Never Had a Dream Come True (20 page)

After congratulating her on her upcoming marriage, the members of the Darling family had laughed and joked about Rake’s outrageous behavior throughout the five-course dinner and were still at it now in the salon where tea was served.

As she sat there with her untouched cup of tea in her lap, Penny felt almost betrayed as she watched how lightly Rake laughed this morning’s happenings away. It had been quite world-turning for her, an occasion which had been both enlightening and uplifting.

But to Rake it was only something to joke about.

The duchess, who finally seemed to have gotten over her family’s occasional habit of embarrassing her socially, sat next to Penny and patted her hand devotedly.

“I will be in debt to you the rest of my life.”

Penny tore her eyes away from the grinning Rake, who was reenacting the knock-Thomas-out scene to his brothers’ and father’s high amusement.

“I’m sorry?”

“Richard.” The duchess waved her hand toward her son. “I don’t know what you did or what you said to him, but somehow you managed to bring me back my beautiful son.”

Penny took a deep breath. So now it was
her
fault he was behaving oddly? This day became worse by the minute.

All she wanted to do was to rip that indifferent grin off his face. Or even better, knock him out cold, just the way he had knocked Thomas out.

“I think this is a cause for celebration,” the duchess said, and clapped her hands happily. “We will have to throw an engagement party for you and Mr. Bedford and invite everyone to celebrate with us.”

Oh, no.

Penny shook her head. “Lady Anna, there really is no need for a party. Really. Thomas has too much to do with the harvest, and I’m…I’m not a partying person. I’d much rather just spend the engagement quietly and then just as quietly get married, come Christmas.”

“Absolutely not,” the duchess cried out distressed—and caught the attention of her family.

“What?”

The duchess waved an upset hand toward Penny. “She doesn’t want an engagement party!”

The duke bit back a smile. “I can relate to that. Why throw a party when you don’t have to?”

“Penny needs to be launched into the county society as the future wife of a country squire. As soon as the engagement becomes official, everyone will expect to have a chance to congratulate the happy couple. I will not stand idle and let Penny hide in the library among her books until the wedding.”

“A party sounds like a perfect ending to this last year’s ups and downs,” Charles agreed, and was awarded a thankful smile.

“Why not a masquerade?” the duchess mused. “We could invite everyone we know to a grand ball, and let everyone live out their most secret fantasies, and in the height of the evening we will announce Penny’s and Thomas’s engagement. It will be perfect!”

“A masquerade at a house party?” Rake chuckled. “Mother, you know you are more or less begging for scandals to happen.”

The duchess blushed and mumbled something inaudible, which told them all she was perfectly aware of this.

“Why create the perfect opportunity for scandals?” Jamie frowned at his mother, whose blush deepened.

“So everyone will forget about Penny’s strange situation in life, living with us and not her own family. You know as well as I we can’t invite the de Vere family, as Lord Nester will never accept such an invitation. But in the midst of scandals happening, no one will think twice about it, and if we announce the engagement as late as possible, they probably won’t even notice that Penny’s family isn’t present.”

“Oh.”

“Well, when you put it like that, it unfortunately makes perfect sense. A masquerade it is, then.” The duke leaned back, resigned, as he too knew Penny needed as good a start in her new married life as possible. She didn’t need a touch of scandal.

“I know the perfect outfit for me.” The duchess squealed with anticipation. “This is so exciting; I can hardly wait!”

“Do we all have to wear costumes?” Jamie asked cautiously, not too pleased with his mother’s grand plans.

“Of course you do. And don’t you think I will accept any excuses. You will all participate, even if I have to drag you there myself.”

“I hate masquerades.”

The duchess patted Jamie’s knee. “I know, my dear, you always have. But don’t you ever think that’s reason enough to not attend.”

Unanimous in their distaste for such an event, all the men in the salon sighed, defeated, and Penny almost smiled. Lady Anna was quite petite, but she ruled the large men of her family with a firm albeit loving hand.

Of course they would do as she told them. Not one of them knew how to deny her anything, not even the duke.

