telling her? She had always hated it when her father was alive and he had kept things from her. She’d always vowed it would not happen to her again. She didn’t need protecting from anything, particularly not his family. ‘There are timetables and schedules. People send letters. The post takes a matter of hours.’
‘My father is remarkably old-fashioned about such things, as you will discover. This is possibly the first time he has ever taken a train.’ He covered her hand with his, but she withdrew it. ‘In the past he called trains the devil’s creation and stoutly refused to consider boarding one.’
The back of Sophie’s neck prickled. Old-fashioned. Was he also old-fashioned about the sort of woman he wanted his son to marry? She wanted to be a credit to Richard, not drive a wedge between him and his father. ‘You know your father best.’
‘You must believe me, Sophie.’ He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. His face bore a pleading expression. ‘I truly didn’t expect him to arrive today. There have been times in my life that he has promised to arrive, but some crisis with his pigs has prevented him. I have given up expecting him to do things because I want him to be there. And I did want to marry you as soon as possible, rather than waiting for my father who might not appear. My aunts always came to Montem Day at Eton with a picnic for my cousins, but my father never managed, despite saying he would. Do you know how hard it is to wait for someone to appear and then for them not to show up because their prized sow has given birth to piglets?’
Sophie’s heart bled for the younger Richard who had wanted his father and had been overlooked for a load of pigs. Her father might have been busy, but he’d always been there when she had needed him. She couldn’t imagine the pain and humiliation Richard must have felt.
‘I didn’t know. My father always made time for me … after my mother died.’
‘My father has said on numerous occasions that he will never go to Newcastle. You heard my aunt at your stepmother’s At Home. I refused to wait any longer for you in my bed and in my life.’ He raised her hand to his lips. ‘I refused to give you an opportunity for delay and you wanted this marriage to happen quickly as well. You agreed to it.’
‘I suppose.’
‘I’m selfish, Sophie.’ He put his hand to his heart. ‘One of my worst faults. I admit it, but can you blame me? You are too great a prize to risk.’
Sophie gripped her flowers tighter. She had spent her entire life trying to be genteel and refined, and Richard’s family didn’t think she was. Any more than Sebastian had or indeed some of the truly refined girls at school. ‘But you were going to tell me about your aunt’s verdict.’
‘Any report my aunt made to my father matters not a jot to me. I told her so at the At Home.’ He gave a heart-melting smile which sent a shot of warmth coursing through her. Sophie struggled to ignore it.
His aunt’s verdict might not have mattered to him then, back when the engagement was false, but would it matter one day? His aunt’s report had mattered to his father.
‘I have the wedding trip all planned,’ Richard said, seemingly oblivious to her concerns. ‘We are going to Hamburg and then we will travel to the Alps. For you and your dreams, I will travel on the sea. You would not believe how efficient shipping agents can be when you explain it is for a wedding trip and are willing to pay. It is where you said you always wanted to go. I shall pose for you in an Alpine meadow. You can paint and then we shall see where it leads.’
Sophie’s heart did a little leap. He did remember the dream she had abandoned after the Sebastian incident. It was more than the painting. She bit her lip, torn between her desire to see the Alps and the knowledge that her father-in-law had indeed travelled all the way up from Hampshire to Newcastle. And if Richard was to be believed, taking a train for the first time in order to meet her and see if his aunt’s judgement was correct.
She drew a shuddering breath and felt stronger. There was little point in crying over what might have been. ‘We may have to postpone the wedding trip. Your father is here now. It seems churlish to leave. Can you work up your courage again to brave the sea? I promise to hold your hand all the way.’
‘You have a very sweet nature, Lady Bingfield.’ He raised her hand to his lips. ‘Very sweet indeed. My father was a foul-tempered brute today, but he is my father. He can be very charming when he makes the effort. It will mean a lot to him if we stay.’
‘We can go later in the year. It will be all the more pleasant.’ Silently Sophie resolved to win Lord Hallington over. She would prove to him that she was a worthy daughter-in-law, rather than the sort of woman he thought her to be.
‘You are sitting far, far too far away from me, Lady Bingfield.’
Sophie sat up straighter and concentrated on her nosegay. If she allowed it, he would change the subject and she might never learn anything more about him. It was important that she know. The true extent of her ignorance frightened her and the knot of misery seemed to be growing larger.
‘Was it true what your father said about you marrying someone else?’ she asked around the hard lump in her throat.
‘I hardly intend to spend my wedding day discussing other people, but I made my vow never to be the knowing instrument of Putney after I learnt of Mary’s tragic death in an accident.’ He made a cutting motion with his hand. ‘I was young and had been just sent down. Mary’s family decided not to wait and married her off before I had a chance to return. Mary had been resisting the match before. He was a friend of Putney’s. Mary decided to escape the marriage and died in a canal-boat accident. Her sister said that she was on her way to me. How much of that was true I didn’t know. I resolved never again to knowingly let that happen.’
‘I’m sorry.’ Sophie closed her eyes. His insistence that his first proposal was a real one now made sense.
‘Whether or not I’d have married her is pure speculation. It didn’t happen. I can truly say that of all the women I have met, you are the only one who has tempted me to put my head in the parson’s noose.’
‘My friend Henri lost her first husband shortly after they married. For years she refused to even look at another man.’
‘The state of my heart had nothing to do with my reasons for not marrying.’ Richard’s features appeared carved out of stone. ‘I have seen the problems firsthand when your heart rules your head. I had not met anyone I wanted to marry until I met you. All of the women I became involved with did not tempt me, Sophie. Several of them tried.’
Sophie looked at her nosegay where the tiny pink roses stared up at her in mute rebuke. He had not claimed any finer feeling. She had simply assumed. She had wanted to marry a friend for love and she’d married a stranger for desire. And the stranger was highly experienced, whereas she had no experience in these matters.
‘Your father didn’t approve of me. It is why he came up.’ Sophie tightened her grip on the nosegay and hoped he’d understand and give her some measure of reassurance. ‘Your father seemed so angry at the wedding. I have never seen anyone go red like that before.’
‘Once he gets to know you properly, he will approve wholeheartedly. Trust me on this. I know my father and what he wants for me. You are precisely what I require in a wife and that is what is important.’ He leant over and kissed her forehead.
Sophie tried to hang on to his words and use them to quieten the hard knot in her stomach. What he required in a wife. They were not precisely
