Page 106 of Claimed By Her Forbidden Duke
According to Arabella, who had helped him acquire the dress, Edmund had emphasized what the dress ought to highlight of Penelope’s figure. Small flowers were sewn into the sash that cinched her waist, and the skirt flowed right to the floor.
Penelope glanced towards where her friends sat. Cecilia and Reginald, Mary and Stephen, Daphne and Harry. They all beamed at her.
One night, she had told them what had happened between her and Edmund three months ago when she had walked away from him, thinking it was over before it had truly begun.
They had listened to her, and she had only just managed to make them fond of Edmund once more by recounting the way he had saved her from Finley. They had all been right, and she had not listened.
Controlwaite, indeed.
But that had been three months ago, and Finley was now in prison, where he would spend the rest of his life after Cyrus Reed’s testimony had confirmed him as the culprit behind it all, the ringmaster nobody had suspected.
And now she stood there, at the altar, facing her Duke and smiling.
“I wish we were already at the part where we can consummate our marriage,” Edmund whispered, his lips grazing her ear boldly.
“Edmund! Your family is watching.”
“So? Benjamin is overjoyed. Just look at the fool.”
Edmund’s cousin was indeed dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief. When he caught her looking, he cleared his throat and waved at her.
Penelope had been formally introduced to him several weeks ago during a dinner with Edmund and Arabella. The trio had quite an amusing dynamic to behold, switching who teased whom rather often. Mostly, Benjamin was the butt of their jokes or Edmund’s temperament.
“I am glad he has found Lady Hannah,” Penelope whispered, turning away from the altar.
It seemed strange that she didn’t have any family to speak of. But Arabella was practically family, and Benjamin would be. Her friends were her family.
Edmund was about to become her family, and that was more than anything she could ask for.
“Oh, do not speak of her,” Edmund grumbled. “I hear enough of her name on my and Benjamin’s Sunday walks.”
Penelope sniggered under her breath. Her husband was not entirely impressed with his new weekly commitment, but Benjamin had insisted it was the best way to repair their bond, which had been fragile for too long. According to Edmund, that only meant that he didn’t speak as much as Benjamin wanted.
“It feels strange, though, that Julian is not here,” she said, having met the escort during their times at his house. Although she had not seen him frequently ever since, she missed him in the small crowd. “After all, he was the reason we met.”
“A scandalous reminder,” Edmund murmured. “I wonder if the ton suspects the truth.”
“I find myself not caring.” She smiled, tilting her head back to gaze up at him.
“Whatdoyou care about, then, future Duchess of Blackstone?”
She leaned up on her tiptoes to whisper something filthy about how they might consummate their marriage that night, and Edmund laughed aloud along with her before they were hushed, and the ceremony began.
Penelope had never known true joy and happiness like it.
* * *
The wedding breakfast was held in Blackstone Manor, and although Penelope had visited the townhouse several times since Edmund had proposed, she still never failed to marvel at the beautiful estate. The dining hall was long, with large windows down the right side that let the sunlight flood in and bathe the top table where Penelope and Edmund sat.
Around them, their guests chattered, and for a woman who had only ever known silent, tense dinners in the recent years of her life in Langwaite Manor, Penelope couldn’t help but smile at being surrounded by their loved ones.
“I like this,” she told Edmund, leaning in and lacing her fingers through his. “Our familiesgathered together, here to celebrate us.”
He pressed a kiss to her temple even as he looked around. “Indeed, but I fear Lady Hannah is being scandalized by Lady Wetherby.”
Penelope followed his gaze to find Benjamin’s betrothed lookingveryscandalized and Arabellalaughing aloud at whatever had been said. She sniggered and then nodded towards the man at Arabella’s side.
“I recall him,” she said. “Lord Graham, is it not?”
