CHAPTER 21
Hampton Hall
Beckbury, Shropshire – June 1816
It felt so strange to be home, not that Hampton Hall was technically her home any longer; but it was the home she’d been raised in. Sophie slid forward on the coach bench as the Jacobean manor came closer into view. A bit of nerves had taken hold of her and her belly was more than a bit jittery at the prospect of seeing her parents again. Papa had been so angry with her in Gretna Green.
Gabe placed his hand on her back, warming her through and through. “All will be well, Soph,” he said quietly.
She agreed with a nod and then slid closer to him to rest her head against his arm. All had been well. The last fortnight as his wife, things had been better than well. They’d been perfect. She could not love him more than she did and was quite anxious for their official wedding to be over so the rest of the world would know her as Mrs. Prideaux.
Across the carriage, Augusta slept with her head against the window while Aurelie read to herself and Ismérie gazed out the opposite window. They were such sweet girls, her new nieces. But this was all very new for them. If she was in their place, she’d be a bundle of nerves. Of course, they had survived worse things than she could imagine. Still, society awaited them, they just didn’t know it yet.
“I cannot wait to see Charlotte and Cassie,” she said. After all, she’d never been apart from her sisters for so long, and the closer they came to The Hall, the more anxious she was to see both of them again. They would be kind to Aurelie and Ismérie, of that she had no doubt. Oh, and Prissa. Her cousin would probably be at The Hall as well, and she did seem to be of the sweetest disposition.
Who else, she wondered, would be there? How many others had Papa invited to witness her official wedding? Goodness, she hoped Grandfather wouldn’t be there. She could go the rest of her life without laying eyes on him again.
“Hopefully, Charlotte will decide she doesn’t hate me anymore,” Gabe said with a teasing little lilt to his voice.
“She will love you because I love you.” Sophie grinned up at him. “She’s very loyal like that.”
The coach began to slow and Aurelie closed her book to look out the window beside her sister. “It is grand,” the girl breathed out.
Sophie supposed it was, but she’d never thought of it like that. The Hall had always just been home. “I hope you’ll enjoy yourself while we’re here,” Sophie said. “There’ll be so many people for you to meet.”
Ismérie winced slightly at that, but the expression was gone from her face a moment later.
The coach came to a stop on the circular drive and in an instant, a team of servants poured through the doors to gather their trunks, and Aurelie woke her mother from her nap.
Gabe helped his sister and nieces from the coach. Then he reached his hand inside to help Sophie find her feet. She gazed up at him and was certain she would never tire of the sight. “Do you remember the first time you came here?”
That smile of his she loved so much graced his lips. “How could I ever forget, Sophie? You mesmerized me the first moment I saw you.”
It had been so many years ago. Gabe and Chase had visited during a break from Eton, and her life had never felt the same since.
She grinned at her husband. “I was quite annoyed that Chase had brought you with him. I thought the two of you would go off and I’d never get to see my cousin.”
Gabe chuckled. “And in the end it was Chase who was put out with me as my entire focus was on you from that very first day.” Something behind him caught his eye because Gabe’s brow lifted in surprise and that boyish twinkle was once again in his eyes. “Speaking of the devil.”
Sophie looked over her shoulder, toward the house. Chase stood in the threshold. “It is about time you arrived,” her cousin called to them. “Starting to worry about you.”
“We spent a few days in Derbyshire,” Gabe called back, linking his right arm with Sophie’s and offering his left to his sister.
“Yes, yes,” Chase replied and started down the steps to greet them on the drive. “Mr. Hardy sent me a note,” he said once he was closer to them. “You liked Oakcliffe, then?”
“Far superior to Rosewood,” Gabe agreed. Then he tipped his head toward Augusta and said, “Chase Winslett, my sister Lady Augusta Caplette. And my nieces Miss Aurelie Caplette and Miss Ismérie.”
“Lady Augusta.” Chase smiled in greeting. “I am so glad to meet you and your daughters.”
“And you, Mr. Winslett,” Augusta said. “Gabriel says you helped secure space for Clayton at Oakcliffe. We can never thank you enough.”
“Ah, we’re all family now, aren’t we?” Then he winked at Sophie. “Or we will officially be soon enough.” He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her cheek. “Tell me he’s taking care of you, sweetheart, or I’ll be forced to call him out.”
