Page 3 of Yule Be Mine

“Penelope St. Claire.” Good God. The little girl next door to his grandparents’ estate in Hertfordshire, where he’d lived all his life. The last time he’d seen Penelope had been—Christ, had it been ten years? She’d been seven when her father had been appointed to a government post in Northern Ireland and the family had moved away.

“You remembered me.” She hugged him tighter, making him cringe.

Somehow it seemed obscene for a little girl to be embracing him in a way that threatened to arouse him. This was absurd. Yule managed to put her from him. “Hello, Penelope. I hadn’t been told your family had returned to London.”

She peered up into his face, her smile fading. “We have just come to Town. Charlotte, my sister, and I are to have our come outs during the next Season. Papa wanted to get the family settled, now before Christmas, but the tenant renting the estate can’t leave before the New Year. So we are fixed in London for Christmas.” She gazed at him, yearning in her gaze. “Will you be here or at your grandfather’s estate?”

Much as he’d love to say he’d be in Hertfordshire, it would do no good to lie. Penelope would discover the truth eventually. “We are in London. Grandfather came up for a sporting event last week and decided to remain through the New Year.” More than anything, he wished to stalk off and leave her, but he could not be rude, not even to Penelope. “Your parents and sister are well?”

“Very well, thank you.” She seemed to expect more, but he had no idea what to say to her. The last time he’d seen her, he’d given her a doll to take with her to Ireland. What did one say to a young lady who was hardly more than a child still?

“Are your parents well?”

Yule sighed. He couldn’t stand here exchanging inane pleasantries with Penelope. “They are well also. I suspect both our parents will find one another and catch up after such a long time.”

“You and I should catch up as well, Sissy.” Her smile came back, more tentative this time. “It has been a long time since we last met. I was quite a little girl then.”

“Yes, you were.” Ten years had changed her, to be sure, still he couldn’t stop thinking of her as the child he’d known then.

“I am quite grown up now.” She raised her chin, her petite nose still dusted with freckles.

She must be at least seventeen now if she was going to have her Season in the spring. Yule shook his head. He could not get past the idea that this lovely creature was little Penelope, with the big blue eyes and carrot red hair that stuck out all over her head. “I can scarcely believe it.”

Her expression hardened, as though his response was not what she’d been expecting. “Well, try harder then, Sissy. I am as old now as you were when you thought yourself grown up.” Her eyes snapped with anger. “You’ll just have to get used to the change.” She grasped her skirts, turned on her heel with a flounce, and sped back across the room to rejoin her parents.

Yule watched her go, shaking his head in utter disbelief. Nothing could have prepared him for the fact that the most desirable woman he’d ever seen had turned out to be the little girl next door.