Hello my darlings. I would like to thank rainystv for the wonderful reviews. I would also like to thank those of you who have followed and favoured since my last update.
So sorry it's been so long for this chapter, but I've been on holiday and all that. But I'm back now and will hopefully get back to weekly updates soon. Anyway here it is, time for the ladies to reach London. I hope you like it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
The final leg of the journey gave no time for Gabriel and Penny to talk privately. The younger ladies stayed awake for the whole of it, excited about what was at the end of this trip. Excited about the new experiences they would have in London, staying in the house of a duke. The girls talked incessantly, or Lizzie did at least, having her nose stuck to the window asking Gabriel what the purpose was of everything she saw. Wanting to know it all. When the carriages arrived in Mayfair Lottie found herself joining her sister at the window, and even Bea was looking at the magnificence houses they past, through trying to pretend she wasn't. Penny just sat there smiling at her sisters breathing in their restless joy, and enjoying the last few moments she would have with them before she started her ruse.
When the carriage pulled up outside a house twice as big as any other they had seen all the girls went quiet in awe. This was where they would be staying for months? In this house? It was something that to them seemed fit for royalty, but no. It was a house of a duke.
"Well this is it ladies, Ravenscliff House. How do you like it?" Gabriel asked with his charming smile trying to put them at ease and pull them out of their awe.
"It's like a palace." Lizzie breathed replying for all three of her sisters, not that Penny would ever admit as much.
"No. The palace is much larger." Gabriel chuckled making them all turn to him as the youngest once more said what they were all thinking, but felt they couldn't ask.
"You've been to the palace?"
"I have. But I think my family home is much nicer. Though you can't tell anyone I said that." He whispered conspiratorially leaning in to give Lizzie a fake serious glare.
At that Lizzie giggled, covering her hand to try and hold the noise in as she replied. "Your secret is save with us Gabriel."
"Thank god. You have calmed my heart lady Elizabeth." Gabriel responded placing his hand over chest as he let a relived look flood his face even while he smiled.
"I think we should go in, don't you Gabriel?" Penny interrupted with a humorous smile on her face. She loved how at ease he had managed to put her sisters with a few simple words. He really was an extraordinary man. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to pretend to be in love with him if he continued to treat her sisters in such a way.
"Quite right, rude to make ladies wait in the carriage after all." Gabriel replied moving to open the door only to find a footman was there before him, waiting for the Marquess to be ready to exit with his passengers. His father's staff really were exceptional. But then that was probably because his mother choose them all.
Climbing out of the carriage Gabriel turned to hand first Penny, and then Bea, Lottie and Lizzie down so that they all stood on the street and could look up at the house, taking it in in all its glory.
"Shall we?" Gabriel murmured pulling Penny's eyes from the visage in front of her to look at the arm he was holding out to her. Of course, she was his fiancée, his to escort into his family home.
"Yes, lets." Penny replied straightening her spine as she took his arm. She plastered onto her face a friendly smile, but her eyes were those of one preparing to do battle. Gabriel looking at them could only chuckle to himself. They were very definitely green today. Hmm, it seemed green was her fierce colour, whereas when she spoke to her sisters they went towards a soft brown. He would have to keep an eye on that colour change, see if his speculations were indeed correct. Just one more thing to keep himself entertained while he pretended to love the woman on his arm. Though he was rather startled by the thought that it would not be as hard as he had previously imagined.
They walked through the door, the butler bowing them in with a smile for Marquess of Dare and a careful study of the woman on his arm. He had known the Marquess since he was a child and he wanted to make sure that whoever he choose to marry would be good enough for him. There were not many ladies who could keep up with Gabriel after all in his mind.
Gabriel nodded to his father's butler but he didn't say anything. He was nervous about the meeting that was about to come, not that he would admit it. He had assumed he would need to escort the ladies to his mother in the front drawing room and that was what he was ready to do. But it seemed she had been keeping an eye out for them.
