Silently, she said her goodbye to Colby. Once done, she felt a weight lifted from her heart. Ginny didn't know what happened after she left her previous body, but she was willing to believe that her lovers all went on to live in happiness. She released a deep breath at the thought and quickened her steps. She wanted to be ready for when Oliver did finally sneak into her room.
Approaching the terrace, Ginny heard a noise coming from under the steps. Stopping, she listened harder until she was able to make out the sound of sniffling. Was someone crying? , she wondered as she turned from the stairs and headed to the side. There, in the dark shadows, was the form of a girl, head hunched over, hands over her face.
“Are you alright?” she asked, seeing the figure's head shoot up and look in her direction.
“Sarah, is that you,” the voice whined, then started anew with small, mewling sounds.
“Penny?” Ginny asked as she approached the girl. But Penelope couldn't answer, she was too busy sobbing into a handkerchief.
“What's the matter, Penny?” Ginny couldn't imagine what could be wrong. The last time she saw the girl, she'd been sitting in the parlor with her mother. Then she remembered that Penelope had left before she did.
“Where have you been? Did something happen in the parlor?” The girl still hadn't responded, too busy crying into her hands.
“Did someone hurt you, Penny?” Ginny was grasping for straws. Until Penelope stopped crying, she would get nothing out of her. Ginny pulled the girl along until she found a bench. Sitting her down, Ginny put her arm around her shaking shoulders and whispered soothing words to her. Finally, after a few more minutes, Penelope seemed to have cried herself out and was able to take a few deep breaths.
When her head lifted, she looked at Ginny with swollen eyes and nose. “Nothing happened in the parlor,” she said as some sort of explanation. Ginny was dying to ask more, but waited to see if Penelope would reveal more if given time.
“I sneaked out to meet with Lord Townshend.” Her whispered confession brought on new tears, but thankfully, she didn't begin to sob again. “Do you think so little of me now? That I should meet a man, not my husband in the garden at night.”
Ginny's eyes looked away for a moment. “I could hardly blame you when I am returning from meeting a man not my husband in the garden at night.”
Penelope looked at Ginny's guilty expression and gave a short laugh. “I bet your experience was vastly different from mine.”
As new tears began to fall down her cheeks, Ginny finally asked, “What happened, Penny? Did he do something to you that you didn't want? Did he hurt you?”
Sniffling, she responded, “No, not exactly. At least, not what you think. He did kiss me.” Penelope launched into her explanation of what happened.
Chapter 21
At dinner, Lord Townshend had whispered to her to meet him in the garden at a particular time. Penelope was elated. He'd been the perfect gentleman during all their outings, but every time she saw him, and much of the time she didn't, she thought back to the proper kiss he'd given her in the greenhouse. More than that, she thought about his promise to give her an improper kiss. She'd meant to ask Sarah if she knew what that entailed, but never got the chance.
After excusing herself from the parlor, she immediately went to the rendezvous location. Earlier that afternoon, when they had been walking through the garden, Martin pointed out a small greenhouse on the side of the garden proper. It was there that he asked her to join him when she could.
As she approached the greenhouse, her heart began to stammer and her breath hitched. As a girl of twenty, she should be more sophisticated, but truthfully, she wasn't. Her parents rarely attended the London season, having decided that their lives were just fine in the country. Throughout her two seasons, she'd longed to possess the quiet grace and delicate beauty of the other girls. Even when she tried, her intelligence would always manage to shine through.
She smelled cigar smoke in the air mingled with the scents of different flowers. They had already investigated the greenhouse, so she knew that Lady Hopewell used it only as a hothouse, so she could have fresh flowers in winter. There was no set up for experiments. Of course, its purpose was only for secrecy between Penelope and Martin.
Her shoes crunched on the gravel as she approached and she saw Martin turn suddenly and face her direction. With little moon, he was but a shadow, except for the glowing end of his cigar. He was quick to put if out and move forward to grab her arm. Without saying a word, he directed her to the other side, where neither would be seen or caught.
He reached up to caress her face with his knuckles and she would have sworn that his hand shook. When he did finally speak, his voice sounded deeper.
“I have waited for too long to give you this, darling. It has been nearly a month since promising you an improper kiss.”
Her heart elated at his words, realizing that he remembered the afternoon as well as she did. Closing her eyes and lifting her face, his lips descended upon hers. At first, he was as gentle as before, but it took little time before all that changed, and he was possessing her fully. When his tongue nudged her mouth into opening, Penelope finally saw what it meant to be kissed improperly.
Her hands laid flat against his chest and made their way up around his neck. As she combed his hair around his collar, she suddenly wished she'd thought to take off her gloves. She could only imagine the feel of his silky hair against her skin. A magical warmth spread through her body, pooling in between her legs, making her want things that she didn't understand.
