“Your wife? Are you ma…married, Your Grace” Sophia asked, shocked.

  “I was,” he answered quietly, “But no more. But go on, Sophia; please tell me more about your dreams.”

  “You do not know how happy that makes me feel! Oh this is wonderful! Who thought running into you would become the happiest moment of my life?!” she said before she threw her arms around him, embracing him, shocking both her and the Duke. He was taken aback by her unexpected embrace but he wrapped his arms around her, and hugged her back, reveling in the soft feel of her against him.

  “Mother and Father will have to take back their words after they know of this!” Sophia said, consumed by excitement.

  “Sophia, I am so glad you told me this about yourself and the fact that you did so honestly and with an open pure heart is truly admirable, but I too have something I need to tell you…” he said in a solemn tone now.

  “What is it?” Sophia asked, uneasy all of a sudden. This was too good to be true.

  “Well, about my wife - she died. It has been four years since her passing as I was married quite young, like most Dukes are required to. Her death was unexpected and with her loss, I was deeply struck with sadness. I did not believe in love again. Many suitable and beautiful women would want to marry me, offering themselves but I was never interested. My mother would have wanted nothing more than for me to be wed again and give her grandchildren, but as hard as I tried, I could not love anyone, but then you came along. The moment I laid eyes on you, I knew there was something special about you, something I could love. I knew I wanted to see you again but with no name or any way of finding you, I nearly lost all hope. Meeting you in the market again was my life taking its turn back into love and being happy. I knew I had to know you. I hope you are not uncomfortable with all that I have told you,” he said in a soft voice.

  “No, Your Grace. I am truly sorry for your loss, Your Grace. It could not have been easy. I can tell that you loved her deeply. It does not bother me that you had a wife, not at all. In fact, the way you talk about me already assures me that you will love me with all your heart, and that is all I ask,” she said, putting a loving hand on his to comfort him.

  “Thank you Sophia, you don’t know how much this means to me. I would have travelled around the world to get to you, but luckily fate had it such, that you were right here this whole time,” Duke Colborne said, placing a hand above hers.

  They exchanged loving glances when suddenly there was a creaking sound of the floorboard from just outside the drawing room.

  “Mary!” Sophia called out, knowing it was her.

  Mary came out from behind the wall she was hiding.

  “Were you spying on me Mary?” Sophia asked, embarrassed.

  “Maybe,” Mary said, cheekily.

  “Mary!” Sophia said, with a hint of anger.

  “Hello Mary,” Duke Colborne said, getting her in laughs.

  “Hello, Your Grace, it is nice to meet you. My sister is usually lovelier when she is not yelling at me, you would agree?” Mary asked, cleverly.

  “Your sister is lovely just the way she is!” Duke Colborne said, laughing at her antics.

  “Mary, please go!” Sophia instructed her with her eyes.

  “If you will excuse me, Your Grace, I must go before the monster in my sister awakens,” Mary said before running off.

  “I am sorry about that, Your Grace,” Sophia said, turning to the Duke.

  “That is quite alright. I do not have any siblings so it is nice to see the two of you,” he said, smiling.

  They spent the rest of the evening talking and discussing each other’s like and dislikes before he left. He left right before dinner, saying it was not polite of him to come by like this unannounced and stay for dinner and promised that he would come by the day Sophia would cook for him. Sophia had blushed profusely once again, and he had gone.

  He was the miracle that knocked on my door, she sighed as she closed the door. Sophia was already in love. She knew others would think her crazy, but her soul told her that what she felt for Duke Seth Colborne was more than a passing fancy.

  Chapter Nine

  Her parents, who had been patiently waiting to leave unlike her older sister, had already resumed their usual evening positions in the drawing room; her father on the nicely cushioned arm chair and her mother sitting, slightly leaning, on the settee.

