Betraying the Duke, page 5
“I am recovering now, feeling much better than last night,” Sophia said, feeling better that she had seen him now.
“Last night? What happened last night?” asked the Duke, trying to fit the pieces together.
“After I came home, I felt sharp pains in my stomach and before I knew, I was lying unconscious on my bedroom floor. My parents rushed in and my father gave me an elixir that thankfully worked. He says that I was poisoned but I do not believe it,” Sophia told him in detail.
“Pains…” the Duke said, not very shocked.
“Yes, but think about it. How would I be poisoned! That is foolishness! The last food I ate was with you and you do not appear to be ailing,” Sophia said lightly laughing but still not sure if the Duke had been involved in the incident.
“Sophia, I am so sorry…” he said, feeling uncomfortable.
“Sorry? Sorry about what?” asked Sophia, baffled by his apology.
“I need to tell you something. I did not tell you the entire truth that first time I visited you,” he said, confessing.
“The entire truth about what?” Sophia asked.
“My wife did not die of an illness, that is what the rumors said and that is what they made everyone believe. In truth, she was murdered. I always suspected it but I could not tell anyone as everyone whom I did speak with tried to make me believe it was not so. They took me for a sad and lonely man who was grieving his wife and so had gone insane, but I knew; I knew she was murdered and I knew who had done it. She too was poisoned, she had the same pains that you did, she was pale-faced like you are and her last few minutes were just the way you described them. I watched her fall to the floor in front of me, not knowing what to do,” the Duke said sadly.
“Your Grace? I do not believe that could be true? She was murdered? Who would do that?! It could have been me?! I could have died!” Sophia said, starting to panic.
“I now can confirm that it is my mother behind both of these incidents. She did not approve of me marrying for love and my first wife was someone I had chosen myself, she wasn’t a noble and my mother despised her. I married her regardless, without inviting my mother to the ceremony and out of spite, she and my ex-lover plotted against my wife. They killed her together. I tried to look for my ex-lover, Louise, but she had packed up her things and left by the morning when I went to visit her place. I am so sorry this happened with you Sophia, had I known it would have caused you so much danger, I would never have brought you even close to such a predicament,” the Duke said, apologetically.
“I know you would not, please do not be so hard on yourself. I cannot believe what you are telling me. Your mother is a cruel woman and a criminal, she needs to be sent to prison for what she has done!” Sophia said boldly.
“Yes, I have thought about that many times over the years since my wife died but I do not know if I could live with myself if my own mother went to prison. I suppose my father would be very distraught with me, watching down on me. I do not know how I could even prove such a thing. The last time I was made a fool of, I was made to feel insane for thinking that she was murdered in the protected and safe house of a Duke and again she will get away with it,” he said, getting angrier now.
“I have a plan, but you will have to follow it accordingly for it to play out well and we will need the help of my father,” Sophia said, explaining it to him.
Tomorrow, justice will be served. Tomorrow, I will make sure that woman is caught and that she is punished for not only what she did to me, but also for what she did to his late wife and to her own son. Did she not see that he loved his wife or that he loves me? How could a mother knowingly do that to her own child? Hurt them in their most vulnerable parts. It is inhumane and I cannot allow her to get away with this. She cannot get away with such sinister and heinous crimes! Killing women because of what? Because she does not approve of them? I will bring out the truth; I have to.
Chapter Twelve
The next day, everything was set out and planned. Sophia had made sure to make such a plan that would be hard to fail, even for a woman as clever as the Duke’s mother. All that needed to be done was that it had to go into play and that too, perfectly.
In the afternoon before the sun set for the day, Sophia and the Duke arrived at his estate to carry out the plan that Sophia had come up with; it was important that they were there just in time for dinner. They managed to reach there at a perfect time, making sure that the Duchess would be there. Both of them seated themselves in the drawing room at first, just as they did the day before, acting as though nothing had happened before, when the Duchess came in to the drawing room. She was instantly surprised to see Sophia; she had not been expecting to see her again, that was evident.
“Mother, are you okay? You seem like you saw a ghost,” the Duke asked after his mother was surprised by Sophia’s presence.
“Um, yes… no, nothing. It is… It is nice to see you again, Sophia,” his mother said, eyeing her suspiciously and with a hint of disgust.
Sophia did not say anything; she smiled politely at her and she left the room immediately in a rush.
“You think she caught on to something?” asked the Duke.
“No I do not think so, if this all goes well, we will be able to catch her red-handed,” Sophia said, proud of the plan she had come up with.
It was time for dinner and they were seated as the day before, trying to replicate the events just the same. Sophia made sure not to actually eat anything and acted as though she was thoroughly enjoying her food, while secretly spitting it out into a napkin. Oddly enough, when dessert was to be served, a footman came in with the same dessert as the day before, nicely placed on a platter.
He placed the plate before her and said, “The Duchess wanted this especially sent for you when I had told the cook that you had complimented it, please enjoy,”
Sophia stared at her plate, it looked exactly the same and she could immediately smell the pungency of the poison. She carefully scooped some of it into a napkin she had brought along with her and hid it.
After dinner, just as Sophia was leaving, the Duchess came to speak with her.
“I hope you enjoyed dinner,” she said, smiling smugly at her.
“I did, thank you, Your Grace,” Sophia answered her, plainly.
“I look forward to seeing you again,” the Duchess responded.
Sophia smiled at her politely and proceeded to leave, the Duke coming along with her.
Upon reaching home, Sophia handed the napkin that she had carefully carried with her to her father. He immediately took it and began doing some tests on it. Sophia and the Duke waited anxiously for Sophia’s father to confirm the presence of the poison or not.
“It is there,” her father said, after waiting a while.
“You are sure?” Sophia asked.
