Read Online Never Courted, Suddenly Wed by Christi Caldwell - Free Book Online Page A

He helped her from her seat and held his elbow out. Sophie placed her fingertips along the sleeve of his jacket and allowed him to escort her to the Red Parlor. With its blood-red wallpaper and crimson upholstery it was the most garish room in their entire household. She wrinkled her brow. The one saving element to the room was her beloved pianoforte.
    “I’d say this is the quietest I remember you,” Christopher murmured, interrupting her puerile musings. “Never tell me you’re still afraid of the Red Parlor.”
    A smile played on her lips. “It is a horrendous room.”
    He chuckled; the sound familiar and friendly, not the sarcastic expression of mirth she expected of him. “It is the kind of space that would give young children night terrors.”
    They entered the blood-red room, with its soaring ceilings and full floor-length windows. Her gaze traveled around the fifty-foot space, until it landed upon the snarling lions. She loathed them with the same burning intensity she had as a child.
    Christopher followed her gaze, to the red-upholstered sofa with its dark, mahogany arms. He turned to her mother. “Might I take Sophie for a stroll around the room?”
    Mother clapped her hands like a child who’d just received a reprieve from her daily lessons. “What a delightful idea, Christopher.”
    “Thank you for sparing me from her and Geoffrey’s pestering,” Sophie said.
    Christopher lifted his chin in unspoken acknowledgement. He ushered her in silence down the perimeter of the long room, until they’d placed a considerable distance between their families.
    He slowed his pace. “They’re trying to make a match,” he said, breaking into the silence.
    “Yes. Yes, they are,” she muttered, humiliated by her brother’s desperate attempt to marry her off; especially to a gentleman who’d so clearly avoided her through the years. The sting of embarrassment slapped her cheeks.
    He chuckled. “Based upon your response, marriage to me is not something you would prefer.”
    Unbidden, Odysseus danced through her imaginings. His ready grin. His appreciation for intelligence. He’d not looked at her as an oddity or as a lady underneath his notice.
    She held her palms up. “How am I to respond to that, Christopher?”
    “Honestly.”
    Sophie glanced up at him and started. When had Christopher gone from the tall, gangly boy who’d teased her to this towering, lean but well-muscled figure? She furrowed her brow and continued to peer at him. His too long black locks defied fashion’s norms. And his eyes. She squinted…there was something ever so familiar, ever so friendly about his hazel eyes.
    “Phi?” He wrinkled his brow. “Are you all right?”
    “Uh, yes. Fine.” Her toes curled at having been discovered studying him. “You were saying?”
    “I was pointing out that you don’t want to wed me.”
    “Nor you me.”
    He blanched. “God, no.”
    She bit the inside of her lip not knowing why his words should cause this pang in her heart. “Why don’t you say what it is you’re thinking and be done with it.”
    He must have heard the hurt in her words. “I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to offend you,” he said, in hushed undertones.
    Sophie started at this unexpected side of her childhood nemesis. Mayhap he’d not grown into as boorish a man as he’d been a child. She stumbled a bit and he helped right her footing.
    “My father would like us to make a match of it.”
    Ahh, so they’d come round to the real reason for Christopher’s sudden interest in her company. Sophie glanced across the room. Mother’s hawk-like gaze rested on Sophie and Christopher as they continued their stroll around the room. Her brother sat with his legs folded, a smile on his face.
    She sighed. “As do my brother and mother. Alas the only thing to stop them from agreeing to…” Sophie snapped her lips closed.
    Christopher paused and forced her to a stop. “The only thing to stop them?” he urged.
    Sophie