Never Had a Dream Come True Read Online Free Page A

was the parish vicar, an easygoing man with a heart as large as Berkshire. He had more than once saved the two adventurous young ladies from disasters and the disgrace of having to admit their folly to their parents.
    For Penny, these four persons—including Francesca—were more her family than her own blood relatives ever would be.
    Her own father had never cared about her. Lord Nester was too awed by his older child, the beautiful Charmaine, to be able to see the one just a year younger.
    Not that Penny minded much.
    Jeremiah de Vere wasn’t a better father even to Charmaine, who had more than once hinted she much more would have preferred him being indifferent toward her too.
    Lady Nester loved her younger daughter dearly but was too much under her husband’s thumb to have the nerve—or the strength—to show Penny more love than a sorrowful smile now and then.
    And Charmaine was Charmaine—beautiful, spoiled, and completely self-absorbed.
    Penny knew her sister loved her and would never, ever, betray a secret. However, she seldom had time to listen to her younger sister’s thoughts, as she was almost always surrounded by their parents or in the company of her maid.
    Penny rarely complained. With a freedom few others of her standing had, she spent her solitude with her books and her daydreams.
    The only thing her father liked about her was her closeness to the Darling family. As he was a man who collected social contacts like others collected butterflies, he urged her to spend as much time with Francesca as she possibly could so he could brag about the tight bond between the families.
    And then there was Rake.
    With an amused grin he sat in the sixth occupied chair at the dinner table, telling his family all about his months in London.
    He wasn’t the most beautiful of men, Penny had to admit, but his charisma was breathtaking, and wherever he walked he left crushed hearts behind him. Women had a tendency to fall head over heels for him, and not one of them realized—until it was too late—that his heart wasn’t in the flirtation.
    The duchess had once told her youngest son that he was a snake who mesmerized his poor victims before he ate them. Rake had only laughed and shrugged the criticism off, but Penny knew his mother had told the truth.
    He was a snake.
    And this time she was the mouse he wanted to mesmerize. Every time she looked his way she met his smoldering gaze, and it took all the strength she could muster to force her eyes off him at once. Otherwise she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from jumping over the dining room table and into his waiting arms.
    He was staring so heatedly at her that even his mother noticed, and the duchess’s probing gaze had moved from Rake to Penny and then back to Rake again many times during the meal.
    Francesca—bless her heart—was as insensitive as ever and chatted away with her uncle without noticing the underlying currents that passed over the table.
    “But what did Lord Alvanley say when he noticed that his favorite cane was missing?”
    “Oh, he whined about it until your cousin Drake organized a search throughout our hosts’ home, much to their chagrin.”
    “Did he find it?”
    Rake grinned devilishly. “Of course he did. It was exactly where Drake put it in the first place. And the hosts were devastated at how the stolen painting just happened be hanging on the wall where the cane was.”
    Francesca clapped her hands with excitement and Penny smiled over her friend’s obvious pleasure at her uncle’s amusing tales.
    The duke snorted. “I can’t believe what has happened to our class nowadays. Nobility used to mean pride and honor, but today’s noblemen and women don’t care anymore. They steal and lie and don’t give a bloody bit about anything but the façade.”
    “The world isn’t just black or white. You can’t put everyone in the same room. This lord and his lady did the unthinkable—they stole from their friends—but it