“Yes, it is poisoned,” her father confirmed for her again.
“I was hoping that it was not so, but in my heart I knew, I knew,” the Duke said frustrated.
Without a moment to lose, the Duke took the physician’s results and the sample straight to the magistrate. The magistrate and his men went straight to the estate of the Duchess, planning to take her to prison. When they and the Duke arrived there, the Duke noticed that one coach was missing. The footman informed him that the Duchess had just left; she had said that there was some important work she needed to attend to, but knowing his mother, the Duke knew that she had caught on and had already left.
“She is gone, Sophia,” he said to her, when he came back to the coach after speaking with the footman.
“Where has she gone?” Sophia asked, hoping they could still catch her.
“I do not know; we were so close. I am sorry I could not do my best for you Sophia,” he said.
“It is alright, it is okay. I know you did your best, maybe this is better, at least she is gone from our lives and she will no longer harm you nor me,” Sophia said, embracing the Duke. I hope we never see her again and that wherever she is, she suffers a slow and miserable death for trying to steal the one thing so sacred; love.
Chapter Thirteen
It had been weeks since the occurrence of the poisoning and Sophia and the Duke had moved on. Sophia had recovered to her full health, eliminating all the poison from her body with elixirs her father made for her and gave her to drink at specific times of the day. The Duke had started to prepare arrangements for their wedding and sold the estate where his mother and he had lived, so as to rid himself of the haunted memories and so that his mother would never be able to find her way home again. At first, the Duke had trouble adjusting and trying to live with the fact that his worst enemy had turned out to be his mother.
Sophia and the Duke managed to organize everything for a wedding in a short period of time and wed at the local chapel, with their close friends and family attending the event. The Duke had purchased a large estate close to where Sophia’s house was and after they were wed, they moved to their new home, living there happy and quite content.
Everything was going well, when there was an unexpected knock on the door a few weeks after their wedding.
The Duke opened the door and was shocked to see the woman at the door.
“What are you doing here?!” he asked angrily.
“I am here to confess of it all, I need to confess what I have done,” the woman replied.
“What is it that you want?” the Duke asked his previous lover, Louise.
“Seth, you were right, it was your mother and I who had plotted against you and I feel terrible every day for the crime that we committed. I was driven by jealousy; I did not want you to be with anyone but me. Your Mother added fuel to the fire and before I could realize what had happened it was too late,” Louise said in tears.
“I do not care for you Louise. What you have done is none of my concern, just tell me where my mother is,” the Duke demanded of her.
“She is no longer here,” Louise said to him.
“I know that, where is she is what I am asking you of,” he asked her again.
“Seth, she…she is dead,” Louise replied.
“Dead? I do not believe you. Is this another one of your ploys, Louise?” he asked, not expecting the answer.
“Yes. She came to me after she ran from here knowing that the woman you are with, Sophia, had taken some of the poisoned food back with her. I live right on the outskirts of here, in a small cottage on my own. She came to me to hide but I did not offer her my place. After she left, I heard noises from the woods nearby and when I went to see, I found her lifeless. She had been robbed of her jewels and there was nothing and no one near her. The thieves stole from her and killed her,” Louise told him.
The Duke stood motionless, color draining from his face, trying to take the news in.
“What do you want from me now Louise? Have you not taken enough?” he asked her angrily. Sophia came to the door after hearing the argument.
“Nothing. I am leaving, I just thought you would want to know about your mother, you will never see me again,” Louise said as she turned around and left.
“Who was that?” Sophia asked approaching the door.
“It was Louise,” the Duke said, closing the door.
“Louise?! What was she doing here? Did she not vanish?” Sophia asked, shocked.
“She came to tell me about my mother,” he said.
“Your mother? What about her?” Sophia asked, having not heard about her since.
“She is dead,” he told her.
“Dead? How do you know?” Sophia asked her husband.
“Louise told me, she knew of our plans and ran to save herself. She had nowhere to go where I would not find her and so she went to Louise. She denied my mother any help after her wrongful ways before. When my mother left after being declined, Louise heard noises from the woods and when she went to see what had happened, she found my mother. The thieves had robbed her and killed her,” he said.
“I do not know what to say, I am sorry, it must still be hurtful to hear that about your mother,” Sophia said holding on to his arm.
“Yes it is. I just wish we had gone back to the times where things were simpler; when I was younger, I could have sworn my mother was a different person, all grown up I feel that I can’t even recognize her,” he said, not knowing what to feel after hearing the news about his mother and seeing a face that he never wanted to see again.
“You will get through this, I am with you here. We will have a private little funeral for her, it is the least that she deserves, and you can put her to rest forever. You will have done your part as a son and as an honorable man,” Sophia suggested.
They took an ornament that the Duchess had gifted to the Duke and buried it in the graveyard, paying their due respects. Sophia did this out of the love for her husband, knowing what he was going through was nowhere close to being easy.
A few months later, Sophia applied for medical school and she was enrolled immediately. She began schooling and soon was expecting their first child. She balanced both her motherhood and her profession all with the help of her loving husband, proving her family wrong of how she couldn’t do both.
How much she had prayed for a better life but no one goes through it with ease. Sophia had learnt this by falling in love with the Duke, but everything had turned for the better. Being almost close to death, she was able to relate to patients better and was making a name for herself as well-known as that of her father’s. She lived a happy life, with love and what she loved back.
The End
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More Regency Romance
The Duke's Deception
The Duke's Indiscretion
The Duke's Deadly Secret
The Duke's Dark Desire
The Disappearing Duke
The Duke's Redemption
The Duke's Unveiling
The Duke's Destiny
The Duke’s Temptation
Captivating the Duke
Sophia Wilson, Betraying the Duke
