Chapter Twenty-One

A t first Ellis thought Sophia looked exactly the same as she had the last time they had been together. Was it really four years ago? So long! Days at Breamore had drifted by, and she had had no desire to return to London, but then neither had Archie. She hadn't greatly missed her sisters, or even her mother, and when they had exchanged letters there had never been a great deal to say. Their lives had taken different paths, and Ellis had been content to allow the gap to widen.

It had been late when Ellis and Blake arrived in the Oldney house in Berkley Square. Ellis had been surprised to find it well lit, as if they had interrupted a party, but when they were shown into a sitting room and Sophia joined them, she was in a robe that covered her nightgown, and her glossy dark hair was in a braid that reached her waist.

Sophia's gaze slid from Ellis to Blake, and she did not seem at all discomposed by her state of undress. In fact, it was as if a bomb had gone off in the room. A frozen sort of bomb.

"Mr. Blake," she said in a chilly voice. "I did not expect to see you in this house."

Nicholas Blake smiled and bowed so low it was an insult. "And I did not expect to be here, Your Grace."

"What is this about my sister being in danger? Just as well my husband is away. You would already be out of the door."

They knew each other, Ellis realized. She also understood they disliked each other intensely.

"Your sister is in need of your protection," Blake said quietly, as if he was remonstrating with a child. "I would have thought you would be keen to assist."

Sophia glared at him a moment more. "You can go," she said. "Ellis and I need to talk."

He hesitated, as if he would have liked to stay and say more, but then he bowed and with an apologetic glance at Ellis, left the room.

" That man," Sophia hissed. "He is well-named."

"Well-named?" Ellis repeated, confused.

"Blake. Snake ." Sophia waved a hand as if to dismiss him and focused on her sister. She had made no move to embrace her, or take her hands, but Ellis told herself that wasn't odd because they weren't close.

"I'm sorry to arrive without warning," Ellis said, and suddenly she felt very tired and rather depressed. "Mr. Blake thought my being here was the best solution. It has been a rather peculiar few weeks. I did not mean to drag you into it. If you point me to my room you can go back to bed."

Sophia ignored her. "Blake said in his message that you were in danger. You can hardly expect me to go back to bed after reading that."

Now that Ellis looked at her more closely she could see the shadows under her sister's eyes and the pinched look to her mouth. "I do not want to worry you," she said carefully. "There is no need to be worried. When we heard mother was away..."

"Mother is in the north of the country with Catherine. Catherine is to be married again. If you visited us occasionally you would have known that before now."

"Married?" She was surprised. Catherine's elderly husband had made her so unhappy that she had doubted her elder sister would ever marry again.

"Yes. To a man who loves her deeply," Sophia added, as if reading her mind. "Catherine deserves to be happy this time."

"I am glad to hear it."

Ellis still felt as if there was something she was missing. Sophia was a beautiful woman, but she had never been easy to read. There was a hardness about her, a brittle shell around her, and as far as Ellis could remember it had never cracked to show the feelings beneath. Now that shell looked a little worn.

"Why did you never come to see me and Mother, not even when Catherine visited recently?"

"I... I was busy," Ellis stumbled on the words, knowing them to be a lie.

"Not that busy," Sophia scoffed. "Do you know what I think, Ellis? I think you are selfish."

It was a shocking thing to say. Ellis's eyes widened in hurt. She was hurt, so she hit back.

"Selfish! Because I do not visit people who have no interest in me? Who have never been interested in me? I was glad to get away from you all, so why would I visit, even for a day?"

Sophia's mouth tightened and the pinch between her brows scored her perfect skin. "Of course, we care about you! I care about you! What makes you think I do not?"

Ellis was closer to her now, although she could not remember taking the steps to bring her there. "When I was a child, you tried to lose me in the woods. I wanted to play with you and Catherine, but you laughed and said I couldn't. You didn't want me with you. I was a nuisance, you said. Later, when I was forced to take my place in society, you either ignored me or told me to stay away from you, because I was an embarrassment. You have never cared about me, so why should I care about you?"

Sophia's eyes shimmered with tears. It was so unexpected, Ellis found her own eyes stinging.

"We were children," Sophia said at last. "Children can be cruel. I did not mean it, any of it, and if you thought I did, then I am sorry. As for ignoring you when you made your debut..." She took a shaky breath. "The crowd my husband runs with... you should be grateful I kept you away from them, Ellis. I was trying to ensure your safety!"

Ellis knew when Sophia was lying, and she wasn't lying now. Had she really been protecting her younger sister? Confused, Ellis wondered if she had allowed childhood resentments to influence her thinking. She found she didn't know what to believe.

Sophia sat down in a chintz covered chair. "You'd better tell me why you're here before my husband returns from whatever cesspit he is currently inhabiting."

That deserved some comment, too, but Ellis wasn't sure what to say. She had always disliked the Duke of Oldney, but now it seemed her sister disliked him, too. Almost as much as she disliked Nicholas Blake.

Sitting opposite Sophia, Ellis started her story at the beginning, because it was suddenly important to share everything. Her marriage to Archie, his death, Theo's plotting. When she reached the point where Owen proposed marriage to her, Sophia snorted with amused exasperation.

"Oh Lord," she said. "He's beyond smitten."

"He is chivalrous, that is all."

"If you say so."

Ellis ignored her and finally reached the point in the story where they were now.

By then it was very late, and Ellis's eyelids were drooping. Sophia had propped her chin on her hand and was gazing into space, as if she were revisiting the story in her head.

"This engagement is simply a ruse to trick Sir Theo into acting hastily? And it was something Blake came up with?" she said at last.

"Yes." She shot a glance at Sophia. "I am in love with him."

"Blake?" her sister's voice was a screech.

"No, of course not. With Owen, Lord Lyndhurst. He doesn't know that. He is an honorable gentleman, and when I think he is being forced into something dangerous, that he may be hurt ..."

Sophia rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he's very happy to be ‘forced' into marrying a wealthy duchess, Ellis. You are na?ve. You always were, which was why I did not want you running with my set when you first came out in society. They would have eaten you alive."

Ellis wanted to tell her there was a difference between distancing her sister to protect her and leaving her to stumble her way miserably through an unfamiliar landscape. But what was the point? She was here now, and Sophia seemed willing to take her in. To pick a fight would be petty.

"I've had your bedchamber prepared," Sophia said, watching her face and probably reading it quite well. "You should go up and get some sleep. Blake has men outside on watch. He has a reputation to uphold, so you are perfectly safe."

"Thank you." Ellis rose to her feet.

"I will see you in the morning," Sophia continued. "I expect your ardent suitor will be calling at an unfashionably early hour."

Ellis felt herself warm at the thought of Owen, but she was also worried. He had not seemed happy when she left him earlier, and she wasn't sure if it was because she had dragged him into this mess, or because he had changed his mind about wanting to pretend to be engaged to her.

She slipped into bed and lay in the darkness, staring at the canopy above. When Owen had knelt before her, demanding she marry him, his eyes fierce and bright... her heart had been fit to burst. She had wanted more than anything for that moment to be real.

What would happen when this was over? Would they go their separate ways, him to the Lodge and she to Breamore? The two places were not that far apart, but if Owen didn't want anything more to do with her, then they might as well be on opposite sides of the world.

She would hear news of him through others, whispers of his latest model, or perhaps a woman he was courting. And she... she would have to pretend not to care.