Wicked Wager (17 page)

When Penny didn’t answer, Maggie motioned to the chair by the dressing table. “If you’d like, I’ll take down your hair.”

****

He really should go to bed, thought Marcus, staring gloomily into his brandy. But what would be the point? He’d end up tossing and turning all night anyway. Since he wasn’t going to sleep, he might as well stay here. He leaned back in the horsehair chair and stretched out his legs. It felt as if there was a war going on inside him. A fierce battle between his rational mind and his emotions. He was filled with a deep yearning to go to Penny and tell her that if she didn’t want to marry him, she was free to return to Horngate.

But his mind argued that doing such a thing would be witless. He’d won Horngate fair and square, and he’d be a fool to give it up. After all, it wasn’t as if he were condemning Penny to a life of misery. Once they were wed, she’d be free to do as she pleased. He wasn’t the sort of man who sought to control the actions of his wife.
As long as she was faithful to him.

Although it was the fashionable thing for both parties to have affairs, he had no interest in doing such a thing, and he’d never be able to endure it if Penny had sex with other men. That’s what had upset him so much and why he’d behaved so rashly. The thought of her and Lambson… It was not to be borne.

Why had she done it? Was it simply an act of defiance? His earlier fear reawakened. Having discovered the pleasures of sex, was she now eager to explore those pleasures with other men? Maybe she thought Lambson would please her better than he had. The thought made him feel sick inside.

He let his mind linger on the possibility, then finally decided that lust was unlikely to be the motivation for her actions. He must not let his experience with Elizabeth make him think all women were like that. Sheer defiance seemed unlikely to be the reason either. Penny might sometimes appear a bit childish, but it was an innocent kind of childish rather than the petulant sort.

So, why had she done it? He was back to that. If she didn’t seek to aggravate him or desire to have an affair with Lambson, then what was it about?

All at once, it came to him.
Maybe she hoped if she pushed him far enough, he would decide she was too much trouble and abandon his plan to marry her.

That thought led to another. The consistent thing in all her actions had been that she was trying to shock him. From her dramatic arrival on the huge stallion, her gauche and hoydenish behavior at Horngate, which he now knew was an act put on for his benefit. Purchasing an extravagant and outrageous wardrobe… Everything she’d done was calculated to convince him she would be a difficult and aggravating wife.

She didn’t want to marry him.
He could see that clearly now. Which meant that if he cared for her at all, he should forget the wager and give up Horngate.

Hadn’t James warned him of this all along? And wasn’t that the point of his wager? James wanted Penny to have a choice; he’d known from the beginning what she would choose. She’d done everything in her power to get him to change his mind about making her his wife.

Which brought him back to where he started.

He got up and poured himself another brandy, then returned to the chair. The path ahead seemed very clear. And yet, he didn’t see how he could bear to go through with it. To not only give up Horngate, but to give up Penny herself… It would feel as if something vital had been torn out of him.

****

Penny sat in bed and gloomily surveyed the bedchamber. For a few hours she’d found respite from her dilemma in sleep. But now it was morning, and she was faced with the same problem as yesterday. After spending nearly a week trying to convince Revington not to marry her, she now realized that of all the men out there, he was the one she truly wanted as her husband. After all, he clearly had no intention of selling Horngate, and he seemed interested in continuing to breed horses. Whether he would allow her to be as involved as she would like was more uncertain.

Of course, it was possible she’d so angered him the night before that he’d never want to have anything to do with her again.

Restless, she climbed out of bed and went to the dressing room. She was going mad thinking about these things. Somehow she had to clear her head. If only she could go riding. That always helped.

Maybe she could. She recalled seeing horseback riders along Rotten Row in Hyde Park. They’d all been men, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do it. Revington might not approve, but then after last night, could she really make things worse?

Of course, there was still the problem of what to wear. Madame Dubonet suggested having a riding costume made, but Penny rejected the notion. The idea of a cumbersome skirt, not to mention riding sidesaddle, dismayed her. That was hardly riding at all!

She searched the back of the closet for the garments she’d brought from Horngate. Even knowing how unlikely it was that she would ever wear them, she’d brought a pair of riding trousers and an old shirt.