  Sophia walked into the drawing room, her heart fluttering with a rush of beautiful emotions. Her father caught a glimpse of her and smiled. It had been too many days that the household had been gloomy; he too had noticed the immediate change.

  “Sophia, what did you two talk about?” her father asked, as she stepped into the drawing room.

  “About everything. We discussed about the future mostly,” she said to her father, who was eagerly listening.

  “Did you happen to mention your specific interests to him?” her father inquired.

  “I did and he fully supports it,” Sophia said humbly.

  “Are you certain?” her father asked, shocked.

  “Yes. Father, I wanted to say I am sorry for how things have been at the house lately, I never wanted anyone to get hurt, especially you and Mother. I have longed to become a physician like you; I wanted to pursue it and follow your footsteps. I’m sorry again. I just met His Grace by accident and then he showed up here,” Sophia explained, sincerely.

  “I know dear; I feel that we have been too harsh on you. I’m glad a man like him has come along, I welcome him with open arms, he is what your mother and I have wanted for you, we want you to be happy and I can see that you are. We bless this union my child; we both have made mistakes, let us move on from this all being happy,” her father said emotionally before he embraced Sophia tightly. Sophia hugged him back, fighting back tears.

  “Thank you, Father,” Sophia said, burying her face into his chest. Her mother smiled and hugged her too, kissing her on the top of her head.

  Now to Sophia, everything felt right with the world again.

  ----

  The next day, the Duke visited her again in the afternoon. They spent the day casually strolling outside, sitting and talking, sharing laughs and falling in love – at least Sophia was. She was unsure of how the Duke was feeling about her.

  Sophia loved that he supported her dreams, and she thanked God for bringing him into her life. As time went on by, they became closer and closer together. His Grace would spend time with Sophia at her house almost every day. When three months had passed, Sophia and the Duke were strolling in the desolate grounds where they had met and Sophia noticed that he was acting particularly odd.

  “Are you okay, Your Grace?” Sophia asked him after observing his odd demeanor.

  “Yes, yes I am, I was just thinking…” he said after snapping out of his thoughts.

  “Thinking about what?” Sophia asked him curiously.

  “As we have grown to know each other, I think it is time for us to think about our betrothal,” he said out loud, plainly.

  “Our betrothal?” Sophia asked, shocked yet filled with glee.

  “Yes. I love you Sophia and I want you to be my wife, and I do not want to wait any longer than we have to!” he declared.

  “Are you asking me to marry you?” she asked, smiling with delight.

  “Yes. Will you marry me Sophia?” he asked holding her hands in his.

  “Let me think about it,” Sophia said acting as though she was thinking it over.

  “Sophia?!” the Duke said, confused.

  “Yes! Yes! Of course I will! I love you,” Sophia said laughing.

  “Oh thank Lord!” he said, relieved that she had only been jesting with him.

  Sophia smiled at the man she had only imagined would walk into her life. He is perfect; who knew one walk here would change my life forever.

  Chapter Ten

  After the betrothal, the Duke invited Sophia to his estate to introduce her to his mother. Sophia had wondered about his mother but had never asked, thinking that it may be too impolite to, she felt that they did not get along very well as he did not mention her often.

  He picked her up in his coach late afternoon and took her to his estate. The grounds she arrived to were grand and the house was majestically built. The walls stood high with stone walls and footmen standing at the door ready to serve. Although the house was beautiful, Sophia felt a certain eeriness and uneasiness as the coach approached the front doors.

  The footman opened the coach door and the Duke got off, helping Sophia off after him. He led her inside, showing her around briefly. The inside was as beautiful as the outside; it was kept luxuriously decorated and meticulously clean.

  He seated her in the drawing room and a maid brought her a cup of tea. Shortly after, a short elderly woman, clothed in the finest of cloth and jewels came walking into the living room.

  “Hello, Mother. I am glad you found time out of your busy schedule to come and meet with us,” the Duke said arrogantly to his mother. Sophia sensed the bitterness but remained quiet.

