Sophia could still see the look on Robert’s face when the Earl approached them. She could still see the way he glared and shook with rage as Roger implied her sordid past and loose nature. For a moment she was afraid Robert might hit him.
Even though the Earl left with his teeth intact, it changed nothing. The damage was done. For some reason the world just didn’t want Robert and Sophia to be together. In fact, it seemed as if the forces of the universe wanted them both to be miserable for the rest of their lives and there was nothing they could do about it.
“Going somewhere?” Alistair asked of Sophia. He had appeared at her doorway, leaning into the room, but not entering without invitation.
Sophia was in the midst of packing. Her clothes were strewn across her bed as she hurriedly collected her things. She didn’t know when Robert would be home, but she knew that when he did come back, he would waste no time in divorcing her. When that happened, she wanted to be gone from the manor as soon as possible.
“Oh, just... just taking stock...” She had no idea where she was going to go. She couldn’t go back to her father’s house, not after what he’d said. Perhaps to Emma and Hugh’s? Just as a temporary solution until she found a more permanent measure.
“I only ask because there’s a carriage waiting for you outside.” He spoke with a smirk spread across his lips, as if he knew a secret she did not. For a moment Sophia considered the chance that Alistair was mocking her situation, but she knew he wouldn’t be that callous.
“A carriage? For me?” She hadn’t asked for one.
“Yes. And it came with this note.” The elderly manservant held up a small folded piece of parchment. Although it was sealed, the look on Alistair’s face all but said he knew exactly what was written on it.
“I don’t...” she stepped forward and took the note from Alistair with great caution. She unfolded and read it with even greater trepidation. As her eyes worked across the scrawl, she felt her face flush and her heart begin to beat at a tremendous rate. Sure that she had misread, she re-read the note.
“Well?” Alistair prompted. He was smiling outright now. “Should I tell the driver you aren’t coming?”
Like Alistair, Sophia had a smile on her face. “Tell him... tell him I’ll be down in a moment.”
Chapter 23
As she sat in the back of the carriage, Sophia reread the note for what was surely the fifteenth time. The note was short, the words simple, and yet she was still certain that she was misreading them, or at least misunderstanding their true meaning.
Sophia, there is trouble at the docks and I am in urgent need of your help. Please come immediately. Only you can fix this.
It was Robert’s hand, and the meaning seemed obvious enough. In fact, it was something that she had predicted the moment her father had threatened to remove his business from Robert’s. After her time spent at the docks, she knew how important her father’s exports were to Robert’s overall stock intake, and that without them the business would be in dire straits. It wasn’t a problem that would be impossible to remedy, but it would be difficult.
The confusion she felt when reading the letter came in the simplicity of the text. There was no emotion behind it, no indication as to how Robert felt about the situation. It was as if he were treating her like a fellow worker, an equal even. Oddly, the thought thrilled her.
“Miss, we’re here.”
As the carriage came to a stop, Sophia pulled herself back into the moment. She’d been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t even realized the carriage had already reached the docks. She looked out the window and immediately saw that things were far worse than she’d imagined.
Pandemonium. That was the only word she could use to describe what she saw. There were five ships docked across both piers eight and nine. Odd, since pier nine was rented to a different business and had clearly been taken over for the sake of the situation. There were hundreds of workers running back and forth from the ships, looking like chickens with their heads cut off. There was no order, no discipline. Crates, boxes and wares were piled at the ends of the piers, along the docks and up the boarding ramps. It was a mess.
Sophia paid the driver and made her way quickly from the end of the pier toward the office. She received the usual catcalls and leers from the sailors as she went, ignoring them completely. So harried was her state that most of the workers seemed to move aside for her, as if they could sense the urgency behind her movements.
“There you are!” Liam bellowed the moment Sophia entered the office. Like the docks, the office was a mess. The secretaries looked as if they hadn’t slept in days. Papers and ledgers alike had been flung across the room, as if a hurricane had made its way through the small space.
“Here I am.” She looked around the office, hoping to see her husband. He wasn’t there, but his office door was closed, and she could see shadows moving behind the door, so she guessed him to be pacing back and forth, stressed beyond belief. Would he come out to see her?
“What ya did we can talk about later. I don’t give a damn. What I care about is the current state of things. Your father pulling out made a right mess of —”
“I know, I know,” she sighed. “Here, let me...” She walked up to Liam and snatched the ledger from his hand. It was the day’s breakdown; an outline of what was supposed to be getting stored and shipped.
Her eyes ran down the ledger, trying to work through the scribbles, crosses and new additions that Liam had made. By the looks of things, he had attempted to streamline activity, replacing her father’s removed exports with stocks that weren’t supposed to go out for several more weeks. In doing so he had left gaps open on other ships, leaving them wanting. He had created more mayhem, causing a sort of domino effect.
“This is not good,” she said with a grimace as her eyes worked over the reports.
“Tell me about it. We got the —”
“Will you be quiet!” she snapped without looking up. He did just that, shutting his mouth as he watched her read.
As she read through the reports, she realized the entire office had stopped., all eyes on her. She also heard Robert’s office door creak open, her husband likely peering at her through the crack. She didn’t have a moment to spare for him though. She concentrated on what was in front of her, it being far more important than something as silly as a failing marriage.
To her delight, she instantly saw what needed to be done. Not only did she know the business inside and out, but she knew of her father’s business too. A lifetime at home, listening in on business meetings and the like had given her a rather good insight into how he ran things. She only wished that Robert had called her sooner.
“You have a plan, don’t ya?” Liam said slowly. He could see the small smile forming across her face.
“I do.”
They quickly got to it. She asked for a new ledger. She was going to work from the beginning, acting as if all the mayhem that had taken place over the past twenty-four hours hadn’t happened. Really it was simple enough, and only required a few small fixes. Liam, in his eagerness to find the quickest solution to the problem, had made things worse.
