The Firstborn

Chapter Seventeen

Sophia stayed at Denton Castle for another ten days after David's departure. Lord Haughton had taken his leave as well, returning to London only a day after seeing his younger brother off the estate. Of course, Bess had brought out all of her best arguments for the occasion, declaring that they could send for all of Sophia's things and have them brought out to Derbyshire without her having to experience the inconvenience of traveling halfway across the country and back again. But Sophia was adamant. She would return to Stantreath. She was not yet ready to give up the independence of living alone, though a niggling voice in the back of her mind reminded her that everything about her existence—and George's—would be more free and easy once they had settled themselves at Denton Castle and she agreed to allow Haughton to help with the cost of George's upbringing.

Sophia stretched her legs out in front of her as best she could, the toes of her slippers peeking out from beneath the hem of her gown as she tried to shift into a more comfortable position. Beside her, George slipped in and out of a fussy, restless sleep. Sophia knew another tooth was about to make an appearance in his mouth, and so she had been a companion to his drooling and his cries for the entire journey back to Northumberland.

He fussed again as he shifted, his legs tucked beneath him as his lips searched for his fingers in his sleep. She reached out and placed a gentle hand on his back, the quick thrum of his heartbeat sounding out its tattoo under her fingers.

Her George. But not her George, not really. And yet here she was, making the decision to remove him from Stantreath, to take him more than one hundred miles inland, and all with the hope that Haughton's name and resources would allow him to grow up without the stigma of "bastard" laying a shadow across his future life.

She would make no secret of her departure. In a town as small as Stantreath, it would be near impossible for her to abscond to another part of the country without nearly every inhabitant of the town discovering it before she'd completed her first leg of the journey. Even now, she knew the gossips were most likely already masticating over the gristle she'd thrown to them by accepting Haughton's initial invitation and leaving her cottage for several weeks. Only Lady Rutledge had been privy to her whereabouts, but Sophia did not doubt that the truth of George's parentage would one day become the most popular topic over Mrs. Fenton's teapot.

George let out another soft cry as the carriage struck a particularly deep rut that marked their return to the outskirts of Stantreath. Sophia picked him up and cradled him against her chest, despite his efforts to squirm and escape from her embrace. The sight of Lady Rutledge's carriage trundling through the town would catch everyone's attention, she was certain. And then to see it make the turn towards her cottage...

A cloud passed in front of the sun as soon as the door was flung open and the step lowered down. A gloved hand appeared in the narrow doorway, one of Haughton's men ready to help her out of the carriage. Both Bess and Haughton had insisted on the additional help to Lady Rutledge's servants during her journey, and she knew she would have to pen a note of thnaks to them for their generosity.

She held tight to George as she maneuvered down without stumbling or tripping over the hem of her dress, and as she walked up the path to the house, a flurry of activity began behind her as her belongings were removed from the carriage with an astonishing amount of efficiency. The weeds and the grass beyond the step, she noticed, had flourished in her absence and were in desperate need of a trim. As she fumbled in her reticule for the key with which to let herself inside, the door she was about to unlock swung open on creaking hinges, and a young woman, her fair hair in ringlets, her gown of yellow muslin far too sophisticated for its backdrop of an old cottage with a step in need of repair.

"Oh, Soph! How good it is to see you at last!"

Lucy skipped down to the path, her golden beauty only enhanced as she stepped out of the shadow of the house and into the sunlight. Sophia remained where she was, her mouth working over a response that wouldn't materialize before her younger sister wrapped her arms around her in a tight embrace.