Love Forever After

by Patricia Rice

  Graham grabbed her ankle and pulled it toward him, holding it tightly despite her squirming protest. “Let us begin again. Why is my beautiful wife crying her eyes out alone in her bed when she could come to me? Speak, Penelope, or I shall torture it out of you.” His thumb ran warningly down the sole of her foot, sending shivers up and down her leg.

  “I tried to go to you,” Penelope replied indignantly, fighting his sympathy with anger. “You made it quite clear that I am too foolish to understand anything, and you shut me out. Why should I tell you anything now?”

  Graham’s lips bent in a half smile. “This must be progress. I seldom make you angry. Understand that I cannot mend my ways until I know what I have done wrong. You have punished me severely this past week, but I do not know what I must do to earn your good graces again.”

  “Do you say you do not even know what you have done wrong?” she asked, incredulous. The hand on her ankle was easing upward.

  “I have been curt and rude, for which I apologize. There are occasionally other things on my mind, and I am out of practice in being polite. It does not come so naturally as it once did.”

  “Curt and rude, I understand, even if others do not. But you told me I did not know what I was talking about and refused to discuss something I felt very strongly about!” Penelope did not mention he had also shut his door in her face when she very much wanted to hold him after worrying herself ill for weeks over his absence. That would give him more than he deserved. “You must decide whether you want me as wife and equal or as a paid servant who should keep her thoughts to herself!”

  “The governess seduced by her evil employer and terrified of being thrown out without references?” Graham murmured wickedly, his hand exploring further, testing the curve of her ankle. “Is that how you see us? Then I have been cruel, and you are right to punish me, but can we not find a better way of fighting? I do not like being locked from your room.”

  Penelope blushed, as much at the look in his eye as the tone of his words, but she held her ground. “It is all right for you to shut me out, but I cannot do the same? How do I fight that? Shall I take an ax to your door? Or your head?”

  Graham chuckled appreciatively. “That would catch my attention assuredly. But perhaps we could find a better solution. Why don’t we remove the lock so neither of us can shut the other out? I know there may be times when you would prefer to be left alone, and you must understand there are times when I would do the same, but surely we are adult enough to say these things without hurting each other?”

  He made everything sound so reasonable, she was ashamed of her behavior, but he had explained nothing, and he had not said he would send Chadwell away. He seduced her in the same way his cousin did, without offering any of himself. Was that how it was meant to be between man and wife? Each going his own way except in bed? She did not think so if she could judge by Adelaide and Brian, but perhaps they were the exception to the rule.

  “Removing a lock from a door will not remove the barriers between us, Graham. There are things you do not tell me, and times you will not listen. I try not to bother you with trifles, and I have no right to ask the secrets of your heart, but you cannot behave as you did with Arthur the other day without offering an explanation. Such behavior affects me as well as you, and I think I have a right to know.”

  Graham defended himself in time-honored fashion by turning to the offensive. “I do not think I am the only one with secrets, Penelope. Would you care to tell me how you have spent the days since my return? What is so important to you that you neglect your guests and your duties? And then tell me why Guy is the one who shares these times with you?”

  Penelope stared with incredulity at the tight lines of his face and the whitening scar. “You could think that of me?” she asked in disbelief. “How could you? What have I ever done to give you such an opinion of me? Perhaps we are very wrong for each other. I thought we might suit, that we might bump along together once we worked things out, but I have been so very wrong about other things, perhaps I was wrong in this, too. Let go of me, Graham.”

  She tried to shake her leg free, but far from releasing her, Graham gave a tug that pulled her from her high perch on the pillows and slid her night rail to embarrassing heights. Penelope scrambled to pull the cloth back, but Graham grinned triumphantly and rode his hand over her bottom. Penelope shrieked and threw herself at him to push his hand away, but that was the wrong tactic. One steel-like arm wrapped about her waist and dragged her across his lap while his free hand continued its ardent explorations.