  “Yes, as you did insist I visit, how could I say no? I, too, wanted to see who this woman was that has got you caught in this love spell. The woman you are always raving about,” his mother said, tauntingly.

  “This is Sophia Hatcher,” the Duke said, introducing Sophia and ignoring his mother’s taunt.

  “Hello, Your Grace,” Sophia said, curtseying slowly in front of the Duchess.

  “Hello, Sophia,” she replied, her eyes inspecting her top to bottom and her eyebrows flickering briefly up in disapproval of her.

  The Duke looked at Sophia, indicating to her with his eyes to ignore his mother’s rude response and so she did.

  “Mother, will you be joining us for dinner?” the Duke asked, even though he knew the answer already.

  “I am afraid I cannot. I am much too busy, but please go on without me and enjoy yourselves,” his mother replied dismissively, looking Sophia up and down with disapproval again.

  “Of course,” the Duke responded coldly.

  “I will speak with you later, Seth,” his mother said, before leaving.

  “I am sorry, Sophia. Now you know why I was trying to put off you meeting my mother. The truth is we do not get along well, there is an unsorted past between us and well, we have never reconciled. I can’t,” the Duke confessed after his mother had left.

  “That is alright. I understand, my mother and I were like that too, things are a little better now since my marriage has been sorted, but before that, every day, there would be tantrum and arguments. It was really exhausting to be honest,” Sophia told him.

  “Another thing we have in common then?” he said, trying to lift up the mood.

  “Yes, clearly,” Sophia said, smiling at him.

  The two of them had dinner later that evening. The long table was filled with more food than the both of them combined could eat.

  “Why would you get all this food prepared? It is way too much!” Sophia said while entering the dining room at dinner time.

  “I wanted it to be grand for you. I was not sure what you loved to have, so I had the house cook make you her every best dish,” the Duke said, pleased with his decision.

  “You really did not have to, but thank you,” Sophia said, as the Duke pulled out a chair for her to sit on at one end of the table. He then went around to the other end of the table and seated himself. The two of them enjoyed their dinner with delicious food and rich laughter. The dessert that Sophia had served to her exclusively was one of her favorites.

  After the evening was over, the Duke took her back home and they parted their ways to meet another day. By now, they would meet up almost every day, finding it hard to be without each other for more than one day.

  As Sophia changed her clothes to get dressed for bed, she felt a sudden sharp pain in her stomach. At first she ignored it, carrying on with her grooming before bed as per usual. There was another sharp pain, this time more painful than the last. The third time, she screamed in pain for help, before she knew it, her vision was becoming blurry and her sight darkened; she lay unconscious on the floor of her room.

  Mary had heard the scream the clearest and ran into Sophia’s room to see what was going on, she screamed louder than Sophia when she saw her sister lying pale-faced on the wooden floor. Her parents came in rushing through the door.

  “What!? What is happening, Mary?! What is all the screaming about?” asked her mother panicking when she came into Sophia’s room.

  The question did not need to be answered, for when she entered, her eyes directly fell on Sophia’s unconscious body. Sophia’s father came in behind them trying to see what all the noise was about and when he saw Sophia, he went straight to his room to get his medical utensils. He examined her body and breathing, assuring both Mary and her mother that Sophia was definitely alive.

  He took a few samples from her mouth, suspecting that she had been drugged and his suspicions became true when the tests confirmed it. He quickly made up an elixir to reverse the poison in her blood and the three of them lifted her unconscious body on to her bed, praying that she would open her eyes soon.

  “What happened to her? I know you know William! You would not have made an elixir had you not known! Tell me what it was! You can’t hide it from me! I have seen you practice since the very beginning!” Sophia’s mother asked her husband in worry and grief.

  “She was poisoned,” Sophia’s father said in low tone, unable to comprehend how it would have happened.

  “What?! How? Who would do such a thing?!” Sophia’s mother asked.

