by Rose, taylor
Sophia really didn’t want to touch him but he had been Archibald’s best friend and as a guest at this dinner she felt compelled to oblige him. She did turn her head to glance at Brandon with an apologetic look. To her surprise Brandon was wearing an amused smile and there was brightness to his eyes that made Sophia ascertain that he didn’t seem to mind. Brandon seemed to play along with Alfred’s opinion of himself by lunging forward to open the door to the library for her and Alfred to enter and as she walked past him, he gave her a wink. Alfred looked at Brandon and mumbled “That’s better, it‘s about time you found your station”. To this Brandon gave a hearty laugh and entered the room behind them.
Sophia discovered for the first time in years that having endured this annual event where she thought she really didn’t like any of these people, after some sixteen years she didn’t really know any of these people. It made her feel sad that such an amount of time had passed and she was so very alone. Her guests were so out of touch with the real world and so completely unaware of this fact. However this year for some reason she was finding the evening highly amusing….Brandon. The reaction from the female guests was extraordinary. Never before had Sophia seen such unbridled enthusiasm coming from this group of women. From the moment he entered the room he was, as she stood watching, ambushed. In fact there seemed to be not a fraction of a second between the door opening and the reaction of the females pouncing on him. As she was still entering the room herself a wave of femininity washed past her all vying to be the first to reach their target ……….. Brandon.
Sophia also detected that for a split second Alfred seemed to think that all the female attention was aimed at him. Now that made Sophia smile.
As soon as politely possible she disengaged herself from Alfred. There were over forty or so guests in the library. So taking a drink from the bar and winking at Harold she turned around and nearly bumped into Brandon who was about to lean over her to grab himself a drink. As her drink came perilously close to spilling down the front of his suit he said very softly. “Stop trying to get me to take my clothes off”.
“I am not” Sophia replied through gritted teeth and slipped past him to mingle with the guests.
Brandon discovered as he laughed that he truly had not been so amused by a woman in his entire life. And some of the females who had jumped on him as he walked through the door were exactly like the ones he would have dated up until a week ago. Taking a very deep breath and turning with a smile on his face he looked at the group of women who had surrounded him at the Bar and established that he needed to play nice as this was Sophia night to shine. He also decided that this would give him a perfect opportunity to gauge her reaction to other women falling over him.
Sophia watched as the half hour of drinks evolved. Did all women make such an effort to fall all over themselves to get to a handsome face? She wondered. Did they not know that he was actually a rather nice person underneath? It was an amazing sight to watch as two women who were the closest of friends and as far as Sophia knew had been for many years suddenly become competitive for Brandon’s attention. They were not alone. Of the now sixty guests about twenty five were females. Ten of them were hanging off every word Brandon was saying. The false laugher was ringing around the room. In fact as Sophia watched on she decided that at times the Brandon Fan Club were laughing with that false laugh at nothing in particular. No wonder, Sophia thought to herself, she had been alone for the last six years. If you had to carry on like that to catch yourself a man, she would be more than happy to die alone.
She had to admit that not all of the guests who were here were as hard to like as Alfred. Some of them were actually turning out to be quite nice. Many of them were interested in what she had been up to over the last twelve months and seemed genuinely interested in her garden restoration project. Perhaps she could form some friendships within this group of people after all. Sophia found that everyone she spoke to wanted to know how she had managed to get Brandon De Lecour to help her. Apparently he was fairly well known for his gardening knowledge or so it would seem. As she stood to the side for a moment, the thought hit her, how did they know his name and that he knew something of gardens? She looked up to take a new look at this Brandon De Lecour but was unable to see anything other than a man that was earth shatteringly handsome who didn’t seem to have any obvious personality faults.
Harold made the announcement that dinner was being served in the Great Hall. Brandon couldn’t remember seeing this Great hall but wondered how they were all going to fit into any room to eat a formal sit down meal. There must be sixty or so people milling about in here. As he, his groupies (as he was now mentally calling them with great amusement at their futile attempt to get his attention) and the rest of the guests moved into the room Brandon touched hands with someone. He instantly knew that it was Sophia without looking at her. He did glance at her as she moved off to the side of the door to allow all the guests to enter.
“Brandon, if I may have a quick word with you?” Sophia said.
”Certainly My Lady” came his reply.
Not unexpectedly his Fan Club faltered, unsure if they should stand and wait for him or continue inside. Their thoughts were so transparent you could actually see the process going through their minds and it was made more remarkable as the whole group was thinking the same thoughts. Firstly they were thinking if they leave and continue into the room and the rest of the group stays well that takes me out of the running. If I stand here then perhaps I will be one of the lucky ones to swoop on Brandon and be close to him for seating purposes. Turning towards them Brandon instructed them to go inside and he would be in shortly. Sophia barely controlled herself from rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. You have got to be joking. They had only met him forty minutes ago and now they are unable to make a decision without his guidance. As Brandon turned back towards Sophia he didn’t miss her expression. He had to smile, if he didn’t know better he would have thought her jealous.
“Do you know your green eyes really suit you?” Brandon said.
Sophia gave him a rue look as the double meaning didn’t escape her.
