Page 4 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity (Ton’s Beasts #2)

Leo sighed. Hosting this club was fraught with challenges, not the least of which was the beautiful little nun who was standing across from him. When she heard the knock on the door, her gaze flicked to him to see if he would answer it.

As if he would be able to ignore it.

“This is not an excuse for you to stay,” he told her.

When he opened the door, he found that it was not a member of the club, but rather a footman from his estate. That could only mean one thing: the girls were up to their usual mischief.

That was the last thing he had time for right now.

“Your Grace,” the footman said as he bowed his head. “The girls are missing. We cannot find them anywhere.”

“Again?” Leo pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut.

Ever since he had assumed guardianship of his nieces, they had been a constant source of trouble. The biggest issue was that they had a tendency to go missing at the slightest provocation.

“Again,” the footman confirmed.

“Girls? Missing? What did you do to them?” Margaret turned to face him, her eyes blazing.

She drew herself up to her full height and squared her shoulders, prepared to confront the Duke. Her hands curled into fists of their own accord.

Of course, after what she had witnessed here, she had every right to be alarmed. But this was nothing that concerned her.

“I have done nothing. Obviously, I was here with you, wasting my time.”

“You were wasting my time,” she corrected him, but he had already turned away from her to face the footman again.

“Did you search the kitchens?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“The sun room?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Under the staircase?” Margaret’s voice was an unexpected intrusion into the conversation, but Leo turned to look at her with curious eyes.

Immediately, she shut her mouth. Her jaw clenched, as if she were trying to hold in more words that she desperately wanted to say.

“No, Your Grace,” the footman said. “We did not look under the staircase.”

With another weary sigh, Leo extended his hand toward the little nun. He intended for her to take his arm so that he could escort her out, but she eyed him suspiciously. Her eyes narrowed, and she stiffened even more than she had when he asked her to leave.

Of course, he could not fault her if she did not want anything to do with the so-called Beasts of the ton. But he also could not let her go on such terms, not when she might prove to be useful in locating his nieces.

She did not take his arm, even after a long moment.

The footman looked between them, then averted his eyes.

Leo chose his footmen for their ability to keep their mouths shut, but for a moment, he wished he’d chosen less carefully. Let the footman deal with the little nun instead.

“You are coming with me,” Leo announced. “You did not want to leave the club and be turned out into the ton. Now, you will help me find my nieces if you wish to stay off the streets.”

Margaret understood that he was offering her an escape because her gaze softened, and she finally acquiesced. Her shoulders relaxed as she reached out and took his proffered arm.

Leo was almost startled by the heat of her touch—something that he was not used to. While he might host these parties at Olympus, he usually did not attend them. The ton kept their distance from him when they could.

Perhaps he was a Beast, after all.

He tried not to think about what it felt like to have the nun on his arm as they made their way out of the club and into the carriage waiting to take him back to Devishire Mansion.

Margaret looked relieved to see the carriage, and she hurried to scramble inside. Leo realized that she was truly nervous about the idea of being thrown out to the ton. He wondered what exactly she was running from that would have sent an innocent nun like her into one of his parties.

A nun-to-be, he reminded himself.

He climbed in after her and took a seat. Margaret avoided his eyes, which was fine with him. It gave him time to take stock of her, to marvel at her. Here she was, a nun at his book club who had somehow managed to catch his eye.

She was much smaller than him, but that was not hard when he was so much bigger than everyone around him.

The perfect size to wrap an arm around.

He had to force his arm to remain at his side instead of reaching out to touch her.

His eyes lingered on the swell of her chest beneath her simple gown.

It was nothing like the gowns of the ladies of the ton.

It was made of simple, cheap fabric, with no fancy detailing on the bodice.

He was surprised that Theresa would not loan her a gown so that she might blend into the ton better.

Her hair was braided the same way Theresa often styled her own long hair, likely because the same maid assisted both women.

But Margaret’s fiery red hair matched the glint of defiance he had seen earlier while escorting her out of Olympus.

Nothing as beautiful as that should be covered by something as meek and mousy as a nun’s wimple.

She had stumped him, truly. Had anyone else stumbled into one of his parties at Olympus, he would have thrown them out in an instant.

But Margaret stood there, staring at his guests with those large, brown eyes, as if she had never expected that two people might do that. Or that. Or most definitely that.

As a nun, perhaps she had not considered it.

Then again, she had also suggested that he could read those books to her. Surely, she could not be so innocent if she were willing to return to the party after seeing what went on behind the closed door of his library.

He looked at the shell of her ear and imagined whispering those words, his lips trailing down the line of her jaw to the delicate skin of her pale neck.

What would she taste like?

He shook his head, refusing to follow that train of thought. He had brought her with him for one purpose and one purpose only: to find his mischievous nieces in their various hiding spots.

