Remember Then

XXIV. A New Home

"Miss Sophia!" Ysabella gasped in disbelief when she found her voice.

Sophia remained unmoving and silent in her chair and Nicholas had to give her due credit for it.

If it were simply Ysabella, Nicholas might not have immense difficulty explaining Sophia's presence in his estate, but since Emma was with her, Nicholas was quite certain he was doomed.

Their youngest sister stepped further into the room, her curious gaze traveling with unnerving thoroughness between him and Sophia before it anchored on him with renewed knowing and at that moment Nicholas was certain he was truly doomed.

His sister's unrelenting stare told him he ought to speak first before she did.

"Miss Sophia is here for a short visit," was all he could come up with.

Ysabella was still gawking at him while Emma reached for Nicholas' hand, saying, "Please excuse us for a moment, Miss Sophia," to Sophia and pulled Nicholas toward the door.

Nicholas groaned, his mind already reeling to the potential events that might occur should his sisters find their way back to their mother in Wickhurst very much later.

Ysabella followed them outside the parlor and when the door closed behind them, it was Ysabella who spoke first.

"You have taken a mistress and it is Miss Sophia, our friend!"

Emma simply crossed her arms over her chest, one brow cocked high, waiting for him to speak.

Nicholas gaped at Ysabella incredulously. "You merely had one garden chat and you consider her a friend?"

Ysabella blinked. "Well, yes!"

He shook his head. "No wonder you were easily betrayed by one," he could not help but add.

Ysabella stiffened and huffed. "If you must know, I no longer harbor hard feelings for Aurora. She did what she did for a reason and I have chosen to forgive her, whatever that reason might be. What she did to me did not change how I consider my friends."

"Perhaps what she did must have given you a lesson to be more careful," he insisted.

"And perhaps it is best that you do not divert the topic, Nick," Emma interrupted, her hawkish eyes surveying him with knowing. "What is Miss Sophia doing in your estate?"

"She came here for a short visit. The reason for it is none of your concern, if I must add," he snapped.

"Alone?" Emma inquired.

"Yes, she came alone."

"Truly?" Emma said, eyes narrowing into slits that Nicholas had trouble keeping a straight face. Nicholas felt he was standing before Maxwell himself the way Emma was assuming such all-knowing mien.

"Yes," he snapped again.

"I am not certain if you are aware, Nick," Emma said, cocking her head to the right in a mocking curiosity, "but Miss Sophia is blind."

"She is what?" Ysabella cried in surprise while Nicholas simply stood there, stunned, as if he was facing the Lord himself. How the bloody hell had Emma figured it out?

"I realized it in Theobald," Emma explained to Ysabella, eyes still on Nicholas.

"But—but she is—" Ysabella started but could not finish, still in awe.

"Now, how could she have come here all alone at her condition?" asked Emma.

"She has a driver and a carriage, Emma," Nicholas provided, trying to sound nonchalant.