When his lips left hers and made a path down her jaw, Penelope moved closer to his body, rubbing herself up and down the front of his coat, producing a fluttery sensation in her breasts. His hands replaced his chest, coaxing her nipples erect as he nuzzled in her neck. He pulled away suddenly and looked down on her, his expression fierce.
“Tell me you will be mine, Penelope. Tell me I can take you to my bed this very night.”
A dumb expression came over her face, not really believing what he'd just said to her. Did he just propose to her? Would he really take her, unsophisticated, plain Penelope? Her heart was about to burst wide open as she nodded her head in affirmation.
Unfortunately for Penelope, Martin did make a proposition, just not of marriage. His was far less respectable. And her heart would burst, not from joy, but from pain.
“Should you speak to my father tonight? He is most likely still awake.”
A darkness dropped over his face, part confusion, part dubious. “Penelope, why would I speak to your father?”
Stunned for a moment, she replied, “To ask my hand, of course.” Even as the words left her mouth, she knew that she had misunderstood and was humiliating herself even more with each word she uttered.
“I cannot marry you, Penelope. I wish to make you my mistress. But know that I will take excellent care of you. I will even put you up in a home with a greenhouse in back.”
“Mistress?” she asked, tears pooling in her eyes. Dropping her head so he wouldn't see, she almost laughed at her stupidity. Of course he wouldn't marry her. Why would anyone marry her?
“Penelope, my mother would never allow the union. You are far from the sort of sophisticated lady that she would approve of. Dear God, you wear spectacles and are nearly a blue-stocking. What kind of wife would you be for a viscount?”
Whispering, she asked, “Then why do you want me?”
Being his ever honest self, he responded, “I do not know. I just do. And I am a man who is used to getting what he wants.”
Licking her lips, still unable to lift her head from the shame that weighed it down, she released a deep breath. When she knew she was close to sobbing, she turned suddenly on her heel and ran back to the safety of the house. Now her humiliation was complete. If she'd been more sophisticated, more haughty, she could have laughed him off and told him what he could do with his offer. But the pain was too close, too real, for her to make such a stand. Penelope
Hammersmith had never been accused of being strong or brave.
She ended her journey under the stairs of the terrace, where Sarah found her crying over what she had always wanted, and realized that she never deserved.
********
“That bastard,” came the reply from Ginny, after hearing the story. “What kind of prick treats a woman as such. Has he no feelings whatsoever?”
Placing a hand on her friend's arm, Penelope said, “He is correct, Sarah. I am not the kind of girl that a man of his status takes home to his mother. She would never approve of me.”
“The man is thirty years old, Penny. If he can't stand up to his mother at his age, you are better off without him.” With her arm around her friend, Penelope heard her utter some very unflattering words. When she heard Sarah call him a pussy, she wondered what a cat had to do with her situation.
“I cannot face anyone right now, Sarah. Can you help get me to my room? I have had enough humiliation for one evening, I think.”
“Of course, Penny. We'll go up the servants stairs. I'll take care of you, don't worry.”
Hearing those words, fresh tears began to fall. Wasn't that what she wanted from Martin? Someone to take care of her, offer her the protection of his name, and in return, she would give him children and a good home. Walking shakily in her friend's arms, they made their way past the terrace steps toward the side servant's entrance.
Before they made it too far, Martin made his way up behind them and stopped them with his command. “Penelope, we need to talk.”
Ginny turned first. Through the windows of the house, enough illumination came to reveal that at least she was not too happy to see him. It was her voice that gave him pause.
“How dare you? Do you really think you can command us around? Go off and break someone's else's heart, jerk.”
His eyes widened at her tone and her words. No one spoke to him that way. Before he could consider the situation, he snapped, “You would do well to consider your standing with the ton before you spoke as such. What Conway sees in you is beyond me.”
Penelope's gasp made him reconsider his words. This was not the way to handle her and he needed her handled. He could not let her go to her parents with wild accusations of how he'd used her. That would ensure his trip down the aisle with an inappropriate wife.
Before he could make amends, Ginny walked up and stood in front of him. “What did you say?” she asked, her voice low and mean like a rabid dog.
“I beg your pardon, Lady Sarah, but I must speak to Lady Penelope. It would not do for her to accuse me of misconduct. As I explained to her, I cannot marry her.”
“But you could ask her to leave her family behind so you could have someone to screw around with. You would ruin her for your own pleasure. What kind of gentleman are you?”
Feeling the need to defend himself, he answered. “It is likely the only offer she will receive. I am doing her a favor.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth, that Ginny lifted her skirt and shoved her knee into the man's balls. With a sound not unlike a pig squealing, Martin went down and fell over. Standing over her victim, she saw his face flush with the pain. It occurred to Ginny that before living romance novel heroine lives, she'd never kicked any man in the goods. Now, she was a professional.
