Chapter Seven

A gentleman who had not only agreed to the admittedly unusual terms Penelope had asked for in their marriage agreement but who also hadn't disapproved or soured up when she had shown herself naturally adept at a sporting game? Until coming to England, Penelope hadn't known such a gentleman even existed.

Of course, that man was also an unrepentant liar. No gentleman who had been so horribly ill as to prevent a return trip home when doing so had been a requirement of honorable and proper behavior could possibly have engaged in so physically tasking a game as the one she'd joined in with the gusto he'd displayed. The Gents had already been at the game for some time before she'd arrived. And Niles had spent the half hour of her participation running almost ceaselessly without even growing short of breath. She would be surprised to learn he'd ever been ill a day in his life.

Her attempts to sort him out were leaving her only more confused.

Penelope hadn't been overly conversational during supper. She suspected no one had noticed. Liam might have if he hadn't been peppering Mr. Layton with questions. He seemed quite intent on making himself one of their host's friends. He had likely continued the effort after she and Mrs. Barrington had retired to the drawing room and the gentlemen had remained behind to have their port.

For her part, Penelope had something more pressing to attend to. "May I ask you a question, Mrs. Barrington?" She sat on the same settee as the lady. "It has the potential to be a bit of an uncomfortable and prying inquiry. But if I'm to have any hope of success while I'm here, I need to have it answered." Mrs. Barrington looked a bit surprised, and Penelope realized she'd made a familiar potential misstep. "I've often been accused of being very direct," she said by way of acknowledgment. "‘Frustratingly forthright,' my mother often calls it."

"No need to justify your forthrightness. Personally, I find it refreshing. And the other ladies attached to this group of gentlemen—Lady Jonquil and Nicolette Fortier—aren't truly demure. Neither am I."

Penelope liked that. She would enjoy being in company with other ladies who were similar to herself. 'Twas yet more motivation to make sense of her current situation. "Is Mr. Greenberry simpleminded?" she asked.

Everything about Mrs. Barrington's expression said that had she been sipping tea, she would have spit it out.

"A bit too forthright?" Penelope asked.

"Unexpected more than anything," Mrs. Barrington said.

"What was it you did expect me to ask?"

"I don't know if I was set on a specific question, but I had honestly assumed you were going to ask something about me . People often have questions when we first meet. They hear the hint of trade in my voice and wonder what my background is. Or they notice the stiffness in my arm and wonder if it's an old injury. Or sometimes, they detect that I have some African ancestry and wonder at that."

Mrs. Barrington was certainly putting truth to her declaration of being very candid.

"I'm not familiar enough with the various English accents and dialects to have the first idea how to detect ‘trade' in someone's voice. I'd noticed a stiffness to your arm and did assume you had an injury or rheumatism. I'd like to hear about your African ancestry."

Mrs. Barrington hadn't been cold to Penelope or standoffish, but there was an added warmth to her after this very small but very direct exchange. "Mine is a Portsmouth shipyard family, and the ton finds that... noteworthy."

"And not in a delighted way, I'm to assume?" Penelope thought she'd sorted what Mrs. Barrington was hinting at.

"Far from delighted." Mrs. Barrington gave her a significant look. "The stiffness in my arm arises from the fact that it is, in fact, a prosthesis, which I don't make obvious because that, too, would be considered noteworthy . And I'm sorry to say I don't know a great deal of the details of my ancestry other than our family pride in being related to a very well-known musician from Africa."

"Does the ton also find that connection ‘noteworthy'?"

Mrs. Barrington nodded. "We don't often speak of it outside our family and close friends."

"But you are speaking of it to me now."

She gave a minute shrug. "I find, though we are not well acquainted, that I trust you. Your belief that Niles Greenberry is slow of intellect does make me question your judgment a little."

"No," Penelope was quick to counter. "I asked because I don't actually think he is, which I realize is confusing. His grandfather undertook the entirety of the marriage negotiations, which I decided either indicated a very fierce adherence to family hierarchy or a lack of faith in the younger Mr. Greenberry's ability to take on the task. And then, upon arriving here, I found that he very seldom talks and that no one seems to expect him to, but he doesn't actually strike me as being shy. While I don't truly think there is a slowness to him, I thought it best to know for certain before I decide how it is I ought to proceed."

