Page 99 of Snapdragons
Kes nodded.
“What happens if Penny’s brother won’t sign?” Niles asked.
That brought the first hints of uncertainty to their faces.
It was Digby who spoke. “Then, you two will have yet another decision to make.”
“I am choosing to believe it will not come to that,” Penelope said. “Life ought not be so cruel as to take away two people’s best chances for happiness.”
It is a travesty how many people have to fight so very hard simply to be granted the right to live the life they ought to have been permitted all along.Stanley would have urged him to move forward eagerly, clinging to the hope that he would be permitted that precious chance to live a life filled with joy and love. How could he do anything other than keep fighting for it?
“Sounds to me, Digby, like you are about to lose an entiregaggle of guests,” Niles said.
“But as I will be abandoned for a good cause,” Digby said, “I’ll be happy to see you go.”
Penelope stretched enough to place a kiss on Niles’s cheek. It happened to be his painful one, and he involuntarily winced.
“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” she said.
“That does raise another question that needs addressing,” Lucas said.
“What question would that be?” Niles asked.
“What explanation we plan to give the rest of the ladies for the sorry, sorry sight of you.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
The sway of the travelingcoach was not soothing enough. Niles had been uneasy and nervous throughout the days-long journey from Yorkshire. Now, mere minutes from his parents’ home in Cornwall, he was struggling to keep his anxiety at manageable levels. If not for the peace and comfort of Penelope leaning against him, asleep with his arm around her, he would have been hard-pressed to keep his composure.
Something Aldric said to Henri—the two of them were sitting on the opposite bench with Nicolette—pulled a laugh from him. Penelope startled awake. For a moment, she looked extremely confused.
“I told them they were going to wake you,” Nicolette said, reaching over and squeezing Penelope’s hand. “These misbehaving Gents owe you an apology.”
Niles tucked Penelope closer. She sighed, the sound both one of lingering sleep and what he’d come to recognize as tranquility. Even in difficult moments, Penelope had a way of bringing peace.
“Are you Gents causing trouble again?” Sleep hung heavy in her words.
“Again?” Henri objected. “We have never caused trouble in our lives.”
“Puppy, your Archbishop is lying,” Penelope said.
“How shall we punish him, Penny?”
Niles was less startled by the gorgeousness of her smile than he had been when they’d first met, but the sight of it still set his heart fluttering.
“Leave him to Le Capitaine,” she said. “She’ll sort him.”
“Yes, she will.” Aldric chuckled.
“Laugh all you want,” Niles said. “The raisins have predictedyou are the next Gent to fall.”
“I make a point of never listening to raisins.”
“Your true difficulty,” Henri replied, “is that the raisins make a point of never listening to us. Some lady will soon claim your heart, and you will have to acknowledge how wrong you were to doubt.”
Aldric shook his head. “There is no lady on earth the raisins would doom to that fate.”
“But there are plenty your father would,” Henri said.
