A Love Match

1 - Sophie

I had been very much looking forward to our first ball as a married couple, but now, standing in the heated, crowded, suffocating ballroom I was starting to change my mind. I don't remember previous balls being tedious such as this one, but maybe it was simply lacking the excitement of being courted by a certain young man. Oh the memories!

All of last Season Duke Nicholas of Ashbury had been relentlessly pursuing me even after I told him that I was holding out for a love match. I'd always wanted what my older sister and her husband had; theirs was, for me, the most beautiful marriage in London society. Little by little, he managed to win over my heart and it was six months ago, at the end of the Season, that we got married. We soon left London for the ducal estate, Ashbury, where we spent the most marvellous months together but now the time had come to leave the peace and happiness of the countryside behind and return into high society to, among other things, go through the stack of invitations and letters that had accumulated in our London town house. I frowned at the thought, all the while fanning my face vigorously.

"Are you feeling quite alright, Your Grace?"

"Not really, lady Catherine. The air in here is quite heavy, and some of the fragrances are cloying. I'll try to find my husband and see if we can leave soon, before I develop a headache."

I excused myself from my friends' company reluctantly, since I had truly missed Amelia and Catherine; we used to be an inseparable trio at these functions and they always were more bearable in their company. Now that two of us were married, we hadn't been seeing much of each other, and I made a note to myself to invite them both over for tea. One of the things I had learned from my older sister was the importance of friends in a woman's life. I smiled as I spied my brother-in-law's tall frame at the refreshment table and I made my way over to him.

"Jonathan, have you seen Nicholas anywhere?" I wondered. Jonathan looked around the ballroom, his height allowing him better overview, but shook his head.

"I haven't. He might be in the library, smoking, do you want me to go and see?"

"Yes, please. I'll go to the terrace to get some air in the meantime since it is too stuffy in here and the food smells are absolutely unbearable," he looked at me somewhat oddly but nodded.

Once outside, I finally felt like I could breathe. The dark cool January night was a soothing contrast to the bright overheated crowded room. My silk slippers barely making a sound, I ventured into the gardens to further clear my thoughts.

What was the look that Jonathan gave me when I said the food smelled? It might have been rude, but it was truly unbearable, I was surprised so many people were eating it! Besides, Jonathan was more of a brother to me growing up, and I've always been able to speak freely in front of him. I suddenly stopped. Wasn't that what Violet had always complained about? Each time that she was with child? I put my hand on my flat stomach. There was nothing there yet. I would need to speak to Violet in more detail about this aspect of marriage, but I felt a warm happiness settle in me nevertheless. It is as if I hadn't even known that I wanted this.

"Oh, Nicholas," the female voice cut my thoughts short. Nicholas... odd. "I've missed you so this last year."

"I'm a married man now, lady Victoria," my husband's deep voice rumbled somewhere behind the tall hedge and a terrifying feeling came over me. What was my husband doing in the dark garden alone with this woman?

"So was I, for the entirety of our acquaintance actually, my dear Nicholas. And since I'm officially out of mourning, I guess now it's my turn to share you," the vile woman continued. I tried to go over the list of recent widows in my head, but I could not remember a single Victoria, maybe because the nausea was getting stronger and stronger although there was no food anywhere around me.

I looked up and saw Jonathan standing on the terrace, looking out into the garden, trying to find me. I stood and motioned for him to be quiet and to join me. For such a large man, he was surprisingly stealthy. When he reached me, I put my finger on my lips and then pointed towards the hedge. He just raised his eyebrows at me but remained silent.

"We actually need to talk about that," my husband responded. What was there to talk about?

"I have a better idea," she said and we heard clothes rustling and a... moan? "Oh I missed your wicked mouth," she purred and Jonathan clenched his fists angrily while I stood there, frozen.

"Not here," my husband whispered, and I felt a wave of nausea so strong that it knocked me over and everything around me went black.