Epilogue

Early August 1821

Seldon Park 

Sussex

“It really was not well done of you to tease Nick like that.  I am certain he does feel responsible for our marriage, at least in part.  After all, if he had not packed my uncle off on that ship bound for Egypt, who knows if he might have caught up to us on the way to Gretna?”  Penny turned and graced her husband of only a few months with a charming smile.  “Besides, you know how Nick is about his matchmaking reputation.  He rather prizes it greatly.”

“Yes, yes I know,” Harry grumbled as he undid the laces on Penny’s gown with an extreme amount of skill – a skill that had developed quite a bit since the two of them had raced off to Gretna Green so that they could wed immediately after the scene in Frost’s ballroom.  “Oh, very well.  He can have all the credit he likes.  As long as his steward continues to work with me on these infernal land management lessons, he can think whatever he bloody well likes.”

A scant two weeks after Harry and Penny had returned to London from Gretna Green, the current Viscount Westerly had, in fact, acknowledged Harry as his son and named him his heir.  The news had caused something of a small scandal in London, but not among those Harry counted as his friends.  The greater scandal, as it turned out, was on Bow Street when the chief magistrate refused to accept Harry’s resignation from the ranks, stating that even a part time Runner moving amongst the aristocracy was better than none at all.

The shock of a future peer holding down an actual job – of all things – had echoed through London for nearly a sennight.  Until, of course, a greater scandal had come along to upend the world as Society knew it once again.  And then there was the matter of the “not really thieves” that had made all of the papers, as well as the “not really kidnappers,” and, well, a whole host of other scandals that had captivated London in the days following that fateful night.  Now, all of these months on, Harry and Penny’s grand and somewhat unexpected romance, as well as their subsequent elopement, was no more than a mere footnote to an otherwise extremely scandal-laden Season.

“I think you are doing wonderfully well, my love.”  Penny turned in Harry’s arms and allowed him to peel her gown away from her body until her breasts were exposed so he could suckle them.  He did so enjoy that, as did she.  “Even your step-sisters no longer despise you.  Well, at least not quite as much as they did at first.”

The issue of Harry’s step-sisters, the current Viscount Westerly’s daughters, was something of a thorny issue even now.  At first, all of the women had been adamantly opposed to Harry even being acknowledged as their half-brother.  They took the news that, should their father pass in the near future, Harry would be the one in charge of their finances including their dowries and pin money, even worse.  Apparently, Lady Daisy Balderson fancied herself as something of a financial wizard since she assisted her father with the estate ledgers and had simply assumed she would be the one in charge of everything when the time came.  Even though she was a female.  And thus, not able to inherit.

Lady Daisy had not taken the news that would not be the case very well at all.  She also still greatly resented Harry for his intrusion into her life and for upsetting her otherwise perfectly ordered world.  However, Daisy’s other sisters had, over time, become accustomed to the idea that Harry was truly their half-brother.  And, in a rather shocking display of possible future familial closeness, Lady Rose, the youngest of the sisters had even stated that it was “rather nice” to have a Runner as her partial brother.  That might have been the nicest thing any of the sisters had ever said to him, but Harry would gladly take the praise, faint though it was, and move on.

“They will either accept me or not in time,” Harry sighed as he turned Penny in his arms so that he could cup her breasts in his hands as he came up behind her.  “I cannot worry about what they might or might not do in the future.  At least not at the moment.”  He nuzzled her neck.  “But I can worry about my wife.  Which I am.  I want to make certain you are happy and content, sweetheart.  I could not live with myself if you were not.  I love you far too much for that.”

Penny arched up into Harry’s touch and sighed.  “I am happy, Harry.  More so than you could possibly know.  And now with Josie settled as well?  Everything is as it should be.”

The night Harry and Penny had set off for Gretna Green, Harry had left both Julia and Eliza a note asking that they take charge of Lady Josie while Penny was away.  Penny had, of course, worried endlessly until they received a brief missive two days after they arrived in Gretna that assured her everything was fine with Josie and that she was adapting marvelously well to Society.  Not that Harry had expected anything less.  There was far more substance to Lady Josie Marshwood than anyone had previously realized.

