The distinct pad of Clarissa’s bare feet caught her ear and the deeper clack of…boots.
She raised her head.
“Fifteen,” Natty sang out, pointing down at the coins. “Is that right, Miss Penny?”
“That’s right, my brilliantly beautiful girl.” She stroked the child’s hair even as Clarissa came into view, the Earl of Goldthwaite just behind her.
Her breath caught, and she clenched a fist at her side. She shouldn’t feel anything for this man. He was a lord, a benefactor, and his intentions were shaded at best. If she weren’t careful…
She’d told him she was undecided on marriage, but the truth was, it was her most secret wish. But one she expected never to be fulfilled…
She’d fallen in love once. It was nearly a year after Clarissa had come to live with her. A soldier and a good man. He’d offered her a life free from worry, financially and otherwise, but Clarissa was not invited into that life.
Penny had refused the offer and had never looked back. Lieutenant Vrabel had been a perfectly good candidate. But these children were her life and anyone who wished to share in it would have to help them too. Most likely no man would agree to such an imposition. And so…she’d remain alone.
And that was why the Earl of Goldthwaite was best left alone. He’d called her little loves “urchins.” He was a statue of ice.
No matter how he made her heartbeat quicken and her own body heat.
Of course, he’d donated to her cause too, but that didn’t mean he’d wish to live with a house full of foundlings full time. She shook her head. What was she even thinking? He was an earl. Of course, he wasn’t going to help her raise orphans.
Her heart skipped a beat. What had happened to her normally sensible mind?
“Penny, you have a visitor.” Clarissa smirked as she reached out a hand to Natty. “Come on love, I’ll continue your lesson in the other room.”
Natty stuck out her bottom lip. “But I want to be with Miss Penny.”
Natty was always clingy after a night of bad dreams and she’d had a few terrible ones the
night before.
Penny softly brushed the girl’s cheek, her skin velvet and cream. “You’re all right. And you know Clarissa loves you to the sky and back.”
Natty stuck out her lip but dutifully climbed down from Penny’s lap and took Clarissa’s hand.
Penny had avoided looking at Goldthwaite. His chiseled jaw and penetrating eyes unsettled her the day before, but as the room cleared out, she had no choice.
That’s when she realized he held several packages.
The first was a large box with a lid.
Wordlessly, he handed it to her.
She looked down at it, trimmed with a beautiful pale violet ribbon, her eyes scrunching even as her stomach tightened into knots. “What is this?”
He cleared his throat. “Your presence has been requested at dinner this evening.”
“Dinner where?” she asked setting the box on the table she and Natty had just been working at. Coins scattered under its weight. Drat. That was the money for the baker.
She refused to open the box and look at its contents. She didn’t dare see what was inside, she wouldn’t accept it. No matter what it was.
“The Duke of Darlington’s.”
Her gasp filled the space between them. The very duke who’d rejected her request for funds? “Why would a duke want me at his table?”
Goldthwaite grimaced. “I don’t know. Just like I don’t know why he suggested that I sponsor your orphanage.”
She cocked her head. This question had plagued her for half the night. “And why did you agree to be a sponsor?”