Which she did, retreating to the other side of the dressing room door while Pease Porridge headed out the other.

“Such behavior,” his mother was saying. “Acting like the veriest green boy and not the Duke of Warwick. Chasing after the first passable face that throws herself at you.”

Marcus’s anger made it difficult to see straight, let alone speak with any clarity. “Do not speak of Miss Pease like that. She is my betrothed and will be my wife.”

“Never. The Duke of Warwick needs must make an alliance of family and fortune—a marriage that will bolster the Warwick fortunes and fame, rather than tarnish or diminish them.”

“I have spent enough times with the books to know that the estate is not on the brink of financial collapse.” Marcus tried to counter with logic instead of anger. “And I am sure Miss Pease has a dowry, but if she does not—”

He looked to Penelope to confirm this statement, but she had sensibly ducked out of the line of his mother’s fire.

“Of course, she does not,” his mother insisted. “Sir Harold took it off of her when she tried to ruin poor Caius—added her portion to the youngest daughter’s to try and marry her off in the wake of the scandal.”

“A scandal that would never have occurred if you’d let poor Miss Pease cry off quietly.”

“Poor Miss Pease? Have you lost your mind?” his mother asked for the second time. “None of this would have happened—Caius would still be alive, if that fool girl hadn’t gotten it into her head to refuse him. If he had married and had a wife to act as she ought and keep him as he ought, he’d still be alive.”

“He would not—he would be dead from the venereal disease that caused his mistress to murder him, and like as not, he’d have passed the bloody pox on to poor Miss Pease. And she’d be dying as well.”

“How do you know she hasn’t already got it?”

Something more furiously cold than anger slid under his skin. “I will not dignify your question with an answer, Mother. Suffice me to say that I am a man experienced of the world, and I know what is right and true and valuable in it.”

His mother was not persuaded. “She trapped you into this!” she accused. “Threw herself at you. This is her revenge. She’ll do anything to degrade the House of Warwick. She’s not worthy of—”

“Enough. Devil take your suspicions, Mother. If you must know, I threw myself at her—threw myself upon her mercy.”

His mother drew back in hauteur. “Do not swear at me. I only want to protect you.”

Marcus lit the match to his slow temper and let the cannonball fly. “Then you are nearly ten years too late to do that.”

His mother gasped in affront, or hurt, but Marcus had done battle with more than the French—he had faced his own fears, and he would press his advantage while he could. “Your care has always been for the House of Warwick, not for me. But I am a man now, Mama.” He even went so far as to use her preferred address to soften the blow. “And I am Duke of Warwick. I will act and marry as I see fit.”

“You wouldn’t dare defy me in this, Marcus!” his mother fumed. “Such a marriage would be an unmitigated disaster. I refuse to stand by and watch such wanton destruction of our good name.”

“Then I should advise you, Mama,” he counseled, “to go home to London.”

He stomped out of the room and went to find his bride-to-be—his Pease Porridge, his savior. Only to find that she had abandoned him.

She had broken her pledge and was gone.




CHAPTER 15




TARNISH. Diminish. That fool girl. She’ll do anything.

She’s not worthy.

They were the last words Penelope heard before she shut the door to keep from having to hear any more. But they were enough.

Enough to tell her that her lovely idyll with Beech was at an end. Enough to remind her that she deserved no better. More than enough to send her snatching up her clothes and running for home.

Penelope had the small presence of mind to wrap herself in the fur rug from the carriage as a ward against the frigid chill of the morning, but she didn’t have far to walk—her father’s carriage was already waiting in the snow-swept courtyard.

Penelope did not question how the empty coach came to be there, but simply climbed aboard, let her tears fall hot down her cold cheeks, and let them take her where they would—which turned out to be Hayholm Mote, a lovely moated medieval house tucked away in the countryside some ways up the Avon, where the great aunt she had never before met, Lady Sarah Pease, lived in quiet comfort with her cats.

“Poor lamb, you look like you’ve had a time of it,” Lady Sarah welcomed her with glad smiles and warm understanding. “Get this cup of tea into you, then tell your Aunt Sarah what happened, love.”

Her compassion was so unexpected that Penelope had no reserve. “I’ve made a proper mess of things, my lady. I’m sure my father—”

“Oh, fathers!” The lady waved her lace at the general notion of fathers. “What do they know of daughters’ love.” She patted the chair beside her. “Now, I do know bare outlines of your scandal—though I admire your ambition, and your taste. Caius Beecham, no less!” She patted Penelope’s hand in approval. “His death was unexpected, I suppose, but by the look of your poor face, I can’t help but think that you must have loved that lovely bastard very much to still be so brokenhearted.”

“No, ma’am.” Penelope would have laughed if she had not been so full of tears. “I was not in love with the late duke.”

“Pish tosh.” Aunt Sarah made a decidedly unladylike sound of disagreement. “I know a girl in love when I see one.”

Penelope felt her face flame. But why should she be ashamed—loving Beech had been everything right and good, even if it was ruinous. “I am in love,” she admitted. “Or feel I am—but it feels terrible. I seem to have jumped from the cold frying pan into the burning fire. And got myself properly roasted as a result.”