“I told you she would be fine.”  Harry nuzzled Penny’s neck.  “Only a fool would dare harm anyone under the Bloody Duke’s protection.  That now includes your cousin.”

At the time they left London, Penny hadn’t known that, though she did now.  She had, however, simply been forced to trust in Harry and in Harry’s faith in his friends.  Doing so hadn’t been easy, especially as Penny had no real idea how to trust any longer, though she was trying her best to learn.  But, just as she had trusted in her love for Harry that night at Frost’s ball, she had also trusted that Harry would not place Josie in the care of someone that might harm her.

When Penny and Harry had finally returned to London, Penny had been both surprised and delighted to find that her cousin was the current toast of London and one of the most sought-after young debutantes of the Season.  She was also extremely overjoyed because Josie deserved nothing less than complete happiness in her life.  They both did.

“Yes, well, still, I am pleased that she did so beautifully this past Season.  More so than anyone expected, I think.”

“As am I.”  Harry nipped at Penny’s shoulder, and she moaned with rising need.  “But enough about your cousin.  It is evening, we are alone, and we are at Seldon Park, one of the most romantic and secretive places in all of England.  There is little else we could ask for.”  He tugged Penny’s gown down so that it pooled at her feet in a silken puddle.  She had the impression he loved doing that.  “And need I remind you, sweetheart, that we are in one of the more remote wings of the house?”

Looping her arm around her husband’s neck as she turned into his embrace once more, Penny used her free hand to quickly undo Harry’s cravat.  “I think you may have mentioned that a time or two, yes.  But we will be late for parlor games if we do not hurry up and change.”  

Harry growled deep in his throat and Penny had the impression there would be no parlor games for the two of them that evening.  At least if her husband had his way.  “The others will live.  If there even are parlor games.  Given my friends and their proclivities, I would not bet on such a thing.”

“Really?”  Penny gasped as Harry pressed her back hard against the wall.

“Really.”  He cupped her feminine mound and she cried out in pleasure, the zing of need racing through her veins.  “I also know what you like, my perfect Penny.  Far better than they do.”

She hissed out a breath when he grasped her thigh so that he could raise her leg and wrap it around his waist.  “Oh, yes, Harry, I do like that.  Very much so.”

He kissed the hollow of her throat.  “I know you, do sweetheart.  I also know what else you like.”

“Which is?” Somehow, while undressing her, Harry had also managed to shed a good deal of his own clothing as well until he was now nearly as naked as she.

“I know that you like it when I am inside of you.”  He thrust his hips against hers and Penny gasped at the feel of his hard cock at her entrance.  She wondered if she would ever become accustomed to his size.  She rather doubted it.  “I know you like it when I fuck you, my precious Penny.  Repeatedly.”

The first night they had made love, Penny could not have known then how much Harry’s occasionally coarse language would excite her, but now, after all of these months, nothing could arouse her faster.  Especially when he spoke of their coupling.

“Oh, Harry,” Penny whispered again as the last of their clothing disappeared.  “You do know me so well.”

“I do,” he whispered as he sank his throbbing erection into her waiting heat.  “In fact, I know you better than anyone else in this world.  For you are mine, Penny.  My lady.  I took you as mine even when I knew I should not.  And I do not regret it for an instant.”

“Neither do I,” Penny groaned as she felt Harry sink himself into her waiting heat.  “Neither do I.”

And so, as it turned out, Penny and Harry missed not only the parlor games that night, but breakfast and battledore on the lawn the next morning.  They also missed pall mall that afternoon, though thankfully no one was hit by a stray mallet, something that had become a running joke in Society after the previous Season.

And, as Harry had so accurately predicted, no one cared.  For they were all busy elsewhere indulging in their own passions.  Which was exactly how a summer house party at Seldon Park should be.