Page 54 of His Wild Duchess
“What is it?”
“I only wish,” she repeated, turning to face him, “To learn more about you.”
George watched her with wide eyes. He could only stare for a moment, until the reality of it all hit him, and the confident exterior quickly returned. Swiping a hand through his hair, he shrugged, though something about him seemed to be softened by her words.
“The time before I left for the New World was tainted by the will of my father. Yes, the passing of my mother was, in its way, the beginning of the end,” George explained, the slightest of sarcastic smirks on his face, “But the late Duke’s authority and his willingness to use it is what truly drove me away.”
“The late Duke,” Penelope quietly said, “Was he not a good man?”
“On the contrary, to the rest of the Ton and aristocratic society, he was a fine Duke. Stern and sharp-edged, but a fine Duke nonetheless.”
“Well, I don’t truly revel in the Ton’s opinion, do you?”
George laughed, giving her a wink. “You got me there, darling.”
He looked away, and for a moment, Penelope thought he would finish the conversation there. While he worked hard to look as though none of their words touched him, Penelope liked to think she could see underneath his iron exterior to what truly laywithin. And in her eyes, it looked as though he was nothing more than the boy that had left home when he was barely of age, looking for freedom and a new life in a world no one quite understood.
Reaching out, Penelope slipped her arm around his own. The contact was not like the other times, where jolts of pins and needles would run up and down her arms. It was more subtle, a gentle touch that made her feel somehow priceless, as though she were as valuable as gold or gems.
“I am sorry, George, that your father was not a good man to you.”
He stopped walking near the back of the yard, as the dogs began to lay in the sun’s gaze, one by one. Turning, he stepped in front of Penelope to face her, pulling his arm out from around her own, but grasping onto both her hands before she could step away. His hands, cool despite the summer heat, held her firmly
“I never said he wasn’t a good man to me,” he quietly said.
Penelope, afraid she had misspoken, tried to pull away from him. “I-I did not mean to offend, I had just -”
Taking a step closer to shorten the gap between them, George smiled down at her. “You fret too much,” he whispered. “You did not offend me, darling, you saw through me as though I were made from nothing but air.”
“What?”
“My father sought to control me,” he explained. “Not unlike other fathers, of course, but…but there was something different. I was not a boy who reveled in his teachings, who looked forward to the day when the title of ‘Duke’ would be passed down. Perhaps it was because my mother left too soon, or my father pushed it too hard. Perhaps it was only me all along, with a soul that was as stubborn as a mule.”
“That sounds about right for you, doesn’t it?”
“What does?”
Penelope gave him a wide, toothy smile. “To be as stubborn as a mule!” She gestured over her shoulder to the stable. “Well, you know.”
“Darling,” George drawled, his eyes narrowing playfully. “Are you calling me a mule because I want to open a stud farm?”
“You said it!”
Laughing, George shook his head. “My, my, you are quite the minx, aren’t you?”
Penelope looked away as a blush filled her face once more. Suddenly, she became acutely aware of the feeling of his hands over her own, the slightest brush of his thumb over her knuckles. Her eyes flickered down, seeing the embrace, seeing his hands tightly grip onto her own. The blush grew, swallowing up her entire face as the firmness of his hands sent waves of nerves through her body.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” she mumbled. “I am not a -”
“I only teased, Penelope.”
She met his stare with wide eyes. There were words on the tip of her tongue, things she wished to say, but found herself unable to force them out.
“What is it?” he asked in a quiet, husky voice. “Why do you watch me so?”
“I enjoy how…my name sounds when you say it.”
George slowly leaned, getting closer and closer to her. “Really?”
