Chapter 7 #2
She turned to go, but Will caught her by the arm and eased her back down beside him.
“Wait, Miss Hervey. Before you go, I want you to know I appreciate all you’ve done for my sister.
I wouldn’t have thought a few days could make such a change, but…
well, I’ve missed her smile. I’m relieved to see it again. ”
Miss Hervey’s face softened. “She’s a dear, sweet young lady, and a good girl, despite the business with Mr. Rowley. She asked me yesterday if I thought…” She trailed off, biting her lip.
“Yes? What did she ask you?”
“I don’t like to betray Lady Madeline’s confidence, but perhaps it’s best if you know. She asked if I thought Mr. Rowley was her one true love. Not in those words, exactly, but that was her meaning.”
Will’s shoulders stiffened. “For God’s sake, the man tried to ruin her! He’s the worst kind of scoundrel. I hope that’s what you told her.”
A faint smile crossed her lips. “I can’t imagine why Lady Madeline thinks you’re difficult to talk to, my lord.
Of course, I told her he was a scoundrel.
Again, not in those words. I was a bit more tactful than that.
She already knew it herself, you know. She only needed a lady her own age to confide her troubles to. ”
Will’s eyebrows rose. “Are you of an age?” It surprised him, but he wasn’t sure why it should. Miss Hervey couldn’t be above twenty years old, but she seemed…not older, but certainly stronger than most young ladies her age.
“I’m just two years her senior—not so much older I don’t remember what it was like to fancy myself in love. Indeed, Lady Madeline and I have more in common than you might imagine,” she added in a low voice, more to herself than to him.
He shouldn’t ask. The less he knew about Penelope Hervey, the better. Yet Will felt his mouth opening, the words coming out. “What do you have in common?”
“We were both gently raised. I’m not a lady, of course, but my father was a gentleman—vicar at a small parish in Berkshire.
He was a learned man, and taught me Mathematics, History and Geography.
” A shadow passed over her face. “He would be grief-stricken if he knew I’d ended up at the Pandemonium. ”
“How…” Will swallowed against the ache in his throat. “How did you end up at the Pandemonium?”
She shrugged, but she didn’t meet his eyes.
“It’s a common enough story, really. A foolish young girl fancies herself in love, leaves her father’s protection, and…
well, you know how this sort of story typically ends.
In my case, it ended at the Pandemonium.
It’s hardly a fairy tale, and yet it could be worse, I suppose. ”
She’d been ruined, then. Some scoundrel had seduced her, ruined and then abandoned her. Will gazed at the sweet curve of her lips, the vulnerable lines of her white neck, and a crack opened in his chest. “Can’t you return to Berkshire? Surely your father would—”
“He died less than a year after I left. I’ve often wondered if he…
well, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t have any brothers, you see.
There was no one to chase me when I ran—no one to save me from myself.
If there had been—if I’d had a brother to watch over me as you watch over Lady Madeline—it might have turned out differently. ”
She turned to meet his gaze then, and the sadness in her dark eyes nearly undid him. Without thinking, he reached for her and cupped her face in his palms. “Penelope, you must let me help—”
“No. Listen to me.” She gripped his wrists in her hands.
“I told you my story to make you understand. You’re a fine, caring brother, Lord Archer—a man who’d sacrifice his own happiness for his family’s sake.
Don’t you see? You don’t need to marry a titled lady to become a gentleman. You are a gentleman, just as you are.”
Will stared at her, speechless. He’d been called a rake and a rogue, a blackguard and a scoundrel, but not once had he ever been called a gentleman. That it should be her who’d said it—this lady with her sweet face and her vulnerable, trembling lips—filled him with an aching tenderness.
He looked into her eyes, and he couldn’t think of a word to say. So, he said nothing. He slid his hand to the back of her neck, urged her forward, and took her lips with his own.
A faint gasp rose in her throat when his mouth touched hers, but he gentled her with slow, sweet kisses until her body relaxed, and her hands fell against his chest. She melted into him then, and he gathered her close, groaning as her curves pressed against the hard planes of his body.
It had hardly begun, yet it was already the sweetest kiss he’d ever known.
She tasted like…oh, God, like moonlight and fresh cold air, and he was going mad, his lips parting hers, his tongue slipping inside and yes, there it was, just as he’d known it would be the first moment he saw her plump, red lips…
Here, in a frozen winter garden, he tasted summer strawberries, tart and sweet.
It made him wild for more of her—the glide of her tongue against his, fistfuls of her red curls in his hands. It was just a kiss, but his muscles were drawing taut, his body hardening for her.
She whimpered when he dragged his mouth down her neck. He nipped and licked at her smooth skin, tasting every inch he could reach. “Penelope, I want…”
He wanted her. Everything she was, and all of it at once. Her soft body under his, her fingers in his hair, her heartbeat against his lips, and…
He couldn’t have any of it. He couldn’t have her.
Will tore his mouth from hers with a groan of despair.
“My lord?” She raised her heavy-lidded gaze to his. Her lips were red and swollen from his kisses, and he’d never wanted anything in his life as much as he wanted to bring her back into the safety of his arms.
Instead, he gripped her waist in his hands and eased her away from him. “I—I can’t…we can’t…I beg your pardon, Miss Hervey. I shouldn’t have done that.”
The haze of desire in her eyes faded, and his heart flooded with misery. She touched her fingertips to her lips once, as if touching them would help her understand what just happened between them, but then her hand fell away and she rose from the bench.
She started to turn away, but before she vanished into the darkness, she paused and looked back at him. “Do you believe we each have our own one true love?”
Yes.
“I don’t know,” he muttered, without meeting her eyes.
She didn’t say whether or not she believed it. She only gazed at him for a quiet moment, and then, without another word she turned and melted into the darkness surrounding them.