Mrs. Barrington's open expression clouded with a hint of apprehension. "Does this mean you wish for the marriage to proceed?"

"Despite his defection and not knowing him well, yes. I am something of an unconventional person, and he agreed to some unconventional terms in the marriage contract, which gives me hope that he and I could be relatively well-suited. And even quiet as he is, I have the impression that he is a kind person, which I had hoped to find in a husband. Far too many ladies are married to brutes who mistreat them. Escaping that fate appeals to me very much indeed. Thus 'tis decidedly in my best interest to move forward if at all possible."

Mrs. Barrington did not look convinced. "There are any number of gentlemen who are kind. That is not so rare a quality that it requires pursuing a match with a gentleman who has, if you will excuse the bluntness of my language, shown himself willing to behave uncivilly in order to avoid the marriage you are seeking."

Blunt, yes. But also accurate.

"My situation is very odd. I haven't a dowry. My family's connections are limited to Ireland and, even then, are not among the most exalted spheres. What I do have to offer, in the end, would not be beneficial to my would-be husband. Every gentleman who has shown even the least interest abandoned any hint of that interest once he understood the situation. Until Mr. Greenberry. If he has, in actuality, permanently changed his mind, then I am out of options."

While Mrs. Barrington's expression had softened, it hadn't entirely cleared. "But Niles is not out of options. His family could make another match for him very quickly."

Penelope was well aware of that. "I would simply like a chance to discover if I might be a good option for him and he for me. I want to try. Gentlemen undertake courtships of hesitant ladies all the time. This wouldn't be entirely different."

Mrs. Barrington watched her more closely. "Are you considering courting Niles?"

Was she? She pressed her fingers to her lips, thinking. "I suppose I am." She rose and began to wander about as she pondered the idea. "I would like the chance to know him better. Though I have my suspicions that the other gentlemen would help him flee again if he asked them to."

"His happiness is important to all of us," Mrs. Barrington said. "The Gents will defend him to the hilt."

Penelope watched Mrs. Barrington closely, needing to know if she had lost this battle before it had even begun.

"What if," Mrs. Barrington asked, "you spend time here coming to know him and discover that while you find him perfectly pleasant, you don't feel any particular affection for him?"

Penelope had only ever allowed herself to hope for "perfectly pleasant." The idea of love and affection had been abandoned long ago.

"Or," Mrs. Barrington continued, "you do find yourself growing tenderly fond of him, but Niles doesn't return that regard? What would you do?"

Penelope held her hands up in a show of helplessness. "I don't know. I certainly don't want either of us to be unhappy. And though arranged marriages very seldom include affection as one of the considerations, to be cared about would be a wonderful thing. But it seems like far too much to hope for."

"The two of you getting to know each other better would not necessarily cause Niles any misery or harm." Mrs. Barrington's protective approach to Niles was both admirable and worrisome. Penelope, it seemed, needed to convince far more than her prodigal betrothed to look favorably on her. She needed to win over all his friends. "And should it become clear in the end that you two would not suit, the entire thing can be called off."

Though the last was spoken in tones of mere observation, Mrs. Barrington's gaze was anything but casual. Penelope understood the message. She had an ally in her efforts to make Niles's better acquaintance. But in the end, if her match with Niles wasn't seen as something more than a beneficial business-like arrangement, she would have an entire household of people sending her away alone.

"I would appreciate the chance to at least try," she said. "And though it would spell disaster for me, I give you my word that I won't force the matter if Mr. Greenberry does not wish to proceed in the end."

Mrs. Barrington nodded. "The gentlemen refer to themselves as the Gents, so you might as well also. And I suppose you had better call me Violet."

"Why had I better ?" Penelope certainly hadn't expected this informality so soon after being interrogated and warned.

"Because you are going to need my help, and accomplices aren't meant to be overly formal."

"‘Accomplices'? You mean to actively help me?"

Violet nodded.

"Then, you must have some faith that I will keep my word."

"I do," Violet said. "The fact that you are willing to try to sincerely determine if you could have some happiness together speaks well of you. And I am holding out hope that this attempted courtship will be the start of something lovely."

Tolerable had always seemed far more within her reach than lovely . What if it were actually possible? What if Niles was more than her only option and was actually also a wonderful option?

