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'I'll try,' Penny said dubiously. 'But I am not a very good actress, and as for telling an untruth…'
'Better a white lie than a lifetime married to that man,' Rowan said forcibly. 'I am walking to church with his valet. I will tell him about your gambling habit as well.' She glanced at the clock. 'Lord! Look at the time. We must get you dressed and down to breakfast before your godmother comes in search of you.'
'Poor man,' Penny said, climbing out of bed and dragging on her wrapper.
'Who?'
'Lord Danescroft. All these people talking about him and intriguing about him. And now I have to lie to him.'
'Penny,' Rowan said firmly, 'you have a heart of butter. If you start feeling sorry for the Earl, of all people, you are lost.'
Penny still looked dubious. Rowan had a flash of inspiration prompted, she knew all too well, by her current preoccupation with Lucas.
'Has your step mother explained what happens between a man and a woman? You know-in bed?'
'Yes.' Penny blushed scarlet. 'It sounds dreadful'
'Well, imagine having to do that with Lord Danescroft,' Rowan said.
Her friend's blush drained away most satisfactorily, leaving her white to the lips.
'Surely you can manage a few fibs to prevent that, can't you?'
'Oh, yes.' Penny nodded vehemently. 'Oh, yes, I am sure I can.'
CHAPTER FIVE
'Did you think of anything last night?'
Lucas's question could not have been better designed to disconcert her. Rowan gave a little gasp, pretended to slip on an icy patch, and was then thrown into even greater disorder by him taking her firmly by the arm.
'Now what have I said?' he demanded, tucking her hand into the crook of his elbow.
She should protest at the fact he was squeezing it against his side rather than letting her rest it on his forearm. But then, he was not a gentleman, however polished his speech and his manner, so perhaps he did not realise that what he was doing was improper.
Rowan shot him a sideways glance as she tried to think of something to say. His face was composed, but there was the faintest curl to the corner of his lips and a twinkle she was becoming familiar with in his eye. He knew perfectly well he was disconcerting her. She tried to ignore the warmth of his body penetrating her leather glove and the recollection of the fleeting heat of his mouth on hers.
'Nothing. It is just that I lay awake too long trying to think of ways to prevent the Earl proposing to Miss Penelope, and I'm tired and clumsy this morning.'
'Any ideas?'
'I told her to confess to him about her fatal addiction to wagering and how she is always outrunning her allowance as a result.'
Lucas grinned appreciatively. 'That's a good one. I don't suppose she can have a fatal addiction to card play or dice as well?'
'Miss Penelope? Goodness, no, she can hardly remember the basic rules, let alone put on a convincing show as a hardened gamester.'
'That's what you were trying to hint about when we met in the brushing room, wasn't it? You thought you could drop hints to me and I would run back to Danescroft with the tittle-tattle.'
'Well? Did you? I can see that you did.'
'Your remarks about Miss Maylin's stepmother wrought most effectively upon him.'
'Excellent! What did he say to the idea of her living with them after the wedding?'
'"Over my dead body,"' Lucas quoted with some relish.
'Oh. I suppose he is more than capable of enforcing that sort of decision,' Rowan brooded as they neared the edge of the coppice that filled one corner of the park and separated the church, graveyard and vicarage from the estate.
