A Love Match

6 - Nicholas

The morning after that dreadful ball found me sitting in my lawyer's office, waiting for a friend and trying to take my mind off of my wife's shuttered expression and her cold, lightless eyes. My heart constricted painfully in my chest when I thought about this new woman that I have created with my thoughtlessness. Could she ever go back to being my Sophie, my young, cheerful, playful bride? Is this what I have doomed us to for the rest of our lives? If I had gotten married for the sake of heirs alone, I would have welcomed such an arrangement with my wife, I would have thrived while living separate lives and only presenting a united façade to the public on occasion. However, after experiencing six months of loving Sophie and being loved by her, I could never go back to the bleak drab days that I had lived before her. It was in the midst of these musings that Ian approached me.

"Hawkins, my friend, you look positively ghastly!"

"Always count on a friend to tell you the truth, Sinclair. How are you?"

"I'm doing quite well. Want to tell me what this meeting is about?"

"Let's go in and all shall be revealed in good time."

"Ah, mysterious as ever."

The lawyer's secretary, a young man who seemed familiar, announced us: "The Duke of Ashbury and the Earl of Pembroke are here to see you, Mr. Collins."

My lawyer's office was more of a library than a place of business, and once we were comfortably settled in plush armchairs, with the secretary taking notes, I disclosed my motivation for summoning us all here:

"I need to have a person investigated. I am counting on you, Collins, for the legal side of things – assets, debt, credit, wills, estates, any problems with permits or the law. And I need you, Sinclair, and your man of business, to find any gaming debt, moneylenders and the like, and help me purchase all of it."

"Who is the person in question?" I could tell my lawyer was intrigued.

"Lady Victoria Waltham and, by extension, her late husband."

"May I ask about the reason for this investigation?"

"Revenge. I want her ruined financially, so keep that in mind during your investigation, Sinclair."

Both men regarded me silently for a moment. I could not find it within me to lie or care. I wanted her to suffer like Sophie suffered last night, or worse. She kept glancing at me during the ball, tilting her head towards the terrace, but I ignored her signals and foolishly assumed that would be the end of it. After my dance with Sophie, my eyes followed my wife to the refreshment table and my heart nearly stopped when I saw Victoria approaching her. Never in a thousand years would I have thought something like that would happen. Even in fashionable Ton marriages, the mistresses knew their place and never interfered with the marriage. I quickly tried making my way through the rush, but once I managed to reach her, Sophie was already pale and shaking. My poor wife in her delicate condition was being subjected to such torture. Victoria would pay for spewing such filthy lies and for upsetting my wife.

"Let's reconvene in a week? And write me in case you have uncertainties about anything else in the meantime," I shook Collins' hand and Ian and I headed to the club.

"So, what happened with lady Victoria? I thought you two used to be... friendly," Ian inquired and I frowned at my glass.

"We did. Then Lord Waltham died and I didn't see her for the entire year. I never spared her a thought during that time. I met Sophie, got married, went to Ashbury," I close my eyes against the onslaught of happy memories that will now forever be associated with that estate. "Then, two months ago, she approached me at a ball, and I went to the garden with her to tell her I would not be seeing her any more. Sophie overheard us and completely misread the situation."