Page 44 of His Wild Duchess
Penelope let out a loud laugh, the noise echoing across the empty fields and woody forests. When she looked back over at George, he watched her with a raised brow, the smallest of smiles peeking out at the corner of his lip. Looking away, she quickly tried to bury the rising feeling of emotion that threatened to burst out of her. She couldn’t understand what any of their discussions meant, or what it is that she wanted out of them.
All she knew, was that her time with him was nowhere near finished, and there was still so much she needed to hurdle over before the cottage came.
“Shall we?” George asked, extending an arm to her.
Penelope nodded, hooking her arm around his. He led the way through the tall grass to the carriage, where the two wolfhounds waited for them, sleepily laying their heads against the seats. The driver extended a hand for Penelope on one side while George did upon the other. As she grasped both their hands, stepping up onto the carriage, a shock of electricity ran up her arm. Shooting her head over to George, he watched her with a similar expression. Wide eyes, lips slightly parted with only short exhales coming out.
Quickly turning away, Penelope entered the carriage scooting close to Brutus, who immediately draped his long snout across her lap. George entered after her, keeping his distance across the small compartment. Titus followed his brother’s suit, laying himself beside George, and falling asleep almost immediately.As the carriage began to move, rumbling and grumbling over the rocky path, Penelope kept her attention on the window, and the storm that steadilyapproached.
CHAPTER 12
The day after they returned to the townhouse after their failed excursion to see another cottage, Penelope received a formal invitation to a dinner party from her elder sister, Alicia. She was aghast the moment it arrived. Not only did it mean that other guests would be attending, but it also meant that Alicia expected to see a handsome married couple show up at her doorstep. All the Ton would expect that.
The carriage ride to Garvey Manor was quiet and tense. Not out of angst or anger, but rather out of a heaviness that felt like neither one of them could address. Penelope, surely, knew not where her heart was, only that she was slowly being torn between a future at a secluded cottage and a future with George. And whatever George felt, he wasn’t showing a hint of it.
“Found myself not pulling cat hairs from my suits today,” George mused idly.
Penelope gave him a smile. “Is it just me, or do you sound disappointed?”
“Disappointed?” George repeated, the corner of his lip twitching into a smirk. “You’re surely right. I quite enjoyed the effort of plucking each and every hair from my coats.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Truly,” George said, his voice sincere, “Why does Butternut not sleep in my clothes? I thought you made a whole big deal about how I should be grateful that a previously feral catadoredme so much she’d nest in them.”
Penelope laughed. “I’m sure Butternut will be thrilled to find out that you miss her.”
“That isn’t what I -” George paused, narrowing his eyes at her. “There you go again with sounding like you can talk to them.” Shaking his head, he leaned back in the seat. “Darling, one day someone else will question your sanity, and there won’t be a thingI can do about it.”
Penelope grinned at the sound of his pet name for her. It had grown on her within the past few weeks. “Cats move around a lot,” she finally explained. “They aren’t known to only have one spot where they’ll always sleep. Have you looked anywhere else?”
“I think I’ve got more than enough things on my mind to even think about looking for her new hiding spots.”
Penelope watched him, her brow slowly rising. “Something tells me I don’t believe that.”
“Bah,” George huffed, waving a hand at her. “So what, I looked under my bed, in another drawer, and in my bookshelves. Doesn’t prove a thing.”
Penelope laughed, holding a hand to her mouth to try and hold it back. Their laughter filled the small compartment around them, and whatever tense nature that had held them back before slowly began to dissipate. Penelope watched him as the laughter faded, remembering her anxieties from when she had first opened the invitation from Alicia.
“George,” she said, “Might I be honest about something?”
“Of course.”
“This…party,” Penelope began, “Does it need to be like…the last?”
George blinked a few times. “Are you referring to Lady Tollock’s ball?”
She nodded reluctantly. “I understand that it’s a part of our deal,” she quickly said, “I really do. I just…I feel as though muchwill already be expected of me, on Alicia’s behalf. I am unsure of how easy it’ll be for me to play the part when she’s around.”
“There’s no need to worry.”
“Why?”
George shrugged. “Let’s just say that this one doesn’t count for the deal, alright?”
“Why wouldn’t it?”
He frowned at her. “I just did you a favor, and now you’re arguing with me about it?”