“You know he is.” She beamed at her cousin. “Who all has come, Chase? Is Grandfather…”
Her cousin snorted in response. “Decidedly not,” he said. “But let’s do go in. It would take me the better part of the day to name everyone else in attendance.”
And then from the open front door, feminine squealing spilled outside.
“Sophie!” Charlotte and Cassie called in unison.
And her heart lifted to see her sisters. Sophie released her hold on Gabe’s arm, stepped around her cousin and raced toward The Hall’s entrance. At once, her sisters enveloped her in a lung-crushing hug, but she didn’t care and she hugged them back just as fiercely.
“When I think about your lecture on propriety,” Cassie began, “and then you ran off to Gretna—”
Charlotte cleared her throat. “I don’t know what you mean,” she said, sounding quite a bit like Mother. “Sophia has been at The Hall all this time recovering from an awful case of the ague.”
“So that’s the story?” Sophie asked.
“That is the story,” Charlotte confirmed. Then she glanced back toward the drive where everyone else was assembled. “His sister wears an eye patch?”
Which Sophie didn’t even notice about Augusta anymore. She smiled at her new relations and said very quietly. “The three of them have managed to survive the worst sort of horrors.” Gabe had only told her a bit about what happened at Frenchtown, but it was positively awful. People burned in their houses, prisoners who were too weak to keep up were killed along the way. “They’re fortunate to be alive.” Then she turned her attention to Cassie. “Aurelie is two years your junior and she has no idea how to navigate the society that will be here for my wedding. I’m hoping you’ll help her.”
Cassie laughed. “You want me to help someone else with their comportment?”
“That’s how dire her situation is.” Sophie tugged one of her youngest sister’s curls. “Even your guidance can do nothing but help.”
“Dire indeed,” Charlotte teased.
“Oh, stop, both of you.” Cassie turned her attention to Gabe’s nieces slowing making the way toward them. “I will do my best for the girl, and if you have any complaints, you can keep them to yourself.”
“And a limp?” Charlotte muttered, not unkindly, but with concern in her voice. “She’ll be crucified in London.”
Sophie shook her head. “If Augusta ever does head to Town, we shall support her in every possible way.”
Though she doubted very much that her sister-in-law ever meant to do as much. This wedding would be the closest Augusta came to society and she was braving all the unknown names and faces for Gabe.
“Of course we will,” Charlotte agreed. “I’m just worried—”
“Sophia?” Papa’s voice came from within The Hall.
She sucked in an anxious breath. He was still angry, she could hear it in his voice. He’d had over a fortnight to become less angry, but it didn’t sound like it had been enough.
He appeared at the end of the corridor and then he started toward the foyer. “I hadn’t expected you so soon,” he said, then glanced out the open doorway to where Gabe, his relations and Chase were still in conversation near the coach.
“We haven’t ridden for Northend yet, Papa,” she said, hoping she sounded more brightly than she felt at seeing him. “Things at Fairhaven and Oakcliffe took longer than expected, and we didn’t want to risk not being here in time.”
His brow creased at seeing the assembled group approaching them. “That’s Anne’s daughter?” he asked.
“Yes, Papa.”
He shook his head. “I had no idea she existed until your letter arrived. No idea Charles had left his wife and his child.”
His pregnant wife and child, though Sophie didn’t say as much. Papa was already angry, there was no reason to make it worse.
G abe knew the instant Beckbury reached the threshold. He could feel the man’s hatred even from the walk. It didn’t matter, however. He just had to endure the next sennight in the viscount’s home, and then he’d never have to sleep under the same roof as Sophie’s father ever again.
He smiled a greeting toward Charlotte and Cassandra and was relieved when Sophie’s sisters waved in response. Charlotte even seemed happy to see him.
“Good thing you took Weybourne’s coach,” Chase said conversationally. “Uncle George didn’t expect it and no one would have dreamt of stopping a ducal carriage.”
“It was unplanned,” Gabe replied, but as his gaze settled on his wife, his beautiful and wonderful wife, he stood a little taller. Where would he be if she hadn’t stowed away atop the Weybourne carriage that fateful day? “But I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.” He tipped his head to the side to better see his friend. “I’m assuming Christian didn’t come with you. I suppose I’ll have to return his coach to London on my own.”
Chase laughed. “The criminals of London,” he mocked Christian’s serious voice, “do not attend weddings in Shropshire.”
Gabe laughed right along with him. Then he said, “Be a gentleman and escort my nieces in, will you?”
