by Hilly Mason
When his gaze reached her face, he smiled at her.
Sophia’s mouth opened slightly with surprise. Never before did Lord Gibbs make eye contact with her during lovemaking, let alone smile at her.
“You are quite beautiful,” Alex said, sounding rather shy. He took his hands on both of her thighs and gently pulled them apart, then lowered his head down between them, his hair tickling the sensitive skin.
“W-what are you doing?” Sophia screeched, about ready to kick the man in the face.
“Relax, darling,” Alex said. “I’m going to make you feel very good.”
“With your mouth?” Sophia was still tensed (and a bit horrified) when he lowered his head back down between her legs. Who in their right mind would so such a thing? But then her body jolted, and she let out a pleasurable gasp as his warm, wet tongue started gliding between her. Sophia gripped the blankets as it felt as though every muscle in her body were contracting.
“Oh God, Alex!”
Suddenly, she released. Sophia gasped as her body pulsed into a wave of vibrating pleasure, like she was falling, but instead of fearing the fall she felt one and whole and completely relaxed. And when it passed, the surface of her skin still tingled with the sensation, as though she was filled with electricity.
“What was that?” she gasped, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. Her gasp then turned into giggles. “That was amazing!”
Alex lifted his head and raised a brow. “You are saying that you have never climaxed before?”
“If that is what I had just experienced, then the answer is a resounding no.”
“Well, darling,” Alex said, rising up and giving her a brief kiss on her forehead. Her eyes widened as he undid his breeches, revealing his hard, silken manhood. “Let’s experience it again with me inside of you. Believe me, it’s whole different game.”
As his large body moved to cover hers, she welcomed him eagerly, gasping as she adjusted to the size of him, and overwhelmed with the need to instinctively push him deeper and deeper into her womb as he thrust into her. She wrapped her arms around his torso, and her legs around the back of his thighs. Her body was riding the waves of her previous pleasure and ready and quivering for her second.
But at the last minute, before she could reach that point of pleasure again, Alex leaned back, pulling Sophia along with him. Her legs were over his hips so that she was sitting in his lap, facing him, with his manhood still inside her.
“Sophia,” he whispered hoarsely, and then moaned loudly as she felt his seed spill into her womb. She climaxed again, rocking her hips feverishly against him until he collapsed on top of her. Alex’s heartbeat pulsed strongly against her own, as her body still hummed with ecstasy. She cried out for more, not wanting the sensation to ever end, never wanting to pull away from him ever again. Her cries were covered with kisses as Alex’s warm body cradled hers, both dampened by the sweat of their labor and the essences of their lovemaking.
For so long she had been without a home.
Now, finally, she had found one.
Alex leaned forward and kissed her forehead.
“So, this still doesn’t mean anything, does it?” he asked placidly.
“Hmm?” Sophia murmured sleepily, and then nuzzled her face into his chest.
With surprising ease of a man with the use of only one arm, he flipped her on her side, allowing the curve of his body to mold around her. He wrapped his arm around her and traced the curve of her breasts with his chilled fingertips, causing her nipples to harden from sensation and need all over again.
“Ever experienced this before?” he asked, his voice hoarse and laced with desire as he lazily trailed his fingers to her navel and down to the warmth between her thighs.
Sophia squirmed as his fingers explored her hidden, aching depths.
“N-no,” she said. “But I think I quite like it. Oh!” she gasped as Alex shifted his fingers.
“Like it still?”
“Oh, yes!”
His hand cupped her mound as he continued his work. Sophia, not able to hold onto his body from this position, instead grasped the bed post with both hands as support. Otherwise she thought she would drown in the pleasure, never finding her way back up to the surface... and perhaps not wanting to.
Of course this doesn’t mean anything to me, Sophia thought. It means everything.
