The Duke's Masked Wife 2: The Prince's Outcast Bride-Chapter 60: Run away with me (1)

"Take a moment to breathe, Penelope. You must calm yourself for a moment," Alessandra said, placing her hands on Penelope’s to comfort her. "I cannot promise it will get better soon, but you must try to keep calm and breathe."

Penelope tried to take deep breaths to calm down, but the pain remained. "I told him to move on since I will not enter the palace. He has done that, but now I feel like this. Like I cannot breathe without there being an ache in my chest. How can I make it stop?"

"I’m afraid I don’t have the answer. Letting go of someone you love is never easy. It will take time for that pain to go away, but what you can do now is decide if you want to let him go. There is still time to go back," Alessandra suggested.

Alessandra wasn’t fond of the palace as well, but if the man Penelope loved was there, then she would not get in Penelope’s way.

"You must decide now if you have made the right decision. He must marry soon, and more pain shall come from seeing him with someone else. Is letting go of him what you truly want? Forget about the palace. What do you want?" Alessandra asked.

Penelope took two more deep breaths as she came up with her answer. "I don’t want to let him go," she whispered.

She cared for Tyrion even more than she knew, since it hurt so much to let him go.

"But I can’t go there," Penelope said, once again stuck between a rock and a hard place. "I want to be free. To live my life as I want, to love someone without judgment from others, or to be told what to do."

Penelope continued, "I want to have him and to be free, but luck isn’t on our side."

Alessandra wished she could tell Penelope what to do, but she could not since this was an important decision Penelope had to make. This decision concerned her future.

Still, Alessandra had to say something so Penelope would not be in this state all night. "Perhaps he will not propose to anyone tonight. You have a night to think this all over. That- Tyrion," she gasped, startled by the sight of Tyrion coming toward them.

How did he know where they were?

Penelope turned around, her eyes still filled with water, which started to fall.

"Why did you reject me if you were going to be like this in secret?" Tyrion asked as he approached Penelope.

Alessandra turned her back to the pair to give them privacy, but she had to remain near for Peneleope’s sake.

Tyrion wiped away Penelope’s tears with his thumb. He couldn’t think of the last time he saw Penelope cry, and it upset him that he was partly the reason behind it.

"I’m sorry," Tyrion apologised.

He had danced with someone else to make Penelope jealous and to admit her feelings, but he hadn’t considered that it would place her in this state.

Penelope looked down to hide her tears from Tyrion. "Why have you come?" She asked.

Tyrion placed his right hand under her chin to guide her to look at him. "It’s time we stop playing these games, Penelope. We both love each other. We have for many years, so why continue to deny it and put yourself in this state?"

"You are to be named king soon," Penelope answered.

"I have told you what I would do to be with you. That still stands," Tyrion said, taking hold of her left hand. "Run away with me. We can be married by the end of the night."

Penelope’s lips parted as she could not believe what he was suggesting.

Alessandra turned around, also surprised by the offer he made to Penelope. There was a lot of trouble which would come from these two running away to get married.

The trouble would start with their fathers, and then on Tyrion’s side, it would anger many people in the palace.

Still, Alessandra remained silent to let them figure it out for a moment. She was no stranger to running off in the middle of the night to get married.

Penelope laughed at first. "You cannot be serious. The palace will prepare your wedding."

"No, they will prepare a wedding for the future king," Tyrion replied.

"You," Penelope said, realising he was proposing more than marriage. "I already said that you cannot deny becoming king. They are expecting you to stand as king. You will lose everything if you do this."

Tyrion raised Penelope’s hand to kiss it. "I’ve already considered the consequences, and I am willing to go through with it. All that is left is your answer. Will you run away with me and marry me?"

"I," Penelope started, but her answer would not come out at first. "Will it be truly fine to leave the palace behind just for me? You are the only one who will be losing so much. I don’t want you to live with regret."

"The only regret I could have would be from pretending I want to be king and letting them pick a wife for me. I want this, Penelope. I will have no regrets if we spend the rest of our lives together," Tyrion said, eagerly awaiting her answer.

Penelope turned to her mother. It was all so sudden and a crazy thing to do with the crown prince, but Penelope was leaning toward leaving with him.

Penelope had already made one bad decision tonight, which left her enduring so much pain. She didn’t want to make another bad decision, which would make her lose Tyrion.

Alessandra looked at the pair, hoping they were not waiting for her to decide. She was still registering the fact that Tyrion had not only proposed, but he was also choosing to abandon becoming king.

It was something Alessandra heard Tobias wished he could have done, and now, his son was taking the chance to leave.

"Your fathers will not be pleased," Alessandra warned the pair. "Palace and Collins guards are waiting outside, so you won’t be able to leave peacefully."

"If I choose to go with him, will you accept it, mother?" Penelope asked, her mind already made up.

Alessandra had a very cloudy memory of the night she married Edgar. There had been a few people who tried to get in the way of it, and if they had succeeded, terrible things would have happened to her.

Alessandra wished for her children to have a peaceful time preparing their weddings, but she should have known better.

"I cannot pretend that I am completely happy, nor will I lie and say your lives will get easier once you marry. You will face much criticism and judgment. You will face many questions about why it was rushed. Still, if this is what you want, I will stand by you," said Alessandra.

"I only ask that you tell your father," Alessandra said, since it would be difficult to get past the Collins guards. "That is, if you are going with the prince," Alessandra said, reminding Penelope she hadn’t given Tyrion a proper answer.

"It is what I will do," Penelope replied, facing Tyrion. "I will run away with you."