Penelope curtseyed to the dowagers and left the room. No one noticed her go.
Outside she paused for a moment to get her bearings, and heard the sound of raucous laughter from the dining room. It sounded as if the gentlemen had settled in for the night. The ladies would be disappointed.
If she had been more concerned with her bearings than with the behavior of the society beauties, Penelope wouldn’t have turned and walked slap into Lord Swithland. His immediate reaction was to catch her, but he didn’t release her, and she didn’t ask him to. He was close enough for her to see him properly. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled, but he still didn’t let her go. Instead, he held her and stared at her.
Penelope was unsure what to do. Was he drunk? She didn’t think so, though his eyes seemed a little unfocussed. “Are you going to bed?” he asked abruptly.
“I thought I might go upstairs, sir.”
He sighed gustily. “I wish I could go with you.” When her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, he laughed. “Oh I didn’t mean it to come out like that, I do beg your pardon.”
Penelope closed her mouth and sighed in relief. At least, she thought it was relief.
“I just meant I would give a monkey to get away and have a decent conversation. That’s all.”
“Of course.”
He still held her; she felt his hands heating her skin through the material of her thin gown. He smiled down at her, turning her heart over. She couldn’t help smiling back.
The communication was instant and more than friendly. From the arrested expression on his face, Penelope guessed he knew it too. Then he grinned. With a small jerk of his head, he indicated the noise coming from the dining room. “They’ve set up a book. All the girls have the names of fillies, to disguise their identities. Miss Trente is odds-on favorite.” He grimaced.
“And they’re discussing your chéres amies in the drawing room,” Penelope told him.
“Oh God, are they? I thought I was discreet.”
Penelope giggled. “They seem to know all about it.” She paused. “Them.”
He regarded her closely. “Well I sent a congé to the latest six months past.” Something the women in the drawing room didn’t know. Penelope smiled to think she knew more than they did. It certainly made a change, Miss Trente and her intimates usually had the marriage mart gossip first. “Greedy little madam, that one.”
Penelope gave the women the benefit of the doubt. “Well they have to make the most of things, the ladies of the night. They hardly bring a portion with them.”
“Ha!” It was as well the noise from both rooms was increasing, or someone would have heard his crack of laughter. “True enough, but the requests for carriage horses, a house, jewelry seem to overwhelm everything else. The worst part came when—” He glanced away. “Never mind. I shouldn’t be talking to you like this. Trouble is, you make it so damnably easy to do so.”
Penelope laughed at his discomfiture. “I don’t mind.”
He sighed gustily. “How pleasant.” Releasing her, he crooked his arm in the approved manner. “Come on.”
Penelope stared at him in bewilderment. “Where?” for he was facing away from the drawing room.
“I want to show you something. Don’t worry, it’s all harmless.” He stared down at her, his eyes expectant.
There was nothing more Penelope could do but go with him. She laid her hand on his arm and let him take her, at quite a pace, upstairs. Her heart thudded, not just from the brisk pace he set. He led her past the bedrooms and up another, smaller staircase, at the end of the corridor. It was an old wooden stair that looked like part of the original Jacobean house, black with age and polish, sporting elaborately carved balusters. They didn’t pause at the next floor but continued up, where the stairs became less elaborate and narrower.
Throwing caution aside, Penelope let him take her where he willed. She knew he was a little drunk, but not how much, and he had an air of recklessness she’d never seen in the drawing room. Day by day Sev was becoming less Antonia’s big brother and more her friend.
At the very top of the house, he opened a plain deal door. Once inside Penelope gasped.
It led into a large, whitewashed room that Penelope guessed had once been a storage attic. The windows had been enlarged, until one wall was nearly all glass, open to the night sky. Reminded by a gentle hand in the small of her back, Penelope stepped in the room and he closed the door.
This situation was now beyond propriety, particularly for an unmarried lady, but Penelope’s thoughts strayed far from proper behavior. Awed, she stared out at the night sky. In the clear sky, stars shone brightly. She dipped her hand into her pocket and retrieved her spectacles, propping them on her nose. Vanity left far behind, she walked to the window and gazed her fill.
Sev came up behind her and laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Lovely, isn’t it? Welcome to my obsession.”
Turning, she saw a collection of gleaming brass instruments. “Telescopes!”
He grinned. “As you say. Telescopes. Didn’t you know?”
“Yes of course, but I didn’t know—” She stopped, flustered. She’d heard of Severus’s interest in astronomy, but hadn’t seen much evidence of it and supposed it a passing fancy. Well the way this room was set out didn’t indicate anything of the kind and she would be insulting him if she voiced it.