  “Oh, we shall suit very well, my prim Penny, and shortly I will ask you again what you have been doing with your days. But not right now, I think.”

  With great satisfaction he bent to drown her protestations.

  Chapter 30

  Penelope woke to a bed not her own but with no one beside her. Cautiously she glanced across the semi-darkened room, remembering the placement of tables and chairs and the dresser and washstand against the wall. Her night rail and Graham’s shirt and trousers lay in puddles of cloth upon the floor, and she buried her face in the pillow again.

  How could she have let him seduce her like that? She had every right to be angry with him, to demand explanations, but she had let him sweet-talk her into his bed without a word of apology. And now he had escaped for the day and she was no further along than before, just well and truly tumbled as if she were a mistress he could discard at will.

  Strangely she felt no anger, but only a languid contentment as she stretched and burrowed herself into the comfort of Graham’s massive bed. At least he had not returned her to her own room as he was wont to do. She liked it here where she could still see the imprint of his head upon the pillow and smell the masculine scents that lingered on the sheets. She turned on her side and touched the indentation in the pillow, wishing the shutters on the window were open so she could see out.

  A noise in the entrance to the dressing room made her glance up, and her heart did an odd tattoo against her ribs as she discovered Graham watching her. With light only from the top of the windows, he stood in shadow, but she could tell he was still only half dressed. He wore a robe wrapped around his flat middle, concealing the fresh trousers he had donned but leaving much of his chest exposed. She knew he bore scars just below the collarbone, but she could not see them from here. She had never really seen them, only felt them in the darkness when he made love to her.

  Penelope blushed at the way he was looking at her now. Acutely aware that she wore nothing at all, she couldn’t meet his gaze. She had never known what it was to wake after a night of love and find her husband still beside her. She plunged like a turtle beneath the covers, hiding her embarrassment. That brought a crooked smile to his lips.

  Penelope gulped as he sat down upon the bed. A fresh scent similar to pine clung to him, and she realized she would recognize that scent anywhere. Daringly she peeped from beneath the blanket and felt her heart nearly stop at the look in his eye. She would never get any sense out of him at all when he looked at her that way.

  “No more tears?” he asked gruffly.

  “Not now.” Penelope kept her pillow near at hand but dared to look up at him. She could not honestly say that her husband was handsome, and perhaps he was not a true gentleman, but she loved him with every ounce of her foolish heart and soul.

  “You are not afraid of me?” he asked with curiosity when she did not come out of hiding with more than one eye.

  That brought the other eye into view. “Afraid of you? Should I be?”

  Graham chuckled and grabbed a fistful of hair, pulling her up from her cocoon of covers. “You amaze me, Lady Trevelyan. You are as timid as a wild rabbit when I but wish to look upon you, yet you have no fear of my touch. Why is that?”

  Penelope gave that some thought as she snuggled her shoulders into the pillows piled next to his thigh. Primly she hugged the covers over her breasts. “That could be because I am accustomed to your touch, but it is alw
ays dark when you look at me. I’m not afraid,” she offered honestly, “but I’m not accustomed to being seen without clothes. It cannot be very proper.”

  Graham caught her chin and turned her gaze up to him. “Propriety is for the public, not the privacy of our chambers. In here we can be ourselves, say what we think, do what we like. Don’t you think that’s the way it ought to be?”

  He said that with such intensity that she knew he had a reason for it, but she very much wanted it to be like that for them. “Say what we think? If I ask why you do things that hurt me and others, you will not tell me I don’t understand and it’s none of my business?”

  “Am I allowed to ease into this with simple things first?” he asked, mocking her words of months ago.

  Penelope pulled the covers back up to her nose and glared at him. “Of course, if that is your wish, but it works both ways.”

