so very long ago, the papers called you the Monster of Mayfair,” she pointed out. “I know better than to heed the scandal sheets.”
“It’s not merely rumor.” Chase pulled up a chair. “The man’s deliberately set about driving well-heeled families to the brink of insolvency.”
“Not just driving them to the brink,” Ash said. “He tips them over the edge. Who’s to say he doesn’t have the same in mind for you?”
“He would find it impossible. My brother Bradford keeps the estate finances on a foundation of bedrock.”
“Even if he can’t touch your family’s money,” Chase said, “you do have a dowry.”
“If you won’t protect yourself,” Ash warned, “we will have to take protective measures on your behalf.”
“What sort of protective measures?”
Nicola rushed into the room. Wisps of ginger hair floated about her head in an unkempt halo. In her hand, she carried a brown-paper packet. “I brought the poisoned biscuits,” she said, breathless. “I’m still perfecting the spring-loaded trap for her door.”
Wonderful. Yet another addition to the “Protect Penny” brigade.
“That’s very kind of you, Nicola.” Penny took the packet of biscuits from her friend, tucked them behind her back, and while completing her circuit of the room, discreetly tossed them into the fire.
“Perhaps the men do have a point,” Alexandra said. “Maybe there is some cause for concern.”
“Alex. Not you, too.”
“I’m sorry, dear. But we all know how tender your heart is. It’s a wonderful quality, and we adore you for it. But you can be too trusting at times.”
“At all times,” Chase added.
Penny couldn’t believe this. “So you not only believe he’ll attempt to seduce me, but that I’ll fall for this supposed ruse.”
“None of us wants to see you hurt,” Nicola said. “That’s all.”
Penny turned and stared out the window. She was beginning to take offense at her friends’ complete lack of faith in her judgment. She was a grown woman, not a child. Any moment now, they’d begin spelling out words in front of her.
She heard yet another knock at the door.
Lord, who else had they recruited to this effort? This time, Penny didn’t bother to turn around and find out.
“Yes,” she said, exasperated. “My new neighbor is Gabriel Duke. Yes, I have heard what he did to Lord Fairdale. Yes, I know the papers are calling him the Duke of Ruin. No, I do not need protection. All he wants is to sell his house. All I want is to remain in mine. We have a mutually beneficial, temporary agreement. He is not attempting to seduce me, and I will absolutely not fall in love with him.”
The ensuing silence spoke volumes. And those volumes were titled Worst Moments of Penny’s Life, vols. I–XIII.
His virile heat filled the room, blanketing her with gooseflesh. She didn’t even need to look to know he was there. She didn’t need to look, perhaps, but eventually, tragically, she would have to face him. It wasn’t as though she could dive behind the draperies and hide until he went away.
Or could she? She gave it more than a moment’s thought before dismissing the idea.
At length, she forced herself to turn around.
There he stood in the morning room entryway, dark and devastating. When he spoke, he announced himself in a low, commanding voice.
“I’m here about the goat.”
No one had the faintest notion how to respond.
“And the steer, and the chickens,” he continued, speaking to Penny. “Your housekeeper told me I’d find you here. I’ve found a solution.”
“Goodness. That was fast.”
Penny’s heart pinched. She hadn’t prepared to say good-bye to Marigold and Angus so soon.
“I told you, I don’t waste time. I’ll come around tomorrow afternoon. We can discuss the particulars then.”
“Hold a moment.” Ash shook himself to life. “She’s not discussing anything with you.”
“That’s right.” Chase stood. “Neither is her goat.”
Gabriel alternated a glare between one man and the other. “Who are you?”
Ash puffed his chest. “I’m the Duke of Ashbury.”
Penny intervened. “Come now, Ash. We don’t use titles. Our guest is your neighbor, too. Everyone, this is Gabriel. Gabriel, meet Alexandra, Chase, Nicola, Emma, and Ash. They’re my good friends.”
“Friends, you say? They seem to have mistaken themselves for your guardians.”
“Listen to me, you B-A-S-T—” Ash bit off the words, growled in annoyance, and began again. “Listen to me, you bastard.”
“No,” Gabriel said.
This simple response left Ash nonplussed. But fuming.
“I’m listening to exactly one person in this room,” Gabriel said evenly. “It isn’t you. The lady can speak for herself.”
Oh. Penny’s heart fluttered in her chest.
If by chance he did mean to seduce her, repeating that sentence fifty times over might do the trick.
He spoke directly to her. Only to her. “Tomorrow afternoon. We’re agreed?”
She nodded. “We’re agreed.”
He quit the room without the usual courtesy of taking his leave. The bang of the front door announced his departure.
At length, Chase broke the disbelieving silence. “Good God. That man is intolerable.”
“Yes,” Penny said. “He is.”
Alexandra sat up—no small feat, in her condition—and regarded her with concern. “Oh, Penny.”
“What?”
“The way you said that. You sounded … dreamy.”
“I am not dreamy,” she fibbed. “Chase remarked that he was intolerable, and I agreed. If you like, I’ll add that he’s ill-mannered and beastly.”
“Precisely,” Nicola said. “That’s what worries us. He’s just the sort of man you’d be drawn to. We all know how you love a challenge.”
“Believe me, I have sufficient challenges in my life at the moment. I’m not looking to take on one more.”
“At least promise us one thing,” Alexandra pleaded. “Promise you won’t be caught with him alone.”
Penny relented. “Very well. I promise.”
Penny would have no difficulty keeping her promise to her friends. She was never truly alone. Her collection of unusual pets had successfully kept men at bay for a decade. She didn’t see any reason that would change now.
The following afternoon, she was just bringing in Marigold from her browse in the square when the rumble of approaching cart wheels pulled her out of the stables and into the alley.
The cart was drawn by a team of the most massive draft horses Penny had ever seen. A middle-aged couple in simple attire sat on the driver’s box. And standing on the bed of the cart, like the marshal of his own parade, was Gabriel Duke.