CHAPTER 14
A s Gabe made his way back to the taproom, a woman carrying a large pitcher was headed in the opposite direction. She was older than Sophie by at least a decade, but they were of a similar height. “You’re Millie?” he asked her.
“Yes, sir. Frank said ye ordered a bath?”
Gabe nodded. “And my—” Good God, how was he supposed to refer to Sophie? “—wife is in need of a dress. If you have one to give her, I’ll be happy to see you compensated for the item.”
Millie’s dark eyes widened with interest. “I thought Frank said ye had a boy with ye.”
Gabe snorted. “She’s needed a dress all day, I’m afraid.”
“The poor dear.” The woman nodded. “I’ll see what I can find for her, Major.”
Gabe continued down the staircase and dropped into a seat at one of the back tables. He rested his face in his hands while that last conversation echoed over and over in his mind. He barely noticed when the barkeeper placed a tankard of ale in front of him. It was, after all, impossible to think about anything other than Sophia Hampton.
She wanted him to declare his undying love for her, to vow that even after the last several years apart that they still had a future together. And while Gabe would love nothing more than to do that very thing, the truth of the matter was that her father, no matter how much Gabe hated him, was right in this. Sophie deserved better than aligning herself with Gabe, she always had. And the fact that Gabe did love her and had loved her every day he’d been away did not change that fact and it never would.
“On my word, Major,” Lumley began, his voice sounding more than anxious, “I didn’t know she was a girl. I thought—”
“She meant for you to think it.” Gabe blew out a breath. “We’re going to have to return to London. We cannot take her with us.” Then he lifted the tankard to his lips and downed nearly half of it in one gulp.
“Yes, sir, of course.” The coachman began to back away. “I am sorry.”
Not nearly as sorry as Gabe was. But what else could he do? He had to return Sophie to London and pray that Beckbury wouldn’t call for his head on a platter once they arrived. The likelihood of the latter was not high, however. He swallowed the rest of his ale, glanced toward the barkeeper and asked for another with a nod. Getting properly foxed would not help, but it couldn’t hurt either.
Sophie had long since washed her tears away and washed the dirt from her skin. But she didn’t feel any better than she had before Gabe had escaped their rented room. The one single ray of hope she had was the fact that Gabe had apparently told Millie that Sophie was his wife. His wife. She could have already been his wife, and would have been for several years if Papa hadn’t refused Gabe. Of course, he probably felt he had to tell the woman something, but he could have told her anything. He could have told her the truth. But instead, he’d told her that Sophie was his.
Was it possible for her to actually be his in reality?
If she could just get him to—
The door to her room flew open and Gabe staggered inside. He blinked his eyes wide, and they had a glassy look about them as though he’d imbibed more than his share. If there was any question about that, even his cheeks were tinted red. “We should be going, Sophie.”
That was the last thing they were going to do. “I’m not going anywhere, Gabe, not yet.”
His brow furrowed. “Do you want your father to kill me? Is that it?”
“You are foxed,” she accused.
“A little bit,” he agreed. “But that won’t prevent me from returning you home.”
“Is that what you really want?” she asked, stepping toward him and wishing the dress Millie had brought her had been a bit shorter when she almost tripped on the hem.
“Are you foxed too?” he asked when her step faltered.
Sophie scoffed in response. “Don’t think to distract me, Gabriel Prideaux.” And then she stood right before him and tilted her head back to see him better. “You didn’t answer my question earlier. And I already told you I wasn’t going anywhere until you tell me everything I want to know.”
He looked positively tortured, the lifelessness of his eyes. “If you ever loved me, if you love me now, take pity on me, Sophie.” He brushed his fingers against her hair which was still slightly damp from her bath. “This is difficult enough as it is, you know?”
“I don’t know,” she said evenly. “I don’t know anything because all of the men I love have decided to keep me in the dark about everything instead of telling me even the tiniest detail.”