“And for you, Penny dear, we are going to come up with the most spectacular outfit, one which will send Mr. Bedford and the rest of our guests crawling for mercy at your feet.”

“Mother, I don’t think Penny would appreciate that,” Rake said, to Penny’s surprise. “She’s not the flamboyant kind.”

“But she needs to be seen.”

“I don’t want to be seen.”

Mother and son didn’t acknowledge Penny. Instead they frowned intensely at each other.

“It’s a masquerade. No one will know it’s her.”

“At the unveiling they will. And as they stand there in perfect awe over who this siren is, we are going to announce the engagement and turn the evening into one of the most talked about for years to come.”

“I think you exaggerate the importance of the right costume,” Rake insisted. “I think Penny would be much more comfortable in something not as overwhelming.”

“Fine.” The duchess shrugged. “Then you will take care of Penny’s outfit. You two can go to the seamstress in Sandhurst. She’s quite handy when it comes to masquerade costumes.”

So that had been her game all along.

Anna Darling, the Duchess of Berkeley, knew her son too well and had lured him into her trap without even breaking a sweat. Penny couldn’t stop a smile as Rake sat back in his chair, staring at his mother.

The duke had once said England could win any war if the War Ministry would only be wise enough to put Anna Darling in charge of the planning.

“You can go for the first visit tomorrow, and I will send a maid with you as chaperone. We don’t want to create another scandal this close to the wedding, do we?”

Rake shook his head slowly, an amused grin lighting his features. “No, Mother, of course not. I will take Penny to Mrs. Frazer and have her order something appropriate for the ball.”

“With a maid.”

“Yes, Mother, I will bring a maid.”

“Don’t you try to patronize me. I’m your mother, and if anyone is going to patronize someone, it is I who will patronize you. I know of your reputation as a libertine—no need for you to try denying it—and these last couple of months haven’t made you any less libertine in the eyes of the
ton
, I must say
.
”

Rake shrugged. “I am what I am because of how you have brought me up. Can’t hold your own choices against me now, can you?”

“Richard Darling!”

The duke howled with laughter. “That’s my boy. Always look upon the bright side of life and put the blame where it belongs—on your parents.”

“Hannibal Darling!”

“What?”

The duchess stared openmouthed at her husband. “Really, Hannibal? Put the blame where it belongs? Whenever have I told Richard to go and behave as badly as he can?”

“I…”

“And have I ever told my son, whom I love most dearly, to turn every little chance of happiness away?”

“No, I…”

“Are you saying I applaud his decision to let the only woman for whom he has ever shown feelings marry another man without even a blink, so he can continue his restless bachelor life of bedding as many women as he can?”

“Mother!”

“Charles, be quiet. This is not for you. This is between me and my husband.”

“So please take it upstairs. The rest of us would rather have a nice cup of tea instead of having to listen to this. It’s quite embarrassing, you know.”

The duchess shrieked, and Penny bit back another smile. The older woman loved her drama and knew how to use it. The men in the salon stared at the duchess, horror written all over their handsome faces, and not one of them dared to move for fear of provoking her anger.

As the duchess ranted about who was embarrassing and who was not, Penny quietly stepped unnoticed out of the room and left the temporarily not-so-happy family alone.

Rake hadn’t looked too pleased with his mother as she mentioned his choices, but it was hard to tell if he disliked her mentioning his feelings or the way she had slaughtered his lifestyle.

Everyone knew Rake had an affection for Penny, even she did, although until recently it had been only a brotherly affection. She had always wished for and dreamt about more from him, as had his family.

But it wasn’t Rake’s fault he didn’t love her as much as she wanted him to. No one probably ever would.

She just wasn’t a loveable person, she guessed.

For some reason she always brought out the compassion in people. Love—especially the world-turning kind she had read about and longed for—seemed to elude her.

If she were completely honest with herself, she would have been satisfied with a man loving her just a tenth of how much she usually had dreamt Rake should.

She stopped halfway up the stairs and closed her eyes. A satisfied little smile came crawling as her old friends reappeared inside her head.