She awoke in the early morning, her body still tangled in his arms. She opened her eyes, which were greeted immediately by Alex’s large, naked body. She gazed first at the strong, muscular legs (and everything in between, causing her face to heat up), then to his tapered waist, and the planes of his abdomen that led to his chest. As her eyes trailed up to his neck, she could see the twitching of his heartbeat just below his jaw. Steady and strong.
When her gaze reached his face, she was greeted by his own dark irises.
“You knew I was going to let you win and give you Comerford, didn’t you?” he asked bluntly.
She blinked at him. “Well, good morning to you, too.”
“Is that why you switched the game to hazard?”
She rolled over onto her side, her back to him. “I wanted to play a fair game.”
“Sophia, you knew I wasn’t going to force you to marry me.”
Sophia pulled her head back and looked at him over her shoulder. “It was a lucky guess. I stopped by Comerford a few days ago and noticed that you hadn’t done a thing to it since I left. I found that particularly odd as you mentioned how much you were looking forward to changing it into a gaming club.”
“Yes, I was petty at first.” Alex shrugged. “I suppose I didn’t have the heart to do anything after I heard more about your misfortune.”
“Well, that’s all over now, isn’t it?”
“I suppose. Will you then be moving into Comerford, and start a boarding school like you wanted?”
Sophia leaned back against his chest. “We’ll see,” she said quietly.
Alex brushed a lock of hair away from her face, which was all it took for the tears to finally spill from her eyes.
“You must be angry with me,” she whispered.
“Yes.”
Sophia nodded. “I’m angry with myself as well. As I was standing there in the Green Room I realized how stupid I was being, how much I was hurting you, and how I was hurting myself. I... I don’t want to be that way anymore. It’s not me. You said that you loved me, and all I did was treat you so poorly, because I am frightened. I am so sorry.”
“Why are you frightened?”
“I am not worthy of your love,” she said. “Of anyone’s love, for that matter. I’m starting to think my boarding school idea was a foolish decision if I am this heartless.”
“Why? Because of what happened four years ago when we were both barely adults? Tell me. Please.”
“There is something more to that story. I...” She paused, and then pulled the covers up to her chin, although it was a warm morning. “Abby did not die from an illness like I said before. She killed herself because of me—because she was heartbroken. Her parents found her hanging from a tree in the back of their estate a few days after my wedding to Lord Gibbs.” Sophia shivered. “I believed it to be my fault, as did my aunt and uncle. I wake up each day feeling responsible. I tried to drown it out with socializing and fancy purchases, but it still gnawed away at me like a terrible sickness.”
“Darling, you are not to blame for Abigail Clarke’s death.”
“But... But if I had just said no to Lord Gibbs’ proposal, she might still be...”
“If you did refuse, how would you know that she wouldn’t kill herself over something else?” Alex shook his head. “I’m sorry to be blunt, but I would hate to have you wallow in this guilt when there’s no reason to.” He took Sophia’s hand in his. “Who you were four years ago... You aren’t that person anymore. You don’t have to pretend to still be the person you were when you were Lord Gibbs’ wife. You don’t even have to be the young w
oman I knew before all of that happened. Just be who you are now. That is enough.”
“Who am I, Alex? I do not want to lose myself like last time. When I was with Lord Gibbs, I felt all aspects of my personality slip away from me, and I was left as some masquerading woman whose sole purpose was to look pretty and please others. I... I don’t want that to happen again if I fall in love. That is what I am frightened of.”
“You are a teacher, and a friend to many, including Annie, Diana, Joyce, and me. And you are someone that I love very much. And above that, you can be whoever the hell you want to be. Nobody should take that away from you.”
He hung his head, sighed, and looked up.
“You won’t lose your identity if you are to fall in love again,” he told her softly. “Otherwise, that’s not actually love.”
He kissed the top of her head as he combed his fingers through her long hair. Sophia slowly began to relax in his embrace.
“Let’s take a chance on happiness, shall we? I think the both of us are sorely in need of it.”
