Time After Time (123 page)

Penelope laid her hand on top of one of Maitland’s. “I heard you, David, but you’re wrong. I understand Ravenstone well. I assure you he isn’t dangerous. Not to me.”

Penelope’s cousin let go of her as if she’d burned him. “He’s here for revenge, I tell you! I believe he is out to seduce you and leave you ruined.”

First Miss Smythe and now Maitland. What was it with these people thinking Lucas intended anything other than having Penelope at the altar as soon as possible?

“Rubbish,” she said once more. “If he wanted to ruin me, he’d have done it by now. He’s here to marry me, David.”

“I have already tried to explain that is not the case, but you won’t listen.” Maitland grabbed Penelope’s arm. “This is for your own good, cousin.”

Penelope tried to twist free. “What are you doing?”

“I am taking you away from here. Your stepfather obviously does not know the danger Ravenstone presents. Do not fret, cousin, everything will be fine.”

“David, please — ”

Lucas opened the barn door and stepped in. “Good evening, Maitland,” he said in a bored drawl, watching the other man’s face pale. “Fancy seeing you here.”

• • •

Penelope whirled to see Lucas standing by the barn door. His eyes had narrowed to slits, and his aristocratic features held a forbidding expression. She had no idea how to convince David that Lucas posed no threat when he stood there looking downright menacing.

“Lucas!” she said brightly. “How nice of you to join us.” She took advantage of David’s momentary shock to set herself free from his grasp and walk toward her betrothed. “I see that you’ve met my cousin before.”

Lucas kept his attention on David. “Yes, we have met. Your cousin attended Oxford with me.”

David finally seemed to shake off his stupor. “Exactly what are you planning, Ravenstone? If you have a problem with the Maitlands, you come to me. Penelope knows nothing about whatever you think my family has done to yours.”

Lucas shoved away from the barn door. “I believe you’re the one who owes me an explanation, Maitland, as you’re the one who was about to spirit off my fiancée.”

“I will not let you ruin Penelope.”

“No one is spiriting me off, and no one is trying to ruin me,” she assured the men.
Gracious, they are discussing me as if I were not right here in front of them. It’s insulting.

David inclined his head and leaned on a wooden column. “Is that true, Ravenstone?”

Lucas shrugged. “You heard the lady.”

“Then why you are living here with her stepfamily, and there haven’t been any announcements in the papers of an impending marriage?”

“That’s my fault,” she admitted. “I have yet to agree to marry Lucas.”

“You have yet to
agree
?” David rounded on her. “So that is the reason for the delay. Penelope, the man is living in your house. You’d better marry him as soon as possible or you will be — ”

“Ruined,” she provided. “Yes, I know. But, David, there’s no reason to worry. Lucas and I are only taking the time to get to know each other before making such an irrevocable step.”

“You have obviously taken leave of your senses!” David roared. He turned back to Lucas. “I’m giving you one week to marry Penelope. If you haven’t done so by then, I swear I will hunt you down and make you walk down that aisle.” He marched toward her fiancé. “You will not ruin my cousin, even if I have to put a pistol to your head to ensure it.”

At the mention of a pistol, Lucas threw his head and shouted with laughter. “I am more than willing to walk down that aisle, as long as you don’t let Penelope hold the pistol.”

Now that comment was uncalled for! Why did he bring up the shooting incident now? For that matter, why were they discussing their nuptials in a barn in the dead of night?
“If you men are through discussing my future without consulting me,” she said with all the dignity she could muster, “I am going back to the manor.”

David made for the door. “I’ll return to the inn.” He sent Lucas a speaking look. “I will be back in a week’s time to see how things are progressing around here.”

“See that you do,” Lucas taunted.

There was a long, awkward silence after David left. Finally, Penelope straightened and made for the door. “Well, I am going to bed.”

“You have some explaining to do, Penelope,” Lucas said quietly.

“How much of it did you hear?”

“Not much,” he replied. “Snippets.”

“Snippets of everything, most probably,” she muttered. “Why do you always sneak up on people like that? Were you spying on me?”