“Are we spinning?” he asked, blinking his eyes as he glanced behind her. “Or is it the room?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” She slid her hand into his, and ignored the warmth that coursed through her at their touch. After all, she was not about to be distracted, not by him, not by anything. “Do lie down, Gabe. We’re not going anywhere,” she said and tugged him toward the small bed against the wall.
And he didn’t resist her, as she’d expected. Instead, he squeezed her fingers and followed her to the bed. Then he dropped onto the edge and stared directly into her eyes. “You have no idea how much I’ve missed you.”
Sophie’s heart twisted at the admission. “I think I have a very good idea.” Then she lifted her hand to his face and brushed her fingertips against his jaw, like she used to do. His skin was so warm and slightly rough from his whiskers. He closed his eyes as though he’d missed her touch as much as she had missed his. “There are so many things I want to know, Gabe.”
He heaved a sigh in response. She wasn’t certain if it was a sign of acquiescence, but thought it might be the closest she would get. If she didn’t press further now, she might not ever get any answers.
“Why did Papa reject your suit?” She hadn’t even known Papa had disliked Gabe until yesterday. Had something happened all those years ago to make him do so?
“Because you’re his favorite daughter and he wants the best for you.” A self-deprecating smile lit his lips as Gabe opened his eyes once more. “Needless to say, he found me wanting in that regard.”
“But why?” That didn’t make any sense at all. Gabe was wonderful in every single way. He was honest and true and noble and brave. He was every single thing Sophie had ever wanted in her life. And she still loved him as much now as she had the day he’d left England. “What could he possibly find so objectionable about you?”
“I never thought I’d have to tell you any of this,” he replied, his deep voice sounding so tortured that Sophie’s heart nearly broke once more. “I’d hoped I’d never have to.” There was a reason Papa hated Gabe, and he knew what it was.
“Please tell me. Please, I need to know.”
Gabe couldn’t meet her eyes which only made panic swell within Sophie. “My father was a scoundrel… and a…bigamist.”
A bigamist? “I beg your pardon?”
“And the thing is, I didn’t know any of it until your father told me.” He opened his eyes and finally met her gaze. “Clayton didn’t either. But we confronted our father and he did confess to all of it.”
The late Earl of Northwold had more than one wife? Sophie couldn’t even fathom such a thing. “How did Papa know it?”
Gabe scoffed as he rested his hands on the edge of the bed at his side. “They served together in the Colonies under General Howe. My father, apparently, ruined the daughter of a loyalist in New York and was forced to marry the girl.”
Papa had fought in the American War, but he never spoke about anything that happened there, at least not to Sophie. She’d certainly never heard that he’d known Gabe’s father back in those days. “I had no idea our fathers even knew each other.”
Gabe nodded. “Friends at one time, it seems. Your father stood up for mine at his forced wedding; but when Father abandoned his bride and returned to England without her, they had their falling out.”
He’d abandoned his bride in America? That poor girl, whoever she was. Sophie couldn’t even imagine such a thing.
“And when my father compromised another girl here in England, he was forced to wed once again. Though he never told my mother nor my grandfather that he still had a wife somewhere in New York. He had use for Mother’s dowry, after all. Insolvent as the earldom was even then.”
“That’s awful,” she breathed out. The late earl was a scoundrel and even less nice words than that were circling Sophie’s mind.
Gabe agreed with a nod. “I am relieved my mother did not live long enough to learn that her marriage was invalid.” He sighed once more. “Neither Clayton nor I have a legal claim on Northwold, not if the truth ever comes out.”
They were illegitimate, Gabe and his brother; and Papa knew it. That was why he’d refused Gabe’s offer. Sophie dropped onto the edge of the bed beside Gabe and rested her head against his arm. Even learning the truth, that awful truth did not change how she felt about him. He was honest and true and noble and brave; and nothing his father had done would change that fact. She would love him all of her days whether he had a third eye or whether his birth that was less than legitimate. But Papa was clearly another matter altogether.
“Do you still love me, Gabe?” she asked, tilting her head up to see his face. She thought he did. It seemed like he did. But she needed to hear the words.
“It would be impossible for me to ever stop.”
