Page 81 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
“Maybe it’s time I took control of what I wanted,” he said, halting with her skirt long enough to lean down toward her. He practically snarled with the words, trying to kiss her again.
Oh God… he wants me.He reached for her soaked skirt another time and managed to bundle it around her hips. It was a bloodcurdling moment, making Penelope’s eyes sting with tears, knowing how different it was to when Asher had playfully pulled at her skirts.
I cannot let this happen.She gave up trying to push Adam off her with her hands and attempted to kick him away instead, anything to keep him off her, but he was too strong and managed to pin her legs down. This at least gave her the distraction she needed to reach above her head to where there was a loose stone on the ground of the summerhouse, kicked there some time by someone walking in from the garden.
She clutched it between her fingers, feeling the stone cold against her skin, and brought it down across Adam’s temple. He cried out, but he did not quite fall off her; he just slumped forward. She did it again, this time with a better aim beside his eye, and he fell off her.
She scrambled to be free, panting between her tears and looking down long enough to see Adam was cowering on the floor with both hands pressed to his bleeding head.
She reached for his jacket that he had somehow shed in their tussle from where it lay on the floor and grabbed the key, placing it in the lock and turning it quickly.
“Penelope. Penelope, stop!” Adam cried, stumbling to his feet. She had just enough time to go through the door and jam the key in from the other side, locking it as he reached it. He shook the door handle, but it wouldn’t move, and Penelope had the perfect view of him through the glass, watching as the blood ran down the side of his face from where she had cut him. “Penelope, this doesn’t end here.”
“That’s what I am afraid of,” she muttered through her tears as she turned and ran through the garden, heading to the house as fast as her feet would carry her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When Penelope ran into the house, she stumbled, nearly falling over with her wet shoes on the sleek marble floor. The slippery surface made it difficult to come to a stop when she found Margaret standing in the middle of the entrance hall. There were papers scattered around her and a chair upturned with the butler nearby struggling to try and collect some of the papers.
“What happened?” Penelope asked, trying her best to straighten her gown. All she knew was she had to get out of this house now and reach Asher as quickly as she could in the safety of his house.
This home is not safe for me anymore.
“I… do not really know.” Margaret’s words were stammered, and her voice was unusually quiet, bringing Penelope to a stop as she reached for her pelisse off a coat stand and flung it over her shoulders, trying to hide the drenched dress that was molded to her figure. “He didn’t make sense.”
“Who didn’t make sense?” Penelope said, looking back through the house to the rear door. She had to be quick. She couldn’t afford to stand here for much longer!
“This man. I didn’t know him. Short red hair and a rather narrow face, like a rat,” Margaret said, lifting her hands and placing them to her cheeks. “He said Adam had to pay him.”
“For what?” Penelope asked distractedly, walking over the papers as she reached for the front door and flung it open to look at the rain another time.
“He said for the carriage. That was all he said. When I told him Adam wasn’t here, he went into a rage, threatening to tear the place apart, and he…” She trailed off, walking away from the papers and hurrying to Penelope’s side.
“And he what?”
“He threatened Adam. He said when he found him again, he would kill him if he didn’t get his money. Then he pulled out a dagger, and he pointed it at me!”
Penelope flinched and lifted a hand to her neck, thinking of where Adam had just had a hand to her throat.
“I- I have to go,” Penelope said, stepping out of the door.
“Go? What, why?” Margaret said, following out of the door. The butler seemed to lose interest in the papers and hurried after them, into the rain.
“Do you need the carriage, My Lady?” he asked, calling after them.
“Yes please, as quickly as you could,” Penelope said, hurrying down the driveway; she was that eager to be away from the house before Adam could figure out a way to break down the door of that summer house.
“You cannot go now! What if that man comes back?”
“If Adam needs to pay a man, then he should pay. There is nothing to fear.” Penelope couldn’t really pay attention; she was too busy looking down the driveway, waiting for the carriage to come around.
Margaret was clearly scared though, her lip wobbling. Something in Penelope broke. She didn’t know why she cared after what Margaret had done to her the night before, but there was a difference between her reputation being ruined and her cousin being scared of a man who had fought his way into their house.
“If you’re scared then come with me,” Penelope said, taking Margaret’s arm and pulling her down the driveway as the carriage pulled up.
“Where are you going?” Margaret cried.
“To Asher’s.” As the carriage stopped, Penelope pulled open the door and clambered inside, hardly caring to wait for a footman to help her in.