She had missed them, the daydreams. They had filled her head most of her life and put a golden frame to her meager life. Yet ever since that precious moment when she had met Rake at the lake she had tried to stop them, in an attempt to force herself to grow up and face reality.

But it wasn’t for her. She knew that now.

She would marry Thomas without remorse, as he knew the truth about her and didn’t hold it against her. She would take care of him and spoil him with a calm and sated life. And if her head would occasionally fill with dreams about another man and a life which never would be hers—so be it.

Her heart belonged to Rake and always would.

But she wanted more out of life than he had offered her so far. This morning’s incident hadn’t changed her chosen path at all. She would still go on with her engagement and marriage to Thomas.

But if Rake would come forward…

Maybe Charmaine had been right all along when she had told her not to close out any options? It wouldn’t hurt to be open-minded when it came to Rake, as long as it didn’t mean becoming his mistress.

If Rake looked at her again as he had this morning, when he still thought he had saved her, she would know it was for real and for life. That look had been honest and emotional and not Rake’s normal indifferent amusement.

“Daydreaming about me?”

She woke from her thoughts and turned to look down at Rake, who had come up behind her on the stairs and stopped a few steps farther down.

Her spontaneous reaction was to deny, but then a little imp inside told her to for once open up to him. She had never let him come closer emotionally to her than an arm’s length, to save her poor heart from more suffering.

But she was a different woman now.

She had lived through a year which would have knocked most women down forever, yet somehow she had found strength to move on.

Moments ago she had decided not to close down the option of Rake, so why not let him in a little bit. The best, of course, would be to flirt with him, but she didn’t know how to do that.

“Actually, yes,” she said and forced herself to smile lightly toward him.

“Really?” His smile deepened. “Seeing yourself in my arms, perhaps?”

“Maybe.”

She must have succeeded to seem flirtatious, as she could see his eyes widen a bit in surprise at her response.

“Maybe? What a confusing answer to come from your delicious lips.” He took two more steps until he stood next to her, giving those just-mentioned lips a smoldering gaze. Without thinking, she nervously bit her lower lip, and he growled as he grabbed her waist and leaned closer to her. “Bloody hell, Penny…”

She gasped as his lips closed in on hers, and again he growled, sounding as barbaric as he had earlier this morning. This was not the fashionable gentleman—this was the savage man inside him responding to her.

Her heart pounded hard as she looked into his eyes and felt the heat. Without a doubt she knew she preferred this Rake to the socializing libertine.

This was her Rake.

She felt his breath wash over her face, and before she had a chance to change her mind she grabbed his neck and helped his lips find their way.

The force of the kiss was amazing.

He was amazing.

The kiss continued on and on as his hands moved over her and hers over him, each exploring the new territory. Afterwards she knew she would have lost her virginity most willingly in the grand stairwell of Chester Park if the butler, Ivanoff, had not interrupted them with a haughty “Hrrrm.”

Penny thought her cheeks would explode from the hot blush that flowed into them. She was mortified with embarrassment. Not only was she found in the arms of a man who wasn’t her fiancé, she was also most openly kissing him without a thought of who might walk in on them.

Ivanoff obviously had the same thought.

“You can be thankful it was me who found you, Master Richard. Had it been anyone else, Miss Penelope’s engagement would have been off and you, sir, would have had to marry her yourself.”

Rake opened his mouth to speak, but Penny cut in before he had a chance to say a word. “Thank you, Ivanoff. This will never happen again.”

With a lovely smile, one he reserved for only her and Francesca, Ivanoff acknowledged her words.

“Anything for you, Miss Penelope. As for you…” The butler turned to Rake, and this time there was no lovely smile, only a menacing glare. “You deflowering bastard…”

Rake arched an amused eyebrow over the butler’s obvious anger. “Deflowering? Ivanoff, really?”

With a wagging finger the butler took a step closer to his young master. “You should be ashamed of yourself. Throwing yourself all over an innocent young miss like that? Where is your self-respect?”