A mass of curly raven hair swam up in his vision and the smell of berries suddenly filled his nostrils, as curls slightly tickled his cheek. A woman sat beside him, her face peering down at his. Big violet irisisdarted in and out of his vision and so did the bright light around her face. She was his blessing from angel, his guardian.

"My angel," he murmured and then giggled.

Giggled?

"Blake, Blake. Can you hear me? Lord Alton? Marquess? For Christ's sake, my lord, wake up!" the woman shrilly exclaimed as she patted his cheek. "Servant! It seems the Marquess has hit his head quite hard on the wooden floors! Please summon someone at once to take a look at him." The servant boy standing silently in the corner of the room bowed and took his leave.

"We can't have the future Marquess dying can we?" She grinned and the nearly gone servant turned around and gave her a peculiar, slightly disgusted, taken-aback look. Sophia sighed. Only Blake appreciated her humor, it seemed.

The couple was then left alone.

Slowly, the room came into focus and Blake groaned as pain behind his temples slowly increased in volume. He tried to get up, but was pushed back down the ground by the woman who he could now make out as Sophia.

"No. Rest for a moment," she chided, firmly pressing her fingertips on his chest to make him fall back. He was still too muddled to resist. He clutched his head which throbbed insistently, and let out a throaty groan.

She pressed a glass of water which a servant had delivered to her and then left, to his lips, and he greedily drank it, his parched lips crying for relief as a cool heaven caressed it.

"Blake, when was the last time you slept? Or even ate? For I believe my news was shocking, but not enough to warrant a faint from you."

With his energy was somewhat revived her replied, "I slept and ate..." He frowned, trying to force out his answer but none would come forth. When was the last time he slept, or even ate?

"Blake! Why haven't you been taking care of yourself?" Sophia cried, her eyes brimming with concern and a trifle bit of rage.

"It's not as if you look any better, Sophia. You haven't been eating much or sleeping well either. Shadows dance across your satin skin and your frame is gaunter than before. Is that wise for a woman carrying a child?" Blake shot back, pushing himself onto his elbows and then wincing as his head slightly twanged in pain. Their faces were now at the same level.

"I eat!"

"You do not!"

"Well... Colette makes me!"

"That's not the same as you eating, is it!"

"Stop turning this on me!"

"You started it!"

She licked her lips and looked at him in defiance, but eventually accepted defeat as she knew he was right in this little squabble of theirs. She pressed a flat palm on her belly and whispered, "I know. I should have taken care of myself as well, but I felt no love or inclination to do so, as the only love in my life had disappeared."

"Whose fault was that?" Blake snapped back.

"Mine, all mine, and my fault only. For that, I will regret my whole life. I should not have bent to the whims of... men, but I did so only for fear for others. But now, with you by my side, I can protect everyone and ensure their safety."

"IS that why you want me back? For safety? A haven of sorts from whatever threatens you?"

"No. I want you back because no matter what people throw at me, even Colette playing her childish games, it cannot deter what I feel for you. And once we are married, which I do so dearly hope you want to still do, I want my siblings under my roof. There are much too many dreary memories encompassed in our house now."

She clutched his hands in hers and looked at with a pleading, sorrowful glance. "Blake, I submitted to someone which went against my very nature, but now I want to do what I please, which has always been to marry you."

Blake wanted to tell her to go, that she had broken him too far for him to want her back, but no one on the face of their realm would believe them. Every heartbeat lived only for Sophia.

And god, he wanted to marry her.

He suddenly called out for his butler, causing Sophia to jump slightly in surprise. He whispered a few instructions, which though Sophia craned her ears to listen to, she couldn't make it out.

A few minutes later, the servant dropped a small, wrapped box into his outstretched palm and Sophia frowned at it.

"What is that? And why aren't you responding to my declaration?" she asked impatiently, her chin nodding towards the packages clasped between his fingers.

In one fluid movement, he opened it to reveal the sapphire necklace along with a ring that Sophia had long ago admired.She let out an audible gasp. "Is that...?" Blake nodded, a smile splitting his face wide open.

She grabbed it from his hand and stared at in awe, her eyes gleaming as its light played across her features. She ran her fingers across the ring and then slowly plucked it from its bedding in the box. She turned it in her hands and watched at the oceans danced.

Blake pried it from her fingers and gently grasped her left hand. "Lady Sophia Brighton, would you do me the honor of marrying me?" He had already asked her once, but now with the ring, he could officiate his betrothal. And give Sophia his response to her brilliant endeavor to once again claim him as hers.

"Yes! But how unromantic it seems to be, Mr. Cavendish, for you to propose while half laying down and me next to you sitting and making sure your fainting were just that, not you dead?" She laughed, her laughter sounding like beautiful notes of a harp.

"Ms. Brighton, there has not been single moment form the time we met that out circumstances have been normal."

Sophia started to giggle, stopped, covered her mouth at her sudden outburst, snorted and unladylike snort and then burst out into a fit of giggles again. Blake joined in her laughter. The pair of them laughed till their stomach hurt and their eyes shed tears, though the situation wasn't much funny, to begin with. When one would start to stop laughing, the other would kick it back up again.

Unknowingly, Blake started twirling a strand of her hair around his fingers and then after some time, sharply tugged at it, causing her to move towards him. Simultaneously, he also moved his head backward until his head touched the floor, hers directly right above his finally.

Her laughter slowly drew to a stop at his intense glare and she gulped, as his eyes glared at her with a smoldering heat. She could feel little shivers slowly starting to trace up her fingertips that had splayed across his chest and she slowly started to move forward until their lips were a hairsbreadth apart.

