Page 33 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)
Of course, the girls saw me lose my temper.
Leo paused and closed his eyes, thinking of how he would explain to two six-year-olds that he was frustrated with himself. With this situation that he found himself in, where he suddenly had a wife and nieces to take care of.
“It was not to my liking,” he finally said, turning to find Annie staring up at him.
“Your uncle has poor manners.”
He stiffened at the voice that came from behind him. Had he known that his outburst would be witnessed by his entire family, he might have decided to hold it together.
How juvenile throwing his food must have looked.
Annie walked around him and picked up the biscuit. She placed it on the table before walking over to Margaret, who offered her a hand. The little girl took her proffered hand, and the two of them left the breakfast room.
But not before Margaret cast a look at him over her shoulder.
Her warm brown eyes met his, and he felt heat ignite deep inside him. Leo wanted to follow her wherever she and his niece were going, whether that meant climbing trees in the orangery or hiding in the nooks and crannies of the old mansion.
Her glance back was quick, but it was enough.
When she turned around to head back to the kitchens with Annie in tow, he felt the emptiness of the breakfast room.
Leo sat down at the table, putting his head in his hands. He took a bite of the sausage that was on the table and chewed with vigor, trying to remember why he came down here in the first place. It would not be easy to learn to live with a woman whom he did not care to get close to.
Leo slammed his fist on the table so hard that the silverware clattered. This was going to be a long life if he could not control his thoughts around his new wife. How dangerous it was for him to get close to her—for both of them.
A Beast deserves to be alone.
And he would see to it that no harm came to Margaret—the real reason why he had married her in the first place. It would have to be enough knowing that she was protected here, even if he could never lay a hand on her again.
Margaret strolled through the orangery, enjoying the light floral fragrance that filled the warm air. Her skirts rustled in the breeze as she paced the rows, trying to locate the little girls.
Annie and Kitty were eager for her attention. Margaret had an inkling that they were desperate for attention from someone. Margaret, Joan, the cook—anyone but Leo. When she offered to play with them this morning, she knew it would be an all-day distraction from her husband.
She could hear their giggles a few rows down, but she paused for a few moments to prolong the game. The fruit on the trees was ripe, so she reached up and plucked the closest one from the branch. Pressing it to her nose, she inhaled the citrus scent.
She could not help but think of the first time she had been here.
It felt like a different lifetime when she was here to seek refuge from her grandfather, putting herself under Leo’s protection. A blush crept up her cheeks at the memory of asking him whether there would be a book club while she stayed with him.
Slowly, she peeled the rind off the orange and separated a small section from the fruit. Popping it into her mouth, she savored the bite of the citrus on her tongue.
“You are not supposed to eat the fruit,” Kitty called.
“You are supposed to find us,” Annie chimed in.
“But I have found you.” Margaret smiled, turning around to face the two girls. “You were too impatient for me to come find you, and now you have come to me.”
She took a step closer to the girls with a mischievous smile on her face. They took a step back from her instinctively.
“So now, I am going to catch you!”
Margaret picked up her skirts, abandoning the fruit to the grass. She took off running after the girls, who squealed and took to the game just as quickly as she had hoped they would.
“You will never catch us,” Annie called from a few steps ahead of her.
Margaret quickened her pace and let her fingertips brush the back of the girl’s dress. “You are just out of my reach,” she laughed.
She knew she could catch the girls if she truly wanted to, but they were young enough not to realize it.
She let them run and frolic, swinging from the branches of the trees as they taunted her. They ran through the rows of the orange trees until Margaret was flushed and out of breath.
“I surrender,” she called to the girls. “You are simply too fast for me.”
Annie and Kitty laughed, but they slowed down. They, too, were out of breath from running. Margaret sank to her knees in the thick grass and lay on her back, giving herself a moment to catch her breath.
Annie sat on one side of her, resting her head on Margaret’s chest, while Kitty took the other side. The girls were so calm when someone was willing to pay attention to them. Margaret vowed to do just that.
If she were going to continue avoiding Leo, she would have ample time to tend to Annie and Kitty.
