He narrowed his eyes. "Did you know who I was when you arrived here? Was gaining a proposal of marriage your aim all along?"
She shook her head rapidly. "No, no, not at all. I didn’t mean it like that, I–"
???
"Something doesn’t add up, Lady Penelope," the Duke said, his voice turning icy cold.
Penelope shivered and bit the inside of her lip. She was frantically trying to figure out how to rectify this. After all, she had slipped up before and made it through without alerting him to the fact that she knew who she was.
"I just meant...that when I met you, you seemed rather harsh, but once I got to know you, and you reacted so... I mean, you passed... I mean–" She was tripping over her words, and she knew it, getting herself into more and more trouble with every attempt.
"The truth, please. Now," the Duke demanded.
She swallowed. This was it. She needed to either carry on with the lie and fully convince him or admit to what she had done and hope that he forgave her. He had, after all, offered marriage. He was a good man. Surely he would forgive her this harmless bit of fun?
"I did not know who you were when I arrived – not until your staff told me. And I certainly did not come here looking for a husband. But when I realised I’d have the opportunity to get to know a titled gentleman without the pressure of society, I could not resist utilising it. I just wanted to see what it was like to befriend someone, to know more about them than whether they liked to ride or how well they could dance. That was all," she said pitifully, not meeting his eyes, which she knew from a brief glance were full of anger. Anger towards her. Anger that she probably deserved.
Chapter Nineteen
"Are you saying," he said slowly, anger filling his body, "that you have known who you are the entire time you’ve been here?"
If it were possible, Lady Penelope grew even redder, and her eyes began to dart around as if looking for an escape.
"Not exactly…"
"Not exactly!" James roared. "And what does that mean? You knew for half the time? A day? Were you pretending to be unconscious in that boat, and the whole situation has been nonsense?"
She shook her head. "No, no, I was unconscious. I went out in my boat, thought nothing of the storm clouds, and lost control. I was fighting to get back to the shore, and then… And then everything went black. The next thing I remember was waking up on that beach, with you hovering above me."
How was he to know what to believe? Had every word that had come out of her mouth been a lie? Was she really who she said she was? He had no way of knowing.
"So you woke up on the beach, knowing exactly who you were and where you came from?"
Her silence was all the answer he needed.
"Why?" he asked, running a hand through his hair in frustration. Even in his fury, he was mindful of the fact that she was a lady, and it would not be appropriate for him to shoutexpletives, as much as he wished to. "Were you trying to trick me into marriage? Did you think – quite rightly, too – that if we were alone together for long enough, I would have to propose matrimony?" he asked in disgust. "And you so innocently pretended that you had no idea your reputation was at risk. What nonsense."
There were tears in Lady Penelope's eyes, and yet he could not bring himself to feel sorry for her, nor to moderate his tirade. She had lied to him, and he had trusted her. Been taken in by…what? A sweet smile and a fake story? He would not have thought himself such a fool, but apparently, he was.
"I had no intention of trapping you into marriage," she said tearfully. "If you'll recall, I didn’t even know who you were or whether you were already wed when you rescued me on the beach."
In a more reasonable frame of mind, he might have acknowledged that was indeed true – but he was in no mood to be reasonable.
"That doesn’t mean you didn’t decide to lie once you knew I was a duke. Once you knew there was a title and money up for grabs," James said coldly.
???
Penelope did not think anyone had ever spoken to her so coldly, harshly, and without letup.
She did not want to cry in front of him, but she could not control her emotions. She hadn’t meant to let on that there had been any sort of plan at all, and her worst fears were coming true: he did hate her for deceiving him. And he believed her capable of much more devious deception than she had planned. It was all meant to be harmless fun… and yet it had turned into such a mess.
Moments ago, she had been thrilled that he had suggested they marry. It was not, perhaps, the most romantic of proposals, but it was the first proposal she felt she could accept. She knew the man behind the words, and she was willing to marry him, to be tied to him for the rest of her life.
And yet now, that very same man hated her, and she was in the position of having her reputation ruined with no happily ever after. And really, she only had herself to blame.
"I wasn’t trying to trick you into marriage," she insisted again. "I simply thought…" Why was it so hard to put into words? "This will be hard to understand for a man, I am sure. But I’m expected to marry someone I have never spent time alone with, someone I do not truly know. There is never an opportunity to deepen the connection before a betrothal is announced. And so I just thought…"
The Duke tapped his foot impatiently on the floorboards, and Penelope had to look away from his icy glare, for each dagger he was shooting her way was painful.