Before Sophia could answer, Joyce barged in, looking out of breath and panicked.
“Sophia, where is Lord St. George?”
Sophia quickly threw a blanket over the man’s naked body and sat up.
“What are you doing here, Joyce?” she demanded.
Joyce finally noticed the large lump next to Sophia.
“Oh! I’m sorry!” Her face quickly turned red from mortification. “But I must speak to Lord St. George,” she said, carefully adverting her gaze from the bed.
“What is it?” Alex growled from under the blankets.
“It’s your daughter. She...”
Alex shot out of bed. Joyce’s eyes widened and then she turned away. “She is missing. None of the servants can find her. We have just about torn the house in half looking for her.”
With a sudden outburst of rage, he kicked a table over, sending it flying across the room.
“What do you mean you can’t find her?”
Joyce recoiled. “I... I dunno, milord. I heard a noise in the wee hours of the morning and went to check on her, but she wasn’t in her bed.”
Alex was almost out of the room before Sophia stopped him.
“Alex, for the love of God, put some trousers on, at least,” she told him, putting a hand on his chest. She took a deep breath. “We’ll find her. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sophia didn’t bother to dress during their haste back to Ramsbury. She put her coat over her night clothes and hurried outside Widley and stumbled into the coach alongside Alex. Diana, who looked half-asleep herself, came in after them.
“She’ll be all right, Alex,” she told her brother, although the hand that rested on Alex’s shoulder trembled.
“I sure to God hope so or there will be hell to pay.”
Sophia shuddered, wondering if Annie’s disappearance had anything to do with whoever had dropped the vial of poison in the kitchen.
Was it Isabel, taking her revenge out on the poor girl? No, the woman may be vengeful, but she wouldn’t dare lay a finger on a helpless child, would she?
She prayed that Annie had only wandered off and was perhaps in the stables with the horses, or wandering about in the gardens—however unlikely the prospect. Annie wasn’t one to go where she knew she wasn’t supposed to.
The ride to Ramsbury seemed like an eternity. The sky appeared to be neither twilight nor sunrise, but eerily intertwined, causing Sophia to rub her temples and think for a moment what day it was. Wasn’t it just a few hours ago that she had won that silly bet and had unexpectedly found herself in Alex’s arms?
Sophia glanced at Alex, but his eyes were glued to the road, as though silently willing the wheels to move faster. She rested a hand on top of his and he looked down at the gesture, startled, before interlacing his fingers around her own. His grip was tight, almost painful, but Sophia did not move, hoping to somehow absorb the pain and anguish he felt like a conduit for lightning.
At last, the familiar sights of Ramsbury House greeted them. Alex jumped off the coach before it came to a stop and disappeared into the house. When the coach stopped, Diana gave Sophia a baleful look and followed her brother inside. The air was humid and oddly warm, as though Sophia were walking through water rather than air. Well, that was all and good. If Annie were outside then she would not be freezing to death.
Instead of heading into the house, she turned and hurried briskly down the lake path, stopping at the spot where she had been attacked. Instead of heading toward the lake, she went the opposite direction, to a grove of rowan trees. The sun was starting to rise, lighting her path—although shadows still covered most of it, and the unseen branches of a hawthorn bush snagged her coat and dress as she walked. She tripped over a root and landed onto the grass, her palms skidding across the earth’s slick floor as she tried to catch her fall. Failing to grasp any purchase, she smacked her chin on the ground, sending stars across her vision. A coppery taste filled her mouth as her tongue began to throb in beat with her heart.
The pain was secondary to the fear she held in her heart. Please, Annie, be safe, she prayed as she pushed herself back up onto her feet and staggered forward. Daylight pushed through the limbs of the trees, illuminating her path, and revealed a cave dug into rocky knoll, almost completely hidden behind the mass of foliage.
An abandoned fire still smoldered just at the entrance, revealing that the inhabitant hadn’t been away for very long.
