Never Had a Dream Come True (29 page)

“It’s just three doors down,” his lovely wife called after him before she stood with a groan and went to close door behind him. “And now we are alone. Finally. I thought he would never leave.”

“How are you?”

“A bit sore yet, thank you, but giving birth to three babies in a row does that to a woman. Next time I hope it will be only one.”

“Next time?” Penny asked, amused.

Francesca shrugged in her dainty way. “Give me a month or two, and then I think I’m ready to get pregnant again. Unfortunately, I have quite some work ahead of me to convince Devlin to ever touch me in that way again, as the girls’ birth made him swear an oath to everyone he met that he would never give in to his manly needs again. As if he ever could withstand me…”

They giggled together in perfect harmony as they had done so many times before, and Penny felt a sudden sadness over how everything had changed during the last year. Last Christmas they had spent together in Berkshire, dreaming about their upcoming Season and, more importantly, the men of their dreams they were about to meet.

Francesca had had her dream come true, after a few bumps in the road, and was now married to the man she had dreamt about her whole life. For Penny it seemed the story would end differently, as the man she had been in love with for as long as she could remember refused to face her, and she didn’t know how she ever would be able to reach him.

Where had it all gone wrong? She didn’t know, but she regretted every harsh word she had told him. If he loved her as much as she hoped for, he must have had the worst time of his life the last couple of months. She had practically walked all over him while waiting for him to stand up and be that special someone she’d always dreamt him to be.

Why had it never dawned on her that he already was the man of her dreams?
He
was the one she had fallen in love with, including all his good and bad sides, not the strange version of him she had always met in her vivid daydreams.

He wasn’t a chaste, poetry-reciting knight in shining armor who declared himself dying because he loved her so much. He was a man of flesh and blood who grinned through life in amusement, flirted outrageously with every woman he met, and who never, ever, would back down if someone he held dear needed him.

When he left her after his rescuing act at Lord Bolton’s, she had been more humiliated than ever. She had asked herself over and over again why she had admitted how ashamed she was for what had happened, and not until a week later did she realize he hadn’t laughed at her at all, as she had assumed he would.

The only thing he had asked for was the truth.

Thinking about it, she realized he had never asked her for much at all over the last year. All he had wanted was to be near her, to kiss her, to touch her, to be with her.

It was she who had been desperate for more.

“Tell me why you want me.”

Why? Why had she been so hard on him? The poor man had done everything he could think off to show her how much she meant to him, and all she had done was to wag her finger at him and demand him to answer her, without actually asking a question.

He wasn’t the one to blame for all this.

She was.

No wonder he spent his days boxing. She would have wanted to hurt someone too, if he had behaved as she had.

“I still hope you will become my aunt,” Francesca said, and Penny laughed.

“You do, do you?”

“Better you being my aunt by marriage than your sister being my sister by marriage. I still can’t believe Sin has married Charmaine. It’s beyond me whatever possessed him to throw himself onto her in her bed, of all places. Of course he had to marry her when Mother and Father walked in on them.”

“It’s not like Charmaine, either. I didn’t even know she fancied Sin. She has never mentioned him much at all, other than dancing with him now and then.”

“What a night that must have been,” Francesca said slowly. “You being abducted by your father and then rescued by Rake. Only to later be abandoned by him in front of most of our family in quite a harsh way. And then my poor parents, who sent Sin up with your sister, who was fatigued from having to save you, only to find him fondling her in her bed.”

Penny shook her head. Francesca was right about it. There was something strange about the whole Sin-and-Charmaine situation. Both that it had happened and how oddly they behaved toward each other now, after his parents insisted they marry, with a special license.

“It’s like they hate each other, wouldn’t you say? She can hardly look upon him, and he sneers as soon as she opens her mouth, which has rendered her a silent shadow of her former glorious self. I actually find myself feeling sorry for her, and you know how much I have disliked her through the years.”

“I know. But poor Charmaine never had a chance against you.”

