Page 71 of To Woo and to Wed
“Efficient,” James corrected. “It was efficient.”
“As is this one,” Sophie said, and West glanced down at her, histhroat tightening at the sight of her. Instead of the infamous ruffled monstrosity that she’d commissioned with her sister, she was attired in a gown he’d seen her wear before, one of green silk adorned with a pattern of white vines and leaves. Her hair was dressed simply, and she held a bouquet of white roses. There was nothing about the scene that suggested it was the wedding of a future duke.
It was perfect.
Initially, Sophie had taken some convincing—she’d been racked with guilt at the notion of leaving Alexandra to enjoy their elaborately planned wedding alone. West, however, had felt compelled to point out the obvious.
“Sophie,” he’d said two evenings earlier, as she paced around her bedroom in a dressing gown; West had arrived after dark on horseback, sneaking up the back stairs from the mews. He’d waited seven years, and did not intend to wait even another two days to sleep beside her. “Do you think thatAlexandrawants the wedding she is planning?”
Sophie paused in her pacing. “No,” she said consideringly. “Maria’s right—Alex didn’t enjoy all the fuss surrounding her first wedding. She’s undoubtedly doing all this just to spite me.”
“Then perhaps you would be doing her a favor, by stealing a march on her and wedding in secret?” West suggested. “Then she and Blackford can change whatever plans they have made, and arrange a wedding more to their own liking.”
Sophie’s face had cleared at that, which was how they found themselves here, two days later, preparing to take their vows. They’d asked Violet and James to serve as their witnesses—a request that had been met with such incandescent joy by Violet that West had feared that she would twist his hand off entirely as she wrung it in a congratulatory fashion—but had decided to invite no one else. They did not wishword to reach the duke until the matter was settled—particularly not when they had a plan in place for him, the pieces already arranged. So it was to be a quiet, clandestine wedding—and West could hardly wait. It was a sunny afternoon, and the drawing room was lit with a rosy glow; Violet had outdone herself, filling the room with vases overflowing with roses and peonies, sweet peas and larkspur, and it was amid the scent of fresh flowers, with the windows flung open to admit a warm breeze, that West and Sophie spoke their vows at last. The rector looked mildly shocked when West pulled Sophie toward him for a kiss, and busied himself with his prayer book.
Afterward, they drank champagne and ate a sickening array of pastries that Sophie’s French cook had sent over in honor of the occasion, and discussed what was to come next.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever attended a betrothal ball for a couple who had secretly married ahead of time, and planned to create an enormous scene,” Violet said thoughtfully, taking a bite of a madeleine. “I do wish other people would consider how much more entertaining it is to do thingsthisway.”
“Entertaining,” West repeated with faint incredulity. “Convoluted and mad, I believe you mean.”
Violet smiled. “That seems to be a requirement for any of our set to find love, West. Congratulations on joining the club.”
West glanced down at Sophie, who was settled next to him on the settee, a champagne flute in hand, resting her golden head against his arm.
And he could not prevent the smile that broke across his face.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Sophie didn’t know what reactionshe had been expecting—but she did know that silence, somehow, felt wrong.
She held tightly on to West’s arm as they descended the stairs into her parents’ ballroom, enough of a hush having fallen over the assembled crowd that the faintclunkof West’s cane on the stairs was more audible than it should have been.
As they walked, she looked for familiar faces among the guests, and didn’t have to look far—Diana, Jeremy, Jane, and Penvale had evidently wasted little time in seeking out their friends. Her sisters and their husbands, West’s brother and sister-in-law and all of their friends, were gathered near the edge of the stairs, watching their descent. The expressions on their faces ranged from confusion to amusement, as if West and Sophie had just played a grand joke on them all…
Until her eyes met James’s. He raised an eyebrow at her, and she raised one in return as she and West stepped off the final step into the room.
“Would anyone care to explain what, precisely, is going on here?” This came from Diana, who rarely shied from bluntness.
“Yes, please!” added Harriet, looking somewhere between flabbergasted and ecstatic. “Sophie, you cannot mean to tell us that you havealready married West! But—the double wedding!” She paused, adopting a crestfallen expression that she seemed to consider an appropriate show of grief for the loss of the great—now tragically unfulfilled—joy of the promised double wedding.
“Oh, heavens, you’re right,” Sophie said, clutching her chest dramatically. She turned to West. “Is it too late to annul the marriage?”
“Rather,” he replied, extremely dryly.
She turned to Alexandra, who was watching the proceedings thoughtfully, not having spoken yet. “Do you think you might be able to face getting married without me?” Sophie asked, a bit hesitant after their conversation earlier that afternoon.
Alexandra smiled. “Considering that Blackford and I have been planning our own small wedding separately for the better part of the past month, I do think that we’ll manage somehow.”
Now it was Sophie’s turn to gape. “You—but—”
“Oh, good lord,” Penvale muttered, and Sophie turned to him, startled. He blinked, apparently not having intended to speak loudly enough for the rest of the group to hear him, but several heads had turned in his direction, and more were following suit. “Well,” he said, a bit sheepishly, “aren’t you all rather exhausted by this by now? It’s been ayearsince Violet took it into her head to convince Audley she was at death’s door, and since then we’ve had Audley threatening to send her to a Swiss mountaintop to commune with goats—”
“He did specifically mention the goats,” Violet confirmed.
“—and then Diana attempting to force Jeremy to marry the most dreadful young lady I’ve encountered on the marriage mart—”
“She’s not on the marriage mart anymore,” Diana said confidingly to Emily. “Did you hear that her brother purchased her a cottage in Sussex?”