Brandon stood to one side as the rest of the guests filed past them into the room.
When all the guests were inside Sophia turned to Brandon. “Does this happen often?” It wasn’t actually what she was going to ask him it just slipped out, which would make her intended question seem like she wanted to join the rank of adoring women.
“More often than you would think actually.” came the reply. There was no humor in his eyes now as Sophia looked at him. He was actually quite serious.
Now her next question was really going to sound stupid. “This is going to sound dumb in light of that question but Alfred is starting to give me the creeps. He won’t leave me alone. If we can swing it could you sit next to me? We may have left it too late with everyone in there but they mill around for a bit before being seated.”
Brandon couldn‘t help smiling. “So you do want my body after all?”
“Sure why not” Sophia said with a shrug of her shoulders. As Sophia walked into the room she couldn‘t help throwing over her shoulder “every other female seems to be lining up why not add my name to the long list.”
Brandon concluded that Sophia, in her own way, was jealous of the female attention which led Brandon to think that perhaps she did like him. Like was not love, but it was on the same track at least. He took four long strides to catch up with her and fall in beside her as they made their way down to the other end of the table.
Entering the Great Hall brought Brandon back from his thoughts. This wasn’t a room it was a wing. The table was one piece and it was going to seat all of them. This wealth was something else entirely. You just simply could not replicate a dwelling of this size or grandeur in this day and age. He had seen wealth but it had always been modern wealth, this was impressive, old and elegant.
Just at that moment Alfred sidled up and in a low voice said “I know who you are.”
Brandon was forced to look at Alfred. He was very hard to tolerate and Brandon had noticed throughout the evening that all the other guests only engaged Alfred briefly before moving on to address others in the room.
“Oh, do you now?” was Brandon’s reply. He glanced over to Sophia to check that she was not listening to the conversation. Luckily she was engaged in a conversation with Harold and had her back to him. He figured at least half the room knew who he was. So long as Sophia didn’t work it out until Brandon, himself, had a chance to explain his need to be anonymous.
“Yes,” said Alfred trying to look down his nose “You obviously think that because you have a nice face you are going to worm your way into this Estate. You apparently believe that Lady Sophia will fall in love with a no hoper such as yourself and hand over her cheque book. I will have you know that I intend to take over this Estate and run it the way Archibald intended.” Alfred stated all the while still attempting to look superior.
Now Brandon’s hackles were up…..what was this idiot talking about? “And how do you propose to do that, Alfred?”
“Don’t you dare to assume to address me using my first name.” Alfred’s face was starting to go a deep shade of red. “Outrageous! I will marry Lady Sophia, of course. It is a suitable length of time since the death of my friend and I know that Lady Sophia will see the sense in me taking over the running to this Estate. She has become far too familiar with her staff for one thing” as he glanced over and looked distained at Sophia talking to Harold. “I intend to fix that” Alfred stated with all the pompous righteousness he obviously felt he deserved as he pointed a bony little finger at both Sophia and Harold.
It took all of Brandon’s effort not to take one of two reactions both involving his face, either laugh in this man’s face, or hit Alfred in the face to wipe off the smug look. Alfred was obviously unstable if he thought that Sophia was going to hand over her property to such a pretentious little toad.
“Oh, I see” seemed to be the best thing to say at the time.
“Yes, I thought you needed to be told that I have first dibs to Sophia’s hand and the likes of you do not stand a chance” again said trying to look down his awful snobby nose.
“Right.” What else could Brandon say? This guy had consumed too many Brandy’s or Port’s. With that, Alfred no longer walked but strutted off obviously very satisfied with his own importance. Brandon stood there for a few seconds absorbing this information. He had dealt with much savvier operators than some inbred fool so he would deal with this one as well. He might be on holidays but he was a man who rarely lost and he was going to protect Sophia.
Brandon turned to Sophia, he’d be damned if he was leaving her side now with Alfred in the same room as her.
Sophia felt Brandon turn towards her and noticed a very strange look on his face. He looked so determined that he looked like an entirely different person to the one she had been dealing with over the last few days. This one looked like he belonged in a Boardroom dominating the meeting. His statue seemed to have grown, she felt like she was standing next to a seven foot giant that was out to kill something. As she stood trying to assess what had changed in the last couple of moments he lent down and whispered in her ear. “I suggest that you don’t leave my side at all tonight. I’m not going into an explanation here but just take my advice. When we are seated I‘m going to have a word with Harold” Sophia looked up and recognized that he was very concerned about something. “Ok,” was her reply. For some unexplainable reason she felt that he would not lead her astray. If he said stay beside me he had a very good reason and she welcomed the safeness that she suddenly felt being near him. It had never happened to her before, she had always been on her own, it was a very foreign feeling but Sophia liked it.
