Page 43 of Yule Be Mine

“I understand more than you wish I did.” She turned her back on him. “I told you I didn’t want to speak to you.”

“Then don’t speak. Just listen.” Yule eased around the bed until he stood directly behind her. Her shoulders were trembling, as though she was trying to hold back tears. “I do not know exactly what Tom said to you, but—”

“He told me about that wretched wager you made with your grandfather.” Her voice sounded choked. “That’s more than you ever told me.”

Alex certainly had been correct in saying everyone should tell their prospective brides about the wager immediately. He bitterly regretted that he’d ignored that advice. “I know, and I apologize sincerely from the bottom of my heart that my neglect to do so has caused you so much pain, my love.”

“Don’t call me that.” The words came out a sob. “You don’t mean it.”

“I do mean it, sweetheart.” Gently, he grasped her shoulders and turned her toward him. “Why do you doubt me?”

“Because you don’t love me.” Her tear-filled eyes accused him. “You only wanted to marry me to win that wager.”

“Did Tom tell you that?” Yule didn’t believe his cousin had been so deceptive and cruel, but he was at a loss to see how she would have come to the conclusion otherwise.

“No, not in those words. But he said you didn’t have any idea who you were going to marry, and then you met me, and…and you didn’t like me at all, Yule.” She drew in a hitching breath. “You know you didn’t. I tried everything I could think of to make you like me. To make you want to marry me, and you acted like you couldn’t have cared less about me. Until suddenly, you did.”

Well, that certainly was the truth of the matter. Except Penelope didn’t know the reason behind his reluctance. When the sages said the truth shall set you free, they knew what they were talking about. “That is all true, my dear. But you don’t understand the reason behind my stupid actions.”

“The wager!” She gazed at him as though he was daft. “The wager with your grandfather and cousins that you were afraid I’d find out about.”

“I wasn’t afraid you’d find out.” Yule frowned. “It didn’t matter to me if you found out, although I did think if you knew, you’d tease me about it.”

“You were afraid!” She raised her chin defiantly. “You agreed to a six month engagement, and then you suddenly wanted the wedding moved up. You wanted to marry me immediately but when that fell through, you settled for three weeks. Once I was down here in the country, I suppose there was less chance I’d find out until you married me.”

Oh, Lord.“Penelope. Love, I can see the logic in what you say. I suppose it must have seemed like that to you, because you didn’t have all the information. About the wager, and about me.” He wanted to take her in his arms, but didn’t think she’d stand for that, so he took her hands. “Yes, there is a wager between me, my grandfather and five of my cousins that we must all marry in order for us to win. We all have a year from this past August to marry. So I could very well have married you in June and done my part to win just the same.”

Her brows knit themselves into a frown. “But you’d have had to keep the secret too long. That’s why you insisted on marrying me now instead of later.”

“I wanted to marry you immediately, my love, for the basest of reasons. Because I love you dearly and didn’t want to have to wait six months to make love to you.” Although that might have seemed obvious to him, apparently it had not been so obvious to Penelope.

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. “But you didn’t even like me when we met at the Kastners’ house party.”

“And this is where my stupidity comes into play. When I first saw you across the ballroom at the Kastners’, I was flabbergasted by you. I thought you were the most beautiful young lady I’d ever seen, and when you came right up to me, I thought it was a dream come true.” Had he followed his first instincts that night, how much easier might their path to happiness have been? “Then you called me by that awful, silly name and all I could see was the scrawny little seven-year-old girl I used to know.”

Penelope gasped and her cheeks turned red. “Charlotte told me I was a ninny to have called you that.”

“So, I was blinded to the fact you’d grown up into a very desirable young lady, fought against any attraction I had to you, until Christmas morning when my cousins made me see that I did have feelings for you.” He squeezed her hands. “That I do love you, Penelope. God, how much I can’t even tell you.”

“You do?” She looked up at him, a pleading look in her eyes.

“How can you doubt it, sweetheart?” At last he gathered her to his chest. “I have thought about nothing but you ever since you made me see you as the perfect wife for me.” What could he say to make her understand how absolutely mad he was about her? “I look at you now and cannot understand how I was such a blind fool. You are part of me, have been a part of me ever since we were children. That’s why I never thought about marrying until the wager happened, why I never knew what I wanted in a wife. Because deep down I knew it was you.” He smiled and kissed the top of her head. “When I first saw you at Kastner’s, I thought ‘There she is. She’s what I want.’” Yule chuckled. “Until you called me that awful nickname.”

“I am sorry about that my love.” She snuggled against him. “I will never, ever call you Sissy again.” She pulled away to look up at him sheepishly. “Except for that. That was the very last time, Yule.”

“It’s alright, sweetheart.” He pulled her back to him, loving the way she felt pressed against his heart. “I don’t mind so much anymore.”

She relaxed into him, as if she’d suddenly had a weight lifted from her. “So you do love me?”

“With all my heart and body and soul.” Yule pulled back until he could peer into her face. “Are you still going to marry me?”

“Oh, yes. Yes, I am.” She threw her arms around him. “And the sooner the better. I’ve been so wretched these past few days without you.”

“I have too, sweetheart.” He kissed her hair, the scent of jasmine that clung to it intoxicating. His cock, deprived of her warmth for much too long, surged upward. Yule bit back a groan at what he was about to propose. “Would you like to make up for the days we’ve been apart?”

“What do you mean?”

He scooped her up in his arms, smothering her screech by pressing her face into his chest. He laid her on the frilly pink and white covers and quickly went and locked the door. When he turned back to her, his gaze intent on her, she sat up in the bed, pulling the covers around her.