No one in the ton knew that his mother ran the most fashionable brothel in Mayfair. Everyone believed she’d died years ago, which was what his father had told the world. If it ever came out, Anthony and his family would be disgraced. He stared at her until she opened her eyes and almost gasped at the fury on his face.
“Very well, then,” he said.
But one thing bothered her about her brother’s interference in her life. “Anthony, how did you find out?”
“It appears you forgot something in his bed.”
Thinking back to that night, she remembered getting out of the tub and drying off. She was completely naked under the coverlet. “I do not think that is possible.”
“An earring, perhaps? One that I bought for your birthday last year.”
She covered her mouth. When she’d arrived back at the rooms she and her mother had leased, she removed one earring but assumed she must have lost the other in the canal. It never occurred to her that it might have fallen out in his bed.
“He has my earring,” she mumbled.
“Yes.”
Sophie bit down on her lip, wondering what to do. She loved those earrings, not because they were diamonds, but because her brother had given them to her. And now Nicholas had one. How could one night have caused so many problems?
“I heard your aunt decided to stay in Italy. Is that correct?”
Sophie closed her eyes against the sudden stab of pain. For several years, her mother had been acting as her aunt and chaperone when it suited her. “Mother decided a certain Italian count was too sweet to resist. She stayed behind to become his mistress. So I am without a chaperone for the moment.”
Anthony muttered a curse. “Would you like me to hire a companion for you? Someone who can help keep your reputation safe.”
“No. It’s not the first time she has left. She will come running back home in a month or two when the count tires of her. And for now, I would prefer to be alone.” She hated being alone but preferred the silent house to having a stranger with her.
“Very well. But I want you to hire a few additional footmen. I want at least two at the front door besides Hendricks. He is far too old for keeping out a determined man.”
She knew he meant Nicholas, but Sophie doubted he would be that determined to see her again. She had been nothing but a brief affair amongst the many in his checkered past. Still, there was no point in arguing with Anthony on her safety, not when he did it out of love. “Yes, Anthony.”
He started to stand and then sat back down. “Nicholas is an honorable man, Sophie. Once he finds you there is every likelihood he will offer for you.”
She shook her head. “It does not matter, Anthony. I am not the right one for him. And he is not the right man for me.”
He looked at her and shook his head. “Are you certain?”
“Yes
.”
“Very well,” he said with a sigh. “But be warned he will be calling on you soon.”
Sophie shot to her feet. “You told him!”
“No. Your friends were encouraging him to call on you to help him find a wife.”
She laughed. “I get very few men as clients. Most believe I am nothing but a charlatan being paid by some ambitious mama.”
Anthony smirked. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about there. He wanted to know if I could find out anything about the owner of the earring. I told him that you could use your powers to help him.” Anthony rose and walked toward the door. He paused at the threshold and turned to her with a smirk. “So, what you do is up to you.”
Sophie watched her brother leave as sadness darkened her heart. There wasn’t a thing she could do. Nicholas was a mistake, nothing more. And she would have to do her best to avoid him.
Chapter 4
Nicholas reached the top step of Miss Reynard’s home for the third time this week. Each day he’d arrived, her butler told him that Miss Reynard would see him tomorrow. Well, not today. She would see him even if he had to force himself past her butler and footmen.
“Welcome back, Lord Ancroft,” her butler said as he opened the door.