Chapter Fourteen
Harold rang a bell at the end of the room and announced dinner was to be served. Brandon held onto Sophia’s arm and led her to the head of the table and having seated her at the top of the table he took the chair to her left. Thankfully, Steve the vet swooped in sat down on her right. Brandon didn’t see him in the crowd earlier but was grateful for his presence now. Steve looked straight at Brandon with a rather unreadable yet steady expression than gave him a nod. It seemed to Brandon that Steve had planned on the move to sit next to Sophia. Brandon was more than sure that Steve had no romantic interest in Sophia but he did appear to be very fond of her. Brandon pondered on the thought that perhaps he was not the only one to have a growing dislike for Alfred. Brandon looked down the table to see that Alfred was unable to get closer than four seats further down on the opposite side and the look on his face said it all. Brandon gave him a very tight smile.
The dinner went well and the food was beyond superb. Agnes and Harold had certainly worked some magic to pull it off so magnificently. It had been an interesting evening with Steven having some very funny stories to share about past hunts and just general veterinary practice. He was very interested in Brandon and at one stage said that he felt that he knew Brandon’s face from somewhere. Thankfully Sophia was engaged in a discussion with Harold again so didn’t hear the conversation. Brandon concluded that this was going to be increasingly difficult to keep who he is a secret and the time was drawing closer when he would have to tell Sophia about himself. By 10.30pm it was back to the library for a round of post dinner drinks. By this stage most of the Hunters were starting to head off to check on their horses and retire to bed. Brandon looked at his watch….11pm. He was not looking forward to walking back down to the Inn at this time of night, whilst the nights were warm, it was late. He noticed that Alfred was seated in a chair by the fireplace with a rather large Brandy in hand and was not looking like going anywhere anytime soon. Brandon thought it would be a good idea to inform Harold about his conversation earlier in the evening so he could keep a watch out for Sophia.
As there were still some guests milling around Brandon rose to his feet to leave the room, Harold entered the room and approached. “We need to talk, Brandon, out here” Harold said discreetly waving his hand. When they were outside the library Harold turned to Brandon and said “Brandon, your conversation with Alfred was overheard by Steven, that was why he seated himself beside the Lady. Steven is rather concerned with Alfred‘s intentions What is your opinion?”
“I was just coming to tell you that I think the man is unhinged. I don’t know if he is capable of harm but he seems convinced he is marrying Sophia and that she will completely agree to it.” Brandon wore a frown on his face. His concern for Sophia was obvious. Harold grimaced as his looked at Brandon’s face. Harold made a rash decision, something that he rarely did. “Would you mind staying the night, in the room you dressed in? It’s right next door to Sophia’s rooms. Holding the position I do in the household I can hardly stay up there, she would know something was very wrong if I overstepped my position so grandly But we can get away with you being there, it’s late and walking back to the village at this hour seems futile when you are back here early in the morning.”
Brandon had two thoughts hit his head at the same time. Firstly, only a butler would think of people’s position and how certain actions would look from all stations and classes and secondly he couldn’t believe his luck this was just what he was looking for. Brandon managed to say as impassively as possible “Yes, I can stay. If you think it might help”
Harold nodded his head as if he fully expected Brandon to comply with his suggestion then looked at Brandon directly. “Actually I will show you something but you have to promise me that you will keep it to yourself unless absolutely needed.” Harold even waved a finger at Brandon for effect. “I do mean absolutely necessary, I am of the belief that the Lady has no idea of what I am about to show you.”
“Sure” Now Branson curiosity was in overdrive. With that Harold started to head up the stairs and lead Brandon into the room he had previously utilized. Harold had his finger pointing at Brandon again. “You have to promise to keep this quite unless you need t
o use what I am about to show you.”
“I promise…..you sound as though you going to show me a secret passageway, Harold. I know these old houses are reputed to have them……..
As Brandon was talking Harold walked over to the wall adjoining the present room and Sophia’s and moved a framed picture, making it askew, only to have a section of the wall suddenly and quietly shift. When Brandon put his hand on the section it easily swung open to expose Lady Sophia’s bedchamber.
“Holy Cow…….You’re kidding me…….surely not” was all Brandon could think to say.
“Oh the house is full of surprises but this one may be useful” With that Harold started to walk towards the door.
“How do you close it?” Brandon wanted to know.
“Push the wall back and straighten the picture” Harold stated as he opened the door to leave.
Well, I’ll be darned, thought Brandon.
Downstairs Sophia wondered where Brandon had gone. He seemed to be in discussions with Harold just outside the library entrance and then they had both disappeared. Only a few of the guests were still in the library and for the most part they were only moments off finishing their drinks. As Sophia surveyed the scene a sudden wave of exhaustion overtook her, which was quite ridiculous. Everyone else did all the hard work today and pulled it off with great success but truth be told playing happy hostess was just not her thing. She was looking forward to the Hunt tomorrow though. Sophia realized with a start that another year had past and last year she had vowed to herself that by this hunt she would be back on a horse. It had been years since she had participated in the Hunt and she really missed riding horses. Her thoughts continued…..She should never have agreed with Archibald’s request that she stop riding. Archibald was convinced that this was the reason why an Heir had not been produced. She knew that it was ludicrous but had complied to his wishes even though it had been her one and only passion. With a jolt Sophia registered she really missed riding with all her heart and soul. Suddenly Brandon appeared and she was unable to control herself, she rose and went to him, smiling. “Is everything alright?” she asked.