Then it was settled, at least to Sophie’s way of thinking. “You’re headed to Cumberland?”
“There’s a Northwold cottage there. Unentailed. I need to look it over and decide what to do with it.”
Northwold could look over his own cottage. “Let your brother do that, and we’ll—” but his sudden wince made Sophie change course “—What’s wrong?”
Gabe blew out a breath. “My brother is not capable of doing anything these days, Sophie. He’s dying.”
Dying! Sophie’s hand fluttered to her lips in surprise. “Gabe, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
His arm settled around her and warmed her to her toes. “That’s why I’m back in England, to oversee Clayton’s care, to oversee the earldom.”
The earldom that wasn’t legally his brother’s, but Sophie pushed that thought away. “Can anything be done for him? Has Doctor Watts seen to him?”
Gabe scoffed at that. “I’m afraid Clayton’s illness is beyond anything in Doctor Watts’ black bag.”
That was awful. Sophie didn’t remember Gabe being particularly close to his brother, but she couldn’t imagine losing Charlotte or even Cassie. Knowing you were going to lose a family member had to be worse than anything. “And that’s why you’re headed to Cumberland? To see to some cottage on your brother’s behalf?”
“Luckily, it’s not entailed. I’ll probably end up selling it, but I should look it over first.”
That made sense, Sophie supposed, and she nodded her head. “I’ll go with you.”
He pulled slightly away from her and his expression said quite loudly that he thought she was mad. “I am returning you to London.”
But Sophie stubbornly shook her head. “You love me, Gabe. You said as much just a moment ago. And I do so love you.”
Gabe tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “I do love you, that’s why I’d never ruin you, Sophie. You can’t come to Cumberland with me. It’s completely out of the question.”
“What if I want you to ruin me?” she said before she lost her bravado. Goodness, it was a suggestion she had never imagined she’d make. But what other choice did she really have? “My cousin, Arabella, she recently eloped in Scotland with Lord Avery. I don’t see any other path for us, so I think we should follow their lead.”
“Sophie,” Gabe’s low voice deepened even further. “Didn’t you hear anything I told you just now? If anyone should discover that my parents’ marriage was never legal…”
Sophie grasped his hands in hers. “Gabriel, Prideaux, do you honestly think me so weak in constitution that I would let your father’s unconscionable actions keep me from you?” If he did think such foolish thoughts, he didn’t know her nearly as well as she thought he did.
He squeezed her hands in return, sending warmth and tingles racing through Sophie as his warm hazel eyes searched her face for…something. “Sophia Hampton, do you honestly think me such a cad that I would jeopardize your good name by allowing you to align yourself with me?”
What a ridiculous thing to say. “It would be better for me to align myself with someone I don’t love and spend the rest of my life pining for you? Is that the future you’d rather subject me to? A miserable existence to be sure.”
He shook his head slightly. “I thought you and Greywood—”
Sophie gasped. Goodness! How had she forgotten about Mr. Greywood?
“What is it?” Gabe’s brow furrowed.
“I completely forgot he was going to take me for a ride in the park today. I do hope Charlotte put him off.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Sophie shook her head. “If he bumped into Papa, they might already be looking for me. But if Charlotte found him instead, she’d never give me away, and we’ll have plenty of time to get a head start before Papa realizes I’m gone.”
Gabe breathed out a beleaguered sigh. “Sophie, you cannot ask me to jeopardize your good name. I—”
“I’m not going back, Gabe. I am not. We love each other, and that is that.” She shrugged. ”So we’ll head to Scotland first. It’s not that much further than Cumberland, and then we’ll double back to your cottage after we’ve said our vows.”
“You don’t even know where in Cumberland we’re going.”
Well, that was true, but completely beside the point. “Wherever it is, it’s closer to Gretna Green than we are right now. You asked for my hand once. Don’t you still want it?”
“I want more than just your hand. I always have.”
And the first bit of joy bubbled up inside her. Together. They were going to do this together, no matter what, and come what may. She tugged him back to his feet. “Then come with me to Scotland, Gabe. Let’s leave right now while we still have a head start.”