Love Under Two Honchos (21 page)

Kate smiled. “Chocolate is good for comfort food, in moderation.”

She looked around the bedroom. “This is the room that Adam Kendall and Warren Jessop would share when they stayed over. Warren would officially be in the room next door. He worried the servants would discover the truth, you see, so he always spent some time in that room, leaving his things there, making the bed look slept in.”

“This is a happy room,” Penelope said. “I feel very comfortable here.”

“I thought you might like something to read before you fell asleep.” She handed the leather-bound book to her.

Penelope saw that it had no title on the cover, or on the spine.

When she opened it, she gasped, for the yellow pages held writing that looked strong and feminine.

“It’s Sarah’s journal,” Kate said.

“Her journal?” To hold something so precious, the thoughts of a woman who had, in a way, been an inspiration to Penelope most of her life, was a very special thing.

“Indeed. She began to write it when her sons Charles and Samuel fell in love with, and married, the same woman—Madelyn Kennedy Benedict, my mother-in-law. Sarah realized her words and council on how to manage two husbands might be of some benefit to future generations of women. The men in the family don’t get to read it.

Only the women do.”

In the family
.

“But I’m not—”

“Shh.” Kate leaned forward and placed a finger on Penelope’s lips. “Just read. Then get a good night’s sleep.”

The matriarch stood, and then leaned over and kissed Penelope’s forehead. She left quietly, closing the door behind her.

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For a long moment, Penelope simply held the book, the sense of history and love she got from it an almost tangible force.

Lying in this bed in this home that had been the foundation of a dynasty, Penelope felt a sense of belonging fill her. She used the sleeve of her nightgown to wipe her eyes, neither surprised nor ashamed that at such a moment, she would cry. She’d waited all her life to find this sense of belonging, and here it was.

She took one bracing sip of her tea and set the cup gently down again.

Then she opened the book and began to read.

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Chapter 19

Morning sun streamed through the window, falling on Penelope’s face, whispering to her that it was time to get up. She blinked her eyes and knew one moment of disorientation. It was the first time in a week she’d awakened alone, and that disconcerted her.

Then everything came back to her in a rush, all that had happened the day before, so that, for just a moment, she felt completely overwhelmed.

She turned her head, and her gaze fell on Sarah Carmichael Benedict’s journal.

“Did you know you were birthing a dynasty?” she asked softly.

Some of the words she’d read the night before came back to her, their rhythm soothing, their reality somewhat shocking from a woman born before the end of the American Civil War.

It is true, and should be noted, that men, left to their own devices,
generally muck things up. I want to make one thing, therefore,
perfectly clear. It wasn’t my dear husbands who took that first step to
bring us together in love and intimacy. It was I.

I, who had been sold into marriage by my father to a man who
didn’t want me; I, who had been the target of paid assassins; I, who
had fallen hopelessly in love with not one, but two handsome
gunslingers. I did not know if we would survive to the end of our
journey. But after all I had been through, I refused to die a virgin, not
knowing a man’s touch, or a man’s love. Not knowing the touch and
the love of the men who had captured my heart.

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Penelope sat up in bed, the covers falling to her waist. She’d long ago felt a kinship for the young Chicago debutante who had been forced from all she knew into a strange and dangerous new frontier.

Now, after reading some of her journal, that sense of connection felt even stronger.

A knock sounded, and the door opened. Susan stuck her head in.

“Good, you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Much better, thanks.”

Susan came all the way into the room carrying some clothes, which she set on the end of the bed. “We’re almost the same size. I thought you’d like some clean clothes for the day. I also wanted to give you a heads-up. My men came home late last night with my very frantic brothers in tow. They’re downstairs now. Mom told them to come for breakfast.”

“I’m not ready to see them.” Penelope’s heart thudded painfully.

She really wasn’t ready to see them.

She’d overreacted yesterday, no question about it. That stupid plan of theirs was really just what she would have expected them to do if they thought it was time to find a wife. They were as anal as she was. Plus, it had been dated before she’d even met them.

