Free Claiming Her Innocence by Ava Sinclair

night. What we’ve done tonight was to ready you, to prepare you so you’d not come to my bed in fear. Do you still think my desires depraved? To say ‘yes’ would break my heart, Penelope.” He took her hand and placed it on his muscular chest. “And make no mistake. You have that power. For I love you.”
    Her face softened then, glowing with happiness as she smiled up at him. “And I love you,” she said. “I was wrong to believe that woman. She is the depraved one, not you.”
    Alton pulled her to him for a kiss. Her lips were soft against his, her body lush. It was with great reluctance that he parted, preparing for the longest two days of his life.

Chapter Eight: Wedding Day
     
     
    It was the first time Penelope had seen her parents since coming to Westcott Manor. Lord and Lady Lennox had arrived the night before the wedding, and Penelope received them both in the parlor hours before the nuptials were set to take place.
    Because Penelope had been given over to the convent school so early, her mother had always been a distant figure, and her father more of an affable stranger than a parent. William Lennox, his declining health evident, seemed genuinely pleased by his daughter’s transformation from a shy, insecure introvert to confident, poised socialite in so short a time. But his wife’s disapproval was clearly evidenced in her pinched face.
    “My dear. I hardly recognized you,” Lady Lennox said, leaning in to give her daughter a perfunctory peck on the cheek. “I would have thought you’d be slower to settle in after years of spiritual training.”
    “Leave her be.” William Lennox glared at his wife. “Can you not see that she’s happy?”
    “Happy or corrupted?” Lady Lennox gripped her rosary as she took her daughter’s hands. “Sister Agnes has been writing me. They prayed for a miracle to bring you back.”
    “Tell them to save their prayers, mother. I don’t want to go back.”
    “How can you be so ungrateful?” Tears glistened in the older woman’s eyes. “They kept you safe there!”
    “No, mother,” Penelope said gently. “They kept me ignorant. I was happy because I didn’t know anything else. Now I’ve discovered love and beauty, and while I will never forget the good sisters, my place is here. “
    The future Lady Westcott would have been happier to see her mother more accepting of her choice, but Penelope would not allow her mother to dampen the happiest day of her life. She was through sacrificing her happiness for the sake of others now. Alton had taught her that taking her joy was not a selfish thing, and she’d come to believe that a God who made her capable of love and sex would want her to experience those things.
    As Betsy helped dress her for the wedding, Penelope confided her disappointment in Lady Lennox’s greeting.
    “I feel sad for her in a way,” Penelope said. “I believe her heart was truly with the church.”
    “It is sad when one is denied their passion,” Betsy said, “whatever that passion is. You were fortunate to have been spared a life of frustration. Just think. If you’d stayed in the convent you’d never have known true happiness.”
    Penelope turned to her and smiled. “You’re so right. I’d have not had Alton, and I’d have not met you. Oh, Betsy, you’ve become more than a maid to me in this short time,” she said. “I think you were meant to be here as was I.” She grew quiet. “I have a question, though. That night I found you in the alcove… was I meant to find you?”
    Betsy dropped her eyes and Penelope had her answer.
    “I thought so,” she said.
    “Are you angry, m’lady?” she asked.
    “No.” Penelope shook her head. “I thought Lord Westcott had likely arranged it. I had no mother to teach me that my body is a tool of pleasure and not of shame. Seeing another woman so open with her own flesh—you’ve helped me enormously, even if it was a less than conventional education.”
    “Are you ready for