Recaptured Dreams Read Online Free PDF Page A

want.”
    “I’m your mother,” Katherine said, sounding upset herself. “It’s my job—”
    “No,” Sophia said, trying to calm down. “Your job has been to gallivant around to charity events and parties in order to keep a good, upstanding name. Your job has been to berate me about what you think is best for my future. Your job has been to forget about my past when I so desperately want to remember it!”
    “I’m sorry.” Katherine reached out to Sophia again. “It’s just that I have certain duties and responsibilities…” She paused as she wrapped her arms around Sophia. “Believe it or not, I do want you to be happy.”
    Sophia tugged away from her mother and rubbed her eyes, fighting to keep tears at bay.
    “You don’t understand,” she said quietly. “You’ll never understand.”
    Without sparing her mother a glance, Sophia hurried out of the kitchen.
     
    “Where do you think you’re going?” Anne Marie asked as she walked into Sophia’s bedroom closet. Sophia had her luggage strewn about the floor and was desperately yanking things from the racks, tossing them haphazardly into the waiting suitcases.
    “Holiday,” Sophia grumbled as she pushed the hair from her face. “Sometimes one just needs to get away.” America sounded like a good place all of a sudden. Maybe she could track down Xavier and have her way with him. One-night stands weren’t her kind of thing, but, then again, she’d never quivered from the inside-out just being in a man’s arms before either. She wanted him. Her body was certainly trying to tell her something about him, and she admitted that finding out what it was wouldn’t be a laborious thing. Actually, it would be quite fun.
    She shook her head. Too much wishful thinking and not enough serious planning. Bad idea.
    Anne Marie took Sophia’s hand and drew her from the walk-in. “Did you fight with your mum again?”
    Sophia stopped midstride. “Is it that obvious?”
    “Yes,” Anne Marie replied. “These arguments seem to be never-ending. I’m sorry she keeps trying to shove a fairy tale down your throat. I know that’s not you.”
    Sophia turned back to the closet and snatched up some shoes from the floor. She dumped them with the rest of her things. “Then why is that so difficult for Mother to see?”
    “I don’t know. What has she done now?”
    “Well,” Sophia huffed as she leaned against the doorway, “she wants me to quit uni to date and, no doubt, marry some rich son of a friend of hers. Then she said I don’t get out enough and don’t attend enough ‘functions’ important to the family name and that I don’t seem to recall what my ‘duties’ are.” Sophia rolled her eyes as she walked to her bed and dropped down on silk golden duvet. “This isn’t the eighteen hundreds, for heaven’s sake. Mother makes it seem like being a countess is such a big deal. It’s her whole life, but that’s not me.” She raised her voice as she rose up. “I am not now, nor shall I ever be, like her.”
    Anne Marie sat beside Sophia and reached out for her friend’s hand.
    “Listen,” she said in a low, soothing voice. “I’m sorry you fought with your mum again. I’m sorry she makes you feel this way. But remember what I have always told you.” Anne Marie touched the end of Sophia’s nose with her fingertip. “You can only do what makes you happy and no one else. And I shall always be here if you need me.”
    Sophia cocked her head and looked at the woman who had been her friend since her first year at university. Sophia had been twenty-one at the time, and Anne Marie had been barely eighteen. While Sophia had struggled her way through one class at a time, Anne Marie had always been there, supporting and encouraging. A true friend who always remained by Sophia’s side.
    “It’s just been getting more and more difficult with Mother the older I get. I don’t know what the deal is: her or me?”
    “Both, I think,” Anne Marie said