Oh, God, she’d poured pasta and grape drink over their heads in the middle of a busy restaurant! She was worse than that Lola person, whose actions had taken her right out of the running—Alex’s words, exactly!

So where did her even worse actions leave her?

“I know you don’t feel ready to see them. But Grandma Kate says you have to come down and have breakfast. There’ll be a lot of us there. You don’t have to spend time with them alone if you don’t want to, but you can’t hide up here, either.” Susan reached out and touched her shoulder gently. “It’s not the Benedict way.”

Penelope looked again at the closed journal resting on the bedside table. She couldn’t imagine Sarah Carmichael Benedict being afraid to face up to anything.

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“All right, I just need a shower, and to get dressed.”

“Breakfast will be ready in about a half hour,” Susan said. “Other than that, take your time.”

Penelope just shook her head. She’d bet the gamine-faced daughter of the household had used that smile to get away with a multitude of sins.

Penelope sighed. She knew where the bathroom was, so she’d best take herself there and get ready to face whatever the day had in store for her next.

As the water rained down on her, her thoughts began to clear.

Susan had said that Josh and Alex had been frantic. She doubted very much that they’d be frantic and follow her just to give her hell for humiliating them in public—or to tell her they were done with her.

She thought back on the time they’d spent together, on the way they’d fallen all over each other so damn fast. They’d definitely skipped a few steps in the courtship ritual.

She used a fluffy towel to dry herself and made a resolution. She wouldn’t fall into their bed so easily again. At least, not without some heartfelt words and commitments between them.

One memory from the day before stood out above all the rest.

She’d told those too-charming-for-their-own-good lotharios that she’d fallen in love with them.

They didn’t have to propose marriage to her, but they sure as hell had better man-up and share their feelings, too. At least they would if they ever wanted her in their bed again.

Stay strong, Penelope. You can do it.

She felt their eyes on her as soon as she came down the stairs. She wondered that they didn’t rush over to her, so potent were the stares she felt on her. Doubts began to assail her. Susan had
said
they’d been frantic, but maybe she’d misread their feelings. Maybe they had been frantic because of the way she’d dumped on them—literally.

She snuck a glance and saw that they were sitting in two chairs in a corner of the parlor, and that Colt and Ryder bracketed them.

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“There you are, Penelope.” Grandma Kate came over to her and took both her hands in hers. “You’re looking much better this morning. How are you feeling, sweetheart?”

“I’m feeling much better, thank you.”

“Wonderful. I want you to meet someone.” Kate drew her over to where Caleb was standing and chatting with two other men. One was Jonathan, Josh and Alex’s other father. The third man, much younger, she hadn’t met before, but he did look a little familiar.

“Henry, this is Penelope Primrose, my friend Eloise’s granddaughter. Penelope, this is Henry Kendall, he’s Adam and Morgan’s brother.
Major
Kendall is a pilot with the air force, just returned from serving over in Afghanistan.”

“How do you do?” She extended her hand politely, a little astonished when Henry took it in both of his.

“A heck of a lot better now that I’ve met you, thanks.” And then he grinned.

Oh, she bet he was used to getting his way with a smile like that!

And with that jet-black hair and those aqua eyes, she imagined he had women draping themselves all over him. She couldn’t help but smile in response to that cheeky grin. Movement out of the corner of her eye showed both Josh and Alex scowling, and Colt and Ryder with a hand each on their arms. And then she realized Susan’s fiancés were
restraining
her men.

Isn’t that interesting?

“Breakfast is ready,” Bernice announced. “And how wonderful it is to have such a big crowd for a change!”

Penelope gasped when she saw the dining table, much longer than it had been the night before. Just as they were sitting down, Henry’s brothers Morgan and Adam, whom she had met, arrived. They must have been expected, as there were enough places set for all fourteen of them.

