{2022 WATTY SHORTLISTER} {18+ COMPLETED}
England, 1842
Lady Hutton, otherwise known as Penelope Chapman, cares not that her husband has a wandering eye. That is, until he wanders away completely--all the way to the continent with his mistress, wh...
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Penelope's head was spinning.
If she didn't know any better, she would think she was succumbing to the vapors as her mother often did. That is, of course, until Penelope realized that the vapors were simply something the duchess used as an excuse when she did not wish to attend dinner with Viscount and Viscountess Prescott.
No, this was likely entirely different than anything that Penelope's mother ever experienced. Surely, the reputable Duchess of Warwick never attempted to seduce a colonel assigned to her by the Queen of England, a man who was also, apparently, quite close with her brother. Alarmingly close.
Oh, dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Penelope was quite sure that if Collette hadn't interrupted when she had, Colonel Ash would have kissed her. And she was almost completely confident that it would have been a kiss that was rough and husky and deep, just like his voice.
If you need someone to get your heart racing, you'll let me do.
Oh, goodness. The hunger in his eyes when he'd said that. No man had ever looked at her like that, and it was more than Penelope could have imagined, more than she could have dreamed up when she came into the room to find him sulking and thus decided to taunt him ever so slightly. Merely to get back at him for being so overprotective, so overbearing.
Just like when she had jumped into that pond to retrieve her ball, it had backfired.
She'd been so in control—a position that she so dearly craved after everything her husband had put her through. But the moment Beckett put his hands on her, he tipped the scales. She likely would have allowed the man anything he wished to have. And wasn't that frightening?
Particularly because now Griffin was here.
Penelope hadn't known her brother was coming, and of course, she was delighted to have seen him in the foyer. There was likely no one else on earth who Penelope adored more than him, but his timing was...less than convenient.
Although perhaps it was for the best that she and Beckett had been interrupted when they had.
The balance of power and all that. Penelope had to hold onto it somehow.
Nevertheless, she figured there was air to be cleared. And so it was with that in mind that she knocked on the door which conjoined her chambers with Beckett's.
She had long since heard her brother take his leave from Beckett's chamber, and so she knew that the damn man was in there and that he was alone. Yes, she had attempted to eavesdrop. No, she did not regret it, nor was she ashamed by it. They were in there speaking of her; it was rather rude that they had not invited her to join in the first place.
Despite knowing the colonel was present on the other side of the door, there was no response.
Penelope huffed, staring at the firelight as it flicked against the floorboards beneath the door.
