Free Love and Freindship and Other Delusions by Beth Andrews

in the other, practically dragging her out of the door with him. She looked back at us for a moment, helpless and with an air of indecision and regret. Then they were both gone from our sight, disappearing down the front steps towards the waiting carriage.
    Chapter Thirteen
    Sophia and I turned and went back into the house with a sigh of satisfaction.
    â€˜We have set those two on the path to perfect happiness,’ she said, ‘but I am quite exhausted from all this philanthropy.’
    â€˜You really should lie down, my dearest,’ I said with tender consideration.
    We had just left the great hall and turned into the passage which led to our bedchambers, when Sophia stopped suddenly.
    â€˜Oh, Heavens!’ she cried. ‘I have just remembered something.’
    â€˜What is it?’
    â€˜The banknotes which I gave to M’Kenrie were my last.’
    â€˜You must certainly replenish your supply, then.’
    She nodded in agreement, then turned and went another way along the corridor.
    â€˜MacDonald’s study,’ she reminded me, ‘is this way.’
    We opened the door and stepped into a dark, book-lined room with heavy, carved mahogany furniture, the whole dominated by a massive desk with a superfluity of drawers. Sophia went immediately to the correct one and withdrew a small box which was heavily bound in brass and locked securely.
    Withdrawing a hatpin from her elaborate chapeau, she went to work at once, and it was clear that she was no novice in this particular art. Glancing around the room, meanwhile, I happened to spy a small Dresden figurine on a shelf, which was very pretty. I slipped it into my reticule and leaned over to observe Sophia’s abilities.
    We were too involved to notice that the door—which we had carelessly left ajar—had opened to its fullest extent. It must have been several seconds before a movement to my left caused me to raise my head and look towards the entrance.
    â€˜MacDonald!’ I cried, causing Sophia to drop everything just as the lock sprang open, scattering the contents on her lap.
    It was the master of the Hall himself, glaring at us with an extremely grim expression on his face.
    â€˜Do you not know, sir,’ Sophia confronted him at once, ‘that it is not at all good manners to insolently break in upon a lady in her retirement?’
    MacDonald chose to ignore her lesson in etiquette.
    â€˜Pray tell me, ma’am, what are you doing in my private chamber with my strongbox in your hands?’
    â€˜I conceive that to be none of your business, sir.’ Sophia treated him to a look of haughty disdain.
    â€˜I’ve noticed money missing on several occasions recently,’ he persisted, his stare more piercing than ever. ‘But however mentally deranged you might be, I could not bring myself to believe that you were no more than a common thief.’
    â€˜How dare you refer to me as “common”!’ Sophia cried, rising from her seat in righteous indignation, and dislodging a banknote which dangled jauntily from the open strongbox.
    â€˜I beg pardon, strumpet,’ MacDonald shot back.
    I could not stand idly by while my friend was being subjected to such Turkish treatment by this ruffian. I sprang to her defence at once.
    â€˜You little know your cousin,’ I said, giving him stare for stare, ‘if you can accuse her of an act of which the merest idea must make her blush.’
    â€˜Aye,’ he said. ‘And if she did blush, it could only be from shame.’
    â€˜Base miscreant!’ Sophia shouted at him. ‘To attempt to sully my spotless reputation!’
    â€˜Well then, madam.’ MacDonald was dangerously calm. ‘If you were not robbing me, pray tell me what you were doing.’
    I thought for a moment, casting about in my mind for a suitable explanation.
    â€˜She was gracefully purloining a few pounds whose loss someone in your position would scarcely even