“Hello,” Sophia called out, her heart hammering in her chest. “Is there anyone in there?” Alas, if only she had thought to bring a weapon!
But there was no answer. Sophia peeked in and waited until her eyes adjusted to search the cave. The dwelling seemed only large enough for a single person to curl in to sleep. Piles of discarded fish bones and other unidentifiable remains were scattered across the cave, giving indication that whoever lived there had stayed for a while. Also, on the ground, covered in dirt and ashes from the fire, were two small yellow ribbons, the ones Sophia had tied in Annie’s hair after Isabel had pulled her hair too tightly. Was it Isabel, then, who did all this?
Sophia held the ribbons in her hand as though they were as delicate as butterfly wings. She then noticed something else half-buried in the dirt and picked it up. Once she realized what she was holding she almost dropped it like it was a hot piece of coal. Made of silver, the hair pin was engraved with a turtle dove with two small diamonds on either side that sparkled in the sunlight. Abby had dozens of adornments for her hair, but Sophia remembered this one clearly because she had begged her cousin to borrow it during that fateful ball four years prior.
Yet Abby was dead.
She slipped the hair pin and the ribbons into her coat pocket and hurried back to the house to notify the others. But as she reached Ramsbury, she saw Alex standing by the entrance door, his eyes wide, and his face white as a sheet.
And it was no wonder: he was staring at a ghost.
Sophia turned to follow his gaze and then blinked a few times to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.
Abigail Clarke stood just behind her.
When Sophia had last seen her, Abby had had beautiful strawberry blonde hair. Now her hair hung in greasy clumps over her shoulders. Her dress was torn and her arms, legs and bare feet were caked with dried mud. Abby had one arm firmly locked around Annie’s shoulders. In her other hand she held a rusted knife, pointed threateningly at Alex.
“Papa,” Annie whimpered.
“Shut your mouth, girl,” Abby hissed, and then flicked her green eyes up at Sophia. “Oh, there she is. La reine du bal.”
“Abby,” Sophia said when she finally found her words. “What is this? I... I thought you were dead.”
“Is that what my mother and father told you?” Abby asked. “Of course they would say that. It’s much less shameful than having a mad daughter, don’t you think? It was you who made me this way, you know. If it weren’t for you stealing my belo
ved from me, I would never have been locked away.”
“Locked away?” Sophia stiffened as Abby took two steps back, taking Annie with her. She tightened her grip around the child.
“But I escaped,” she said, nodding frantically. “Oh yes, I did. And I came straight to you to settle things.”
“Abby, please, let Annie go. She has done nothing. We can... we can talk things out, you and I.”
Tears shone in Abby’s eyes. “I wanted you dead, you know. That wine wasn’t for Lord Gibbs. I would never desire to kill the only man I ever truly loved—the man you took away from me.”
“It was you who killed Lord Gibbs?” Sophia asked. “You poisoned him?”
“It was supposed to be you!” she hissed, pointing the knife at Sophia.
Sophia glanced at Alex. His face was grave, and his hands were outstretched in front of him, as though ready to lunge at the woman.
Remain calm, Sophia thought, whether to Alex or herself, she knew not.
“What do you want from us, Abby?” Sophia said, turning back to her cousin.
With her free hand, Abigail fished out something in the pocket of her gown. She then waved a small blue vial in front of her—the same type of vial that Sophia had found in the kitchen. Relief washed over her. So it must have been the almond extract that had killed Lord Gibbs, because of his sensitivity to nuts! Abby did not hold actual poison!
But Abby did not know that.
“It was you?” Sophia asked. “You were the one who dropped the poison in the kitchen didn’t you?”
Alex turned sharply to Sophia as Abby gave her a wry smile.
“I had dealings with a certain maid in this house,” Abby replied, holding the vial up to the sun to catch the light. “She was a big help in trying to slip the poison into your food, but alas, she failed, having lost her nerve at the last minute. I had put too much trust in her.”