“Come here.” He took her to the largest instrument, taking up much of the floor space in the middle of the room. “Sit down.” A stool was set before it, something like a three legged milking stool. Casting her skirts over it Penelope sat.
Sev went to the side of the instrument. “Look through here.” She bent her head and looked through the little eyepiece he indicated. She bent once more and peered through the eyepiece.
The stars resolved into dazzling lights, traced by specks she couldn’t see when she leaned back and looked at the view without the telescope. She bent to the instrument again. Everything fell away except her sense of awe, and the feeling that she was about to discover something new. “It’s wonderful.”
She saw his smile when she drew back. It gleamed in the moonlight through the broad windows, the only illumination they were currently using. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Do you just look?” She peered through the eyepiece again, feasting on the new world Severus had introduced her to.
“Mostly. I started when I was a boy, just after my parents died.”
He sounded more relaxed and friendly than she had ever heard him before. Penelope suspected he found it easier to confide in her when she didn’t look at him. She wondered if he would be so forthcoming if he were entirely sober. She guessed not.
“I’d never felt so alone. God knows there were few other people to talk to. No one wanted to listen to me, so I stopped telling them how I felt and what I wanted. I learned my lessons, did my duty and worked hard at my studies. Then I discovered the stars. I started to talk to them. I know it sounds odd, but I needed something.” Not to another lonely child. Penelope knew what he meant, though in her case she found solace in books and taking control of her father’s investment portfolio. “I found friends when I went to school, but I never left the stars behind.” It sounded as if they had much more in common than she’d ever suspected. Both feeling out of place, but for different reasons, with dreams they shouldn’t be thinking of, and both of them found outlets for themselves. “So you created this place?”
“Yes. Only Antonia has seen it before.” Shocked by this admission Penelope drew back. She had never seen him so open, so confiding. There was nothing of the haughty, worldly earl in the man who watched her with simple friendliness. She’d always known that Severus kept part of himself separate, regarded the world coolly and dispassionately but tonight she felt no barriers between them. Sev trusted her enough to show her himself, the caring man behind the cool, aristocratic exterior. She glowed.
“I don’t let the maids in here. They might break something, so Antonia occasionally takes pity on me and dusts around a bit. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.”
“I knew you were interested, but I didn’t realize what it meant. Or how beautiful it is. The night sky, I mean.” Although Severus looked handsome, too.
“I’m glad you can see that.”
“Have the others seen it? Have you shown them anything of this?”
“Who?” He sounded puzzled.
“Miss Trente and the rest.”
“Good Lord, no!” He got to his feet in an economically athletic move and went to a table pushed against the wall. He fiddled with some papers. She heard the rustle. “You let me into your secret obsession, so I thought it was fair that I show you mine.”
“I won’t tell.” She needed to say it, so he knew for sure. “And thank you for showing me.” She took a breath. She needed to put a little space between them before her hopes and wishes overwhelmed her once more. Sev was showing her friendship here. Nothing else. She couldn’t afford to lose that perspective. “You’ve spoken to the Royal Society, haven’t you? Antonia told me.”
His hands stilled, and his head bowed over the papers. “Yes, but on an amateur basis. I’m an enthusiast, not a Newton.”
Rising, she went over to him, and looked at the papers. It was difficult to make anything out in the dusky light but she could make out symbols and colored diagrams, as meaningless to her as her graphs had been to him earlier. “I’m trying to map Venus,” he told her. “I don’t think I’ll be able to, but it gives me a reason to come up here and look.”
“I have every confidence in you.” With one finger, she gently traced the curves of a gleaming brass instrument lying in a case on the table. “A sextant,” he told her. “They use them at sea to calculate their position.”
“It’s lovely.” The gleaming curves fascinated her. She looked up at him and realized he was watching her, not the sextant, in what she could only describe as a noticing way. He seemed to be looking at her with a new awareness. She felt the same. “They do have a—a beauty of their own, don’t they?” Suddenly shy, she looked down.
He reached out, put a finger under her chin and guided it up, so she met his intent gaze. “It seems appropriate.”
“At least you don’t look right through me.”
All humor gone, he glared at her. “Who does that?”
She tried to smile, but failed and settled for a shrug. “Most people do. Women don’t see me as a rival in their matrimonial aspirations.”
“Why not?”