"Gabriel, finally, I was getting worried." Came a regal voice causing all eyes to turn to the elder woman standing at the top of the stairs. The duchess of Ravenscliff had the same colouring as her younger son, with his dark hair and piecing blue eyes, but where Castiel's were calculating, the duchess' were warm and full of love for her eldest son. Penny couldn't help a small smile appearing on her face at the sight of the woman and her words. Nor could she stop it growing at Gabriel's response.
"Mama, we are early." He responded with a put upon sigh, which was offset by the cheeky grin that appeared on his face.
"Be that as it may, introduce me." The duchess demanded swatting her son on the arm which Penny wasn't holding affectionately as she joined them all.
"Mama. May I present my fiancée lady Penelope Coburn and her sisters, lady Beatrice Coburn, lady Charlotte Coburn, and lady Elizabeth Coburn. Ladies, my mother, her Grace Anne Haynes, Duchess of Ravenscliff." Gabriel recited with all the pomp due to his mother's rank. She would expect nothing less he knew, she had drilled into him the polite rules of society after all.
"Your Grace." Penny replied curtsying deeply in front of the woman, yet not letting go of Gabriel's arm as she did so, as if she was declaring her right to be by his side. She had decided which lady Penelope Coburn the ton would be meeting, and she wanted to make sure she was there from the start. And little did she know that it was just the right thing to do.
"Penelope, may I call you Penelope? Please call me Anne." The duchess replied not giving her future daughter-in-law time to reply before she took her hands in hers and squeezed them. Yes she could see how Gabriel found himself under this girl's spell. She was his perfect match, she would challenge him and make him work for every bit of affection. Oh yes, she would do very well for Gabriel indeed. No wonder he knew little about her, no doubt they had spent their whole time together sparring with words. But that was what her son needed, and it was something she had started to think he would never find. But now he had, she would make darn sure that the woman he loved felt at home in her family. Because she was family now, her and her sisters were now her new daughters, and she couldn't wait to become their mother.
"Thank you Anne, and of course you can call me Penelope, though my family calls me Penny." Penelope replied with a smile, subtly showing that she was accepting the offer of family that the duchess was making her. She may never have been in the ton before, but this was a game she could play, a game her mother had taught her well before she died when she was 18.
"Well then Penny, let me show you and your sisters to your rooms, I have placed you all close together. I know what it is like to move to a new home and know no one." Anne said in a kind voice. After all she had moved into this house as the wife of the current duke, and she had known no one. She wanted to make sure her future replacement felt at home here, just as she did now.
"I thank you. I also have my ladies maid and her husband who is a trained footman with me, and my sisters have their governess." Penny replied hoping that the duchess wouldn't take offense at her bringing her staff with her, and hoping it wouldn't cause too much trouble finding them somewhere to sleep.
"I have set aside rooms for your staff Penny, no need to worry. I did not expect you to come with none, even if my son did." Anne responded with a wave of her hand dismissing all of Penny's fears. Though Penny did chuckle at Gabriel's "hey."
"Silence Gabriel, we women are talking." Anne replied not even turning to look at her son instead giving Penny a conspiratorial smile.
"In that case I'll leave you to settle Pen and her sisters in." Gabriel interrupted again. He really didn't want to stand around and watch as his mother and his pretend fiancée bond, no doubt against him. Hmm, maybe he should have tried to find somewhere else for Pen and her sisters to live. It would have certainly made his life easier, or thought… maybe not. His mother would have killed him if he put them anywhere but here. He was just going to have to put up with it, and give as good as he got. Oh yes, that sounded like a plan he liked.
At Gabriel's use of Pen, Anne raised her eyebrows, though she said nothing. She knew her son, and he wasn't one to do what everyone else did. No doubt abbreviating his fiancée's name even more amused him as much as it irritated the woman in question. Though looking at Penny she saw a look of resigned acceptance in her eyes which made her smile. She was definitely a match for her son.
