The Firstborn

Chapter Four

Sophia's heart hammered inside her chest. She would not allow him to see how afraid she was, though the panic that had begun to rise within her at the mention of his identity was now nearing a pitch that caused her ears to ring and her hands to tremble.

She laid her hands, one on top of the other, on the scrubbed wooden tabletop, the better to prevent any traitorous shaking from giving away the current state of her nerves. That he had come to take away her George, she did not doubt. But then, George wasn't hers, not really. Though she had spent the last nine months caring for him, including the time her sister had been in residence, she knew that the child didn't belong to her. At least, not in a way that any court or legal document would acknowledge.

And she, stupid creature that she was, had allowed her anger to get the better of her and confessed that George was not her child. But then, she didn't doubt this Lord Haughton already knew as much. In fact, she wouldn't be shocked if the man also knew that her life here in Stantreath as the widow of the late Richard Brixton was nothing more than a bit of playacting to save her family from the taint of scandal.

Her breath stalled in her lungs as she waited for him to begin. I have come for the boy. Those were the words that played over and over again inside her mind, and so she shut her eyes, only for a moment, as she attempted to push them out of her head.

"I have a legal matter, of sorts, to discuss with you."

She swallowed, an action that sounded so loud to her own ears that she thought Lissy must have been able to hear it from the floor above.

"I had wished to broach the subject with George's mother, who I assume is your sister," Lord Haughton continued when she made no move to contribute to the conversation. "But as you've pointed out, she's not here, and since you appear to have taken over care of young George since her departure..."

Taken over. Two simple words, and yet they were so painfully deceptive. For there had never been any exchange of caregiving from Lucy to herself. There had been a few weeks, at the beginning, when Lucy had relished being a new mother. But as the novelty had worn off, and as the difficult work of raising a child set in, Lucy had become more churlish, her complaints growing in variety and frequency.

Sophia remembered those days. She recalled late nights and too-early mornings when Lucy would take the time to nurse George, but then immediately set him back into his cradle where he would kick and fuss, the cries growing louder, his face becoming more red, his eyes leaking tears until Sophia would come in and scoop the tiny thing into her arms. During those trying months, she had learned to burp him and to change his nappies, she had discovered which songs he loved and which ones set his bottom lip to quivering. It had taken her only days to learn that he loved to be carried facing forward, so that he could look around with ease. And when he laughed for the first time, it was because she had found the perfect spot beneath his arm that when tickled, brought out the most gleeful series of hiccuping giggles.

A small shake of her head and Sophia forced herself to return to the present. Seated in front of her was a man who threatened to take all of that away from her, and she would be a fool if she allowed her mind to wander while she spoke to him.

"... five hundred pounds per annum." Haughton finished speaking, and Sophia blinked up at him, cursing her nomadic thoughts for having let her miss the beginning of his speech.

"F-Five hundred pounds?" she echoed, and struggled to understand what he was saying.

Haughton nodded. "That should be more than enough to cover any expenses accrued by yourself and a small child."

Something clicked into place inside her head. "You're offering to give me five hundred pounds a year? Every year?"

"The cost of his education will also have to be discussed," he continued, as if he didn't wish to stop now that he had her full attention. "And, of course, once he is finished with his schooling and finds himself an occupation, there will be an annuity settled on... Well, I had planned for it to go to the boy's mother, but I'm sure we'll be able to work out something that will satisfy all the various parties involved."