However, it seemed Fate did not want these two lovers to share a kiss whatsoever that day, because, at that very moment, Lady Olivia Cavendish cleared her throat as she barged into the room. Her hands o her hips.

"Blake Cavendish and Lady Sophia Brighton, I presume? What on earth are you doing on the floor?"

Olivia Cavendish couldn't figure whose girlish, shrill screams or surprise were louder: Blake's or Sophia's.

Oh, holy God, it was his mother. No doubt about it. They looked nearly the same.

And she had just caught them sharing a personal moment the very time she met her. That was sure to leave a sour impression on her mind. Sophia grimaced internally at her small mistake.

Sophia scrambled to her feet and curtsied. "My lady."

Blake meanwhile rolled over on his stomach and pushed himself up by his strong muscled arms. He yanked at his coat, giving it a sharp tug to iron and neaten it out. "Mother." Both of their faces were brought red from being caught at seemingly an innocent act.

Olivia Cavendish cocked her head to the side, her green eyes twinkling in mirth. "Would someone like to explain ah is happening here? Is this a repetition of a few years ago?"

No response followed. "Well then, I must invite you, Lady Sophia to dine with us, for I want to know how you fare and what you are doing in the house of the man whose heart got broken by you. However, I do suppose you can argue that he broke your heart first," she mused.

"My...my lady...I," Sophia gulped like a fish out of water. "I..."

Slightly pushing Sophia towards the direction of the door, Blake butted in and cried, "Mother, she had to leave. She has important business to attend to."

"Then why is she here, pray tell if she has such important issues?"

"I was here to merely apologize for my actions." Sophia quickly bit out, thanking Blake silently with her eyes. He nodded and gave her a small smile, which did weird things to her heart.

"I think you did a lot more than just apologize and win his forgiveness," Olivia grinned gesturing politely towards Sophia's new ring. Sophia quickly hid it behind the fold of her skirts. "My lady, I.-"

"Oh, stop that nonsense of blabbering my child," the old dame cried. "Were you both, or at least you Blake, my child, planning on informing me that you were going to elope?" Both of them started to protest but Olivia waved them off.

"Don't deny it. If you were going to honest about your intentions, I wouldn't have caught you here, planning things and announcing marriages in secret. Nevertheless, I am not going to say anything."

"You're not?" The lovers echoed and looked at each other in surprise.

"I saw... nothing here today. "

"Why mother, would you do this? Elopement could cause blackening of our family name! Besides, you the one who said father was right and I had to do my duty and marry a respectable woman. Colette was the catch of the season and was deemed respectable enough, but now I am marrying her scandalized sister!"

"Yes, but your father was also power hungry and I am not him. Besides the family cannot get more corrupted as you and the Brightons both brought shame to it!"

Sophia had the grace to blush.

"Besides, my son, elopement is so romantic. Your father was duty oriented in terms of marriage, but I believe there need to exist passion as well. Duty is integral, Blake, but so is happiness," Olivia whispered, causing Sophia to nod her head in agreement. It was what she often thought too, especially when she was a child.

Would you have believed that when I served as a nurse in London for wounded soldiers that I met the most dashing naval hero? At the time I was fifteen or sixteen perhaps and believed I was in love. It was forbidden of course because of our stations. We had our entire elopement planned out, but unfortunately, he perished from his wounds later." Olivia's face grew stormy but then brightened. "So yes, elopement bothers me not. Experience it for me, won't you, my son? Don't forgo your duties, but follow your heart."

"I feel like this is one of those traps like you used to when I was a child. You used to tell me something, made me believe it and then do a turnaround and complete deceive me. I don't know for what purpose though."

Olivia laughed. "Yes, I did do that often, didn't I. It was just to make you realize that everything you wanted, may not come. But now it has, in the form of Sophia. I give you my blessing.

Sophia curtsied, still the same awkward one she always displayed. "My lady. This is... unexpected to say the least, for you to be so open and treat me with such a warm reception."

Olivia clicked her tongue. "Once you are Lady Cavendish, I must teach you to curtsy properly. Yours is barely passable. What is that make sit so clumsy when you get back up?"

"I do not know, my lady."

Blake then suddenly started to laugh and both of women stared at him in a peculiar manner. "What?' he asked, trying to defend himself. "I always found her curtsy charming and for you to change it..." He guffawed again.

Sophia grinned at his raucous laughter, unable to control the grin that licked her features and Olivia Cavendish restrained herself from rolling eh eyes to the heavens.

"Youth," she shook her head she walked out of the room.

"Youth indeed we are," Blake whispered. Grabbing Sophia's hand in both of his, he pressed a kiss to them and look into her pools of cerulean earnestly.

"I shall pack immediately for our elopement. Meet me in your front keep at midnight sharp. Make all arrangements for Colette, Jeanne, and Jeffrey until we come back. We're going to Scotland, and come back as man and wife." Blake hurrahed.

"Indeed, we are, Mr. Cavendish."

Sophia could help but shiver in anticipation and delight. She was suddenly reminded of a book she had read on a lonely night after her other died, of how two lovers escaped in the dead of night, the moon gliding across their skin and the summer warmth kissing their hair. She would now be in one of the magical moments herself.

But that was not the only warmth that kept a human soul burning that night. Somewhere far away from the lovers, Lord Conway sipped his drink in delight, because of the news Colette had told him recently. Sophia had gone to get Blake back, just like he had suspected and wanted.

Checkmate.

It was time for the king to fall.

A/N: What are your thoughts on Olivia Cavendish?

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the highest, how much do you ship Blake and Sophia?

Readers! Thank you for taking your time to read this chapter! Be sure to vote, comment and share it with others! Every single thing means the world to me! I love you all!