Just Deserts (34 page)

He released her then and standing still by the door,
watched with an unmoved countenance her retreat as far from him as
the small space of the antechamber afforded.

‘
And now,
Penelope
,’
he said, ‘perhaps you will be good
enough to tell me where is your sister.’

Penelope gasped, gazing at him with horror-filled eyes.
‘H-how did you know?’

‘
Don’t be ridiculous, child. Do you imagine I merit such
smiles as you have given me from my affianced wife? Furthermore,
her first words to me will undoubtedly be those of reproach for not
having listened to her in the first place.’

Penelope sighed and sank into the one small sofa
provided in the little room. ‘Oh
dear
.
And I had fooled everyone else so
successfully.’

‘
No doubt. You aped Seph’s manner very well, but not her
manner with me. Besides, there are intimacies between a man and his
promised wife which—’

He broke off, unwilling to point out to her that
Persephone’s very presence affected him with so much fire that
Penelope could not long have maintained the imposture in his
company, even had she not lost her nerve, which he was well aware
she had done.

But he had said enough. Penelope gazed at him with a new
understanding. ‘I had not thought of that. But then, Fitz did not
know me. I mean—’

Flushing, she turned away, afraid of revealing how much it
meant to her that his friend should apparently not have sensed her
own presence under her disguise.

‘
Never mind that now,’ Chiddingly said, bringing her to a
sense of his present urgency. ‘You have not answered my question.
Not that it needs for you to do so. I suppose I may guess. And if
she has inveigled you into taking her place, then I need not doubt
where Seph is at this very moment.’

Penelope shook her head, turning to look at him again. ‘I
tried to stop her, I swear it. But nothing would do for her but to
go after this Bolsover with nothing but a groom at her side and
Papa’s pistol to protect her.’

‘
Oh my
God,’
exclaimed
Chiddingly. ‘What in Hades did I ever do to be cursed with such a
bedlamite? What time did she set out?’

‘
This morning,’ Penelope told him in despairing accents.
‘And she is not yet returned.’

‘
This morning? Fiend seize it! Why she could not have waited
passes my comprehension. I only hope to heaven I may be in
time.’

He turned and wrenched open the door. Penelope leaped up,
stepping forward to grasp his arm. ‘Are you going to save
her?’

‘
Believe me, ma’am, when I catch up with her, it is I she
will need saving from,’ Chiddingly promised.

Then he was striding across the ballroom floor, leaving
Penelope standing, a focus for every eye to gaze upon with avid
fascination.

Becoming aware that people were staring first at
her, then at Lord Chiddingly’s tall figure heading straight out of
the ballroom he had just barely entered a few moments before,
Penelope flushed hotly. Heavens, they must think she and Chiddingly
had quarrelled.
Now
what was she to do? Then a voice at
her shoulder made her whirl about in startled
gratification.

‘
Pen!
Just
what is happening here?’ demanded Fitz in the severest tones she
had heard from him.

‘
You
do
know me,’ she
exclaimed, light flooding her features.

‘
Hush, not so loud,’ he warned, and, slipping his hand to
her elbow, he began in his turn to guide her across the room,
murmuring in her ear, ‘We will pretend to follow Chid, so people
will imagine in me the would-be peacemaker and leave us
alone.’

He was right. For, though eyes followed them and whispers
began behind fans, no one approached them and they traversed the
room unmolested. Once through the main ballroom door, Fitz led
Penelope across the hall and bundled her into one of the supper
saloons which for the moment stood empty.

‘
Now,’ he said, releasing her, but abating not one jot of
the stern reproach in his voice, ‘you will please to tell me, Miss
Penelope Winsford, the meaning of this outrageous
prank.’

Penelope quailed. ‘It is not my fault, Fitz.
Truly it is not. I will tell you the whole, only I beg of
you
don’t
look at me so. You have no notion how it
distresses me.’

His face softened at once, and he quickly put out a hand.
‘Dear Pen, forgive me. That is the last thing in the world I wish
for. It was only the needless worry to which I have been put this
last hour and more over your health. If you knew—’ He broke off,
smiling. ‘Well, never mind. You are plainly in as high bloom as
ever and that must content me.’

Having no idea how her fingers clung to his, Penelope gazed
up into his face with her heart in her eyes. When he raised her
hands to his lips to kiss the fingers with unwonted fervour, she
blushed prettily.

‘
Oh, Fitz,'
she sighed.

He seemed to catch hold of himself, for though he retained
his clasp on her fingers he stood back a little and the quizzing
gleam came into his eyes.

‘
Dare I suppose your enterprising twin to be the author of
this game? I confess when I realised it was you I thought
so.’

‘
How did you realise it?’ Penelope asked, a little
shy.

‘
Oh, when I saw Chid march off from you. The expression in
your eyes, my gentle Pen, had nothing to do with your fierce
sister.’ He released her hand at last. ‘I take it she has dashed
off to rescue Indigo?’

‘
Yes, she has. And Chiddingly is gone after her. He was not
fooled by me for a moment, you know.’

She went on to give him a rapid review of the day’s events,
and was relieved to find him rather enjoying the
recital.

‘
She is outrageous,’ he commented at the end, a laugh in his
voice. ‘I must say I am happy to think it is not I who must control
her quirks.’

‘
Oh, no one can do that,’ Penelope exclaimed. ‘At least,
Ufur could do so. But no one else.’

Fitz grinned. ‘I fancy Chid may prove equal to the
task.’