“Have you?” Aunt Sarah was all avid interest. “Tell me all.”

Penelope almost didn’t know where to begin. “I didn’t mean to, but I’ve somehow fallen in love with Caius’s brother, the current duke—Marcus. So, you see why it is so impossible.”

“Good God.” Aunt Sarah was so astonished she stood, unceremoniously dumping the cat from her lap. “Marcus Beecham? Of course—the naval man, and quite the hero, from what I’ve read. Of course, you would fall in love with him.”

She made it sound so simple. “Yes, I couldn’t seem to help myself.”

“One never can,” Aunt Sarah consoled. “So, what went wrong?”

“Everything,” Penelope said, even though so many things had gone perfectly with Beech—they had shared a true affinity. “But I suppose I didn’t have the courage to stay.”

Didn’t have the courage to watch Beech make the choice she knew he must.

“My dear girl.” Aunt Sarah came to take Penelope’s face in her frail arthritic hands. “If you love him, you must face your fears. You must go to him.”

Penelope felt fresh tears sting her eyes. “What if it’s too late? What if he’s been persuaded he no longer wants me?”

“Oh, well.” Her aunt waved her hand as if she were waving a wand and could keep such terrible things from happening. “Then you will come back to me, and we will drink tea with more brandy than is advisable, and we will cry, and we will rub along together as comfortable and consoling as two old house cats, with no one but ourselves the wiser. And in the spring, when the weather turns, we shall travel.” Aunt Sarah patted her hand. “I’ve always wanted to see Venice.”

Penelope felt heat pool behind her eyes at such a generous idea. “So have I.”

“Good.” Aunt Sarah patted her cheek. “Then make that duke of yours take you.”

Penelope could no longer keep the tears from falling. “I’m not sure I know how.”

“Sweet girl,” Aunt Sarah scoffed. “You have but to smile.”

Penelope found her mouth curving obediently. “You make it seem so simple.”

“It is,” Aunt Sarah, insisted. “Go to him. Tomorrow, after you’ve had a good night’s sleep and washed those tears from your eyes. And wear a crimson cloak.” Aunt Sarah beamed at Penelope, all cat in cream. “You’ll look ravishing against the snow.”

BUT IN THE MORNING, Penelope did not go to him.

Because he came to her.

Somehow, someway, he had found her—the ducal carriage jangled in the frosty lane, and Beech himself was striding purposefully across the narrow bridge to the house, his boots kicking up snow as he came.

And then he was there, bending his tall form to fit in the low-ceilinged house. Staring at her. Looking in wonder and not accusation.

Looking in love.

Lord, but they grew them fine, these Beecham boys. He was impossibly handsome, made neat and tidy by her shears. Or at least made neater and tidier—there was no ridding him of his devilishly piratical seafaring air.

“Good Lord, Beech,” she said because she didn’t know quite what else to say. “I do hope you’ve come to marry me.” Despite her best effort at wry nonchalance, her voice quavered and cracked with the unspoken question—would he have her? Had she left it too late?

But Beech was as honest and loyal and steadfast as they came. “I have.” He let out a deep exhalation. “Let us do so at once.”

Penelope smiled. “Right now? Surely I’m meant to at least offer you a hot dish of tea first?”

“The only warmth I need is you.” He patted his coat as he stepped nearer. “I have used the hours since you left me wisely—I have that marriage license I boasted I could procure.”

Relief, gratitude and sheer unadulterated love made her giddy. “You’re sure? Your mother—”

“I won’t be persuaded against you, Pease Porridge. Not now. Not ever.”

“You really are the bravest man, Beech. Well then.” She held out her hand to him.

He reached for her as if it had been a burden not to touch her. Not to place a kiss upon the back of her hand. Not to show her how relieved and pleased and grateful he was, too. “Thank you, my darling girl.”

“Don’t thank me yet, Beech,” she teased. But she could only smile. Because the sun was shining, and she loved him. They were going to marry, and everything was going to be all right. “Make me a duchess first.”




CHAPTER 16




MARCUS and his Pease Porridge followed the snow-covered path from Hayholm Mote beside the frozen river, hand in hand, with the snow crunching beneath their feet.

It seemed like the right moment to pledge his troth. “I have something else for you.”

Pease Porridge laughed her surprise. “A wedding present?”

“A before-the-wedding present.” He held out a thickly folded piece of paper it had taken him half the night to prepare. “A valentine.”

“Beech.” She regarded him through her lashes. “Dare I ask if it is smutty?”

“It is not smutty.” He extended her the packet. “It is my heart.”

She took the valentine from his hand with solemn reverence, and carefully turned it to and fro to find the beginning of the puzzle. And then she began to read. “Dear love, this heart which you behold, which breaks apart as you unfold,”—she turned the valentine to continue—“cannot show my truefast love, which came to us as from above.” She smiled up at him and the sun made a halo of her frosted breath. “That’s very sweet, Beech.”

“There’s more.” He tried to point out the intricacy of the design. “It’s a puzzle you have to unfold.”