Moonflower - B. Bridgerton

7

Thunderbird knows that Karan is going to kill her for this, but as soon as the guard shuts the door of her bedchamber behind her, she climbs out of the window. It's something she has dreamed of doing every single day of the five years in which she was imprisoned there, but only today does she find the encourage to face it's dangers and consequences.
Ayla is not the kind of child to disappear senseless. She would never scare her mother or Karan (to whom she refers as father in public situations).

That means that something terrible has probably happened to her daughter. Sofia can once again feel the tears building up in her eyes, but this time she tries to blink them away. She has to stay focused in order to find her baby - more importantly, she has to reach the ground safe and unharmed in order to do so. Sofia opens the window and quickly jumps on the roof of the veranda underneath it. She silenty thanks God that Karan did not give her a chamber in the second or third floor. From the first floor, it's only a jump of 2 meters.

Miraculously, she lands smoothly on the roof, still standing on both feet. Now comes the harder part of her plan, because Sofia has to hold on the roof while letting her legs dangle from it first. It is especially hard because of the dresses that woman have to wear in these times. Once she manages to hang there like fresh cleaned laundry on a clothesline, Sofia realizes that the ground is farer away than she thought.

„What are you doing there?" The guard has found her. Unfortunately Sofia is not in a position where she could fight him, so she just hangs here in shock, while he roughly grabs her on the waist and pulls her to the ground. A sudden pain in her ankle makes her exhale sharply from her nose; she must have overgrown it while trying to land smoothly.
The guard doesn't seem bothered though, he just grabs her arm and forces her to stand up, then he makes her walk back into the house, pushing her constantly.

„Stop it, you're hurting me", she screams, but he ignores her.

„James!" Karan's voice is silent, but cold as ice. The guard (apparently James) turns around, surprised to see his master come home this early. In his shock, the guard let's go of Sofia, who falls to the ground.
„My Lord, she was trying to escape and I-"
„Leave."
„Of course, my Lord."

„No, James. Leave the country. I will not tolerate you breathing in the same air like my wife. You can be happy that I spare your life and don't get you hanged here in my backyard to show everyone what happens to people who touch and hurt my family."
James looses all colour in his face. „But - My Lord! She was escaping!"
„Which would not have happened", Karan informs him, while walking to Sofia and picking her up, honeymoon-style, „if you did you job right. Now leave."

Karan doesn't wait for his guard to react but turns around to bring his wife into the carriage that is waiting for them.
„My ankle hurts", Sofia tells him shyly.
„Good. It will prevent you from running away."
He helps her sit down on the bench, her legs spread on it, so that her ankle can rest and than takes the place next to her. The carriage starts moving as soon as the door is closed behind them.

„Where are we going?", Sofia asks a few minutes later.
Karan looks out of the window, lost in thought, while slowly rubbing Sofia's hurt ankle. Thunderbird has accepted that he's not going to answer her at all, when he finally speaks: „We're going to get our daughter back."

——— meanwhile ————

No one felt hungry, but the Bridgerton's did continue their breakfast (mainly because Colin insisted on it and because Ayla seemed to be hungry as well). Afterwards, Hyacinth and Gregory were told to take the children out and take care of them. They were not happy about it,  but obliged. Ayla was torn between playing with her cousins and staying next to her father and Benedict really tried not to influence her decision, but he could not hide his happiness, when she decided to stay and cuddled in his arms.
That was exactly ten minutes ago and now she is sleeping like a rock.

„We should take her to one of the children's bed." Anthony Bridgerton doesn't even wait for his brother's answer and stands up to lift his niece, but Benedict shoots him a warning look that makes the eldest Bridgerton brother freeze in the middle of his movement.
It's the first time that his daughter is sleeping in his arms. Benedict is not going to let anyone take her away - heck, he is probably never going to let go of his daughter!

„She's absolutely gorgeous", Daphne whispers.
„She is", Benedict answers without taking his eyes from Ayla.
„What are we going to do now?", Anthony directly starts the conversation.
Everyone is waiting for Benedict to answer, but they're not even sure whether he heard them. Instead, Colin starts to talk: „We saved Ayla, now we have to go and save Sofia of course."

This time, Benedict reacts: „Don't ever dare mention her name again." His voice is so full of hate, that Daphne literally shivers. She has never seen her brother reacting in a such a hostile way.
„But", Kate starts, but Benedict, who is still stubbornly looking at his daughter, is interrupting her: „there's no but. Thunderbird made it very clear that she doesn't want to be part of this family and she took my daughter from me before I even got the chance to find out the gender. Plus, she has been perfectly hidden in the past five years and we will probably not find her anyway."

„Actually, that's not true."
Everyone - even Benedict this time - look at Daphne, who in the meantime is exchanging doubting looks with her husband. After a few seconds of wedded-couples-infamous-silent-discussions, Simon finally starts to talk: „I have to tell you something."
„Don't make a dramatic pause and start telling!", Violet who had been awkwardly still in the past few minutes, bursts out.
„Shht", Benedict warns her.

Everyone is staring at Simon again, who, visibly nervous, starts telling: „A few days ago I got an invitation - that's actually the reason why we came here spontaneously and this late in the night - because we had to tell you about it immediately. It is - was, I don't think that they would do the ball now that Ayla is here - well, it was an invitation to a ball.. from the Duke of Istanbul."

"You mean-"

"From Karan, yes", Daphne interrupts Anthony, "apparently he didn't remember Simon's connection to the Bridgertons, but I immediatly recognized his name. As you can imagine, I almost had a heart attack, hence we all thought that the Duke of Istanbul had died alongside the farmer's boy in the river five years ago."

"This made us wonder wether he might know that Sofia is no longer with us. Why else should he be living in Scotland without even trying to reach out to her here in London even once in five years", Simon continues. He is obviously not happy that his wife interruoted him, "I asked my butler to find out as many background information as soon as possible. Yesterday, he came back from Scotland and told me that the Duke was living with his wife and daughter in Scotland. They have been there for a little longer than five years, but this was supposed to be his very first ball. Apparently, the Duchess is not at her best health. Someone told my butler that she didn't leave the house for the past five years, because she was hallucinating and telling people that the Duke abducted her and that he is not her real husband."

"We came as soon as possible to make a plan with you", Daphne once again takes over, "so that we could go and safe Sofia and the daughter - well, the daughter is already here."

"Like I already told Kate a few minutes ago: There won't be a rescue plan."

"Benedict!", Violet gasps.

"I talked to Ayla on our way here and she told me that her mother was abducted by Karan. She doesn't seem to hate him though", Colin adds, hesistantly, "it seems like he treated her well."

"Well, in that case, Thunderbird will be more than happy to stay there, I guess." Benedict suddenly stands up, his movements are fast but still gentle enough to ensure that his daughter is not going to wake up.

"Benedict", Colin states, trying really hard to not loose his temper, "he treated Ayla well. Sofia is being held there without her own will. She tried to escape there many times. but couldn't find a way to return to us safely."

"There is only one thing that matters", Bendict claims, while trying to open the door with his daughter in his arms, "They either already have or soon will find out that Ayla is with us and try to take her. I will not let anyone get my daughter. I won't spend another second without her. If you really want to create a plan, then help me prevent that happening. In the meantime, I will go home and take a nap with my daughter."

"You can stay right here, brother", Anthony firmly states, "I already know how we are going to save Ayla fromt he Duke."