7
Penelope
“Mama," Penny whispered, walking arm in arm with her mother as they followed a footman who’d been instructed to bring them to the earl's private office. Music from Aunt Adina’s birthday ball drifted through the cavernous hallway, reminding her where she was, and that she was not at leave to get emotional here in the public areas of the castle. "I don't know what Mr. Santiago wants with us, but I am not going to allow him to think he can just pick up where he believes we left off a year and a half ago. The entire time he was gone, he never wrote to me—not one hastily written note to say goodbye, not one letter to let me know he was alive, or that he even cared at all about me. Especially after…”
Penelope caught herself. She couldn’t tell her mother that she’d kissed Mr. Santia
