Read The Heart That Wins (Regency Spies Book 3) for Free Online Page B

sad.
    “Did you try to make her happy?” asked Franz.
    “She wasn’t that kind of sad,” replied the boy.
    “Then we must let her know that she is safe with us,” said Sophia, taking one of his small hands in hers and squeezing it.
    “I think that would be best.”
    As the carriage moved off, Sophia glanced out of the window, unsure of what she was feeling. Disappointed that John had not said he would miss her when she had offered to stay in Paris, she had, nonetheless, tried to persuade Edmund to let her stay again. It was only when he had pointed out that John would dutifully stay to protect her that she gave up; her sole purpose was to keep John safe, not to put his life in danger. This morning she had found herself looking out for him in the hope that he would come to see them off. Reason told her he was busy; love told her he had no interest in her.
    The journey was not dull. Franz and Freddie started to teach her German, naming things they could see outside and within the carriage. Of the two, Freddie was the better teacher, for Franz became impatient, while the boy explained why her errors were errors.
    When they stopped to eat, Freddie occupied himself with Claire and now Sophia saw that the little girl bore the signs of having been beaten recently. She mentioned this to Edmund, thinking it odd that he had employed someone who could beat his own child so badly.
    “She’s not his daughter,” said Edmund, “and he doesn’t beat her. She’s coming with us so that she won’t be beaten again.”
    He would give her no more information, so Sophia tried to put the little girl out of her mind and went into the inn to eat.
    They did not travel as fast as they had hoped, but they still arrived in Brussels too soon for Sophia and took up residence in the house that Edmund had had the foresight to rent some time ago. When the army officers started to arrive, there would be little accommodation left for them, for Brussels was a popular place with Britons fleeing their creditors and would soon fill with refugees from Paris.
    Brussels was much smaller than Sophia had expected. They arrived on a cold, wet and blustery day and she gained no real impression of it except its size as they passed through.
    The house Edmund had taken was large and ostentatious. Edmund had never flaunted his wealth, although he did like his family and friends to be comfortable. Now it seemed he wanted to draw attention to himself, for the house was far larger than it needed to be.
    It was large enough to allow Sophia her own sitting-room. Mary told her once how much she had loved her sitting-room in Edmund’s house in London when she had been Freddie’s governess, for it gave her the ability to be private, which she had never had before. Sophia doubted she would use her own that much, but appreciated their thoughtfulness in providing it. 
    She had never really needed the means to be private, since Edmund and Mary were quite capable of finding their own privacy and leaving her to her own means. There was no doubt in her mind that Edmund had done the right thing for all of them in rejecting her and marrying Mary. Seeing them so happy together did not give rise to any feelings of jealousy; it simply made her more aware of the empty place in her life that John used to fill. She had only truly appreciated what she had had with him after she had thrown it away.
    Sophia knew now that John was neither married nor engaged. He had shown no particular interest in any woman in Paris and Edmund had told her that he had a reputation for hard work and successful negotiations. That had been his explanation for John’s absence the morning they had left Paris.
    It had not escaped her notice that John had spent most of the evening he had dined with them looking at her. He had said little, but there had been many times in the past when there had been no need for speech between them. She had never been uncomfortable, but that evening she had wanted him to