  With a pained half smile, he agreed. “Very well, we will do this slowly. I will take your word for it that you are not swayed by Guy’s winning ways, if you will believe me when I say I have never meant to hurt you or any of the innocents who stumble unwittingly against my anger. I had never thought to mend my ways when we married, but I can see now that your opinion of me is more important than anything else, and that I will be happier when I have won your approval.”

  She lowered the sheet to her shoulders again and stared at him in disbelief. “I will try very hard to believe that, my lord, but you must know you don’t make it easy.”

  “I know,” he said gruffly, rising to his feet. “But I have faith in your wisdom and forgiveness. Come, let us greet the day together.” He held out his hand to help her up.

  Penelope’s gaze flew from where he stood to where her night rail lay, and her cheeks heated. She wanted to please him, but perhaps he forgot she wore nothing beneath these sheets. His chuckle put an end to that thought, but reluctantly, Graham reached for her wrapper and held it out—one step from her reach.

  Sighing with exasperation at this childish ploy, Penelope flung back the covers and rose from the bed, snatching the night rail from his hands. Jerking it on, she stuck her tongue out at him and proceeded grandly toward her own chambers, head held high and chin up.

  His roar of laughter filled the room and brought a smile to start the day.

  By evening, her smile had disappeared. Penelope threw herself into the work at the orphanage as usual, singing and quite happy with the way things were progressing, but entirely forgetting the Reardons’ rout that evening. When she returned home to find Adelaide dressed in all her finery and pacing the floor, her hand flew to her mouth in horror.

  “I forgot! Oh, no, Graham will never forgive me. What am I to do? Guy will be here any minute.”

  Adelaide’s brow wrinkled with perplexity. “And Graham makes fun of the way I speak. Whatever are you about, Penny? I’m sure Graham will forgive you for forgetting, he does it often enough himself, but Guy is the one who is escorting you, is he not?”

  Penelope flushed and looking longingly toward the stairs and escape. “Yes, but I forgot to tell Graham we were going,” she whispered. “Is he here?”

  “I heard him roaring not long ago. If he’s not to go, why should it matter? Let him sulk in his own mean little world.”

  Penelope cast her a helpless look and hurried toward the stairs. She had to explain to him, make him understand why she had not mentioned the rout, and why Guy would be downstairs shortly to take her away when she knew very well what Graham planned for this evening.

  He was not in his chamber when she reached it, and she uttered a very improper oath under her breath. He was probably in the kitchen rattling the staff for some minor misdemeanor. She would have to dress and wait for him.

  Her maid had a bath waiting and a gown laid out. Penelope did not linger over her ablutions but raced through the motions, all the time listening for the sound of Guy’s arrival downstairs or Graham in the room next door. Guy was as late as she, thank heavens.

  She donned the gold silk and waited impatiently for the maid to finish fussing with the matching ribbons twining through the elaborate loops and curls. Scarcely taking time to admire the effect, Penelope caught up her gloves and fan and flew down the hall toward the stairs.

  To her dismay, she could hear Graham’s laughing voice carrying up from the salon. She would have to face him in front of everyone else and admit her deception. Why ever had she tried to do it? She knew better than to commit even the smallest of crimes. She always got caught.

  Slowly she descended the stairs, until she could see into the front hall and knew they were all standing there, waiting. Her gaze searched the shadows until she found him, and her eyes widened in astonishment. Graham had dressed in his formal frock coat as if he meant to attend, also!

  His appreciative gaze followed her down the last few steps, leaving Penelope even more flustered. She glanced to Adelaide and Brian, but they saw nothing wrong in this charade. Gulping back her fear, she looked inquiringly to Graham. He smiled and held out his arm.

  “Shall we go, my dear?”

  He knew. Somehow he knew about the rout and Guy. Guy wasn’t late. He wasn’t coming. Not knowing whether to be terrified or happy, Penelope peeped timidly up to Graham’s square-cut jaw as she took his arm.

  “You are not angry?”

  “Angry? No, why should I be when I know you will explain all, tonight,” he leaned over to whisper wickedly in her ear, “When we are snug and warm in our bed.”

