Snowed In with the Runaway Bride (Regency Runaway Brides #7)

Chapter 1

The closer her family’s traveling coach came to her wedding, the more Penelope Montgomery wished she could turn tail and run.

Her mother’s continuous burbles about the romance of Christmas weddings, as though this had not all been arranged when Penny was a mere child, made her want to scream.

A scream would echo oddly in the coach, likely muffled by the thick curtains that covered the windows and warm blankets that covered Penny, her mother, and Penny’s identical twin sister, Pippa.

Penny looked over at her sister, who had finally awakened after sleeping like the dead all the way from their last change of horses. Pippa lifted the curtain to look out the carriage window with a frown. Mother followed Penny’s gaze.

“Stop that, Pippa. You’re letting in a draft. Your sister will freeze.”

“Sorry, Mother,” Pippa said, without dropping the curtain. “I do believe it will snow.”

“It would be lovely to have snow for Christmas!” Mother gushed. Then she frowned. “But not until all of the guests have arrived. It would be dreadful to have everyone trapped on the road. Your father is still on his way from whatever that business was that sent him to Manchester.”

“If Papa is late, we could postpone the wedding,” Penny said, trying to keep the hope out of her voice.

Mother glared at her. “Bridal jitters are all very well, my dear, but it’s a bit late now. You shall be married in three days’ time.” She sighed. “A Christmas Eve wedding. So romantic.”

The rumble of the carriage wheels and clatter of the horses’ hooves picked up the rhythm of Mother’s words.

Three days’ time… three days’ time…

Penny had only three more days to escape her fate.

As the coach rounded the drive, she lifted the curtain on her own side of the carriage despite Mother’s fussing about the cold. That same cold seeped into Penny’s already aching bones as she regarded the gray stone walls that rose starkly against the winter-brown countryside.

In three days’ time, this would be her home. Away from her family. Away from her sister. Alone with a man who still felt like a virtual stranger even though they had known each other since they were children.

Barring one half-hearted attempt the previous year, he had never even so much as kissed her.

Not that she particularly wanted him to.

The carriage drew to a halt and the Duke of Kendal emerged from the front door, closely followed by a bevy of footmen.

Carefully, Penny unfolded her limbs from the carriage seat.

The painful swelling of her joints that had plagued her all through her recovery from the fever that had nearly killed her was becoming less frequent, but the cold, damp weather had made it flare up again.

Combined with the rigors of travel, her aching joints wanted nothing more than a warm bed and perhaps some bitter but soothing willow bark tea.

But that could not be allowed, of course. She was the future Duchess of Kendal. The rituals must be adhered to. She must greet the servants, and then attend the reception with the whole family, and then dress for dinner, and then, and then, and then…

Penny shook out her skirts and pasted a smile on her face as the carriage door opened and a footman lowered the steps. Her gloved hand crept into the pocket of her pelisse to make certain the tiny wooden swallow was still there. Her good luck charm.

Before Penny could get to her feet, Mother all but leaped for the open door, startling the waiting footman, and made a precipitous descent, chattering all the way down.

Taking a deep breath, Penny put weight on her sore joints and stood, her head stooped to avoid catching her traveling bonnet on the roof of the coach.

As she descended from the carriage, Penny looked beyond Kendal to see a familiar figure standing just inside the door, and her heart made a little leap even as her step faltered.

Hugo had come after all.

It had been uncertain whether Kendal’s younger brother would be able to get away from London, or so Kendal had written her.

With Napoleon safely stashed away on St. Helena, Hugo had won his first official command as a post-captain after competing with most of the other captains of His Majesty’s Royal Navy.

The Navy’s reduction in forces following the Allied victory at Waterloo had left many captains scrambling to find berths, which made Hugo’s accomplishment even more impressive.

Once he had left to be a midshipman, Penny had only seen Hugo once a year, or every few years, depending on his assignment, always with a new tale of derring-do at sea for his younger cousins... and for Penny to eavesdrop on, if she happened to be nearby.

She had always tried to be nearby.

But now the war was over, and he was here.

