Page 70 of Snapdragons
Penelope set her hand on his arm. “I am the one who told you about my nickname of the Little Banshee. I am not unaware that I am far from silent. I am also perfectly and wonderfully content to simply be at peace when I am able.”
“You fight when you need to,” he summarized, “and cherish times of serenity all the more, as a result.”
She had never known anyone who seemed to understand her as well as he did. Even her father, who had been the one in her family to comprehend most the person she was, had struggled. “I suspect you are the same, Niles. Peace and contentment are important to you, but that doesn’t mean you won’t fight when that is what is needed.”
He set his hand atop hers. It felt odd, wrapped in fabric as it was, but there was still such comfort in his touch. “We are proving more and more alike, you and me.” He then adjusted his hand so he was holding hers, pulling it away from his arm. “What was it that brought you out here looking for me?”
She had all but forgotten. “The letter I sent to Liam reached him last night at the inn.”
“You guessed right, then.” He sounded genuinely pleased for her.
“And he wrote back.”
“Did he?”
She glanced at the letter once more. “But I’m nervous about what it might say, so I came here, hoping you would hover nearby while I read it.”
“You did the same for me when my family’s letter arrived,” he said. “I’d be honored to return the favor.” He motioned her toward two well-worn chairs under one of the small windows.
Already feeling more equal to discovering what her brother had to say, Penelope took a seat and waited for Niles to do the same. With him beside her, soothing her nerves, she turned the letter over and broke the wax seal. She unfolded the parchment and read.
Penelope,
No “Dearest Sister” or “My Dear Penelope.” When he’d written to her while away at school, he’d begun his letters with variations on those two tender greetings.
I am not certain what to write in response to your letter. I do appreciate that you made the effort, and I am grateful that you have acknowledged the effort I have expended and the frustrations I have endured on your behalf these past weeks and months. But you also insisted you will not abandon your current course.
I am now charged with explaining to our mother why you have abandoned Ireland altogether without so much as a farewell to her. When Dublin society wonders where you have disappeared to, I will be required to formulate some explanation that does not portray me as a browbeaten brother or that would undermine Mother’s standing.
More worrisome than those consequences, though, are the ones you are courting for yourself. Mr. Greenberry might not have chosen to move forward with the arranged match, but your choice to move forward with your ill-advised requirements for Fairfield will all but guarantee that no one who is worthy of you will ever consider you again. And that, Penelope, is an utter shame.
Something in the hint of kindness with which he ended his otherwise painful summary of her difficult situation brought a thickness to her throat.
Should you have a change of heart before moving forward with this folly, I will be returning to Ireland by way offirst London, as I have friends there whom I have not seen in some time, and then Cornwall, wishing to offer my gratitude to the Greenberrys for their hospitality and my apologies for the way things ended.
I wish you luck in the path you have chosen, Penelope. And I will endeavor to formulate a version of events that will neither alarm our mother nor give her reason to think poorly of her daughter.
Write to me now and then and let me know how you are faring. We may not be in agreement about this, but I do not wish to be forever at odds.
Yours, etc.
Liam
Chapter Twenty-Four
Penelope had hoped to discoverwords of reconciliation in Liam’s letter but had been mentally preparing herself for utter rejection. That what she’d received was a little bit of both and a tremendous amount of what felt like unshakable resignation hurt even more than she’d anticipated. If Liam had been boiling mad at her, there would have been some hope that when his anger cooled, they could mend the current breach.
“Your expression matches how I felt reading my family’s letter,” Niles said softly, still sitting beside her, “which worries me.”
She let the letter rest on her lap. “I wrote to him with such high hopes, telling him how much I love him and want him in my life, how I didn’t want there to be a rift between us. I pleaded with him to consider returning to Pledwick Manor, or staying at Fairfield for a time, so we needn’t be separated by an entire sea. I offered an entirely sincere olive branch.”
“And he rejected you?” Niles took her hand once more. He had unwrapped his hands while she’d been reading her letter.
“Have you ever read a letter that felt like a shrug?” she asked.
“He expressed indifference, then?”
“Worse even than that. Indifference with an ultimatum.” Whatever she might have been expecting, it would never have been that. “He says no one will ever marry me so long as I retain ownership of Fairfield and that if I decide to be flexible about that, he might be willing... not to keep trying to find me a husband, necessarily, but to even just see me again.” Her posture drooped; she couldn’t help it. “My mother might refuseeither way.”