‘
Yes, that is all very well, Fitz, but what are we
to do now?’ Penelope demanded. ‘Here he has gone off leaving me to
bear the brunt of it when everyone must suppose a terrible quarrel
has taken place between us—I mean, between him and
Seph,
for I am she at this present.’

‘
No longer,’ Fitz said. ‘And upon my soul, I am glad of it.
For I do not think I could have borne much more delay.’

Penelope felt a pulse beat in her throat. ‘What—what do you
mean, Fitz?’

He took her hands once again in his. ‘I mean, dear Pen,
that since the guests of honour have deserted their party, there is
nothing for it but for us to step into the breach.’

‘
But—but
you
cannot impersonate
Chiddingly,’ she faltered, gazing at him
wide-eyed.

Fitz smiled. ‘I have no intention of so doing. Nor, my
sweet Pen, are you going to continue with your masquerade. You are
again, from this moment, your own dear self.’

Penelope’s lip trembled. ‘I cannot think what is in your
head, Fitz.’

‘
Can you not?’ His eyes gazed into hers with so
much tenderness in them that her heart turned over. But his raised
eyebrow teased nevertheless. ‘How am I to explain? Pen, you know my
pose. I have been designated an arbiter of beauty, and an arbiter
of beauty I must remain. And you are—did I ever tell you
so?—
very
beautiful. May I—indeed I
must
and
you
cannot
deny me—may I add
you,
sweet Pen, to my
collection?’

She hesitated, only half understanding what he meant,
hardly daring to believe that he was—at last—speaking of what lay
between them. Yet at the same time, this whimsical notion was not
the declaration she had longed for. Where was the romantic
attachment she had imagined in her dreams?

‘
I—I do not know what to reply. Are you asking
me—you
must
be asking me to—’

‘
To marry me.
Yes,
Pen. Will
you?’

She drew a breath, biting her hip to stop the trembling.
His eyes were on hers, in a burning look that seemed to belie the
lightness of his words. Dared she hope he might yet say what she
yearned to hear?

‘
Oh, Fitz, is it
truly
what you want?’
she burst out. ‘Because if not—’

She broke off, took a breath, and the words tumbled from
her lips, almost causing her to stutter in their haste to be
spoken.

‘
Fitz, I will marry you, in—in any event. But you
must not imagine that I do so for such a f-foolish reason. Add me
to your collection, forsooth! As if you could keep me thus forever.
For I will grow old, you know, and perhaps you would be sorry to
have done so at the last. Only you see, I do love you so, and I
will marry you
whatever
your reason. But I will
not
have you think of me as some sort of—of
object.’

‘
Pen, Pen, stop,’ he cried, tightening his hold on
her hands so that she winced. ‘Oh, my idiotic little love!
My
darling
!
Don’t you
know I
adore
you?’

She gazed at him, dumbly shaking her head. Tears
sprang to her eyes, and with a catch in her voice, she whispered,
‘I th-thought you would
never
say
so.’

A shaky laugh escaped him, and, dropping her hands, he
swept her into his arms. Penelope felt her knees weaken as she
returned an embrace that was filled with as much passion as she
could have desired.

‘
Oh!’ she uttered, emerging breathless from this
ruthless kiss. ‘Oh, then you
do
love
me.’

He held her close and murmured, ‘With a passion great
enough to withstand either the onset of years, or your ubiquitous
Indian manners, my sweetest life.’

Her delicious trill of laughter pleasurably assailed his
ears and he kissed her again. When she could at length speak once
more, Penelope, her eyes shining, leaned back in the circle of his
arms to look up at him.

‘
Oh dear. And I have been in such an
agony
of apprehension, for fear you did not return my regard. All
this
time!
Why, why, has it taken you so long? And I believe
even
now
you would have said nothing
if—’

‘
You are perfectly right,’ he interrupted, his voice rueful.
‘I have been over scrupulous, my darling, for I had thought to wait
until all the hue and cry over Chid and Seph had died
down.’

‘
And
you had
not made up your mind,’ Penelope added. ‘Confess it
now.’

Fitz clasped her more strongly. ‘Though I blush to confess
it, you are right, Pen. I have been so long in the habit of
thinking myself immune to the tender passions that I could not
believe myself caught at last.’

‘
Caught?’ she echoed, indignant. ‘I vow you would have come
by your deserts had I accepted Leopold or my cousin
Rossendale.’

His eyebrow flew up. ‘Ah, you would have me
pretend I did not guess you were not—shall we
say?—
indifferent
to me.’

Penelope tried to prim up her mouth in a pout at this
conceit, but the smile would not be suppressed. ‘You are dreadful,
Fitz. Did I give myself away so obviously, then?’

He smiled. ‘You gave your heart away in a hundred delicious
little ways that were—and are—a constant delight to me.’

‘
Wretch!’ she gurgled. ‘I did not mean that.’

‘
Have I not your heart, then, Pen?’ His lips hovered
tantalisingly over hers. ‘Have I not your heart?’

‘
You
know
you have,’ she
said on a gasp, as the blood rushed through her veins in a
delicious wash of heat and her lips met his again; and there was
silence in the empty saloon for some considerable
time.

At length she raised her head from his shoulder where it
had been so peacefully resting, and was startled into awareness by
the sight of a face peeping round the door with eyes of blank
amazement. Seeing her take note of it, the face
disappeared.

‘
Fitz!’ Penelope cried. ‘What are we about?
Someone has just seen us. For heaven’s sake, what are we to do?
Only
think
of the scandal, if everyone should suppose Seph
to be kissing Chid’s best friend.’