Page 18 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)

Except this time, she was met with laughter.

She opened the wardrobe and found Annie and Kitty sitting inside, surrounded by their fancy dresses. The girls broke into wide smiles at being found by their new favorite person. Annie came tumbling out of the wardrobe first, followed closely by her sister.

“Girls,” Leo said sternly. “How many times have I told you not to hide from Joan?”

The girls bowed their heads. Kitty looked as if she were about to cry at the sharp reprimand.

Leo’s voice echoed in the cavernous chambers that the girls shared. It was the loudest he had yelled at them since he took over their care, in part because he was frustrated by how easily Margaret could deal with this.

What would he do when she returned to the convent?

“I have asked you again and again not to hide from the servants. How hard is it for you to follow orders? What rules would deter you from these antics?”

Leo ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair. He did not want to yell at the girls and become so frustrated with them, but he could not allow this to continue. They were running wild, and he knew they would not be doing this if his brother were still around.

“Perhaps we should increase your lessons,” he said sharply. “Or maybe you need a sterner governess.”

“Please do not send Joan away,” Annie begged, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I must do something, and you refuse to heed her. What other solution is there?” Leo pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to consider his options.

What he needed was a stiff drink and a good night’s sleep.

“I am certain the girls did not mean to be naughty. They were merely curious to hear about the opera. Isn’t that right, girls?” Margaret said, coming to stand between them and Leo. She bent down until she was at eye level with Annie and Kitty.

The two girls looked at her in amazement, as if she were the only one who could save them from their short-tempered uncle. Leo thought that they were likely right. Nobody else could cool his anger as much as she did.

“It was a lovely story,” Margaret said with a dreamy smile, detailing the parts of the play she had seen. “My favorite song went like this.”

With that, she opened her mouth and began to sing. It was more of a screech than a song.

Leo forced himself not to cover his ears. There had to be at least one flaw in a woman like Margaret.

He almost asked her to stop when the girls began to giggle. He had not anticipated that they would laugh so quickly after he yelled at them.

Margaret truly had a way with children, he realized. Her talent would go to waste at the convent.

“You’re not a very good singer,” Kitty interrupted.

Margaret stopped singing and looked at Kitty with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open in shock. Her eyebrows shot up to her hairline, as if this were the first time anyone had ever told her that her singing was terrible. She looked at Annie for confirmation, and Annie nodded.

“You should take singing lessons,” Kitty added.

“Why, you are so mean to me!” Margaret cried with a laugh. “I shall have to take revenge on you!”

She reached out and grabbed Kitty by the arm. Leo was shocked by the sudden movement, but then she tickled the girl’s sides until she shook free from Margaret’s grasp. Kitty took off running to the opposite side of the room, so Margaret made Annie her new target.

Margaret chased the girls around the room, never once expressing boredom with their game. She dove over the bed in her nice gown to get to the girls as they giggled and shimmied their way away from her.

“I’ll remember what you girls said,” she sniffed when the girls collapsed, exhausted from the game. “This is far from over.”

“You have had your fun,” Leo said. “It is time for all of us to go to bed. Can I trust that you girls are going to stay in bed tonight after your new friend took mercy on you?”

The girls nodded and sat up in bed.

“Let me help you into bed,” Margaret offered, turning down the duvet and patting the mattress.

Annie and Kitty frowned but did not protest.

Before the girls could climb beneath the covers, Leo found a reason to excuse himself. He stood by the door, waiting for Margaret to finish with the girls.

In truth, he was listening to what the girls said to her.

“Thank you,” Kitty said quietly. “Our uncle would have been so angry with us if you were not here.”

“Why do you hide from your uncle? Your lives would be so much easier if you went where you said you would. He would not get frustrated trying to find you.”

He did not hear the response, even as he strained his ears to hear Annie give a reason.

“I shall talk to him,” Margaret answered, her voice loud and clear. “Now, you girls settle in and stay there.”

He heard the rustle of the duvet being folded down and then the sound of Margaret kissing each of the girls goodnight.

She had such a way with the children. Not for the first time, Leo wished she would stay here for longer than one week.

He wished he had someone to help him with Annie and Kitty. Joan did not seem to be up to the task these days.

“Goodnight, Margaret,” Kitty mumbled. “You’re going to be a great mum.”

Margaret said nothing for a moment, but then Leo heard her inch her way to the door.

“But I won’t,” she muttered, just before she opened the door and found him standing outside.

He took in her pained expression at the fact that she would not have children of her own, but he was too annoyed by the way this scene had played out.

He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her down the hall. “Tell me how you did it.”

“Tell you how I did what?” Margaret asked, furrowing her brow. “I found the girls because I myself have hidden many times. But that is not news to you.”

“Not just that you were able to find them, but that you were able to make them laugh. To make them talk to you. They have hardly said twenty words to me since I moved back to Devishire Mansion.”