“What in the devil?” came from the garden. Apparently, Lord Conway saw his friend drop at the hand, or rather knee, of his fiancée.
“Sarah, what have you done?” he asked, incredulous. He hadn't heard what was said, only saw that Sarah had practiced a very unladylike maneuver to injure his friend.
“I came very close to making sure that Lord Townshend would only sing soprano. That's what I've done.” Oliver was amazed at how composed she was. If she had felt the need to injure him so grossly, Townshend must have done something appalling indeed. And yet, Sarah didn't look at all injured.
“Why?”
“Because he's a despicable human being. He acted very uncivilly toward my friend. It was only right that I teach him a lesson about manners.”
Helping his friend to his feet, he asked, “What could he have done to deserve this?”
It was Townshend who answered, his voice low and gravelly and with a twinge of murderous tone. “I was trying to explain to Penelope why I could not possibly marry her.”
Oliver thought that it best if he took control of the situation before the ladies were irretrievably ruined. “Now there, Sarah. Would you not let the man talk? What harm is there in that?”
Looking between the two men and knowing that her humiliated friend still stood behind her, she said, “Tomorrow, Oliver. I need to bring Penny to her room.”
“No, Sarah, not tomorrow. Now. On this, you will heed me.”
Now it was Ginny's turn to look murderous. “You want to know, Oliver. Your friend asked Penny, the daughter of an earl, to become his mistress because he was too worried about what mommy would think of his choice in companion.”
“Dear God, Sarah, it is not as though he could marry her.”
The words hung in the air for a minute before Ginny fully comprehended them. The man that she was about to have sex with couldn't have said anything worse at that moment. Shaking her head slightly, she looked at both men in turn.
“You two are despicable. How can you think that playing with the feelings of a young girl is acceptable? She didn't ask for your attention, Lord Townshend, but you freely rained it upon her as though you cared. Then you may as well have spit on her. And you, Oliver...” She stopped for a moment and looked down. They had been friends, but now she wasn't sure she wanted even that. “Well, let's just say you disappoint me.”
Ginny turned away and grabbed Penelope's arm. As they began to walk away, Townshend made one more plea. “I know you understand, Penelope. Would you not reconsider my offer?”
Suddenly, Penelope had the strength she needed to say her piece. Maybe it was from watching Sarah take on men as big as they, or maybe something had finally snapped in place inside of her, but she would not be a doorstop any longer.
“Lord Townshend, how dare you make me such an offer. I am better than that, as you know. I am not so desperate to be your second choice, after you marry and have legitimate children. Go to the devil.”
Holding her head up a little higher, Penelope began to walk away once again. As a last parting shot, Ginny called over her shoulder to Oliver. “Don't bother stopping by later, Oliver. My door will be firmly locked.”
Chapter 22
Ginny was able to get Penelope to her room unnoticed. Pulling the bell for her maid, the two women sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. It had been a night to remember, that was for sure.
When Penelope's maid arrived, Ginny excused herself to prepare for bed. “I'll be right back, Penny. Then we can talk.”
After summoning MaryAnn, Ginny got ready for bed in record time and returned to Penelope's room. She found her already squirreled away in bed, lying on her side, staring blankly at the wall.
“Do you want to be alone?” Ginny asked, knowing that in the same circumstance, she would probably want just that.
“No. Can you lie with me for a while?”
“Of course.” Ginny climbed into the bed next to her friend and sat back against the pile of pillows. Remaining silent for a few minutes, Ginny watched the flames play in the hearth. Slowly, Penelope rolled over and stared at the canopy.
“I am such a fool,” she said, dispassionately. Her eyes never wandered from the chintz of the canopy.
Looking down at her friend, Ginny responded, “I know you won't believe me when I say this, but it isn't you, Penny. If there is a fool in this situation, it's Townshend. Mark my words when I say that he will come to seriously regret his decisions tonight.”
With a shrewd glance, Penelope asked, “What would make you think that? He could have any woman he wanted.”
Ginny laughed. “No, he couldn't. If he could, he would have married long ago. No, he will come to regret it when
he marries some half-witted bubble head who spends all his money and complains nightly about having to have sex.”
Penelope gasped, but quickly covered her mouth to hide her giggle. Sarah was the only person who spoke honestly to her, ever. Everyone else seemed to want to protect her from God only knew what. It was refreshing to have someone she could ask questions to.
“I thought that all gentlemen wanted stupid wives.”
“That's what you've been told, but it is far from the truth. Why would anyone want to spend the rest of their lives with someone whose interests were so far from their own. Having to go from mistress to mistress who only show interest if you're buying them something. It seems rather lonely to me.”
A Lesson in Friendship Page 19