Penny busied herself with straightening her skirts once her feet were firmly on the ground, her heart pounding.

The thought of marrying Kendal was already dreadful, but to have to do it with Hugo watching would be unbearable.

He was always… judging her and her frivolous ways.

Lurking in corners, frowning at her. Her skin prickled with heat every time she caught him looking at her with those disapproving brown eyes.

He had only ever made one gesture that made her wonder if she was wrong about him.

Her hand strayed to where the tiny hand-carved swallow rested in her pocket before she tossed her head and straightened her bonnet. She didn’t care what Captain Lord Hugo Dalston thought of her. Not in the slightest.

Instead, she smiled at Kendal.

“Welcome, my dear,” he said.

“Thank you, Kendal.”

“Did you have a pleasant journey?”

Her screaming joints warned her not to ignore them, or she would pay for it later. She broadened her smile instead. She knew what was required of her.

“Tolerable, thank you.”

She moved aside as Pippa emerged from the carriage, handed down by Kendal himself. Penny frowned a little as he leaned in close to hear Pippa speak. They seemed quite… cozy together.

One might almost have thought Pippa was his intended bride.

Kendal turned back to Penny with a smile. “Are you ready, my dear?”

Penny shook the thought away and pinned a bright smile to her face while she took the arm Kendal extended to her. Mama was on his other side as Pippa trailed behind them, looking sour.

Surely Penny had imagined any connection between them. “Certainly, Kendal.”

She snuck another look at the doorway as they approached. Hugo was already gone.

He shouldn’t have come.

Hugo backed away from the front door, hating himself for needing to see Penny as soon as she arrived, to make sure she was really here. That she had arrived safely. He had only seen her once since her illness, when she had still been so pale and weak it had terrified him.

Oliver had told him she was nearly well again, but Hugo had needed to see for himself that it was true.

He needed to watch Penny step down from the carriage, her hand in his brother's, once again looking around with that expectant look on her face.

The one that said she was looking for her next adventure.

She was nearly well again. He could see it for himself. Oh, her movements were slower, more deliberate, but she had taken an interest in the world again. Far too many people became fearful after nearly dying.

But Penny Montgomery was nothing if not stubborn, and while that stubbornness had helped her cling to life when the physicians thought she would die, it also meant she was trouble. She always had been.

It was not his concern. Once the wedding was over, Hugo must leave for his new assignment thousands of miles away with no way of knowing what trouble she had gotten herself into next. She would be all right. Oliver would keep her safe.

Any wish that he, Hugo, could be the one to keep her safe was forced down once again. It had been a useless thought since the day Penny had been introduced to the Dalston family as his brother’s future bride more than a decade years ago.

The wedding had been delayed so many times that he had almost started to believe it would never happen.

Now it was not only about to happen, he was obliged to stand witness to it, and celebrate the happy couple at the wedding breakfast, and know Oliver was taking Penny to bed under the same roof where he must sleep.

Perhaps he could manufacture an urgent message from the Admiralty requiring him to return to London immediately after the wedding ceremony. No one could expect him to stay if that happened.

And then perhaps he could stay away long enough to finally become resigned to the fact that Penny would never be his, no matter how much he dreamed of her.

He feared there was no span of time long enough for that.

“Lord Hugo?”

Jolted from his thoughts, Hugo turned to see Teasdale, the family’s butler, observing him quizzically.

“Yes?”

“Your grandmother is looking for you.”

“Thank you, Teasdale.” Even from where he stood at the foot of the staircase, Hugo could hear the riotous sound of the gathered Dalstons in the reception room upstairs.

Relatives came from near and far for Christmas at Gaitskill Castle despite its remote location in Cumberland scarcely a day’s ride from the Scottish border.

In fact, that very remoteness was what gathered them here, where they could be private together away from Society.

It had been only the Dalstons for Christmas until Oliver had been promised to Penny and the Montgomerys began coming to the annual house party as well so Oliver and Penny could become better acquainted.

Hugo had gone to sea as a midshipman not long after and had only attended Christmases sporadically, as his duties allowed.