Chapter Two
“My lady, Mr. Edward Thornton to see you,” the footman said with a smile and a wink.
“Thank you, John,” Penelope said in the calmest voice she possessed, which didn’t seem very controlled at the moment.
However, having Edward there immediately made her runaway heartbeat slow from a full gallop to a trot.
His presence always had that effect on her.
Yet her heart rate was never what she’d call peaceful.
There was always a flicker of excitement and anticipation whenever he entered the room.
Bother that. She had known him forever.
“Are you all right?” Edward asked as he entered the room. “I just saw Draven.”
“Yes. But if I were to compare him to an insect, I’d say he’s a gnat.”
“Perfect description.” Edward came to her side and lowered his voice. “I don’t like the man. He was especially unpleasant today.”
“Well, he has good reason. He asked me to marry him.” She sighed in the most theatrical voice she could summon. “I told him I’m inclined to say no.”
Edward’s eyes widened, but he quickly schooled his features. “I see,” he answered.
“We have more important things to discuss than gnats. I’m so happy you’re here.
” Penelope picked up the parchment from the library table and waved the letter in the air as she turned to her very best friend in the entire world.
I just received this from my father, and you were the first one I had to see since Rosamund is not in town. ”
“Ouch.” Edward abruptly stopped and covered his heart with his hand. “Seems that I’ve been replaced by the Duchess of Bexley as your best friend.”
“There’s no doubt I regard her as a best friend.
However, sister best friends don’t count.
You are my best friend.” Penelope smiled as waves of memories flooded her thoughts of the first time they met.
“How could you say otherwise? Didn’t I share my iced biscuits with you when your father first came to tutor Charlie? ”
“If memory serves, you gave me exactly two. And kept five for yourself.”
Penelope shook her head and smiled, though heat licked her cheeks. “You always mention that.” She tilted her chin and inched her nose upward like a proper lady. “I saved three of the remaining five for you. I wanted to be sure you sought me out the next day.”
“You wanted someone your own age to spend time with.” He tapped his square chin with one finger and studied the painted ceiling.
“At least, that was your story.” His lips tugged upward, and his beautiful blue eyes sparkled like her brother’s Surrey estate reflecting pond at sunrise.
Though the calm water could be mistaken for glass, there were depths to it that one could only imagine.
Just like Edward.
One mesmerizing dimple graced his left cheek. When it appeared, it meant he was happy.
Her best friend was the most handsome man she had ever had the good fortune to see. It wasn’t just her opinion. In Surrey, where her brother’s ducal estate was located, all the ladies in the parish’s weekly sewing club thought that as well.
But Penelope was the only person who could claim Edward as her best friend and bosom companion.
Ever since the first day they met, they’ve been each other’s confidant.
It was Edward who always asked her to dance at the assemblies when no one else would.
He always remembered her birthday and gave her a poem he’d written.
She’d saved every single one in her secret journal.
And it was Edward who had comforted her when her father had died.
He didn’t ask any questions or tell her everything would be all right.
He just held her as she cried her eyes out.
Penelope straightened her spine. If her father were still alive, he would be aghast that his little poppet was still mourning him while questioning his directive.
Adjusting her stance caused two ostrich feathers from her hat to fall in front of her eyes.
“Pen, a rat could make a nest in that ridiculous hat,” Edward teased.
She blew one of the extravagant feathers out of her face. “Being a bastion of fashion is not for the faint of heart. I will battle these so-called ‘ridiculous’ feathers as long as I can breathe. They make me appear taller and shapelier.”
“Pen,” he scolded in his soft, deep voice that always caused goosebumps to scatter across her arms. “You don’t need to be taller or shapelier. You’re beautiful and perfect the way you are.”
She hmphed. “You only say that because you are…”
“I am what?”
“My best friend.” Her gaze skated down her gown but instantly caught on her ample bosom. “I need the height. There’s no denying I’m top-heavy. A bit out of trim and in danger of capsizing, as they say.”
“You’re not a boat. As I say, you’re perfect.”
Penelope rolled her eyes. She’d argued with him for years over this matter.
Men who were suitable marriage candidates didn’t call on her or ask her to dance at the various balls, soirees, or other social events she attended.
