Page 4 of Snowed In with the Runaway Bride

“Miss Penelope,” the dowager duchess said from across the room, and Penny jumped, jolted out of her reverie. “It is time for the refreshments to be served.”

As Penny stared in confusion, the dowager used her cane to point to the empty seat in front of the teapot. “If you please, young woman.”

Conscious that all eyes were on her, Penny rose from the settee, brushed past Hugo, and limped as unobtrusively as she could to the indicated chair. The teapot was only large enough for the service to be ceremonial, so Penny poured cups for the dowager and for her own mother, along with some of the other ladies of the older generation. Footmen circulated through the crowd to serve the rest, offering sherry and punch to guests who preferred it in lieu of tea.

Her hand trembled as she poured and she tried to flex it without dropping the heavy teapot. Her wrists and hands were often susceptible to the rheumatism that affected her joints, and today it seemed her elbow wanted to join in as well. Before she could stop it, the teapot shifted dangerously.

“Allow me.” Deftly, Hugo plucked the teapot from her unsteady hand and replaced it on the table. She had not even seen he was nearby, and flushed with embarrassment as everyone turned to look at them.

"Perhaps you ought to allow the Montgomery ladies to rest before dinner," Hugo said to his grandmother. "They appear quite exhausted and would likely prefer a rest to further conversation.”

Penny was simultaneously appreciative of his thoughtfulness and peeved at his high-handedness. She almost wanted to refuse and say she was fine, but her aching joints warned her to swallow her pride, or they would make her even more miserable later.

"Oh, no..." Penny's mother said, but Hugo moved to help the older woman to her feet, and it would have been far more rude for her to ignore him. With bad grace, Mother accepted his help and gestured for Penny to follow her to where Pippa still stood with Kendal.

Penny stood and took a moment to be sure she had her balance, but Hugo was already at her elbow to steady her. She snatched it away and glared at him.

"I am perfectly well,” she said under her breath, but he only nodded and bowed. Trying not to visibly limp, Penny made her way to the door where Mother and Pippa awaited her, with a footman to show them to their rooms.

Penny did not know who she was angrier with: Hugo, for presuming to know what was best for her, or Kendal, for paying her no attention at all.

The only person Kendal had wanted to speak with was Pippa.

2

She and Pippa were to share a room, as they always did, and Penny looked around it for a long moment. It would only be for three more nights. After that, she would share Kendal's room, or more likely have her own splendid suite for him to visit.

"It will be very peculiar for you to be married and gone," Pippa said, picking up on Penny's mood as they so often did for each other.

"Perhaps you can come live with Kendal and I," Penny said, watching her twin out of the corner of her eye. Only someone who knew Pippa as well as Penny did would have seen her tiny flinch. "You seem to get along quite well."

Pippa crossed to the window. "Of course we get along. We are to be... to be brother and sister, are we not? You should want us to get along."

"Of course."

Sally, their maid, bustled out from the dressing room where she had been unpacking their trunks. "There you are, Miss Penny. Let me get you out of that gown and into your dressing gown so you can rest."

"Very well." Resigned, Penny followed Sally into the dressing room and allowed the maid to strip her down to her chemise and bundle her in her new dressing gown. It had been purchased for her trousseau and the silk-lined velvet was both warm and comfortable.

Suitable for a duchess.

Penny limped her way over to the bed and lay down with a gusty sigh. Pippa finally turned away from the window. Had she been gazing out it all this time?

"Is it your joints?"

"Always." Penny rearranged herself to a more comfortable position and sighed. "I ought to have known the cold weather would be a problem."

“You should have Kendal take you to Italy now that the war is over,” Pippa said. “You’ve said you want to travel, and I have heard it is always warm there.”

“Italy would be lovely.” She wanted to see the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum so she could imagine what it had been like on that terrible day Mount Vesuvius had exploded, or travel to Florence to see the art and sculpture.

But Italy with only Kendal's company did not sound appealing. What would they talk about other than commonplaces? He would likely want to stay within the English colony there while she would want to explore the countryside and see the sights.

If there was someone else she thought might be a better traveling companion, Penny ignored the thought.

She shifted herself again, moved the covers aside, and began to gently stretch her cramped muscles. She had learned from experience that not moving at all only made the pain worse later.

"Perhaps Mama would allow you to accompany us if we went to Italy,” Penny said. She glanced at her sister while pretending to be absorbed in her exercises.