Chapter Text
Penelope, the Duchess of Bromley lay in her four-poster bed fast asleep. The curtains were drawn tight across the windows, blocking the light of the morning sun--the way she liked it. Even after two years, she still preferred the darkness she'd been forced to live in during the Duke and Kitty's reign of terror.
Her sleeping form underneath her thick quilts was tiny, a mere echo of her former self. The starvation she'd experienced left her almost skeletal and two years later, she was barely half her original weight. She sometimes pinched her thighs and belly in the mirror, searching for the familiar jiggle of flesh, but alas, she was still skin and bones. Bram and the doctor encouraged her to eat more at every meal, but Penelope found that she couldn't bring herself to have more than tea and a few bites of pastry.
A gentle knock at the door roused her.
"My lady, the guards have returned."
She sat up immediately, her red hair wild and curly, framing her face like a lion's mane. She scrambled out of the bed and rushed to the door. She flung it open to reveal Bram in his butler uniform. He stood almost two heads taller than her, sporting a neatly trimmed beard, and a jaw that could cut glass. His skin was still splattered with freckles and his brown eyes gleamed with excitement.
"The guards--Do they--Did they?" She could barely get the words out of her mouth. Bram grinned and nodded.
"He's in the room you prepared."
A shiver of excitement shot from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. This was the moment she'd been waiting for. Two years, she'd waited for her guard to return with him. Her future husband. Colin.
"How is he taking everything?"
"They had to restrain and blindfold him, but he's all in one piece. Healthy. Not very happy, but I'm sure he will be soon."
Penelope nodded vigorously as Bram spoke. Yes, of course, Colin wasn't happy now. Who would be after being kidnapped? But he would get over it. He had to if he was to marry her.