Chase nodded toward Augusta and then made his was to Aurelie and Ismérie a few steps ahead of them. “Might I escort two of the loveliest ladies in all of Shropshire into Hampton Hall?”
Gabe’s nieces giggled but they each took one of his proffered arms and continued at a quicker pace than Augusta was able. He squeezed his sister’s hand in the crook of his arm and said, “I am so glad you agreed to come.”
She smiled up at him. “I wouldn’t miss your second wedding for anything in the world.”
“So long as you tell everyone it’s my first wedding, Beckbury won’t throw us all out on our ears.”
“Is that him?” she asked. “That austere gentleman with Sophie and…”
“Yes, that’s him.” Gabe nodded. “And she’s with her sisters. Miss Charlotte is in the jonquil gown, though she’ll be miss Hampton after Sophie and I are married,” he teased. “And Miss Cassandra is in the blue. They’re all a year apart in age.”
“He does seem to be staring at us,” Augusta said.
Gabe scoffed. “The word you’re looking for, my dear sister, is scowling. But that’s his usual expression, or at least it is whenever he’s looking at me. You’re just caught in the middle, I’m afraid.”
Sophie’s sisters met Aurelie and Ismérie at the top of the steps, and very quickly Cassie spirited them off somewhere to do God knew what; but Gabe’s focus was on Sophie and her father who winced as Augusta’s limp slowed their progress up the stairs.
Finally, they reached the top, and Gabe went through one more round of introductions. “Viscount Beckbury, my sister Lady Augusta Caplette.”
“Lady Augusta.” Beckbury nodded. “You have your mother’s coloring.”
“Then you remember her better than I do, Lord Beckbury.”
“She was impossible to forget,” he said. Then he turned his pointed attention to Gabe. “We have business to discuss in my study, Prideaux.”
“Papa…” Sophie began, but she closed her mouth when he cast her a quelling look.
“And on my life, if you listen at the keyhole, Sophia…”
“Charlotte and I will keep her company, Uncle George,” Chase said brightly. “And Lady Augusta, of course.” How the devil did Chase manage to remain so damned cheery all the time, as though nothing in the world ever bothered him in the least? “I want to hear all about Gret…Oakcliffe.”
Sophie caught Gabe’s eye and the irritation drained away from him. He loved her and she loved her father. So he’d make the best of his conversation with the man if for no other reason than to smooth things over for Sophie. “We’ll join you soon, I’m sure,” he said. Then he turned his attention to her father. “Shall we, my lord?”
“You remember the way?”
Gabe would never forget it. Beckbury’s study. That awful room where his offer for Sophia’s hand had been rejected and where he’d learned the awful truth about his father. “I do, indeed.”
Neither of them spoke as they departed the assembled group, or while they made their way down one corridor and then another. They waited until Beckbury closed the door to his study behind Gabe, and then the man asked, “After your travel, do you need a restorative?” which might have been the nicest thing Beckbury had ever said to him.
Even so, Gabe shook his head. “I had delightful company along the journey. No restorative needed, my lord.”
The viscount continued on toward his desk and gestured for Gabe to take one of the two leather chairs in front of it. “Speaking of your company, Sophia’s letter said you intend to do the honorable thing and see to your sister and your nieces’ futures.”
Gabe dropped into one of the seats his father-in-law had indicated. “Clayton did the honorable thing. He found them and he rescued them. I’m only picking up his mantle.”
“And you’re a legitimate heir.”
“That should alleviate your concerns on the matter.”
Beckbury leaned back in his seat, rested his elbows on the edge and templed his hands in front of him as he eyed Gabe looking for…something, though Gabe had no idea what. “You do realize that with you absconding with Sophia and taking her across the border to elope that you are not entitled to her dowry?”
Her dowry? Was that what this was about? The idea of her dowry hadn’t even popped into Gabe’s mind until this moment. “My lord, if you have ever been under the impression that my interest in Sophie had anything to do with her dowry—”
“That isn’t what I asked you,” Beckbury snapped. “I asked if you realized you’re not entitled to her dowry as we never had a marriage contract drawn up between us. I don’t need to hear you wax poetic over your undying love for my daughter. But I would like for you to answer my question.”
Gabe heaved a sigh. “All right. I acknowledge that I have no legal rights to whatever dowry Sophie may have had otherwise.” He shook his head. It was a good thing he’d never thought in those terms or hinged any of his hopes for Northwold’s future on such monies. He had only ever loved Sophie for herself, whether her father believed that or not.