She took them out and laid them on the bed. Compared to the clothes she’d been wearing the past few days, the woolen trousers and linen shirt looked terribly crude and unfeminine. But their plain familiarity was reassuring. This was how she’d dressed for much of her life.

Penny put on the clothes, then her old riding boots. Now, she faced her next dilemma. How was she to get a horse suitable for riding? Surely one of the footmen would help.

She crept downstairs making certain Revington wasn’t around, then made her way to the servants’ quarters. The young footman, Jeremy, appeared shocked to see her. When he heard what she wanted, he was even more surprised. “You want to go riding, miss? Dressed like that?”

“I know Revington wouldn’t approve. But he doesn’t have to know, does he?” Penny made her expression pleading.

A frown darkened the young man’s thin face, and his blue eyes grew troubled. She could tell he was weighing his decision, trying to decide what Revington would do to him if they were found out. Finally, Jeremy gave her a crooked smile. “He did say we were to accommodate you in any way possible since you were soon to be his wife and the mistress of the household.”

“Exactly.” Penny breathed a sigh of relief.

She waited impatiently until Jeremy returned, all the while worrying that Maggie would appear. With luck, the maidservant was busy in the kitchen. As far as she knew, Revington had never gotten around to hiring a new cook.

At last Jeremy returned. He led her out the back way, to where a lovely chestnut gelding waited, fully saddled. Patting the animal’s neck, he said, “This is Nero. He’s a real goer. I feel sorry for him, always having to be part of a team and pull a rig.”

“Now, how do I get to Hyde Park?” Penny asked.

Jeremy gave her directions and helped her mount. As she found her seat on the animal, he nodded approvingly. “Looks like you know what you’re about, miss.”

“I do. Don’t worry. I won’t get hurt. I’ll be back here in an hour or so. Revington will never be the wiser.”

With that reassurance she set off.

****

He felt even more hellish than usual this morning, Marcus decided as he made his way downstairs. That would teach him to fall asleep in a chair in the library. He’d awakened very early in the morning and made his way to the guest bedchamber to sleep the last few hours, but even so, he’d wakened with a crick in his neck and a nagging headache, although the latter discomfort was likely due to all the brandy he’d imbibed as much as where he’d slept.

He wasn’t in the best frame of mind, especially since he still hadn’t decided what course of action to take with Penny. But he had realized he couldn’t continue to ignore her. After what they shared, it would simply be too cold-hearted to act as if there were nothing between them. With that thought in mind, he braced himself to enter the breakfast room.

It was empty, except for Bowes. Marcus was surprised, as he’d distinctly heard Penny leave her bedchamber and head downstairs. It had been some time ago, but he thought she’d still be at breakfast.

Bowes approached him. “Good morning, sir. I was waiting for you to call me to help you dress.”

“I’ll change clothes later,” Marcus responded. “For now, I thought I’d have breakfast with Penny. Has she already finished?”

“Miss Montgomery never came to the breakfast room. I thought she must still be abed.”

“I’m sure she’s not. I heard her come downstairs some time ago.” Marcus felt a stab of regret. He should have gotten up right away, instead of lying in bed trying to work up his nerve to face her.

“Indeed,” said Bowes. “I wonder where she’s gone.”

Marcus turned and left the breakfast room. Bowes followed. Although it seemed unlikely she would be there, Marcus checked the library, the dining room, and the drawing room. When he failed to find her in any of those places, he started up the stairs. “I suppose it’s possible she returned to her room,” he called down to Bowes.

He knocked softly on her bedchamber door. When there was no answer, he slowly opened it, wondering if she’d gone back to sleep.

But the room was empty. “Maggie. She must know where she is.”

He took the stairs rapidly and swept past Bowes to make his way to the kitchen, where he found Maggie kneading bread. “Where’s Penny?”

Maggie looked startled. “I don’t know, sir. I went up a while ago to see if she needed help with dressing, but she wasn’t there.” Seeing Marcus’s expression, she continued, “I know I should have checked on her sooner, sir, but it is a challenge to serve as both cook and lady’s maid.”