She was astonished by his response. That should have been obvious, she thought. “Look at me. Add that to my clumsiness, and social ineptitude and you can see why they do that. They think I’m slow, they laugh at me. I don’t mind, really I don’t, but I don’t court their company, either.”
He looked at her, studying her until she felt uncomfortably warm. Then he lifted a hand from her arm and caressed her cheek. She didn’t mean to, but she leant into his hand, loving the feeling of being cherished, however false.
Because she’d closed her eyes for a moment she missed his bending his head to hers, but she felt the soft pressure of his lips. He slid his hand around her neck, and when she didn’t withdraw, touched her lips with his tongue. She shuddered, and heat spread through her. When she opened her mouth slightly, he took advantage of it, sliding his tongue just between them to taste her.
Toby had kissed her once, about three years ago, a kiss stolen in the orchard one summer. She’d allowed it, but escaped soon afterwards and felt no inclination to repeat the experience. Sev’s kiss wasn’t like that. It felt wonderful, as unlike Toby’s wet, messy embrace as possible. Penelope responded instinctively, reaching up to hold on to him. His response was to draw her closer and deepen the kiss.
Penelope tasted the brandy on his lips and knew that if he wasn’t drunk, he was well-to-go. She didn’t care. If he hadn’t been, he would not be kissing her like this, in this hot, demanding way that drove tingles to the tips of her toes. He broke the kiss, took a quick breath and returned to the fray. He caressed the back of her neck, his fingers moving slowly over the small curls clustered there. He seemed to be enjoying himself. Or perhaps, Penelope thought cynically, he wanted flirting without any expectations. If he’d done this with any one of the other young ladies in the house, taken her up to a private room and then kissed her, she would have expected a proposal of marriage in the morning. Penelope wouldn’t insist, wouldn’t tell anyone or demand anything from him that he wasn’t willing to give.
With one small touch of his lips against hers, he drew back, and gazed at her, his eyes dark in the gloom. They were both breathing quicker, and Penelope followed his gaze to see her breasts rising and falling above her tight-laced, low-cut evening gown. “Sir?”
“Sev. Penelope, I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me—”
Was he apologizing because he remembered, rather belatedly, that he was a gentleman, or because he didn’t find the kiss interesting? “Sev, I—no, I’m sorry. I don’t expect—well, I’m not officially—” She stopped, floundering.
“It makes me wish you were,” |
I’ll admit that I read this book straight through in one day. That does not mean that it was not a comprehensive book; it was. I just kept reading because I couldn’t find the right place to stop.
Each character, both primary and secondary, became well known to us. There were surprises and detailed actions taken. The sensuality of this book was addictive and, while the sex was not too graphic, it was enthralling and intense. There were a myriad of characters involved in this storyline but it did not minimize the importance of any others. There were several secondary stories ongoing which enhanced the plot of the book.
I loved this book and have looked for it since the first came out. I highly recommend it to everyone and anxiously await the final book in the trilogy.
5 hearts! Brenda Talley for The Romance Studio
Alluring Secrets gets one of my highest recommendations...This is an action and emotion packed story with many twists to it. Alluring Secrets is a story full of hidden danger, secrets, and love. It's heartwarming, passionate, and sexy, and a real page turner. Do not miss out on this terrific story
Sandie for Samhain Cafe
What makes this story work for me is Ms Connolly going the extra mile to put me inside Penelope's head. Penelope may seem like a spineless doormat at the surface, but by the last page of this story, I am given a good look into the heroine's psyche and I have a good idea what makes her tick the way she does...It is always a pleasant experience to come across a heroine in a romance novel who can't be easily pigeon-holed into a one-word description.
It's always nice to read a well-written historical romance where the author attempts to give me a little bit more than the usual dose of the formula.
Rating: 84 Mrs. Giggles
As Lynne Connolly draws us into the hustle and bustle of a house party and the tantalizing intrigues that goes on behind the merry making, one cannot help but be captivated by her convincing characters and historical detailing. With passion and perseverance, Penelope and Severus wile their way into our hearts we cannot help but sympathize with their struggles and celebrate their triumphs.
JT for Romance Junkies
Like the R&R series, Penny is more a mouse to Sev’s glorious peacock. He’s sought after, titled, rich, good looking, has some rakish qualities. She’s quiet, retiring, not in the forefront of their upper class world. His growing affection then love for her lights her inner candle so by the end of the story, she glows in his presence. He breaks his role of haughty lord to show, in little but telling ways, how much he feels for her so that society can see that these two will have that rarity in this world - the love match.
Jane at Dear Author |
