Page 28

“I know what she said. Sadly, your studies come first.” He attempted to soften his features, noting now how filthy the two girls were. Covered in dirt, that alone piqued his rage once more. “Before you see her, please clean yourselves up. It will not do to be covered in filth.”

Both girls looked to the duchess for confirmation.

“Go on,” she said. “The emperor has spoken.” She winked at them both and then pushed them along. “I promise we will play again soon. I still must teach you both how to be better at hiding, don’t I?”

“You promise?” Adeline asked.

“Just try and stop me.”

The two girls giggled at the response but then turned serious when they caught Magnus watching them. They bowed their heads and hurried past him, properly chastised, a state of being that Magnus took no pleasure in.

Only once they were out of ear shot, did he speak again.

“I wish you would not make me out to be the bad guy,” he said.

“Then you should not act like it.”

“I am not --!” He started to snap, again forced to catch his tongue. “I only want what is best for them.”

She scoffed. “And what do I want? To ruin their lives?”

“I did not marry you to be their friend. I married you to raise them in the ways of theton, to be a mother.”

“Which is what I am doing,” she shot back. “If I am to help rear them, they need to trust me. And if they are to trust me, they need to like me.”

“Liking you has nothing to do with it.”

“I disagree.”

“And why am I not surprised.”

She was unlike any woman that Magnus had ever met, and never before had that been more apparent. Oh sure, when they had first met, she was hostile and argumentative, but he had written that off as nerves and embarrassment. Clearly strong willed, he did not think she would be so... so... so obstinate.

Worse still, nothing he did or said seemed to have an effect on her.

Magnus attempted to stare her down, standing over her as if to force her to bend to his will. He decided immediately that this was a bad idea as not only did she stand up to him, but it forced him to look at her properly, something he had been avoiding doing since the previous evening.

He nearly gasped when he met her dark eyes. When his own flicked down to her pouty lips. When he then searched a little lower, gazing briefly at her covered bosom which struggled mightily against the confines of her top. She was quite short compared to him, all curves, a soft body that with his blood boiling as it was, he wanted nothing more than to get his hands on and --

No! Do not become undone. Do not let her get to you.

“I appreciate what you are doing,” he said evenly, forcing himself to look into her eyes and not at her chest and body and lips. “But you must understand why I do not wish the girls to be outside playing like this. It is... it is unseemly.”

She frowned. “It is nothing of the sort.”

He groaned and he felt his pulse rise. “Why must you argue?”

“I do not do it on purpose. Only when I disagree... which seems to be often,” she added with a smirk.

“Women of the ton should not be out playing, covered in dirt. That is a man’s business.”

“They are not women. They are little girls. And if they remain cooped up indoors all day, they will grow to be lifeless bores that resent you. Surely, you do not want that?”

“I think you are being a tad over dramatic.”

“You will just have to trust me.”

He snorted. “Would that I could, Duchess. But so far, you have given me no reason to --”