Francesca grinned sheepishly. “I guess you’re right. I’ll have to try to reach out to her. She must feel a bit lonely here at Pendragon. Sin dragged her with him against her will, and everyone else has been avoiding her as much as possible.”

“I think she would like to have a friend.”

“Has she spoken to you yet?”

Penny sighed. “No, she hasn’t. The strange thing is that I can see she wants to, but it’s like she doesn’t know where to begin. I’m her sister, for goodness’ sake. It shouldn’t be so bloody hard for her to talk to me, should it?”

Francesca did a little grimace as she shook her head. “No, it shouldn’t. I must say I’m most curious about what happened. I have tried to talk to Sin, but he just growls at me if I mention her name or the word ‘wife.’ ”

They sighed deeply, in chorus, before bursting out in giggles, as they had often done all through their lives.

A little later, Penny sneaked out the door after her friend had fallen asleep in a much-needed nap. She felt much more content and levelheaded than she had for a long time. To have finally admitted her faults made her feel surprisingly strong, and she knew she couldn’t let Rake destroy their chance of happiness. Pondering the problem ahead, she went to her place of sanctuary, the glorious and dust-free Pendragon library. There she slowly let her finger move over the books on the shelves, but her mind was elsewhere.

A sudden memory of another time in another library came to her. Last Christmas she had celebrated with the Darling family at Chester Park, and she had, as always, denied Rake every chance to get closer to her. But that last day, before she left for Harveyfield again, they had happened to meet in the library, where she was reading a travel journal about Gretna Green, and Rake had made her promise never to elope there.

Or—what was it he had said?

Hadn’t he made her promise to never elope to Gretna Green
without telling him
, so he could save her by marrying her himself?

A little smile started to grow on her lips and she couldn’t hold back a giddy laugh. Her head was already spinning with plans, because now she knew what she should do. Now she knew how to get his attention.

She was going to elope.

And, as the thoughtful person she was, she would fulfill the promise she’d made him and inform him. He was an intelligent man and he would get the hidden message.

Whether he would choose to act upon it was another thing. Maybe she had dallied too long and lost him forever. She didn’t know, but she had to try.

Determined, she dashed up the stairs and had a maid show her what room her sister stayed in.

Charmaine’s eyes were unusually puffy when she opened the door at Penny’s knock, but there was no time to care about that now. She needed someone to escort her to Gretna Green. Preferably someone married, so her journey wouldn’t brew a scandal, and who better than her very married—although unhappily so—sister?

“Pack your things, we are going to Scotland.”

“W-what?” Charmaine stared at her blankly.

“You, sister dear,” Penny said, and poked Charmaine in the chest, “you are going to help me make my dream come true.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“We are eloping!”

“You and I?”

“Yes. Or no. Or…” Penny sighed, frustrated. “We are going to Gretna Green, which will force Rake to finally stop his fighting and decide what to do about me.”

“But we can’t go by ourselves.”

“Of course we can. You are a married lady now, and as such you can escort your poor unmarried sister wherever you, or I, want to go.”

“Oh. I didn’t think about that. I keep forgetting that I’m married, that Si-”—she took a deep breath—“that Sin is now my husband.”

“Why did you marry him?”

Charmaine sighed deeply. “I had no choice.”

“Of course you had. You could have told him to leave your room, before he had a chance to get in bed with you.”

The blush which crept over Charmaine’s peachy cheeks was quite telling, and Penny frowned with distress. “Or was it you who…”

As her sister turned even redder, Penny had her answer. “Bloody hell, Charmaine! It was you who forced this marriage, not he. Why? What on earth possessed you to do such a thing? And why Sin? Of all people in the world, why did you have to choose Sin? No wonder he keeps looking at you like something the cat dragged in. He must think you are the worst person possible.”

“I had no choice.”

“Everyone has a choice.”

Charmaine shook her head. “I didn’t.”

“Well, I haven’t time for this conversation right now, but as soon as we sit in that carriage heading north, you are going to tell me every little detail.”

Charmaine nodded in defeat. There was no way for her to escape. “When are we leaving?”

