Page 82 of Five Nights with a Rakish Duke
I have to get out of here.Margaret didn’t climb in after her, but she continued glancing up and down the driveway, her hands trembling.
“Margaret, if you are truly scared, what is the harm?” Penelope asked. Something in her words had to make sense as Margaret climbed into the carriage with no more urging needed.
* * *
“Penny!” Asher cried her name as he flung open the door, reaching it before the butler could. She was standing on his doorstep, soaking wet with her hair plastered to her neck and a pelisse around her shoulders. “Where have you been? Lady Chambers’ butler said you had a message from me, but I sent you nothing…” He trailed off as he took her hand and led her into the house.
His next glance went to Lady Margaret, wondering why she was there.
“Margaret was scared,” Penelope said hurriedly. “A man turned up at the house, demanding payment from Adam for something. He made something of a mess, and he –”
“He threatened Adam!” Margaret said, hurrying into the house. “At least here, the man will not find us.” She pushed into the sitting room, apparently looking for somewhere to sit, leaving Asher alone in the corridor with Penny.
“Penny, what is it?” Asher asked. She had been crying; it was plain to see from the redness of her eyes. He took both of her hands and drew her forward, bending down to kiss her forehead. She gasped, her breath hitching as she tried to fight off more tears. It urged him to look down at her face again, but his gaze was torn to something around her neck instead. “Penny…” There was horror in his voice as he saw the purple and blue bruising above the emerald necklace. “Who did this to your neck?”
“A-Adam,” she said, stammering through the tears. “He tried to… Oh good God, I cannot even say the words. Asher, he tried to…” She broke off again and placed her hand over her mouth, trying to stop her tears. Asher wasn’t sure which emotion swelled within him more. The anger at Adam or the pain for Penny. He knew exactly what she was trying to say.
He quickly enveloped her in his arms, holding her tighter to his body than he’d ever held her before.
“That….” He reeled off a long list of curses, every cruel name he could think of for Adam. “He is your cousin! How could he do that!”
“He was asking me to court him. I- I don’t know what happened. He wrote the letter to me, and I went to meet him, thinking it was you, then he… Oh my God.”
“Penny, did he force you to…?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I hit him with a rock.”
“Good!” Asher said with feeling and kissed her forehead again. “Penny, we need to go to a constable about this.”
“He’s here! He’s here!” Margaret’s voice cried from the sitting room.
Asher knew he should have jumped back from Penny as Margaret appeared back in the corridor, but he had no wish to, not now. He kept his arms firmly around Penny, and she appeared to have equal disinterest in parting from him with one of her hands curled in his and the other clutching to the lapel of his jacket.
“Who?” Asher asked, turning his head to Margaret. “This man that came to your house?”
“No. It’s Adam,” she said. She had helped herself to a drink from the sitting room, apparently needing it for her nerves after her scare, and she used the glass to point in the direction of the window through the sitting room.
Asher took Penny’s hand firmly in his and towed her into the room, looking out of the window. He was painfully aware of Penny still crying and proffered his handkerchief for her to use, but it did little good.
I want to undo this day. If only it could be done, and I could stop Adam from ever coming near her.
His eyes settled beyond the window on the carriage that was pulling up. A footman went to open it, but the door opened without his help, and Adam jumped down. There was a cut beside his eyes, at the lower part of his temple, from which blood was trickling down his face.
“God’s wounds, what happened to him?” Margaret said, pointing through the glass.
“It is nothing he didn’t deserve, Margaret,” Penny spoke up.
“How dare you say that about my brother –!”
“One more word, Margaret, and I will throw you out of my house,” Asher said, striding forward and putting himself between Penny and Margaret. “After what you did to drag our names through the mud, you should be glad I have let you through this door at all. When you find out what your brother did, maybe you will not be so quick to defend him in future.”
“Kendall!” Adam’s voice roared. Asher flicked his head to the glass, seeing Adam was shouting for his attention. Their eyes locked through the glass window. “Your Grace,” he called with a mocking voice. “Care to give my cousin back to me?”
“I have had enough of this.” Asher released Penny’s hand and began to stride back toward the corridor.
“No, Asher!” Penny pulled on his arm, trying to stop him, but nothing would work now.
“He will pay for ever putting his hands on you, Penny, of that I can promise you.” He escaped her grasp and ran through the corridor, aware that Penny was not the only one following him; Margaret was too.
