Escape: A Romantic Time Travel Mystery (The Shorten Chronicles Book 2) by Tate Rosalind

Author:Tate, Rosalind
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TOB Publishing
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

The following morning, Maud’s psychic powers, honed by years in the Lacey household, were audibly humming like a broken live wire. ‘You look chirpy, Miss,’ she said, as she brought Sophie tea and toast.

‘It’s a nice day.’ Sophie gestured at the French windows and a dull sky outside.

Maud smiled and added wood to the fire, which she’d lit an hour before.

She knew about Freddy. How could Maud possibly know? Impending proposals were delicate matters. Richard and Anne wouldn’t have breathed a word.

Stick Man. He’d seen them kissing. Sophie’s stomach lurched. Every living soul in Shorten would have been given chapter and verse. A few toddlers might not have received the full in-house briefing…

Anne would know.

Feign illness.

No, just delaying the inevitable.

Jack rested his head on Sophie’s lap, wanting reassurance, and Charlotte was in full doe-eyes mode. Good they did empathy but in a few hours they’d be an unhelpful distraction. ‘Maud, can you mind the dogs this afternoon?’

Maud folded some linen, didn’t glance up. ‘Yes, Miss.’

The servants were probably holding a sweepstake. Will the slut from another universe land the son and heir, or be cast into outer darkness?

Sophie skipped breakfast, hid in the gym doing a longer than usual workout, and avoided lunch. But horribly quickly it was time for tea.

Breathe. She could do this. Killed a psychopath, somehow coped with Hugo marrying Clarissa. And after the riot in London, Maud had said Sophie Arundel was as brave as a man. But to face Anne after shamelessly snogging Freddy, against all Anne’s advice, she’d need to be braver than the average Joe.

In the small drawing room, Miss Parry laid the table in a nanosecond and disappeared.

Anne poured the tea. Miss Parry usually did that.

‘Is everything under control?’ asked Anne.

Under control? She wouldn’t lie to Anne. Anyway, Anne had likely been told every detail. ‘Not under control.’

‘Hugo’s going to marry Clarissa and you’ll marry Freddy,’ said Anne. ‘You’ve been indiscreet, Sophie. This will blow over.’

‘It will?’

‘These things have a way of working out.’

Sophie stared at her lap. Anne had been happily married for thirty years, believed in happy endings, was a dang Happy Endings Role Model. An unexpected tinge of pride surfaced. Stop moping after Hugo, get with the programme. She raised her head.

‘You’re not the first visitor to be embarrassed like this,’ said Anne. ‘It’s funny, I thought I knew who you’d marry. I just had this feeling. But actually, it was Freddy all along.’

How honest should she be now? ‘I’m okay about getting married next year.’

Silence. And it stretched out and out.

‘Oh, dear.’ Anne’s face was white.

Was she about to faint? Sophie jumped up and hauled on the bellpull with unnecessary force.

Miss Parry brought a glass of water and scurried out.

‘You’re okay about marrying Freddy.’ Anne took a sip of water, then another one. ‘You’re in love with Hugo.’

Sophie swallowed. ‘He’s not in love with me.’

Colour had returned to Anne’s cheeks. ‘What do you feel for Freddy, honestly?’

Creepy, talking about him with his mother. ‘We were only friends until I rejected Rupert.

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