

She was right—the array of food was staggering.

She tamped down the anger seeing such excess when so many went without. This is now your life.

“My dear countess.”

“Lord Dinsdale.” She dropped into a curtsy to the man now before her.

They had danced a few times, and he was pleasant enough, even if his eyes were a little too close together and his laugh was excessively loud.

“I wonder if you would allow me to take you rowing. I have heard from others it is lovely on the water.” He smiled.

“Of course she would love it. Wouldn’t you, dear?” Letty said. “I will be with my friends when I locate them. Off you go, Sophie.”

She really must have a word with her sister-in-law about firing her into the arms of men. She was here for a single season and nothing more. There was also now the threat of Jack Spode; his reappearance in her life would likely change it again… for the worse.

“Thank you,” she said, glaring at Letty’s back, as she’d already walked away. “Most kind of you to offer, my lord.”

They wandered to the water, nodding to people as they went, and then Lord Dinsdale helped her into a rowboat.

Soon they had pushed away from the bank and were bobbing along in the water.

Sophie thought that perhaps this had not been a bad idea after all, as it was lovely out here away from prying eyes and gossips.

It had been five days since she’d received Timmy’s shirt, and there had been no other notes or parcels. Waiting for his next move stretched her nerves to breaking point.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate….”

Sophie stifled the sigh that her peace was over and placed a smile on her face while Lord Dinsdale quoted poetry. What was it about her that men thought they needed to do that? By the time they were back at the small dock, she was heartedly sick of him, but at least she was no longer tense.

“I will disembark first, my lady, and then I will assist you.”

“Thank you, my lord, and for the lovely… ah… readings while you were rowing. Most enjoyable,” she lied. Never again.

He beamed at her.

Sophie climbed from the boat and shook out her skirts. She would find Letty and sit beside her for the remainder of the day while eating delicious food.

“Dinsdale, your mother is asking for you. I will escort the countess back to Lady Carstairs.”

“Of course, Lord Coulter, thank you. I will go to her at once.” The man didn’t so much as glance again at Sophie but scurried off with his coattails flapping.

And just like that, she was tense again. The last time she’d seen this man she’d slapped him hard.

“Come, we will walk,” Lord Coulter said.

“Most people say things such as ‘Would you like to?’ or ‘Please,’” Sophie said. “I do not take kindly to orders, my lord, and especially not from you.”

“I’m used to giving orders.”

“I’m not used to accepting them,” she lied.

He sighed and then looked down at her. She saw dark smudges under his eyes then and the pallor of his skin, and her heart skipped a beat.

“Are you unwell?” Sophie asked.

“What?”

“Not a difficult question, my lord. Are you unwell?”

He held out his arm. “Please walk with me, Countess.”

She stared at his arm.

“I said please.” He looked at her.

Knowing that there were too many eyes watching her to make a stand, Sophie placed the tips of her fingers on Lord Coulter’s sleeve. It was a deep forest green today, not his customary black.

Taking a deep breath, she said what she needed to. “I must apologize for slapping you the other night, Lord Coulter.”

“I deserved what you did,” he said. “Once again, I behaved badly. Forgive me.” She watched him wince as he raised his eyes to the sky.

“Are you ill?” She looked up at him again. His eyes were narrowed and squinty.

“A headache, nothing more.” He dismissed her words.

Sophie removed her hand from his arm.

“It is not catching, Countess.”

“I know that. Now take off your gloves, my lord.”

“Pardon?”

“I am not going to hurt you. Trust me.”

She felt his eyes on her, but he did as she asked.

“Right, now straighten your left hand so that your fingers are pointing up and the back of your hand is facing you.” He did as she asked. “Now watch what I do.”

Sophie found the small bulge of muscle between her thumb and forefinger, and then she began to massage it with her right thumb.

“Relax your hand before you start, but you will need to keep doing it for a few minutes. Then repeat it twice more.”

He did as she said as they continued to walk in silence. Sophie counted silently as he did it, and when they reached three minutes, she told him to stop.

“How does it feel?”

She saw the surprise on his face as he looked at her. “Better.”

“But not gone completely, so do it again.”

They continued walking in silence while he did as she told him. After the third time, they had been wandering aimlessly through and around people for six minutes.

“How does it feel now?” Sophie asked.

“Much better. Where did you learn that?” he asked.

“Someone taught me,” she said, not wanting to add that it was a footman who had learned it from a gentleman from China while she was in service.

“Who taught you?”

“I doubt you know all the servants at my late husband’s estate. Therefore, I fear the name will mean very little to you,” Sophie said.

He exhaled slowly. “Thank you. Nothing usually works but a darkened room and some laudanum, which I loathe taking.”

“Well, it may ease them if nothing more.”

“What was your family name, Countess? I wonder if I was acquainted with your father.”

“My father did not enter society. He was ill most of his life,” Sophie lied. “I am going to view the gardens, Lord Coulter. Excuse me.”

“I will accompany you.”

“I don’t think that’s wise. We don’t seem able to speak civilly without something happening,” Sophie said. “Besides, I thought I made my view clear at the theatre.”

“We just spent a total of ten minutes in each other’s company and were civil—not once was there a cross word exchanged. You did not maim me, and we shared no kiss,” he drawled. “Surely we could almost call that friendship?”

“I don’t think you should talk like that.” Sophie looked around them, hoping no one overheard.

“Possibly not, but I find that the truth is better spoken than a lie.”

Like she was lying and had been since that day she and Letty had taken steps to change their lives for the better.