"Do that, but make sure you are back for dinner. We want to welcome your fiancée and her sisters into our family, and make sure Castiel comes too." Anne replied to her son giving him a smile though her eyes said quite clearly what would happen if he didn't arrive with his brother in tow.
"And what makes you think I'll see him?" Gabriel asked trying to find a way out of that stare. Though he knew it was pointless, just as he knew he would search the whole of damn London to find Castiel if he needed to.
"Because knowing your brother he is hiding out at your home. He will need to get one of his own once you are married." Anne replied in a contemplative tone, she had been trying to get her younger son to settle down ever since he returned from the wars. And now that Gabriel was betrothed, it seemed the perfect time to press her case with Castiel.
"You know I'll always have a room for Cas, mama." Gabriel responded with slight censure in his tone at the plan he knew she was forming. Castiel would settle down when he was good and ready, he had been through enough. Their mother needed to leave him alone, or he knew he would just disappear on them again. And he didn't want that thank you very much.
"I do." Anne replied bending her head to her son in acceptance at what he didn't say. She would not meddle in Castiel's life, as long as Gabriel made sure he was there when the family needed him to be. She would leave him in the hands of his older brother as she had always found herself doing, however much she wanted to get involved. "Now Beatrice, Charlotte and Elizabeth is it? Come with me dears, let's leave your sister to say goodbye to her betrothed." And with that the duchess swept the younger Coburn ladies before her and herded them up the stairs, giving Penny and Gabriel an illusion of privacy, even if they were surrounded by servants.
"I'm sorry about mama, she can be rather forceful." Gabriel said once they were 'alone'.
"I like her. She reminds me of you." Penny replied with a smile at the force of nature his mother was. At how she managed to keep him in check with just a look or a word and vice versa. It was obvious that the woman and her son understood each other in a way that was both endearing and enviable.
"And that's a good thing?" Gabriel asked cheekily with a raise of his eyebrow. She wasn't the first to mention the resemblance between them, though she was the first to come right out and say it without any artifice.
"It is." Penny replied with a nod. She liked the duchess, and she liked Gabriel. Both seemed to have open hearts and a willingness to do anything for those who were luckily enough to be counted as ones they cared for. It was an amiable trait in people who held such high an office as they both did.
Her words were followed by silence, neither of them wanting to break it because they knew if they did it would be because Gabriel was leaving. Leaving her here in a strange house with strange people.
Instead they just stood there and stared at each other while the butler sent all the footmen away. If the young master was going to have an embrace with his betrothed, he did not want it witnessed by all the staff.
"I should go, I'll see you this evening Pen." Gabriel sighed knowing that if he didn't he would do something he had promised himself he would not do. He could not cross the line his honour had created. This was not a real betrothal, and he needed to remember that.
"Yes you will, Gabe." Penny replied with a small smile on her face at the quirk of his eyebrow. She was here to perform a role, and she would play it to the best of her abilities.
At that Gabriel smirked and nodded at her decision that two could play his game. She was definitely going to give him a run for his money that was for sure. With that thought he swept into a deep bow and grabbed her hands bringing them to his lips so he could kiss each before smiling his charming smile once more and turning and walking out of the door without another word.
Penny stood there for a moment wondering at herself for calling him Gabe. It had been a spur of the moment decision, a way to get him back for Pen, but maybe it was a good thing, and it wasn't like she could change it now. The game, it seemed, was on, and she had to play her role. Her thoughts here interrupted by a subtle cough making her turn to the butler who was now at her elbow.
"If you will follow me my lady, I will show you to her Grace." He said in his starch tone, though Penny could see a soft glint in his eyes, as if he had weighed her and approved of his future masters choice in wife.
"Thank you." She smiled at him, she would need to learn his name, but for now the smile was enough to make him return it slightly. It was definitely a good idea to get the butler on side when living in a house such as this, and it seemed she had managed it. That was good.
With that she followed the man up the grand staircase and towards the west wing of the house, wondering just where the duchess, no Anne, planned for her family to stay.
