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engagement or she had to come up with a plausible lie in the next five seconds.
    â€œYes,” she finally said. “I’m…I’ve always wanted to visit Wick. I adore herrings.”
    Even Mr. Harvey snorted at that. Penelope never had been a good liar.
    Darius merely shrugged and turned his attention back to the innkeeper. “A room, please. It’s too dark to travel now. Miss Darlington and I will leave at first light.”
    â€œI beg your pardon?” Penelope snapped.
    â€œWe will leave at first light,” Darius repeated as he signed his name in the ledger. “I told your father I would have you back in London before his Christmas feast. I intend to keep that promise.”
    Penelope was at a loss for words. She had so few options of her own and almost no money, so all she could do was continue to look for work in a town that had meager opportunities. But the alternative meant sacrificing what little pride she had left.
    Mr. Harvey glanced at Penelope before turning to his book to make the arrangements. Darius took a purse from his valise.
    â€œI was led to believe that Miss Darlington might have no funds of her own,” he said. “Therefore, I will settle both our bills together.”
    Hot with shame, Penelope turned on heel and went back to her room. She didn’t even want to imagine what Darius Hall thought about her reckless flight with Simon Wilkie.
    Shutting the door behind her, she thought reluctantly that this served her right. She had made an absolute bungle of this whole situation, so why not heap further humiliation onto herself by having Darius transport her back to London like a recalcitrant child?
    She groaned, pressing her hands to her face. She remembered the way he’d looked at her when he saw her with Simon Wilkie at Lady Wentworth’s soiree a mere three weeks ago. Such a sliver of time, and yet it burned in her memory like a full moon. The way that unreadable gaze had slid from her to Simon, darkening with disapproval in the instant before he turned away from them.
    It wouldn’t have been so memorable, she thought, if the mistletoe incident hadn’t happened twenty minutes later.
    A hard shiver swept through her. Oh, that kiss. So warm and delicious, eliciting a feeling like light dancing through her veins. She’d tried hard to bury the memory…of course it wasn’t right for an engaged woman to kiss another man, let alone feel like that …but Darius’s mouth had settled against hers with such perfect, seamless precision.
    He’d cupped the back of her neck in his large hand with a gentleness that made her feel…unique. Cherished. Alive. It had all been so unlike Simon’s hurried kisses that Penelope was caught entirely off her guard. That was the only explanation for her swift response and the way she’d kissed Darius Hall back with an eagerness that both shocked and thrilled her.
    A knock came at the door. Penelope tried to rearrange her thoughts as she went to open it. Darius Hall stood there like a sentry, the breadth of his shoulders almost filling the doorway. Penelope almost took a step backward. He’d always been so contained and reticent that she had never realized just how…powerful he was.
    â€œYes?” she asked.
    â€œMr. Harvey informs me that you’ve not dined yet.” He tilted his head toward the stairs. “He has nothing prepared in the dining room, but he tells me there is an agreeable restaurant just around the corner. They offer at least half a dozen herring dishes.”
    Penelope jerked her gaze to his, expecting to see him smirking at her. But no. His expression was as stoic as always. She thought rather unexpectedly that in all the years he had come to her father’s shop, she had never heard Darius Hall laugh.
    â€œIf you’d care to accompany me?” he asked.
    She didn’t much care to accompany him, but she did care to eat. Penelope nodded and