“I know, Maggie. I promise to have Bowes hire a cook today.”

Marcus frowned as he left the kitchen. Penny must have gone out. More distressing, she’d apparently done so by herself. The familiar anger suffused him. Hadn’t he told her repeatedly she must have an escort when she left the townhouse? Was she deliberately trying to upset him?

The next moment, he regained control. He wouldn’t jump to conclusions with Penny, but deal with her in a civilized and rational fashion. But as hard as he tried to regain his composure, the more agitated he felt.
Where could she have gone? Was it possible she’d arranged to meet Lambson?

She wouldn’t, would she?
Oh my God, it doesn’t even bear thinking about!

He started for the servants’ area, panic and rage tearing through him.

Chapter Twelve

By the time he found Bert polishing tack in the carriage house, he’d managed to calm himself, at least enough to speak. “Have you seen Pen—Miss Montgomery?”

“No, sir. Perhaps Jeremy has.”

“Where might I find him?”

“He’s in the house, sir. Maggie asked him to bring in more coal.”

Marcus hurried, taking long strides. In the kitchen he found Jeremy and Maggie. The footman was standing on a stepstool, getting something from the tall cupboard.

“Jeremy! Have you seen Miss Montgomery?”

The footman climbed down and turned to face him. As soon as Marcus saw the young man’s expression, he knew. He glared at Jeremy, his fists clenched at his sides. “You have, haven’t you? Where has she gone? Where’s she meeting him?”

The footman’s eyes, which had looked guilty and anxious before, went wide with astonishment. “Meeting who, sir?”

Marcus took a deep breath and forced himself to relax. No point letting the servants know Penny had made a fool of him. “I…what I meant was, where has she gone?”

The guilty look was back in Jeremy’s eyes. He seemed almost panicked. “I-I’m sorry, sir. But you did say that the staff should to try to please her. That she would be our mistress soon, and we should seek to accommodate her in any way possible.”

“What is it? What has she done?” He felt almost faint. It was unthinkable his staff would help Penny arrange a liaison with another man. Surely they weren’t that dense!

Jeremy grimaced. “I meant no harm, sir. She promised me she wouldn’t get hurt. I don’t think she will. She appeared quite experienced.”

The stunned, numb sensation spread. He wasn’t certain his mouth would work if he tried to speak.

Jeremy ducked his head. “She’s very hard to refuse, sir. Surely you must know that. But you’re right. I shouldn’t have done it. Or, at least I should have gotten her a tamer mount. Nero can be a handful.”

“Nero?” Somehow he managed to get the name out.
Who is Nero? Is there another man he didn’t know about?

“Nero’s one of the carriage horses, sir. One of the team I usually get from the livery stable. Although as I told Penny, he’s wasted as a rig horse. Henry down at the stables says he can really fly. Not that he’s supposed to race the horses, of course. But he does need to try them out a bit. That’s part of his job.”

“A horse? What did she want with a horse?”

“To go riding, of course, sir. She was dressed all for it. Breeches and riding boots. None of that silly riding habit nonsense that most ladies wear.”

“She went riding? Alone?” He knew he sounded like an idiot, but he simply had to know, to be certain.

“Aye, sir. But there will be plenty of people there this time of day. All the grooms will be out exercising the horses. If anything should happen, there’ll be all sorts of experienced fellows to help her.”

“Happen? What do you mean?”

“If she should fall or something, sir. Although she assured me that wouldn’t happen. And she did seem to know what she was about. Nero settled down as soon as she was on him. Like he knew she was someone he could trust.”

Marcus was suddenly aware of the desperate expression on the groom’s face. Jeremy was babbling on, behaving like a condemned man trying desperately to explain as he’s dragged to the gallows. Meanwhile, Marcus felt his own self-imposed sentence lifting.
She isn’t meeting Lambson, or any other man. Of course not. She’s simply gone riding. It is exactly what Penny would do. Exactly.

He hadn’t misjudged her. He
did
know her. She was still the lovely horse-mad hoyden he met that first day at Horngate. But for all her experience with horses, this was London, not the countryside. What if something startled her mount and she was thrown?