He ignored that question. “Your time is running out, nymph. You’ll soon have to decide whether or not you want to marry me.”

Lucas held the barn door for her, and she stepped out onto the night. There were faint sounds of crickets, and the balmy breeze cooled her face. They walked together in silence under the stars for a few minutes, lost in their own thoughts.

“I apologize for David’s actions,” she finally said. “He doesn’t realize we have an understanding.”

“Do we have an understanding?” Lucas asked, his voice harsh. “You’ve made me dangle from your fingertips for days. You were on the verge of losing your house, and still you did not give me the answer I seek.” He put out his hands to halt her. “Does the notion of being married to
Raving
Ravenstone scare you so?”

She stopped walking. “Stop calling yourself that! Anyone who takes the time to observe you will see that you are a man possessed of ironclad self-control.”

“Why do you know so much about me, nymph?”

The question flustered her. She scrambled for a way to answer him without revealing how naive she had been of the ways of the world. “It’s as Papa told you that first night. You were a hobby of mine for a good few years, Lucas. I was trained to be a good wife, and good wives know all about their husbands.”

It seemed so long ago now when she’d written him letters, hoping against hope he would someday come for her. She knew now it wasn’t his fault that it took him so long to fetch her. Just as it wasn’t his fault she was in love with him.

Penelope let out a resigned sigh. It was the truth, and she was honest enough to admit it. In fact, she was almost convinced her scheme to use his name to fend off creditors was probably her way of trying to get through to him one last time, for it was impossible to deny her message:
See me. Notice me. Remember me.
Why else did the thought of never seeing him again scare her so?

She’d always loved him, she’d just been angry with him for a time. Her feelings had only grown stronger now that she’d met Lucas the man — flesh and blood. She’d felt a connection with him almost from the moment they’d met. It had grown stronger with each moment they’d spent together. Surly, autocratic, generous Lucas understood her as no other person could.

He accepted and appreciated her for what she was. He never tried to change her to fit into the mold of Society’s idea of the perfect lady.
He wanted to marry her.
The knowledge made Penelope’s heart sing even as her stomach lurched with dread. He wanted to marry her, and his determination terrified her to the core. Because no matter how much he appreciated her, he didn’t
love
her. His only reason for wanting to marry her was to honor his father’s word. She had no right to chain him to her and keep him from finding someone he could love in the future. If she did, he’d end up tumbling ladies like her father.

But she didn’t know if she had enough strength to refuse Lucas, to do the right thing and set him free. Penelope thought of what her future would be after he left Highfield Manor: empty. The twins would someday find partners and get married. And she would still be here, old and alone. Always alone, surrounded by bleating and clucking unwanted animals who, like her, didn’t belong anywhere. It would be almost funny, really, if it didn’t hurt so much. She felt like weeping.

What a pickle she’d put herself in.

“People began calling me Raving Ravenstone after my father died,” Lucas admitted, snapping her out of her thoughts. “I was sixteen, and I was angry then. Angry at the world, at my situation.”

He held her hand, torturing her as his thumb caressed her palm. “One of the boys at school accused me of killing my father, and I beat him half to death. That’s when it started. People recalled my mother’s unstable disposition, and the epithet stuck, probably because of my size. I’ve always been a hulking brute.”

Lucas gathered her into his arms as if he needed to reassure himself that she’d still welcome his touch. And despite all the turmoil she was in, her heart cried out for him. She lay her hand against his stubbled cheek, looked into the dark depths of his eyes and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

For a moment, she thought she saw a flicker of emotion in his eyes before he quickly extinguished it and turned away from her.

“Sorry for what?” Lucas retorted. “It’s not your fault people are idiots.”

She waited for him to turn back to her. When he finally did, she put her hand on his arm to stay him. “I’m sorry for all the mean things they said about your parents. They had no right to do that.”

He sighed. “Just as I had no right to expect you to wait for me for all these years. Forgive me, Penelope. If I had known you were waiting for me, I’d have come sooner.”

His simple words meant more to her than she could ever say. She ducked her head and blinked back tears for the little girl whose dreams had been shattered by reality.