Margaret turned to face him, crossing her arms over her chest. Her chin jutted out defiantly as she narrowed her eyes and glared at him. He had clearly overstepped a boundary here, but he was unsure what he said or did to upset her.

“Well, have you tried being open with them?”

Leo took a step back from her, surprised by the turn in the conversation. He was the Duke of Devishire. Annie and Kitty were his nieces, and they were supposed to obey him. Margaret could read it on his face; he was not a man who was accustomed to people disobeying him.

She had learned that firsthand.

“Have you ever talked to them without them talking to you first? Have you ever told them anything other than your rules?”

“They must learn to obey,” Leo snapped. He raised a hand and pointed to the girl’s room, his voice rising. “They cannot run away and let everyone worry about their safety. Why do you not see that?”

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” Margaret said, stepping toward him and lowering her voice. “They want your attention. The only time you ever look for them is when they are hiding.”

She looked back at him, smug about the fact that she was right.

While she had not grown up in a mansion like this, she knew what it was like to want someone to find her. Someone to see her for who she was and to want to spend time with her.

Leo looked at her with annoyance, his brow furrowed. He did not want to admit that she could be right; it was written all over his face.

“Or maybe they are hiding from me because they are scared,” he finally said.

“You are not as fearsome as you think,” she snapped.

Margaret turned on her heel and headed for her chambers. She had done everything Leo wanted tonight: she went to the opera, she followed his lead in the carriage, and she found his nieces.

It was enough for one night.

“Maybe they are hiding, just as you hid from whatever made you ill tonight,” Leo called after her.

His words were just enough to penetrate the facade she had carefully constructed. She paused.

“It is not the same,” she murmured, before turning around.

“Is it not?” He shook his head and took a step closer to her. “I am a beast that went to war and returned a hero. Do you know what heroes are made of, Margaret?”

She held her breath as he closed the distance between them. He was just an exhalation away from her, his heat seeping through her gown. Margaret swallowed hard and forced herself to look him in the eye.

There was no chance she would let him know that he could scare her, that he could intimidate her like this. She was nothing if not stubborn.

“What?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Kills. Lots and lots of kills. Even my servants talk like that about me. Did any of you think that maybe, just maybe, I want my nieces to be comfortable? That this is why I do not force my presence on them?”

He was out of breath by the time he finished. He put a hand on the wall beside her, boxing her in so that she could not leave. It forced her to continue looking at him, to reckon with what he said. But she refused to be scared of him as he seemed so desperate for her to be.

“Even if you are a bit… intimidating, you are all they have left.”

“Intimidating?” Leo barked out a laugh. The word was harsh in his throat, as if it were hard for him to force out. “You have never been intimidated by me.”

“Yes, well, I have seen real monsters.”

Margaret softened a bit as she thought about Leo and the girls. She was here just for a short while. Was it enough for her to make a difference in the girls’ lives? They had to spend their childhood here while she was just passing through.

“You must promise me that when I go, you will spend more time with them,” she said softly.

Leo tilted her chin up with one finger, forcing her to look at him. His eyes were dark, and she could feel how intensely he looked at her deep in her belly. It was the same look he had given her in the carriage earlier.

“We do not speak of that,” he said, leaning in. His fingers trailed from beneath her chin up to her cheekbones, then down to her jaw.

“About what?”

“Leaving,” he said. “As long as you are here, you are mine. And that is all you should think about.”

Margaret felt a thrill run through her at being claimed by a man like Leo. She wanted him to touch her again, to make her feel the way he did earlier.

She wanted him to make her feel safe, even as he was painting himself as the antithesis of safety. He had promised not to let anything hurt her, but did that include himself?

“Or else what?” she managed to whisper.

“Or else I’ll make you forget about everything else.”

His lips were on hers, his voice a mere whisper. It was not exactly a kiss. It was a tender moment, one that Margaret had not imagined when he snapped at his nieces.

How could he be so gentle with her with all that anger inside him?

He dropped his hand from her cheek and turned around to head back to his chambers.

“Goodnight, Margaret,” he called over his shoulder.

She stared after him, her body craving his touch. He had been so close to her, his warmth seeping into her. How could he simply walk away when she felt like she would melt for the chance to touch him again?

When he was out of sight, she hiked up her skirts and went to her rooms. As she slipped out of her gown and into the loose nightgown she had packed, she climbed beneath the covers and tried to close her eyes.

What have I done?

This was not what she had pictured when she left the convent to visit Theresa in London. She would have to take her vows, having known a man’s touch and knowing what she would be missing out on for the rest of her life.

Margaret replayed the evening in her mind, finishing with the way he whispered against her lips. She would not be scared of him, no matter what he tried to tell her. She could not be scared of him, not with the way he lit her up from the inside out.

Surely, he could not be as beastly as he made himself out to be.