Penelope Read Online Free PDF Page A

looked up once more into his eyes only to find her wide blue gaze trapped and held by that hard silvery stare.
    Miss Harvey launched into speech and the Earl turned his gaze slightly from Penelope, but not so far away that she could not fail to observe his look of hauteur deepening to one of disgust.
    “Naughty man,” shrieked Miss Harvey coquetting awfully from her chair by the fire. “You don’t think I’m like a mother to your little brother? Ah, but I am. I dote on the dear boy.”
    She lumbered to her feet and placed a fat arm around the horrified Viscount’s neck and gave him an affectionate squeeze. He hurriedly rose to his feet to escape her embrace and fled to the corner of the room where he busied himself with the decanters.
    “But you grand bucks are always teases,” went on Miss Harvey, regardless, turning to the Earl who was still standing in front of Penelope. “You’ll need to be careful, Penelope, my dear. This fine Lord eats hearts for breakfast, heh!”
    “Pray be seated, madam,” said the Earl icily. “I would be grateful if you could possibly modify the personal tone of your conversation. Tell me, Miss Vesey, are you recently come to London?”
    But before Penelope could find her voice, Augusta rattled on. “Now, now, my lord. We musn’t get twitty.”
    “Twitty?” said the Earl awfully. “Explain yourself, Miss Harvey.”
    “Mifty. Up in the boughs. Spleenish,” said Augusta with a wide smile. “But don’t mind me. I’m used to gentleman and their little ways when they gets a twinge of the gout.”
    Pity for his brother made the Earl refrain from giving Augusta Harvey the terrible setdown he wished to. He contented himself for the moment by turning a deaf ear to her remarks.
    The Earl decided Charles had been lying to him. His brother must obviously be smitten with Miss Vesey’s undoubted beauty. He looked thoughtfully at Charles who blushed miserably and looked into his glass of wine.
    He turned to concentrate his attention on Penelope. But Penelope, ashamed of her aunt and overawed by the splendid Earl, muttered only brief replies to his questions. Yes, she had just arrived in London. Yes, she was enjoying herself. No, she had not yet been to the opera.
    The Earl looked down thoughtfully at her bent head and wondered if the girl was as graceless as her aunt in a quieter way. The soft candlelight showed the perfection of Penelope’s white skin and the silk dress displayed the soft curves of her slim figure to advantage. There was a vulnerability—a fragility—about her beauty that was infinitely feminine, decided the Earl.
    He looked briefly across at Augusta Harvey and surprised a triumphant, gloating expression on that lady’s face. His thin brows snapped together. Augusta could not—would dare not—look so high for a marriage partner for her niece! But that she hoped for some outcome from his interest in Penelope was all too obvious.
    She is hoping I set the girl up as my mistress, thought the Earl, turning again to study Penelope. Perhaps it would be worth the vast amount of money he would probably have to pay Augusta. The girl was undoubtedly a diamond of the first water and, provided Penelope proved to be a willing partner in Augusta’s plot, he might oblige. She looked like a lady, but appearances were obviously deceptive. Any filly out of Augusta Harvey’s family stable would no doubt prove to be little better than a cart horse.
    The Earl had been engaged, some ten years before, to a pretty little debutante, Lady Sarah Devane. He was charmed and fascinated by her kittenish ways and had fallen in love with her with all the fire and passion of his twenty-five years. Two weeks before the wedding he had called at her home unexpectedly. As the butler had been relieving him of his greatcoat in the hall, the silvery tones of his beloved in the drawing room had carried to his ears with deadly clarity. “Well, of course, Mama, I would much rather be marrying Bertram or