Page 92 of The Beauty and the Boxer
Espionage and the Earl by Win Hollows
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BONUS SAMPLECHAPTER
WORTH WAITINGFOR
The Worth Series, 1
Matilda Madison
Copyright © 2022
Sample Chapter
Canton Estate, Devonshire 1833
Penelope Adkins tried her very best not tobreathe as she tried to stand impossibly still at the altar the dayof her wedding. The late autumn sun had been unseasonably warm, butPenelope had barely noticed. Even now, as the beams filteredthrough the stained glass windows casting the chapel in brilliantblues, reds, and golds, she couldn’t take her mind off remainingperfectly still.
How often had she dreamed of this day? Toomany times to count and yet here she was, scared out of her wits,marrying a man she hardly knew and didn’t love because proprietyall but ordered her to do her duty.
“My child?” the minister said, his voiceuncertain, pulling her away from her thoughts. So far, he had givenan incredibly solemn sermon and, had it been any other person’swedding, Penelope would have had trouble stopping herself fromfalling into a fit of giggles. What sort of minister thought it wasdecent to mention Hell and damnation so much on a wedding day?Truly, it would have been comical if she wasn’t the bride.
“Yes?” she barely whispered.
“Yes, indeed. And do you, Edward ChristopherDerek Powell, take Penelope Eugenia Adkins…”
Yes.She blinked. She had said yes.Of course, she said yes, but she hadn’t even realized that she wasanswering the minister’s question, to have and to hold in sicknessand in health for as long as they both shall live.
“Yes,” a deep, masculine voice spoke to herright, shaking her out of her own thoughts once again, a bad habitof hers.
For the first time that morning she gatheredwhat little courage she had and looked up into the Earl of Canton’sface. He was taller than she by at least four inches which madelooking at him rather obvious. His dark brown hair had been brushedback in a devil-may-care sort of way, as was the style to lookunwilling put together. He had a strong nose that some mightdescribe as large, but to Penelope it fit his face, making him lookrather lowbrow compared to some other peers, with their weak chinsand smaller features. All together he was rather dashing looking,not that a handsome husband would make her life any easier.
He had a stoic look about him that morningthat she hadn’t seen before. He had been rather playful in thethree whole meetings they had shared before he had proposed, buttoday he seemed so serious and it unnerved her. Was this his truenature? How could she have agreed to marry a man whose nature shewasn’t sure of?
Of course, it hadn’t been much of a choice.Since her father’s death two months ago, Penelope had been underthe care of her older brother Harold and his new bride Winifred andthey hadn’t been quiet in their want to have her out from undertheir roof.
She had been summoned, informed of her needto marry, and dismissed in a matter of minutes, along with all thehopes and dreams she had ever had, not that Harold had known. Notthat anyone had known. Penelope had always kept those parts ofherself secret, for who in her life could understand the notion offalling in love? Not her father nor her brother. She had oncewondered what her mother had been like, if she had been asstrait-laced as the rest of her family, but she had died duringchildbirth, a fact that had haunted Penelope, for if her mother haddied in childbirth, wouldn’t it be likely that she would, too?
Regardless, Penelope had never been able toconfide her feelings about anything in anyone and of the handful ofmen Penelope had been allowed to accept a proposal from, the earlhad been the first to show interest, so when he proposed she hadaccepted.
She had met theearl once at a house party on her father’s estate, then once againat her home in London. He had invited her for a carriage ridethrough Hyde Park for their third meeting before asking for herhand in marriage. He was desperate for money, as most of Londonknew, since his father had been heavily in debt upon his death.Their coupling was obvious to the entire ton, he a penniless peer,she a moneyed daughter of a textile merchant. It was a pairing thatwas repeating itself all over London as of late—rich young ladiesof less than noble birth marrying the debt-ridden blue bloods—andyet Penelope couldn’t help but feel as if she was watching her lifehappen from a seat in a theatre, as it was being acted out beforeher very eyes. Still, the earl seemed to be even tempered andgenuine which had made swallowing this whole ordeal a littleeasier. Her engagement ring was a beautiful rose cut diamond set ina circle of tiny sapphires which had belonged to the earl’s mother.Penelope had been moved by the gesture, though there was no lovebehind it. This was a marriage of convenience and she would have toremember that.
What wasn’t convenient was how trulystriking he looked now that she let herself observe him. Perhaps itwas the setting of the church or maybe it was the action of beingmarried. Even now as he looked at her, all proper and serious, shecouldn’t help but think his green eyes were really quite playfuland wasn’t that a lovey thought? To have a playful husband?
Don’t be a fool, she silently scoldedherself. Now was not the time to dream up any romantic notionsabout this man. He was a peer after all and if Penelope knewanything about the peerage, it was that gentlemen rarely lovedtheir wives and she would have no part in loving a man who did notlove her back.
“I now pronounce you husband and wife. Letwhat God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Amen.”
A murmur of amens echoed throughout thechapel and before Penelope knew it, the Earl had leaned over andkissed her cheek. A chaste kiss, but one that made her blush,nonetheless. To be kissed so publicly, it felt more like a mark,some sort of brand.
She felt her cheeks heat up as she tookEdmond’s arm and was escorted down the aisle. The local townspeoplewho lived in the hamlet at the southwest corner of the Cantonestate had all come to line up outside the church to cheer andthrow flower petals at them as they walked back to Derwen House, aswas a tradition.
The wedding breakfast was held in the diningroom of Canton estate and, though the Earldom had suffered a lackof funds in recent history, it was an impressive room. Gold damaskwallpaper seemed to glow around the dark mahogany outline of theroom. The fireplace, the furniture, all dark and heavy pieces. Amasterpiece of cherubs had been painted on the ceiling and thechandeliers had been lowered and lit, causing the whole room topractically glow.
It wasn’t lost on her that in all theexcitement of the wedding, with the hundreds of guests movingabout, no one seemed to talk to her. There were the quickcongratulations given to her before all attention was given to herhusband. She knew that they all guessed that she was probablythrilled to be married, to an earl no less, but still no one askedand it gnawed at her. What a silly thing to be upset about, shethought. She didn’t even enjoy talking with strangers and that’swho all these people were. She should be grateful that the earlwasn’t prodding her into conversations with every single person whowished them felicitations. She had almost made it through theentire episode with only saying ‘thank you’ until that evening,when the earl’s older sister, Catherine, followed by the youngest,Lydia, came to greet her. Catherine was newly married herself to anancient baron who was not in attendance. It was not lost onPenelope that this young woman seemed years older than she, eventhough she had only been married a month or so herself.
