Page 8 of All Duke and Bothered

Miss Penelope Beckett’s fate was sealed, and she didn’t even know it.

4

“Are you hoping to meet someone particular in the park?” Alex asked Penelope as they descended the stairs.

It was early afternoon the day after the Almack’s ball, and Penelope and Alex were going for a walk in Hyde Park with Lady Brownhill, a neighbor, as chaperon.

Penelope chuckled. “Of course not.”

“Then why are we leaving during morning calls? You should have many visitors after your success last night.”

Morning calls, despite the confusing name, were held in the afternoon. The day after a ball, it was customary for interested gentlemen to pay a visit to the lady they intended to pursue.

But receiving such attention was the exact opposite of what Penelope wished.

Her mind leapt to the Duke of Grandhampton, causing an onrush of heat and dread. The kiss…the blasted kiss that had melted her very bones…from a man who hated her—and whom she hated! A man she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since they returned from the ball.

“I would like a stroll,” Penelope said, avoiding Alex’s gaze. “That’s all.”

The stairs screeched under her feet as she continued, the wood dry and old. The banister moved a little under her hand. But there was no money to fix either of them. As Alex and she reached the foyer, her eyes landed on her mother’s watercolor of Hyde Park in spring—Mama’s favorite place in London. Her eyes watered as she remembered how Mama had painted it, picking the colors and explaining her choices to Penelope. Though the yellow paint of the wood-paneled wall where it hung was chipped and cracked, the colors of the painting were still vivid and bright, with fresh green grass and purple wisteria hanging from a white pergola in the midst of awakening nature. Sweet pain always split her heart in two at the memory.

“But so many gentlemen paid their attention to you,” said Alex as she tied the ribbons of her bonnet. The pale blue suited Alex’s complexion so well. “I’m sure you’ll receive a number of visitors.”

“But that’s exactly the reason why I don’t want to be at home. I don’t want any gentlemen to believe I’m interested.”

As Penelope walked to the entrance door, she nodded to their butler, Tyson, who was a tall, young man from Yorkshire with thin pale hair and long bleached eyelashes. He had little experience, and therefore Papa had been able to hire him very cheaply. Tyson opened the door for her and Alex, his gaze briefly darting to Penelope’s cousin. Penelope had a suspicion Tyson was quite smitten with Alex—there was always an almost puppylike admiration in his eyes. No wonder. Alex was quite a beauty.

Penelope had just stepped into the fresh April air, closing the hooks of her spencer, when a shadow momentarily obscured the light, and she hit a hard, warm wall. Two strong arms held her by her shoulders.

“I beg your pardon—” she started, but when she looked up the words died on her lips.

It was him. The Duke of Grandhampton, all tall and so handsome her stomach squeezed, his dark eyes on her. That was how they had been yesterday—but even closer. With his arms around her and his scent in her nostrils, and his lips on hers. Her first kiss…

Why did it have to be from this man?

Her cheeks heated as she remembered a dream she’d had about him last night. There was this longing, and more…more kissing…more rubbing…less clothes. She didn’t know what she wanted, only that she needed to touch him, skin to skin…everywhere! She’d awoken in the early hours of the morning shivering, but not from cold.

“Are you going out?” the duke asked as he let her go and stepped back onto the porch. Alex followed Penelope out and stood by her side.

“Good day, Your Grace,” she said.

He nodded briefly to her. “How do you do?”

Then his attention returned to Penelope, scorching her. Her eyes dropped to his lips, that broad, handsome mouth that was on hers last night, teasing, demanding, stroking…

Her heart slammed against her rib cage, her chest rising and falling fast. Oh, calm down, you ninny.

“Stay, Miss Beckett. Or you’ll miss an important change in your life.”

With that, he passed by Penelope, the scents of bay leaf and pepper and sweet herbs mingling in his wake.

An important change in her life? Something dark and heavy and cold sank in her stomach. She did not like the sound of that at all!

Through the open door, she watched the duke enter her home and announce his name to Tyson, who nodded and went to her father’s study. While the duke waited in the dark hallway, he turned and met her gaze, a look of triumph on his face.

“What could he mean?” Penelope murmured to Alex.

“I don’t know,” said Alex. “Shall we stay or would you like to go to Hyde Park still? Lady Brownhill will be waiting.”