Betraying the Duke (5 page)

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.

“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.