As Draven had reminded her, she was no typical English rose.
Those so-called roses were usually shorter and at least two stone thinner than her.
And their center of gravity wasn’t top-heavy.
“Shall we sit?” Edward motioned toward the sofa.
Penelope shook her head but smiled sweetly. “I’m incapable of sitting at the moment.”
Edward stepped closer until there were barely six inches between them. “Is it the task your father left you?”
She nodded, ruffling her feathers again, and swallowed the lump in her throat as the implications of the task became clearer in her mind. “The whole thing is ludicrous.”
This time, Edward was the one to push the feathers aside. “That must mean that your sisters’ tasks have all been attempted or completed. Only then were you to have received yours.” His deep voice rumbled, and she felt the tremor in her chest.
Or perhaps it was her heart pounding against her ribs. Whatever it was, it was most disconcerting.
“Here.” Penelope offered the parchment to Edward.
His brow furrowed into neat lines like a perfectly plowed field as he read. “To inherit, you must marry and live humbly for one year.”
“Humbly,” Penelope echoed. “I beg you or anyone in this house to define ‘humbly.’ Because I assure you, I’ve already sacrificed a great deal.
Last week, Cook ran out of current biscuits, and I bore it without complaint.
” The fire snapped in that instant, obviously in agreement with her.
She sniffed dramatically. She very well knew she sounded silly, but to act otherwise would lead to tears.
Edward smiled, and his deep voice rumbled with exasperated humor. With the utmost tenderness, he pulled the two pins that held her hat in place. Like a waterfall, it began to tumble, but he caught it in time and placed it on the table. “He didn’t mean biscuits, Pen.”
He leaned against the sturdy table with his arms folded, looking impossibly broad and irritatingly handsome, as though he were carved from stoic wood.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she snapped. “You’re supposed to be on my side. And pray tell, why does he want me to live humbly? Whatever that means,” she mumbled under her breath.
“I am on your side,” he said calmly. “Perhaps your father thought you needed further education about others.”
“You mean like how other people live?” Her voice rose two octaves. “Others, as in other people?” she repeated, scandalized. “I know how others live.”
He shrugged. “Or perhaps, he wanted you to learn more about yourself.”
She chewed on her bottom lip and started to pace. “There’s no explanation in the letter.”
It was unthinkable that her own father believed she was selfish or spoiled.
He repeatedly had assured her she was a model daughter.
When he was ill in bed, she sat with him day after day, reading, talking, and keeping him company so he wouldn’t be alone.
Her eyes blurred with unshed tears. Heaven knew she was all too familiar with being alone.
She had been alone when her sister, Josphine, the second youngest, had found her true love.
Penelope had smiled and waved as the carriage drove away.
As soon as it was out of sight, she let the tears fall.
That afternoon, Edward came to visit, and they eventually played several card games that distracted her.
She even suspected that he had allowed her to win as a way to keep her mind off her loneliness.
It was as if he’d known she would be devastated.
Of course, the estate had all sorts of staff around, but they weren’t her father’s staff anymore.
They worked for her brother, the new duke.
Charlie had inherited the dukedom when her father had passed.
That had meant a new beginning for Charlie and his wife, Felicia.
Soon, he and his duchess would start their own family.
Though she did not doubt that Charlie and Felicia would love her forever and would allow her to stay for as long as she wanted, that wasn’t Penelope’s choice.
She wanted her own life with her own family.
And she wanted to be close to Edward.
Penelope turned to him. “Do you think Father thought I was spoiled?”
He smiled gently and shook his head. “On the contrary. He thought you were one of his most generous daughters.” His expression cleared like a midnight fog on the Thames meeting the dawn.
Instantly, she sensed something was afoot. “How do you know that?”
His long blond hair reminded her of a lion’s mane, but it did little to cover the redness of his ears and cheeks. They always turned red when he was caught in a lie or an exaggeration. “Your father and I had many a conversation about you.”
“About what?” She crossed her arms over her chest as he had done before.
“As I said, about you.” He cleared his throat. “Now, back to the matters at hand.”
“Next, you’ll say I need to learn how to milk a cow,” she huffed.