“Shall we head into the kitchen for some punch and juice?”
“Punch is only for parties,” Kitty said with a frown. “Joan never lets us have punch because we cannot attend parties.”
Margaret gave them a conspiratorial smile. “If your uncle can drink whiskey whenever he wants, it only seems fitting that his wife can have punch. And I am willing to share with my two favorite girls. Come, let’s go inside.”
That was all the girls needed to jump up from their resting spot on the lawn. They raced to the mansion and through the back door, just as Joan was coming out.
“I have told you girls a hundred times to play inside,” she chided.
“It is my fault,” Margaret said, coming up behind them. “I have asked them to entertain me this morning. And now, I have offered them a drink.”
“Do they bother you, Your Grace?” Joan frowned at the girls, who were racing around the kitchen to procure three cups. “I am certain you would like to settle into life here. I can keep an eye on them.”
“That will not be necessary today,” Margaret said easily. “There is nothing I would rather do than spend time with them.”
“As you wish, Your Grace,” Joan said, excusing herself from the kitchen.
Margaret took the punch bowl and juice from the servants and ladled the drinks into the cups the girls extended toward her. She poured herself a glass and took the girls to the front sitting room.
Annie and Kitty sat primly on the settee, and Margaret sat on the armchair across from them.
“What are you girls doing in here?”
Margaret tensed at the sound of Leo’s voice. He had not seen her, only his nieces, drinking strawberry juice in the middle of his formal sitting room. The girls froze with their cups halfway to their lips.
Leo stepped into the room. Margaret knew the exact moment he had spotted her sitting across from Annie and Kitty. He stopped in the doorway, his gaze lingering on her for a beat longer than she would have expected. Her heart fluttered at the look he gave her.
But then his eyes darted away, almost as quickly as they had found her.
Does he really find me so abhorrent that he will not even look at me?
“The girls are not allowed in the front sitting room,” he said, his voice commanding. “And especially not with juice.”
“I invited them. They are being very careful with their juice. Aren’t you, girls?” She sat up straighter and looked at Leo, challenging him before adding, “Unless this sitting room is off limits to me, too?”
“You are a duchess,” he said, enunciating each word. “You are free to go where you please, both in the estate and otherwise. If the girls are in your charge, I will leave you.”
He turned and stalked out of the room just as suddenly as he had come.
Margaret felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. She might be a duchess now, but she could not have the one thing she truly wanted—her husband’s affection.
She turned her attention back to the girls, who were watching her carefully. Setting down her punch on the table in front of her, she gave them her full attention and asked them what they would like to do for the rest of the day.
“Are you avoiding our uncle?” Kitty asked.
Margaret hesitated before responding, “Why would you ask that question?”
“Because he seems to leave as soon as he comes in. It is how he has always treated us, but he has not done it to you since you came,” Annie said, downing the rest of her juice.
“We are not avoiding each other,” Margaret assured her.
The girls looked at one another, and Margaret wished she knew what they were thinking. They were more astute than she had thought. She and Leo would only be able to avoid each other for so long while Annie and Kitty roamed the estate.
They would have to be together soon enough.
And Margaret could not wait.
Leo should have known that Margaret would take up with the girls now that she lived at Devishire Mansion. On the one hand, he was grateful that the girls had someone other than Joan who knew how to care for them.
While Joan did an excellent job corralling them, she was getting older, and the girls grew more mischievous every day. With her back pain, Leo knew that it would not be long before she had to retire.
Margaret was a natural choice as their caregiver. That meant that he did not need to worry about Annie and Kitty, but it also meant that there were endless places in his home where he could not go anymore. In fact, the only place he could truly be alone was in his study at Olympus.
He decided he would spend the evening there, but there were a few things he needed to take care of at the mansion first.
First, he needed to contact the dressmaker to pay Margaret a visit and take her measurements. The Duchess needed gowns that fit her, not the old dresses that Theresa had outgrown as her pregnancy progressed.
He penned a note on parchment and sent it off with a footman.