  Mary was trying not to cry; it would have only made her parents worry more.

  “I am not sure, when she will wake up we will try to find out how this happened,” Sophia’s father said.

  They desperately waited for Sophia to gain her consciousness, waiting for her at her bedside. After a few hours, Sophia opened her eyes and all of them took a sigh of relief.

  “What is going on? What happened? What are you all doing here?” Sophia asked in confusion when she opened her eyes.

  “Oh thank God, you are okay!” her mother embraced her tightly.

  “Yes, why? I feel…funny,” Sophia replied, still hazy.

  “Are you in any pain?” asked her father, examining her.

  “No not anymore. I do remember that I was in a lot of pain and then suddenly everything went black, the next thing I know, I wake up lying in my bed with all of you surrounding me,” Sophia said, recalling the events that had occurred before her unconsciousness.

  “Sophia, it is very important that you remember if you ate anything bad or foul,” her father inquired.

  “Why? What has that got to do with anything?” Sophia asked.

  “You had been poisoned,” her father said finally, trying to be careful as not to scare her.

  “Poisoned? That is ridiculous! How would I be poisoned?” asked Sophia, almost laughing at just the absurdity.

  “Not how, who. Who do you think would poison you? The poison in your blood was something not naturally found, it needed to be made chemically. Did you eat anything that felt as if it were strange or odd?” her father asked, investigating.

  “Now that I think about it, the dessert I had had a strange pungent smell and the taste was a little bit bitter, I liked it so much though that I had it all,” Sophia recalled from earlier in the evening.

  “It sounds like it was the dessert that was poisoned,” her father confirmed.

  Why would somebody want to poison me!? This does not make any sense. I will have to tell His Grace about this in the morning, something very odd is going on. Thank God I survived.

  “Do you feel better?” asked Mary, still fearful for her sister.

  “Yes I do, don’t worry Mary. I am okay now, just a little weary that is all,” Sophia said smiling at her worried sister.

  “I am so sorry I let you think that you made the wrong choice, seeing you unconscious there on the floor and not knowing what to do, I felt so helpless. If you want to be a physician I fully support you. If it was not for your father right now, Lord knows what would have happened!” Sophia’s mother said, hugging her again almost weeping.

  “It is alright, Mother. I know what you mean, I am okay,” Sophia said hugging her mother back.

  “You rest easy now, we will see you in the morning,” her mother said before she kissed her lovingly on the forehead and they all left the room to let her recover from the horrific incident.

  Sophia had a hard time sleeping but she eventually did, feeling the fatigue that had overcome her body all of a sudden. Why? Why me? Why would someone poison me? She suddenly thought about the Duke and his deceased wife. Would he be capable of such a thing? She realized she had never asked him how his wife had died as she did not want to upset him. But she now was fearing for her life. If it wasn’t the Duke, who would want to harm her?

  Chapter Eleven

  The next day, all Sophia could think of was the events of the night before, they kept replaying in her mind over and over. She had to speak with the Duke and so she waited for when he would arrive in the afternoon. He reached her house late afternoon, hoping to be welcomed by Sophia but instead Mary opened the door.

  “Hello Mary,” the Duke said smiling, as he entered through the front door.

  “Hello, Your Grace,” Mary replied, expressionless.

  “Where is Sophia?” he asked, looking around briefly to find her.

  “She is upstairs in her room; you can go up and see her. She has been waiting for you all morning,” Mary told him.

  “Is she unwell?” asked the Duke a little worried.

  “You can see her and speak to her yourself,” Mary said.

  Mary led him upstairs to Sophia’s door and knocked, announcing that the Duke was here. Sophia allowed him to enter while Mary stood outside of the open door, feeling protective and worried over Sophia.

  The Duke was shocked when he saw Sophia lying in her bed, still pale-faced.

  “Sophia?! What has happened? Are you unwell?” the Duke asked, panicking and going to her side.

 

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