“How lovely,” Kate said. “You two military men must sit on either side of me, and I can be the rose between two fly boys.”

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Also sitting down to breakfast, at the foot of the table, was an older man in a wheelchair. Penelope had met Michael Murphy briefly the night before. He was Colt and Ryder’s adoptive father—a former cop and a friend of Caleb Benedict’s—who had agreed to be a guest while he recuperated from an accident.

“Good Lord, Bernice, if you keep feeding me like this I’m going to gain thirty pounds while I’m here,” Michael said.

“Now, Michael, you know you need to eat in order to mend.”

Bernice gave the man a big smile.

Both Colt and Ryder seemed to be trying not to laugh. “Murph, our future mother-in-law is a woman not to be thwarted,” Colt said.

“Best just eat up.”

“You’re a very smart man, Colt, to realize that,” Caleb Benedict said.

“Thank you, sir.”

Joshua and Alex were seated at the other side of the table and down from her, near the end, between Caleb, who was at the head of the table, and Henry. They were far enough away they couldn’t touch her, but not too far to inhibit conversation. Susan sat on her right, and Adam on her left.

The table had been loaded down with dishes filled with flapjacks, sausage, bacon, eggs covered in what looked like salsa, eggs that were, thankfully, plain, as well as rolls both sweet and savory. The moment bottoms hit chairs, the food was passed around.

“Adam, would you please pour some orange juice for Penelope?”

Josh asked. He looked at her and smiled. “Orange juice is rich in folic acid which is good for…um, just good for you.”

“And she needs some milk, too,” Alex said. “Vitamins A and D, are important for nur…um, nutrients.”

“Orange juice and milk at the same meal?” Adam asked. He turned to look at Penelope and made a face as he asked, “Wouldn’t that curdle?”

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Penelope felt herself melting toward her men. They seemed determined to take care of her, and she was pretty certain she understood the reason why. But there was no sense in making things too easy for them. She’d already done that, and look where it had gotten her.

“I will have some juice, thank you,” she said to Adam.

“Too bad there’s no grape punch. I’ve heard you really like that,”

Ryder said.

“I’ve no particular preference,” Penelope shot back. “I’m happy to use whatever’s close at hand.” She felt her face burn with embarrassment but was determined not to play the coward in front of such a large assembly of Benedicts and Kendalls.

“It’s good to have you home again, Henry,” Grandma Kate said.

“I’m sure your mother is delighted to have all of her traveling men back in the roost.”

“She was smiling a lot at dinner last night,” Henry said.

“Especially when I told her that when this tour is done, I’m not going to re-enlist.” He looked up at the collective assembly. “Ten years in the line of fire is enough.”

“More than enough,” Bernice said.

“You’ve done your duty, no question there. Any idea what you’ll do next?” Jonathan asked him.

“I’ve a few,” Henry said. “Morgan and I’ve been thinking we might engage in a joint enterprise, or two.”

Then the audacious man actually sent her a smile and winked at her.

Penelope felt her face burn and put her gaze down on her plate, but not before catching the scowls both Josh and Alex sent to the major.

“I always figured the two of you would go into business once you left the military,” Grandma Kate said. “As kids, you were inseparable.”

“And insufferable,” Adam said.

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“That’s because you were the baby of the family,” Morgan said.

“What about you, Penelope? Where do you sit in your familial hierarchy?” Henry asked her.

Penelope felt her back begin to stiffen as it usually did whenever anyone asked any personal questions. She forced herself to relax.

“I’m an only,” she said. “I came to America to live with my grandmother when I was ten.” Then she grinned. “I always wanted to be part of a big family.”

“And now you are.” Josh and Alex said together.

For the first time that morning, she looked directly at the men.

“I’m not at the moment, no,” she said.

She wanted to claw the words back when their first reaction was to wince as if she’d hit them.

Josh looked down for a moment then met her gaze again. She saw a look there she’d never seen before, one that thrilled her, and not sexually, either. “We’ll see,” he said.