Read Penelope & Prince Charming for Free Online Page B

not allow it. She could not have it both ways.
    She let out a long, heartfelt sigh. “You are awfully flattering, Your Highness, but I am afraid that I am already spoken for.”
    She gave the rubies in the box a long, wistful glance. Then she lowered her gaze, took a step back, and held her hand out to Tavistock. He took it without a word.
    Damien began to admire her. He’d quickly grasped that Lady Trask was a silly, vain woman, whose head was easily turned by pretty jewelry. Most ladies of her ilk would have thrown over their plain gentlemen to marry Damien in a heartbeat.
    But Lady Trask had decided that she wanted the man at her side more than she wanted to be a princess. More than she wanted the rubies. He must be a remarkable man.
    Damien hoped that one day a lady would find him as remarkable.
    Sasha looked crestfallen. “But she wears the ring. We cannot return to Nvengaria without it, without her…”
    “Never mind, Sasha,” Damien said.
    His gaze swiveled to where it had been drawn all this time. To Penelope, with her golden hair shining and her green eyes full of emotion.
    Next to her, Meagan gasped and clapped her hands. “Oh, of course. Silly me, I never thought of it. Penelope must be a princess, too. He can marry Penelope!”
    Damien’s gaze locked with Penelope’s. Her hair was still mussed from when he had stroked it, when he had kissed her.
    She’d wanted to resist kissing him, he’d felt it in the stiffening of her body. But she’d kissed him back anyway, her lips innocent.
    He’d felt something in his heart change, and he hadn’t understood. But he understood now. Perhaps Nedrak wasn’t such a charlatan after all.
    “Yes,” he said softly. “Penelope will do very well for me.”
    Penelope’s green-gold eyes were wide, her face white with shock. “No,” she said. She shook her head until her golden hair danced. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.”
    “Do not be hasty, Penny, dear,” her mother said. “Those rubies are awfully big.”

Chapter Five
    “I cannot marry him,” Penelope said desperately.
    Not when he looked at her like that. She saw danger, she smelled it. And so, like an animal, she scrambled to avoid it.
    “Of course you can marry him,” her mother prattled. “You certainly show no sign of marrying anyone else, not after you jilted two perfectly good gentlemen.”
    “Mama,” Penelope began.
    “You will not mind if I borrow the rubies from time to time, will you?” her mother went on. “And do say I can stay in your palace. Tuck me into a suite, nothing extravagant, just ten rooms or so. You won’t even know I’m there.”
    “Mama!”
    Prince Damien said nothing. He simply watched her, his gaze so intense it tingled the blood in her veins. Sasha, on the other hand, chewed his lip. “It is not that simple, Your Highness. She does not bear the ring.”
    “Oh, that is easy.” Lady Trask tugged the silver ring from her finger, held it out to Penelope. “Here you are. I am leaving it to you in my will anyway. My mama told me to.”
    Sasha cringed. “No, no, you mustn’t! It must be done with the proper ritual. If there is no ritual, the line is broken, and it means nothing.”
    “What is the ritual then? Let us get on with it. I want my daughter betrothed to a prince. Lady Matthews will be beside herself. Her daughters only married earls, and she does lord that over me something terrible.”
    “Oh, this is madness,” Penelope cried.
    “No, it isn’t,” Meagan said. “It’s quite exciting. You’re a princess. When Papa marries your mama, I’ll be your stepsister, like in the story about Cinderella, except I won’t be wicked or cut off bits of my feet or anything.”
    “Meagan, hush.” Michael’s deep voice cut through the shrill female ones, and everything went silent.
    Michael had dressed hastily, and his coat was buttoned wrong, but his presence overpowered everyone in the room. Except Damien, of course.
    Michael reached over and deliberately closed the