“Of course she deserves someone like that. Why do you think that I came here? I could have deceived your daughter. Made her think that I only needed the dowry and that I would give her a good life even if we were not a loving couple, but I fell into my own trap. I fell in love like a fool with her and the more I knew her, the more I liked the woman I discovered.” He looked at Frances desperately. “I need you to help me. I want to love her. I want her to love me. I want to give her everything she deserves, but she is afraid of love, of having a marriage with children.” Robert shook his head. “I do not know where she got that terrible idea about men. For her, they are all the same; hateful creatures that only think about their own benefit.”
Frances raised an eyebrow and looked at him carefully. “You did not help to improve her belief in that.”
Robert, who did not know what it was to blush, felt his face burn. I know and I do not know how to apologize for that anymore.
Frances sighed. “Let's have tea.” Frances sent for a tea service and began to tell Robert the reason why Sonia had these misconceptions.
CHAPTER 12
Leopold sat in his room having a drink and congratulated himself. He never thought that it would be so easy. His beloved cousin’s wife had fallen straight into his trap. The poor fool believed that he was an honorable man who cared about her misery and wanted to see her well, living a good life, away from her husband the ogre. He felt some exhilaration knowing that his plan to help Sonia escape would make his imbecile cousin suffer. All his life Robert had hated him, always humiliated him, belittled him while they were young, and then ridiculed him when they were men, by pursuing the woman that Leopold wanted for himself. In the end, she had decided on Robert. The damned bastard had seduced her and damaged her reputation. Leopold simply did not want to know anything else about her. Although now he wanted to see Robert dead, and he almost did when Robert went to war. Leopold thought that he would never see Robert again. That he would die on the battlefront but with his bad luck the wretch arrived in London as a decorated hero and in the process, he took the admiration of all the women becoming the envy of the men. For a moment Leopold could almost taste the dukedom since his uncle had no other male relative, and the title would undoubtedly go to him when the old man died. But now Robert had just married a beautiful woman who also possessed great wealth.
It was time for him to suffer and the first thing Leopold would do was to harm his wife and ruin her reputation as Robert had done with the woman Leopold was courting. Then he would simply disappear. His dear cousin would go crazy because Leopold knew that Robert loved Sonia and the pain of losing her would be terrible.
*****
Frances had spent a while talking to her Son-in-Law.
“She is a good girl. You just need to get to know her better. Her biggest fear is that a man will do what her father did to me. I was always an adornment in the house. He didn’t let me do anything. I could not have friendships and everything that I liked I had to sacrifice to please my husband. Then when we distanced ourselves, instead of fixing things, he looked for a lover and that broke my heart. It hurt so much and now we are just two strangers living in the same house for the sake of our children.”
Robert understood at that moment Sonia’s distrust and wished he could talk to her to assure her that the same thing would never happen to them because he loved her.
“Now you know everything that happened. My daughter is just a dreamy girl who wants to fall in love, but she knows no other example of a relationship than that of her parents.”
“I am sorry that you have suffered so much by your husband’s side. My mother and father did not have a good relationship. She was a frail woman and could not stand his escapades to see his lover and his gambling. I was nine years old when she died and I only remember how used up she was at the end of her days. My father was unmoved. He went to see her a couple of times and in the end, it was only the doctor and me, at the time of her death. I never forgave my father for his indifference and from that day on I promised myself that I would never be like him.”
“You have also suffered Robert. You deserve a good life and happiness. Go home and try to win over my daughter. I know her well and she has a good heart. If you show her your feelings, she will give in and give your marriage a chance.”
He took the woman’s hand and kissed it. “Thank you.”
She patted him on the cheek. “Don’t thank me yet. Go talk to her first.”
*****
Robert arrived a day later at his house. He had tried to arrive earlier, but it hadn’t been possible. Once home he looked for his wife everywhere. The maid told him that she had not seen her and that no matter how hard they had looked for her, no one could find her.
“When did this happen?”
“Yesterday afternoon, my lord. The butler sent an urgent note to London for you. We didn’t know what else