"No gentleman has ever found me intriguing enough to court," Penelope said, "so I don't have any experience with how it is undertaken. I have seen wooing from a distance. There were often flowers involved."

A little humor eased the suspicion in Violet's eyes. "And extremely emotional odes dedicated to beguiling eyes and luscious hair."

"Am I expected to write Niles poetry?" She didn't know whether to laugh or be horrified.

"And beg his hand for the supper dance at a ball," Violet added, her smile growing.

Warming to the exercise, Penelope said, "I could invite him to go for a drive in my impressive curricle."

"Only if it is very impressive."

In the midst of the laughter that followed, the gentlemen joined them.

"I would ask if you were laughing at us," Lord Jonquil said, "but I suspect I know the answer."

With an air of coyness, Violet said, "If the lot of you weren't so laugh able , we wouldn't be forced into it."

Mr. Barrington reached his wife's side. "How grateful I am that you endure us."

" Endure us?" Mr. Layton scoffed. "They, I haven't the least doubt, have been in here plotting against us."

Penelope widened her eyes in an expression of mock offense. "Plotting? We would never!"

Liam, whose gaze had been darting between Mr. Layton and Niles, moved swiftly to Penelope's side. "You aren't actually plotting anything are you?" he asked in a nervous whisper. "We do not claim standing high enough to make ourselves overly familiar like this."

"They all realize I'm simply joining in their jest." Penelope matched his volume. She looked quickly at Niles, standing a bit apart from the others, and saw in his face what appeared to be sincere amusement. "No need to worry."

Liam didn't look at all relieved. "They claim a rung on Society's ladder that we can't even see. Please don't embarrass us, Penelope."

"I think you are overreacting," she insisted.

Niles chose a seat a little apart from the others, yet there was nothing in his chosen location or his demeanor that indicated he was upset or uncomfortable. And none of his friends appeared to be surprised by his chosen location nor made any effort to change it. This was, apparently, a very common arrangement.

He seemed to feel most comfortable with a little bit of space. She could appreciate that.

"We have been doing a little plotting of our own," Lord Jonquil said. "What would you ladies think of an outing tomorrow?"

"That would depend very much on the outing," Violet answered.

"A hog farm," Mr. Barrington said dryly. "We will be mucking slop."

Mr. Layton shuddered. "Do not suggest such a thing, even in jest."

Across the way, Niles grinned. Something in the genuine delight in his expression pulled a smile to Penelope's face as well. Liam watched the group with a look of earnest uncertainty. Did he think he wasn't invited?

"Hamblestead has a lovely market cross," Mr. Layton said. "And the innkeeper at the Green Badger quite outdoes himself with the meals he serves. It would make for an enjoyable way to pass the day."

"And there are ruins of an old abbey nearby," Lord Jonquil said eagerly. "A fine place to explore." He turned to Niles. "Are you game for an adventure?"

"Always," Niles said without hesitation, one of only a half dozen words he'd spoken all night. But it was an additional insight. Niles Greenberry was very quiet, not entirely honest, surprisingly athletic, and "always" eager for an adventure.

"We could ask the innkeeper to pack a meal in a hamper," Mr. Layton suggested, "then enjoy a meal on the banks of the lake if the weather is cooperative."

"There is a lake?" Violet seemed particularly pleased by the idea. She was, apparently, fond of water.

"A lovely one," Mr. Layton said. "It is quite deep in some places, and the water looks nearly black, but in the shallower areas, it is a delightful shade of blue."

"That sounds gorgeous," Penelope said.

"We, in the area, think so."

"Then, I am certain we all will as well," Liam said. "How very good of you to arrange the outing."

Mr. Layton's expression remained perfectly friendly, but there was the tiniest, fleetingest look of exasperation in his eyes. "I find myself unexpectedly the host of a house party. Thinking of ways to keep my guests entertained is part of the associated responsibilities."

Liam was all apologies for the inconvenience when addressing Mr. Layton and silent expressions of concern when looking at Penelope. Though she did think her brother was overreacting, there was also reason to proceed with caution.

She was about to embark on a courtship, which she hadn't planned on and was not at all certain how to approach. She had promised Violet that if Niles didn't prove interested in the end, she would abandon her efforts. These were Niles's friends. If she failed to capture his affection, they would make certain she kept that promise.