She released his arm and started walking back to the manor. “It doesn’t matter anymore. One of the things Papa taught us is we should accept that life will not always be kind, and we should always focus on moving on.”

“And have you moved on, Penelope? Have you forgiven me?” Lucas asked softly as he opened the manor’s back door, letting her precede him.

“I have, now.” And she did. She hadn’t realized until tonight how much she’d needed to hear him acknowledge the pain she’d felt at his supposed abandonment.

She turned back to check if he was following her up the stairs. Something about sneaking around the darkened manor late at night with a man she was dangerously attracted to made her feel like she was being … naughty.

She continued talking to distract herself from the effect Lucas’s nearness had on her senses. “Papa says reality is what we make of it. Many people are so stuck living in their past or dreaming about their future, they forget the present is the only time we really have any control over. It’s what we do in the present that decides our future, and it’s the present that will become our past.”

“So you’re saying we shouldn’t learn from our past or look forward to the future?” he whispered, so close behind her she could feel his warm breath caressing her nape.

“Of course not,” she whispered back. “Only that we shouldn’t be living anywhere but in the present.” She certainly didn’t want to think of the future right then. She didn’t want to think of when he would be nothing more than a distant memory.

They cleared the top of the stairs. When they reached her bedchamber, she put her hand on the door and turned to face him. He was standing so close, the tips of their boots touched. Perhaps she should invite him in. She was not ready to let him go yet.

No
, she decided. This was her stepfather’s house. There would be more appropriate places to start their affair.

“Good night, Lucas,” she whispered. “Thank you for looking out for me.” She smiled up at him, turned, and carefully opened the door.

Shock made her stop in her tracks when Lucas put his hand on the doorframe and followed her inside before closing the door with a soft click.

“Do you realize what you are doing?” she whispered furiously, watching him as she tried to calm her rattled nerves and keep her voice low at the same time.

The grin he gave her looked downright wolfish. “I’m living in the present,” he replied in a husky tone as he closed the distance between them. “And presently, I am alone with the most desirable woman I have ever known.” He cupped her cheek in his large hand. “Based on our past encounters, I have no doubt this one will affect both our futures.”

Oh, God, if he only knew …
her lips parted as she closed her eyes and released a tremulous breath while heat seeped through her veins.

“Lucas, you promised not to ruin me,” she reminded him as she felt him remove her cloak, letting it fall into a pool of gold-trimmed velvet around her feet.

“I know.” He tipped her chin up, silently urging her to meet his heated gaze. “Do you trust me, Penelope?”

She opened her eyes and saw his solemn face. “Yes, Lucas, I trust you.” It was herself she couldn’t trust around him.

“You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?”

“No,” she replied sincerely. Then she smiled and added, “I mean, what can you possibly do? Kiss me to death?”

He chuckled. “Watch it, nymph, or I just might do that.”

“Hah! I’d like to see you try.”

His gaze dropped to her lips. “Would you now?” he rasped as his mouth claimed hers in a fiercely tender kiss that was unlike any of the kisses they’d shared before.

Lucas worshipped her mouth, his tongue plunging in to savor her, and sweetness poured through her veins as he shook the pins out of her hair, tumbling the entire silky mass around them.

Her hands linked behind his neck, and without breaking the kiss, he swept her into his arms and carried her to the frilly bed, laying her gently in the middle of it as he followed her down. Only then did Lucas lift his mouth from hers.

“Penelope,” he whispered. “Open your eyes.”

Her lashes fluttered before she stared straight at him. He groaned when her hands cupped his face, and he turned his head to plant a kiss into her palm.

“I won’t ruin you,” he vowed, as he removed his coat and tossed it to the side of the bed.

“You won’t ruin me,” she said to reassure him, before pulling him down to her.

He stopped a mere an inch from her lips and met her gaze. “Unless you want me to?” he asked, half serious.

Penelope smiled. “Kiss me, Lucas.”

Lucas kissed her. Hungrily, deeply, with a savage urgency he’d never shown before. She moaned in pleasure as his hands roamed freely over her, claiming her breasts, while he parted her legs with his knee and settled himself between her thighs.