I do not own Reign
Thank you for all the reviews! I love when you guys get as excited as I do! So R&R it makes me so excited!
"What I'm asking is if you think it's a good idea?" Sophia asked Francis in an exasperated tone.
"You're asking me if I think it's a good idea for you Sophia Isabella of Castile to publicly court an man you have been engaged to before but left for reasons that you would not announce?" He asked her uncertainly. "I think it may be a bad idea, yes." She made a irritated noise at him and looked out the window with her arms crossed. In the end she would do what she wanted but she would like to have Francis on her side.
"I would like you to support me in this Francis." She stated flatly as she looked out the window and saw the garden where she and Gerald had spent the last two days talking and laughing and remembering how much they had liked each other.
"If I could possibly understand why it is you broke the engagement off in the first place Sophia maybe I could understand why you think your feelings have changed for the gentleman now." He said coming over and putting his hand on her shoulder. It was amazing to her that he could be so rational about this. At this point in time he seemed to have a decent head screwed onto his shoulders but when it came to his own life he seemed as daft as a rock.
"My feelings have changed." She said to him. His hand slipped from her shoulder and he just stood next to her like a protector.
"How so?" He asked
"I'm not in love with someone else as I was before." She replied. Not quite a lie. She wasn't in love with Bash like she had been before that was going to have to be the truth. He shifted a little to look at her but his face held no surprise at all.
"No longer in love with Sebastian. " He said out loud and she didn't even try to hide her surprise. "That smells faintly of a lie Sophia. We aren't supposed to lie to one another."
"You knew then?" She asked him
"That either of you thought you were hiding anything from me causes me to laugh. You two were read like mass scrolls." He laughed then and she didn't feel so bad. "But since you are now being open would you mind telling me exactly what Bash did to you to make you break an engagement to a duke? Whenever I brought up your name after you left he brushed it off and wouldn't answer any questions."
Sophia closed her eyes and told Francis the story that only Her Sebastian and the Lord knew fully.
Sophia was engaged. To a duke; to the duke of Italy. She herself couldn't quite believe it. It had been three months and she still couldn't believe it. The time she had spent with her betrothed she found him to be charming and he was very amiable. Handsome too; a little older than she was he was almost thirty five. Though he really didn't look it. He had gone back to Italy to tell his family that they were to married and had left her to get ready to go back with him when he came to collect her. Her ladies maid Hannah and her spent all their time to talk about married life. Hannah embarrassed her by hinting at the marriage bed but it was girls talk only. Hannah was her closest maid. More like a sister tan anything and she talked to her about anything. She had just got done complaining about Bash who was trying to win their wager. He smiled as she pulled the chain that rested between her breasts with Bash's ring on the end of it.
He wouldn't make her change her mind; with all his charm and all of his talk about the hundreds of other men in the wide world. He wouldn't change her mind with the short caresses that he acted were innocent. His leg would brush hers under a table. He would brush hair from her face using the back of his fingers. He wouldn't even change her mind with those beautiful eyes of his. Those glass blue-green eyes of his could get a girl in trouble before she knew what was happening. He was doing this all to fluster her. He didn't care about her that way and she was certain of that. He was simply trying to win the wager that they had made and she was sick of him winning. So she would flirt right back when he did and even brushed against him more often than she needed to just to let him know that two could play the game that he was playing.
She had to keep reminding herself that it was just a game and that it was just Bash. The same old bash that she had known the whole time there was no reason that feelings should be rising up in her that hadn't been there before. She would find a way to take her mind off him.
She walked down the stairs to get something to eat. Maybe she would visit the new foal that had been born last week. Henry had promised her that she could keep it. She had yet to think of a name for the animal. She skipped down the hall and into the kitchen where she hopped to find something to snack on before lunch came around. She walked into the room. It was empty. Nobody had started to prepare todays meal yet. She strolled over to a basket of bread that smelled like they had just come from the oven. She was about to grab one when she heard a squeal. Her head shot up and she made eye contact with a kitchen girl who had emerged from a kitchen closet her shirt was half off.
"Oh dear." Sophia said turning around and chuckling "I apologize I didn't mean to sneak up on anybody. I was just looking for something to snack on."
"Looks like we had the same idea." This time it was a male voice and Sophia's blood ran as cold as ice and she got a tad dizzy for some reason. She spun and confronted a smug Sebastian. Anger filled her stomach and her face got hot.
"Miss you were fortunate that I interrupted you and saved you from making a mistake with this bastard that you would live to regret for the rest of your life. He seduces woman and leaves them with nothing just like his father." She grabbed a roll and shook her head at Sebastian "It makes me sick to look at you." She said before storming back to the place she had come from leaving Sebastian smirking at her.
The next day she was visiting her new horse and talking to him about the events of the day before.
"I got so mad little one." She said to him like he could understand her. "I have played it over and over in my head and let me tell you I have no idea why it was that I got so upset. I know that Sebastian has been with a lot of women. It has never bothered me before. I don't know what came over me. But you know what little one, I couldn't control myself. When I saw him with her there was something that came over me. I haven't felt anger like that before." She said. What she said was true. She hadn't even gone down to eat for the rest of the day. She hadn't gone down to meet Francis like she planned either. She was so embarrassed that she hadn't wanted to face Sebastian.
Now she was sitting on a stable stool wondering how she was going to apologize to him. She hated apologizing; especially to Bash, because he always infuriated her with his lack of humility.
"What am I going to do?" She asked the foal.
"I'll tell you what you'll do. You'll frighten off the entirety of young woman from me at the rate that you are going now." His voice sounded from the opening of the stable. She sighed; of course he would show up now. She got up and dusted her dress off. She couldn't meet his eyes so she stared at the hay covered ground.