Before Penny had a chance to answer, a cold voice was heard from the doorway. “You are not going anywhere.”

The two sisters whirled to meet the eyes of a furious Sinclair Darling.

Charmaine stiffened, and Penny couldn’t help but feel sad for the situation her sister had put herself in.

“Please, Sin.” Penny took a step closer to him in an effort to catch his attention, but his eyes, just as smoky grey as Rake’s, never left Charmaine’s face. “I need to go to Scotland and have asked Charmaine to accompany me. I can’t go by myself, but she can take me.”

“No. She’s staying right here.”

Penny went to him and put her hand on his arm, forcing him gently to turn his gaze from his wife and instead focus on her. For a second she hesitated, as she had never met this Sin before. Normally he was nothing unordinary at all, a well-built, well-behaved man, as handsome as the next one and burdened by the responsibilities of his heritage.

But the Sin who looked down at her was not ordinary at all. He oozed manly anger and she could sense he was indeed an attractive man, someone for any woman to fall in love with.

“Please,” Penny repeated. “I
have
to go.”

She saw the coldness in his eyes fade away, and his face seemed less carved in stone as he softened toward her. He had always been like an older brother to her, and she knew he held her in quite high esteem, something she was going to use now. She had to, for her own happiness’ sake.

“I can’t ask anyone else, because I don’t want it commonly known why I’m going. But Charmaine is my sister, my confidante, and I need her. Please.”

“Why Scotland?”

“Because that’s where Gretna Green is located.”

Sin chuckled, amused against his will. “Are you eloping all by yourself?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact I am.”

“Why?”

She gave him an impatient look. “It’s not necessary for you to know why. Just give me your approval to bring my sister with me as my chaperone.”

The coldness came back into Sin’s eyes as he glanced toward his wife, who stood beside her bed, head bent and face hidden. “I wouldn’t trust her as a chaperone if I were you. She’s without scruples and wouldn’t think twice about using you if she had to.”

“She’s my sister.”

“She’s my bloody wife,” Sin sneered, unable to hold back his contempt.

Penny didn’t know what to say. She had never seen the usually levelheaded Sin this angry. He was practically seething with rage, and it was all directed toward Charmaine.

The memory of another man, who had stared at her with the same kind of rage, came to her. Rake too had been furious with her, but in her heart she knew it came out of love. He would never have been so angry with her if he hadn’t cared for her, and she couldn’t help but wonder if this was true for Sin, too.

So maybe Charmaine had snared him into marrying her. It still shouldn’t have brought out this kind of anger from him. It wasn’t as if he had been engaged to another woman. He had been a quite confirmed bachelor, only interested in the caretaking of the family estate, being the heir to the dukedom as he was.

In a couple of years he would undoubtedly have been searching for a wife anyway, as Sin was a good son who knew his duties. Instead, he found himself forced by his own parents to marry this incomparable queen of the
ton
, the woman of every other man’s dreams, without having anything to say about it. Penny knew he had always had a good eye to her sister, something he had admitted to her more than once, preferably in front of Francesca, as it always vexed her a bit. Francesca had never been particularly impressed by Charmaine.

So what had Charmaine done to make him loathe her like this?

“Is it important to you?” Sin interrupted her thoughts, and she nodded solemnly.

“Yes.”

“Has it to do with Uncle Rake?”

“Yes.”

Sin sighed. “All right, then. But I’m going with you. I don’t trust her to do rightly for you, especially not if you get caught in some situation she doesn’t know how to solve.”

“Sinclair Darling!” Charmaine gasped, flustered. “Penny is my sister, and I would never do anything to harm her. Here I have spent most of my life trying to save her, so why should I do anything to harm her now, when she is almost safe?”

Penny frowned toward her sister. Whatever did Charmaine mean? Saving her? It made no sense, as Charmaine had not been around Penny much at all, always too busy with herself, surrounded by their parents and any available servants.

Charmaine must have realized she had said too much, and she clamped her mouth shut, ignoring Sin’s probing gaze and Penny’s confusion.