It took four hours of her own time before everything was ready to begin. She sat down at her desk, working furiously, handing new orders to Liam and the secretaries. They ran down to the piers, spouting the new directives to the crew and workers. Soon, the correct ships were loaded with the correct wares, and things finally began to get back on track.
The hardest part of the endeavor was establishing the shipping routes. Again, in his eagerness to simplify the matter, Liam had created a hazardous schedule that saw some ships stopping in at docks that they didn’t need to dock at, and others missing their marks entirely. Sophia was able to reroute these and get everything back in order, with minimal delays.
By the end of the day, everything was finally starting to look as it should. The office was empty, as everyone was down by the piers, and Sophia sat behind her desk, unable to
stop smiling. Her hair was a mess, her fingers and face were smudged black with ink, and she felt a satisfaction in her weariness. For the briefest of moments, all that had been worrying her, was forgotten.
“Hey...” a soft voice spoke from across the office.
She looked up in surprise. In all the commotion, she’d forgotten about Robert. He stood by the door to his office, looking like a shy child who had stumbled into the wrong room.
“Hey,” she responded with a small, unsure smile.
Robert didn’t move at first. He remained where he was, his eyes trained on her. He looked nervous. Sophia smiled warmly at him, and slowly he began to smile back. They didn’t speak, there didn’t seem to be a need. Robert walked across the room, took Sophia’s hand in his and held it up to his face, kissing her palm.
“Thank you,” he finally offered, his voice earnest.
“Anytime.”
Chapter 24
Robert didn’t know what was more beautiful, the way the sun set over the horizon, or the way that his wife looked as she basked in its warm glow.
He had always loved the way the sun looked setting over the ocean. The blue of the water seemed to amplify the reds and yellows of the evening sun. Pairing this with its reflection off the surface of the ocean, and the way the sky turned into a complex pallet of purples and oranges, it was a sight like no other.
But Robert had never seen it as he was seeing it now. For the first time ever, the person he loved more than anything was within the frame. She stood over the bow of the ship, gazing out and over the horizon, marveling in the beauty of the sunset as if she were seeing it for the first time.
Robert had to remind himself that she was seeing it for the first time, at least in its current context.
As she smiled, and as the sun lit up her face, he decided then and there that although the setting sun was indeed beautiful in every conceivable facet, it didn’t hold a candle to the beauty that was his wife, Sophia.
“Your first oceanic sunset,” he whispered in her ear as he came up behind her. As he did, he wrapped his hands around her waist, pulling her in close and kissing her on the back of the neck.
Sophia shivered and let out a small sigh, reaching her hand around and running it through Robert’s thick hair. “Hopefully not my last.”
“I heard there’s going to be one tomorrow, and the next day and the day after that.”
“That many? I might get sick of them.”
“When you do, we can start waking for the sunrises. They’re even more beautiful.”
“It sounds like I have a lot to look forward too.”
Sophia smiled as she turned around, looking away from the setting sun for the first time. Robert released his grip on her, allowing her to turn and press her body against his. She wore a beguiling smile; the same one she had been wearing ever since they’d left the harbor a week ago. Even more alluring was the smile behind her eyes, one she couldn’t hide even if she wanted too. It spoke to true happiness.
The crisis at the docks turned out to be the exact tonic for the couple’s failing marriage. When Sophia stormed into the office and demanded to see the ledger, Robert listened at the door. As she got to work, righting the wrongs that Liam had created, he cracked the door open and watched in awe as his wife worked. She was so talented, so clever and so... so different. It was in that moment that Robert realized he had never met another woman like her, and most likely never would. He’d never anticipated finding a woman willing to work so diligently in support of something he’d poured so much of his life into. Seeing her work, Robert had no doubt that Sophia truly valued his company and felt a sense of pride in being a part of it. She wasn’t going to let it fail, not because it mattered to him, but because she felt her own sense of responsibility in it.
That made him think. If he and Sophia could find a way to work together in business, could they possibly find the same kind of strength in mutual support in their marriage? Could they work together against the odds? Watching her work, moving tirelessly until every possible issue had been dealt with, Robert’s heart swelled with a resounding yes. He knew beyond a doubt that the two of them could face whatever obstacle the world could throw at them and come out stronger for it.
So what if she wasn’t like the other ladies of station? So what if a set of bored aristocrats ran their tongues? If anything, that was what he liked about her. That was what made her unique. That was what made her the perfect wife, one that he was going to love and adore for the rest of his life. He was just glad that the rest of his life had finally begun.
The ship they sailed was The Tamway. It was the last ship to leave the docks the previous week, having finally been filled with enough stock to justify its leaving. It was to sail south to Cape Town, then east to Australia. The journey was meant to be one of a kind and when Sophia jokingly suggested that they board the ship and travel the world together, he took her offer.
“I love you, my lovely wife.”
“And I love you, my adoring husband.”
As the sun set, and as The Tamway glided across the placid ocean, Robert kissed his wife and she kissed him back, both secure in the knowledge that their love was real, their love was eternal, and that they were no longer broken.
Also by Karen Sommers
“A Duke’s Revenge”
www.authorkarensommers.com
After Hugh Quinn, Duke of Bellington, broke her heart, Emma swore she’d never see him again. When desperate circumstances force her back into his arms, she finds her resolve crumbling. How can she steel her heart when his nearness ignites all the passions she thought she’d left behind?
Hugh can’t believe his luck when Lady Emma, the woman who stole his heart then humiliated him, comes crawling back to the social scene. This is his chance to regain the prize he lost and make her regret her actions. He soon finds, however, that trying to teach Emma a lesson without losing his heart is much more difficult than he’d expected.
Perfectly Mismatched Page 10
