Behind the Courtesan - By Bronwyn Stuart Page 0,77
there. She had to get back to London and her life and leave Blake and the village of her nightmares far, far behind.
* * *
“I should go and see if Sophie is all right,” Daemon wheezed. One hand held a steak against his eye while the other dabbed at a cut on his lip with a handkerchief.
“She’ll be fine. She doesn’t need us to fuss. When she calms, she’ll return, pack her things and be off.”
“You wouldn’t let her leave just like that, would you?” This question came from Matthew who’d arrived at precisely the right moment to break up his fight with Daemon. Blake had anger on his side, but his brother was a renowned fighter. There was never any doubt who the victor would be.
Besides, Blake rather thought it about time he received a pummeling from one of the two men in the room. It was a surprise that Matthew hadn’t placed a few kicks of his own after discovering the source of their rage was his very own sister. Like it could have been anyone or anything else.
“She doesn’t need to be here,” Blake sighed. “She’ll take one look at that babe and tear back to London anyway.”
Matthew stood and glared. “You don’t know that. And I need her here. Violet needs her here. Her father hasn’t given a damn about her in years and her brother is busy with his own land. There are no other females in our lives, and my wife is convinced she will birth a girl. She will need her aunt.”
“But will she need a frightened courtesan?”
It was Daemon who jumped to her defense once again. “Sophia is so much more than that. Why can’t you see her for who she is?”
Blake stared long and hard at his brother before shaking his head. “She doesn’t even know who she is. What can she have to offer our village? She can’t return as the girl she was when she left. Too much has happened.”
Matthew snorted and sat back down on the smooth floor timbers. “I wouldn’t expect her to return the girl she was. She is a woman now, as well you know. The rest of the village seems to have forgiven her life choices. Why can’t you?”
“She’s just so damned stubborn and proud. What happened to her humility? Her gentleness and laughter? When I look at her, I don’t see any of that.”
“You see what you want to see,” Daemon said from the foot of the bed. “When you look at her, you see a prostitute, a coward and a betrayer, but when I look at her, I see a beautiful woman. A woman, who, in the face of all the odds, is still alive and happy for the fact. Do you know what happens to girls when they arrive in London alone and terrified?”
Blake shook his head. He had a fair idea, but he hadn’t witnessed any of it firsthand.
“Well, most don’t even make it. The ones that do are vulnerable and naive and can be taken in by a kind word or plate of food. Greedy people take advantage of their desperation. Sophia is lucky she happened across good people, otherwise you may well have never heard from her again.”
“Lucky? She should never have left in the first place!” Blake clenched his fists, the broken skin there already dried, stretched and uncomfortable over his knuckles. “She would have had a good life here.”
“As Blakiston’s child bride? You must have rocks in your head.”
“Matthew, is it true? Did your father truly think to trade Sophie for land?”
Matthew sighed and nodded.
Every muscle in his body tensed when the color drained from Daemon’s face at the same time his brother gave his head a shake in Matthew’s direction.
“You knew about it?”
Matthew inhaled, exhaled, twisted his fingers in the same way Sophie did when nervous. “First, believe me when I say I had no idea about any of it before she left. I only discovered it all from our father on his death bed. Sophie doesn’t even know how much I know.”
“Get on with it,” Blake ground out.
“I don’t know all the details, only those muttered by Father in his last moments. He asked for forgiveness, but then he also asked for the land he thought he was still entitled to.”
“I know she was to be sold to Blakiston, I know she was terrified and thought we wouldn’t be able to help her so she left. What more is there?” said Blake.