"Bash I beg "Bash I beg your forgiveness." She stumbled in her brain for the words to say. "I acted horribly and I understand if you don't wish to speak to me." She said to him. She heard him walking over to him but still didn't look up to meet his face. She felt his warm fingers slide under her chin and tip is up. She hadn't fastened her hair today so when her face tilted up some of it was in her face. Bash brushed it behind her ears.
"That seems a bit harsh Soph." He said to her and she shivered a little when he said her name. "I would not speak to you. I don't see how that would be possible." He said and Sophia did what she never should have done. What she told herself she wouldn't do. Sophia looked into his eyes and saw the humor there but there was also a serious bit that frightened her. He bent his head closer to hers and she let out a small sound that sounded like a gasp. "I'm not going to hurt you Soph." He said to her and lowered his mouth to hers while his hand still rested under her chin. Her body melted and became liquid when his lips met hers. She didn't think that she had felt anything so wonderful in her life. Her hands went to his hair to trap him there with her. But as just as soon as her hair grasped his hair she released it and shoved him away. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve like she could somehow erase the searing feeling off them.
"No." She said to him and she took a few steps to the door and left him there.
"Soph, come back." He said she spun around and held her hand out to him with her finger raised and he stopped coming toward her. "This isn't a game anymore Bash. "
"It wasn't ever a game Soph." He said taking a step toward her but she retreated to the doorway.
"I'm engaged." She said to him. Her whole body was hot like she had a fever. Just looking at him made her melt like a helpless heap of a person.
"But not married." He said "Soph, you could be with me." He said and every dream that she had ever had was a reality when he said that but as he was saying the thing she wanted to hear most she was taking her shoes off. She didn't think he could outrun her without her shoes off. All she had to do was get inside and she would be safe from him.
"Bash this isn't funny anymore. I can't bear your teasing." She said he was coming toward her now with a determined face and she knew she had to run. Hannah would kill her for ruing her stockings. But she turned and fled the stables.
"Sophia!" He called out after her but she ran still. She didn't look back. She didn't stop running either until she was in the downstairs hall where food was stored; where the kitchen was. She slowed and walked through the stone arch and passed a few doorways. Her head was a mess of feelings and words that she couldn't understand right now. She stopped to catch her breath when she was hoisted up by strong hands that also covered her mouth as she was dragged into a small storage that helf flour and sugar barrels. She was sat atop one of the barrels and turned to face Bash who was also breathing heavily.
He had run after her she realized.
"You don't get to run when you hear something you don't like." He said to her breathing raggedly "I won't let you." His hand slipped from her mouth.
"I don't care what you will and won't let me do Sebastian. You don't own me." She said defiantly but she felt very differently
"Does your mouth ever close?" He asked and she was going to answer his but didn't get a chance because he kissed her again. The feeling didn't go away. It hadn't lessened. It was almost worse than the first time and she gasped now but not because she was afraid. She stood up and pushed him away.
"You will not win. Not this time." She said to him and turned to leave. She was pinned to the cold wall and Bash but his hands down as he got very close to her and looked into her eyes.
"I'm trying to tell you that I love you Soph; that my heart is yours. Is that really me winning?" He asked her seriously.
"I'm afraid it might be." She said to him as he kissed her again lightly
"Ask me what I love about you." He demanded his humor was back in his voice.
"What?" She asked still shocked at the idea of him loving her. He moved closer to her if that was even possible and leaned in and moved his mouth to her ear.
"Sophia, I love your name first." He said kissing below her ear. "I love the things that come out of your mouth; they aren't planned or made up because it is simply your soul coming out. I love that." He kissed her again deeply and long and stopped when Sophia thought was going to pass out from the feeling it gave her. "I love your eyes." He said kissing both her eyelids. "I love how I feel like I could get lost in the darkness of them." He said taking her face in his "I would be lying if I said I didn't love the rest of your figure too." She blushed as he glanced down.
"You'll have to forgive me." She said rolling her eyes at him "I was not ready for this and don't have a list of things I love about you." She said and he laughed with her and kissed her again. She could stay here for days kissing him.
"As long as you love me Soph." He aid to her. And she started. Did she love him? Yes. Her heart answered immediately but her head too a step back. How could that be? Wouldn't she have known it? You do know it. She looked at him now. He bent down to kiss her neck and she leaned her head back against the stone wall.
"How is that true? How can I know I love you? Like I have known for my entire life. But I haven't known" She said to him. He stopped kissing her and she opened her eyes to meet his eyes. Those dangerous eyes of his. "I do love your eyes." She said to him almost as an afterthought. Then she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him to her. Kissing him was like getting warm when it was freezing. She pulled back and pushed him back. "Give me a couple days Bash. To get everything sorted out." She said to him as she backed away from him and went to the door. "can you give me a few days?" She asked him. Thought she didn't know if she could be without him now. He nodded at her as she turned and ran all the way to her room.
"I'm not sure where the problem arose." Francis said to her after she finished.
"I went to my room and wrote Gerald that I missed him and I wanted him to come soon." She said and he looked at her confused. "I told Hannah to send it with the post."
"But why?" He asked her but she held up a finger.
"I'm not sure. Some rational part of me told me that Gerald was the sensible choice still. But as soon as she left my room I wrote another letter explaining that I couldn't marry him and that I was very sorry. I had to run to catch Hannah who had already sealed it and was about to send the other letter out."
"So you broke the engagement." Francis said and she nodded. "There is more to the story?" he asked but it wasn't really a question. She nodded again. The part she had just told him was easier to tell. The part where the story took a turn was still hard for Sophia.
"Another time then." He said and she smiled at him, he always knew what she was thinking.