  Penelope cursed the heat rising in her cheeks, but she clung to his strong arm as they went out the door.

  The rout was an unequivocal success. When the guests insisted on an impromptu dance, Graham stayed close to Penelope’s side, grudgingly allowing her to dance with others only when etiquette required that he escort his hostess and other guests onto the floor. Penelope observed that Dolly’s color rose to a most flattering shade of pink after Guy defied all rules by leading her out on the floor for a third and fourth dance. Lady Reardon appeared to remain calm over this breach of good manners. Either her guests kept her too busy to notice or Guy had charmed her as thoroughly as her daughter.

  Only one incident marred the evening. Arthur had joined his family in the receiving line, but for the sake of appearances, he and Graham had coldly ignored each other. When Charles DeVere arrived, however, Arthur went white with rage and left his place to catch the newcomer by the elbow before he could start down the line.

  “What in hell are you doing here?” Arthur pushed the older man back in the direction of the door, keeping his voice down.

  “I received an invitation,” DeVere returned icily. “Your family has not found me offensive in the past.”

  “That is because I did not see fit to give them the sordid details. A man of character would not have dared return here under any circumstances. I should have known you would act without honor. If that is the game you choose to play, I will feel free to act the same and reveal you to all and sundry.”

  By this time, Arthur had forcibly steered his guest back outside, and they stood concealed by shrubbery, their voices scarcely rising above the clatter of arriving carriages.

  DeVere shook off Arthur’s restraining hand. “You cursed young pup! How do you think to expose me without getting yourself turned out of the house? Let the past die.”

  “I care not what happens to me, but I will protect the innocent with the last breath in me, as I shall soon enough, I know. Trevelyan is only biding his time before calling me out. I will go to my grave without fear, but I will leave a letter behind to my brother. While I live, your secret is safe. When I die, that letter will keep you barred from every decent door in town. I’d suggest you find another place of abode, DeVere.”

  DeVere spoke with barely controlled rage. “How can Trevelyan know anything? You are imagining things. He was near to death that night. You are playing at heroes and villains, Reardon. Wake up to the real world.”

  “I have. That is why I forbid you in this hous
e,” Arthur insisted. “I don’t know how Gray learned of my involvement, but he knows, and he means to kill me for it. I don’t believe your life will be a long one once he learns your involvement. I cannot give you a better warning.”

  “Chadwell!” DeVere hissed in realization. “I thought it was just you he was after, but it’s all of us. I will go, but if you intend to outlive that rotting hulk of a neighbor of yours, you had better keep your lips sealed. He’ll not challenge you or any other after I’m through with him.” DeVere spun on his heel and stalked off.

  Only his mother noticed his return to the house. Arthur brushed off her attempts to send him back to his sickbed, and stared over the crowd to where Graham stood head and shoulders above everyone else. He couldn’t right the wrong that had been done, but he could do everything in his power to keep it from happening again.

  Penelope relaxed in the circle of Graham’s arm as the carriage rattled toward home. Adelaide and Brian had left earlier, so they had the carriage to themselves, a fact Graham took full advantage of. His kisses set her skin ablaze, and the path of his hand left her eager for more. She wished the fabric of her gown would disappear so she could feel his strong fingers against her bare flesh. His kiss deepened as the carriage rolled to a halt.

  The footman assigned to open the door for them stared wide-eyed and hastily stepped back, allowing the door to close again. Graham chuckled against Penelope’s mouth and reluctantly released her. “A few more minutes, darling, and I will have you all to myself. Are you ready?”

  “I don’t think I am. I don’t think I will ever be. You cannot turn the little cinder girl into a princess overnight,” Penelope answered, clinging to his hand.

  Graham laughed and jumped to the ground, holding his hands out to pull her from the carriage. “You don’t know your own powers, princess. We shall see who changes into what before the night is over.”