“You’ll have it anyway,” he said, surprising Gabe completely.
“I beg your pardon?”
“She’s my daughter, Prideaux. And I won’t see her live in poverty because of her inability to stay away from you.”
If the silver was worth even half of what Gabe suspected… “I will provide for my wife, Lord Beckbury. One way or another.”
“You’ll have her dowry,” her father grumbled. “And that’s that.”
Gabe leaned back in his seat, almost certain that something else was going on in that room, he just wasn’t sure what it was. “I’m sure Sophie will be relieved to know you remain concerned for her well-being.”
“Her wellbeing,” the man echoed under his breath. “I loved her the moment she took her first breath of air. She is delightful, she’s thoughtful and caring, she’s beyond rash most of the time. There has never been one thing that I would ever want changed about her. Her wellbeing, that of her sisters is all I have been focused on for nearly two decades. But even after all that time, after I’ve kept a keen eye on Sophie her entire life, I’ve somehow lost her to you.”
Gabe wasn’t certain what to say to that. Was he supposed to give comfort to Viscount Beckbury, the man who had made him more than miserable for a number of years? He sighed. He might never care for Beckbury, but he was Sophie’s father and she did love him. “Sophie is completely devoted to you, my lo—”
“No she’s not,” Beckbury cut him off. “If she was, she wouldn’t have fled to Scotland with you. She would have done what I asked of her. As much as I would like to believe otherwise, Sophie’s completely devoted to you, Prideaux.” His brow lifted as though he couldn’t believe he was saying those words. “But that’s how it should be. You’re her husband now.”
“I’m equally devoted to her, I assure you.”
The older man heaved a sigh of his own. “I once thought your father was an honorable man, but he proved me wrong. You seem to be a different man than Charles in that regard – taking responsibility for your sister and her daughters, making certain your brother has the best possible care, but we cannot change what is in our blood, Prideaux. So consider yourself on notice. If you ever cause Sophie even the tiniest amount of pain, I will kill you. I should have killed your father after what he did to Anne, but I will not—”
And then it all clicked. It was the way he said her name so reverently. The way he’d told Augusta that it would have been impossible to forget her mother. “You loved her.”
“I beg your pardon?” Beckbury growled.
“Anne Hendley.” Gabe said softly. “You loved her. I can hear it in your voice.”
The man snorted, but he didn’t say anything for the longest while. Finally, he shook his head. “She never knew. Neither of them did. And it’s of no matter this many years later anyway. What matters now is my daughter’s life, her happiness.” His voice cracked just a bit. “Treasure Sophie as she was meant to be treasured or you’ll wish you’d never been born to your blackguard of a father.”
“We cannot change what is in our blood,” Gabe echoed the man’s earlier words. “Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not. I like to think I’m my own man. But if we are all some combination of those who came before us, you are forgetting about my mother, Beckbury. You’re not taking her into account at all, and she was the kindest, gentlest soul who lived. She loved those around her and took care of those in need. If you never met her, you missed a great lady.” He shook his head. “We both love Sophie and we both want nothing more than her happiness for the rest of her days. I swear to you, I will love and care for her until my last breath.”
“That’s all I ask.”
“I know you love Sophie,” Gabe said, because he’d always known that. Had he been in Beckbury’s spot, with a bastard pretender vying for his beloved daughter’s hand, he might very well have made the same decision. “She’s been terrified to see you, terrified that you’re angry with her. You should go see your daughter, Beckbury. Go see how happy she is. Go tell her all is well.”
“You’ll keep her safe?”
“Until my dying breath.”
“Thank you, Prideaux. I will hold you to that.” Beckbury pushed out of his chair. “Let’s go find our Sophie then, shall we?”
Gabe followed his father-in-law’s lead. When the man opened his door, Sophie stood right in the threshold, and she’d very clearly heard the entire conversation.
“Sophia!” Beckbury grumbled, clearly annoyed.
“Sorry, Papa. I had to make sure you weren’t going to kill him.” Then Sophie threw her arms around her father’s middle and held him tight. “And I love you too, Papa. You’re the best father in the whole world.”
Beckbury kissed the top of her head. “I just want for you to be happy, Sophie.”
“I will be,” she vowed. “Gabe makes me happy every single day.”