Sophie's Rebellion. Beverley Boissery
the girls shrieked and Daniel cocked his fist, a dark figure flew down from the rafters.
“It’s easy to beat a girl up when it’s four against one,” the boy from the mountain said as he kicked Elias where it hurt the most and then sneered at Elias’s suddenly white face. “So that’s how you fight, is it? By holding onto a girl’s arm? Let’s see how you like it when it’s four against two.”
CHAPTER THREE
As Elias doubled over in agony, Sophie pulled herself out of Emily’s grasp and pushed her down into a heap on the straw beside her brother. Eliza pulled her hair, jerking Sophie’s head back. “You can’t call my mother a whore, Miss High and Mighty. Miss British lover,” she yelled, pummelling whatever part of Sophie she could reach with her fists.
“Then you shouldn’t have said what you did about Lady Theo,” Sophie shouted back, pulling herself free.
“And you shouldn’t have interfered,” Daniel snarled at the boy as he punched him in the jaw.
While Elias moaned and groaned on the floor, the five others entered into a furious fray with fists flying. Sometimes they connected with unlikely targets, as when Daniel hit his sister right in the eye. After a while everyone got tired and the savagery diminished. Everything might have settled into a resumption of the cold war that had existed previously if Elias hadn’t found an old broomstick and tried to hit the boy with it.
Sophie saw him at the last moment. “Look out! Behind you!” she shouted, struggling to free herself from Emily and Eliza’s grasp.
The boy dodged so that Elias only hit him on the arm, but the blow was enough to make him go white and fall to his knees. Sophie saw Elias raise the stick again, and she screamed for help as loudly as she could before charging toward Elias, taking Emily and Eliza with her. Willy-nilly they barrelled into him, their combined weight pushing him and them to the floor.
Sophie managed to pin herself across the arm holding the stick. Elias kicked and tried to buck her off. She refused to move.
Daniel, the only one standing, came to his cousin’s rescue. Unceremoniously he pulled Sophie away and flung her across the room. “I’ll look after you later,” he snarled and headed back toward the boy.
Sophie screamed again — then prayed with all her might — and it seemed that God or her guardian angel was listening, because the door to the box room opened almost immediately and Lady Theo strode in.
She took one look at the suddenly silent mass of children, raised an eyebrow, and asked, in cool tones, “Now who will tell me the meaning of this?”
As usual, Elias took it upon himself to be the spokesman. “Lady Theo, she started it,” he began, stumbling to his feet and pointing to Sophie.
“Be quiet,” Lady Theo ordered peremptorily. “First of all, young man, my name is Lady Thornleigh. And her name isn’t she. It’s Sophie, as I’m sure you know. Now, if you want to continue, I’ll trust you’ll not embarrass your mother any further by displaying your deplorable lack of manners.”
Elias blushed and retreated into a sulky silence. Lady Theo turned to the group again. “I’m still waiting for an explanation,” she said icily. “Which one of you wants to give it to me?”
The boy, still ashen-faced and clearly in pain, pushed himself up from the floor. “I don’t know how it started exactly, Lady Thornleigh. It seems to be an old quarrel. But today these four,” he broke off for a moment, searching for the right word to continue in his slightly accented voice. “These four lured Miss Sophie into the room here and picked an argument with her.”
Lady Theo turned to Sophie. “Is this true? You allowed yourself to get into an argument?”
Sophie nodded. Her scalp hurt from all the hair pulling and her heart almost broke at what she thought was disgust in Lady Theo’s eyes. To her surprise, the boy came to her rescue again. “She didn’t have much choice, milady. Not after they called you a whore.”
Everyone went still. Lady Theo let the silence play out for several moments, and then turned to Elias, her aristocratic face showing her disdain. “You seemed eager to talk before, young man. Tell me, is this true?”
Elias looked to his twin, his cousins, and finally to Sophie. No one offered help. Scuffing his boots on the floor, he nodded. Just once. A quick jerk of the head and that was all.
Then his innate weaselly nature kicked in and he couldn’t leave well enough alone. “But I wasn’t the one who said it, Lady Thornleigh.”
Lady Theo dismissed him with one look before turning to the others. “Then I trust the one who said it has sufficient courage to say it to my face.”
The silence stretched longer this time. Lady Theo showed no inclination to interfere. She simply leaned against the wall of the room and waited. And waited. When it looked as though she was prepared to stand there until kingdom come, Daniel stepped forward. “We didn’t mean harm, Lady Thornleigh. My sister was just repeating gossip.”
Sophie closed her eyes at his stupidity. Not only had he identified Eliza as the tale-bearer, but he had as good as told Lady Theo that the gossip originated from his mother. Trying to deflect the hurt Lady Theo must feel, she stepped forward herself. “It really started when I called their mother a whore as well.”
Lady Theo glared at her. “I’ll deal with you later,” she said. Then she turned to address the others. “As for the rest of you, let me say one thing: I’m appalled and disgusted at the level of your conversation. Such words are never said in company and your manners show a regrettable lack of civility. Go home and tell your mothers exactly what happened here. You are to present yourself at your grandfather’s house tonight and either apologize in person or bring written apologies bearing your mothers’ signatures with you. And one more thing. Tell them I shall punish Sophie myself and that she’ll be over later to give her regrets in person. Off you go.”
The four cousins didn’t need any more encouragement. After they scuttled out of the room, Lady Theo turned to Sophie. “Come here, child,” she said softly. “You know what you did was wrong, don’t you?”
When Sophie nodded, the boy stepped forward again. “She was defending you, Lady Thornleigh. It was four against one.”
“That fact hadn’t escaped me, although your name has,” Lady Theo replied. “You are?”
The boy swept her a bow, as elegant as any she’d seen at Buckingham Palace. “Philippe Jean-Luc Morriset, at your service, milady. My friends call me Luc, though.”
“Well, Luc, I’m don’t understand how you managed to get involved in this brawl, but you have my thanks.”
“It was four against one, milady. A gentleman must always help in those situations. Only cowards stand around and watch, n’est-ce pas?”
“Indeed,” Lady Theo answered. “But force doesn’t solve problems. There’s no winner today, only losers, I’m afraid.”
“But, like today, force is sometimes the only answer. If you don’t believe me, look at Miss Sophie’s arms. I’ll bet they’re covered with bruises. Those four are always twisting them or pinching her when they think her papa won’t find out. Today, they got a bit more than they bargained for. Maybe they’ll think before they do anything next time.”
Lady Theo gently pulled up Sophie’s sleeve. As Luc predicted, recent and fading bruises covered her arm. Her lips tightened and her eyes flashed angrily but her voice was gentle as she asked, “Why didn’t you say anything, Sophie?”
Sophie shrugged. “What could you have done? You’re going to Beauharnois with Papa. I’ll be alone then, and if I’d said anything, it would have made things worse.”
Luc leant forward. “You’ve got to learn to stand up for yourself, Sophie,” he said. “My