Saint Nick smiled.“Chris informs me that only a fool would miss seeing the stars tonight, because there’s a…” He pretended to think, and then shrugged.“I can never recall words longer than two syllables.My brother swears the sky will be lovely.Care to step outside with us and put his theory to the test?”
“Penelope loves theories,” Virginia said.“Right now, she’s working on—”
“By all means,” Penelope said quickly.“I adore nature and multi-syllable words.Your brother sounds fascinating.”
“You’re right.”Christopher grinned at Nicholas.“Sheisa spitfire.”
“He talked about the biscuit,” Virginia whispered in excitement.
“Stop it,” Penelope whispered back.
“Satan,” Nicholas corrected with a straight face.“If you wish to quote me correctly, I said she was Satan incarnate for having brought the latest plague upon England.”
“Satan,” Christopher mused.“No, it was a different synonym.‘Devilish tempting,’ was it?”
“I will not help you find a wife if you keep meddling in my affairs,” Nicholas scolded his brother.He turned to Penelope.“I did not call you tempting—”
“Or Satan,” Christopher put in with a smile.
“—but I may have referred to your perfume as a plague on more than one occasion.”
“On all possible occasions,” Christopher added with a long-suffering grimace.
Virginia enveloped Penelope in a hug.“Your perfume is an even bigger success than I dreamed.Congratulations on your first plague.”
“Her… first plague?”Christopher prompted in concern.
“Aren’t there some stars we’re supposed to be seeing?”Penelope asked.“A bit difficult to do whilst still inside the castle.”
“Quite right, quite right.”Christopher proffered his elbow to Virginia.“If the mortal enemies will follow behind?”
Nicholas offered Penelope his arm and a grin.“My apologies.Chris loves stars the way wiser men love biscuits.”
“Your brother is delightful,” she replied as she took his arm.There.That would prove she wasn’t giving any special attention to Nicholas.
“He is wearing a new waistcoat,” he whispered.“Compliment him on it.”
Penelope narrowed her eyes in his brother’s direction.“It looks like the one you wore two days ago.”
“New to him,” Nicholas corrected.“Compliment him anyway.”
She made a mental note to do so.“Is he really looking for a wife?”
“He really is.”Nicholas groaned, as if the pursuit was on par with running off to become a sword-swallower in a circus.
A sudden thought soured her stomach.“You’re not trying to matchmake me off to him, are you?”
Nicholas stopped so suddenly, Penelope nearly crashed into him.His eyes were unreadable.“No.I am definitely not trying to do that.”
Because he couldn’t stand the thought of her with his brother?Or because he didn’t think her worthy of marriage?She was gently born, and had inherited a comfortable annuity.Her life might not be as ostentatious as his usual crowd, but she was still respectable.
Penelope clenched her teeth.She shouldn’t care.She didn’t want to marry Christopher, Nicholas, or anyone.Their thoughts on her eligibility were completely irrelevant.All that mattered was the experiment.
Yet the uncertainty lingered.
When they stepped outside, the wind whipped away any other words she might say before she could have a chance to regret them.’Twas better that way.The night was cold.The air was brisk, but not freezing.She stayed flush with Nicholas’s warm side as she angled her head back to gaze up at the stars.
“Incredible,” she breathed.Without a cloud in the sky, their view from the mountaintop was a perfect blanket of stars all around them.“Do you find it beautiful?”
