Needless to say, this did not put her in the best of moods.
Now she turned on her bench at her vanity to face her husband. Standing in the doorway of her dressing room, he was austere perfection in his black silk dressing robe, his hair still wet and curling from his bath. Even casually dressed, he looked handsome and dignified… but that didn’t make his request—or more accurately, hisdecree—any more reasonable.
“I told you before,” she retorted. “I am not having supper with your mama again.”
“You are. We can’t avoid her forever, darling,” he said.
“Youdon’t have to avoid her. You can go.” She crossed her arms. “And you can make excuses for me—tell her I have a megrim or that I’ve come down with the Plague.”
Marcus’ lips tipped up slightly, but he didn’t relent. “I’m not going to lie for you.”
“Fine. Then tell her the truth.” Penny rose, her primrose satin dressing robe swirling around her. “Tell her I don’twantto go to her supper party because she is condescending and rude. She makes no bones about disliking me, Marcus, and how much she wishes you’d wed someone else. If I have to hear one more word about the Perfect Miss Pilkington, I swear to God I shall scream.”
“You’re overreacting,” he said—the absolutelywrongthing to say as far as she was concerned. “Mama is merely surprised at our marriage, as she has every right to be. It did take place with some haste.”
“Marry in haste, repent in leisure?” she said bitterly. “I’m sure your mother wishes you were repenting. I hear Cora Pilkington is still free.”
“There’s no need to be flippant. Mama will come to accept our marriage in time. As for Miss Pilkington, she has nothing to do with this.”
“She has plenty to do with it,” Penny said hotly. “She’s leading a dashed campaign against me.”
“A campaign? How do you mean?”
The fact that Marcus looked puzzled elevated her temperature another dangerous notch. “I mean she’s using her influence against me. She’s making it difficult for me to enter certain circles.”
“Has she been rude to you?” he said, frowning.
“Not directly.” She waved a frustrated hand. “That’s not the way her sort does it.”
Society, Penny was learning, carried on its own version of espionage. Debutantes wielded words like stilettos, used gossip and innuendo to poison, and hid behind shining shields of virtue and politesse. To Penny, the world of thetonwas every bit as treacherous as the world she’d inhabited before, and Cora Pilkington, the coy blond bitch, was the worst of the lot.
“How, precisely, does hersortdo it?” her husband inquired.
It frustrated Penny to no end that she had to explain such obvious facts to his lordship. “Cora Pilkington whispers behind her fan to her cronies when I’m around. Her compliments are more false than her eyelashes. And she… she lookssmug.”
“If looking smug were a crime, the entiretonwould be behind bars. Have you any real evidence of Miss Pilkington’s plot against you?”
Fuming at his reasonable tone, Penny said, “You want an example? Fine. At Lady Ippleby’s luncheon last week, I was standing with Miss Pilkington and her friends when a spider crawled past, and Miss Pilkington screeched. Since she looked ready to faint, I stomped on the blasted thing.”
“And?”
“She thanked me,” Penny said darkly.
“Ah. Clearly, she has it in for you.”
“Donotmock me. It washowshe thanked me that showed her true character.” Anger heated Penny’s chest at the memory of Cora’s snide, breathy tones, which she now mimicked. “You’re so hardy, Lady Blackwood,compared to the rest of us fragile blooms. I declare, I’d faint dead away if the remnants of that dreadful creature were clinging to the bottom ofmyslipper.”
Following Cora’s lead, the other hens had shivered and taken a step back from Penny as if she’d caught some miserable disease.
“That’s it?” Looking exasperated, Marcus said, “Perhaps being afraid of spiders, Miss Pilkington merely admires your lack of squeamishness. Whatever the case, I’m sure she didn’t mean to offend. In fact, when I saw her last, she had nothing but kind words to say about you.”
God’s teeth, how could he be so obtuse? How could the brilliant Lieutenant-Colonel Harrington, hero of the battlefield, be so bloodystupidwhen it came to females? Of course, that had worked to her advantage in the past… butstill.
“It’s no surprise that she’d say that toyou. She wants you to believe that she’s virtuous. All the while, she’s a snake in the grass, waiting to slither into your bed,” Penny said indignantly.
“That is both ridiculous and offensive.” Marcus’ features tightened with distaste. “Moreover, you are veering wildly off topic. We were discussing your requested presence at my mama’s supper party, which has naught to do with Miss Pilkington. This is about you doing your duty as my wife—as the Marchioness of Blackwood.”
“Donotlecture me about duty.”