Leo sat in the silence of the carriage, trying to tear his gaze away from Margaret. He was better off staring out at the streets rather than thinking indecent thoughts of the nun-to-be across from him.

While he relished the silence, Leo could tell that Margaret was discomfited by it.

He would not have thought that anything could make her uncomfortable.

Not when she stumbled into his book club, and definitely not when she stood up to him, concerned for his nieces’ well-being.

She squirmed in her seat as she turned to look out the window.

As they made their way to Devishire Mansion, she stared with wide eyes at all the estates they passed by.

“Have you never been to London?” he could not help asking her as they made the turn toward the estate.

She only shook her head, and the conversation fell flat.

The carriage trundled into the stables at the back of the property. As soon as the horses halted, Leo bolted out of the carriage. He paused only briefly to help Margaret step down, and then he was off toward the mansion.

“Stick close to me, please,” he said over his shoulder as he made his way inside the mansion.

Once they crossed the threshold where only the servants could see them, Leo took off running toward the staircase, hoping that Margaret could accurately guess where Annie and Kitty were hiding.

It would be a miracle if she knew where they were hiding without having to conduct a lengthy search of the entire estate from stables to chambers.

“Annie,” Leo called as he ducked his head beneath the stairwell. “Kitty!”

He breathed a sigh of relief when he found the twins huddled together beneath the stairs. They looked disheveled, their dresses dirty from the dust that accumulated in a space the servants often forgot to sweep clean.

Why should they think of cleaning where no one would go? Only Annie and Kitty would think to hide there.

And Margaret.

“What are you doing here?” He crossed his arms, demanding an answer from his nieces. “You have had everyone worried. The servants have been searching for you for Lord knows how long.”

The girls emerged from their hiding spot, but neither looked at him. Annie looked at Kitty with narrowed eyes, as if daring her to speak first. She reached out and took Kitty’s hand in hers.

In the end, Leo realized that he would not get a response from the girls. A deep sigh escaped his lips. He closed his eyes, trying to think what he should say to these two small girls who were left in his charge. Would they be so ill-behaved for their father?

Finally, he decided that the best thing for everyone would be if he did not lose his temper this evening.

Leo felt like he was constantly losing his temper with the girls. They had been in his care for only a year, but he was exhausted by them. He had never been a man who pictured himself having children when he returned from war, but they were thrust upon him when his brother passed.

They were pure and innocent, the perfect counterbalance to his relationship with his brother. He could not fathom not caring for them when they had no one else.

The mere thought of trying not to snap at the girls made him tired. He craved a glass of whiskey to take the edge off his irritation, to show the girls that they could trust him and stop these incessant games. But there was no opportunity to sneak off to his study tonight.

There were other things to be tended to tonight, namely the woman who trailed behind him. He had forgotten she was here until Annie and Kitty looked away from each other and cast curious glances at the mysterious woman with him.

“Girls, go to your beds,” he commanded.

He tried to assert more authority than he felt he had over them. Annie, in particular, was bound to stir up more trouble before the night was through. But for now, he would be able to return to Olympus and see to the end of his book club party.

Annie and Kitty kept holding each other’s hands, but they turned toward the staircase. Margaret waved enthusiastically at them as he turned to speak with her.

“See to it that my nieces remain in their chambers,” he said to a maid who happened to be passing that way.

“Yes, Your Grace,” she said with a small curtsy.

She quickly ran up the stairs behind the girls, no doubt worried that she would lose them if she did not physically witness them entering their chambers.

When the trio was out of sight, Leo looked Margaret up and down, assessing her once more. “How did you know where they would be?”

It was the only question that truly mattered. She had never met his nieces, and yet she was the only one who knew immediately where to find them. After a house full of servants had failed, this mysterious nun was the hero.

“I have hidden there before, Your Grace,” she said. He did not miss the sarcasm in her tone as she pronounced his title. “I know many places like that in a home. And in a convent.”

“Interesting,” he mused. He tapped his chin with one finger as he thought about his next move. “You may prove useful to me.”

Margaret turned pink and straightened to her full height, though she still came laughably shy of his towering stature. She put her hands on her hips. The jovial smile she gave the girls was long gone now. Her brown eyes were narrowed on him, and her mouth was set in a stern line.

“I am not here to be used by anyone!”

Her voice held a storm, but it did not frighten him. He wanted to laugh at her indignation, that this was the thing she found utterly inappropriate this evening.

“And yet you wanted to know more about those books, did you not?” He arched an eyebrow at her.

Leo made a great effort to suppress his laughter at her outright fury, and he took pleasure in the blush that crept up her cheeks, turning them from pink to flaming red.

“That was different,” she protested. “I had to…” she trailed off, biting her bottom lip.

From the nervous twitch of her hands and the way her gaze landed on the floor, he could tell that she wanted to defend her actions, to justify her presence at his party. But she did not trust him with the answer; he could tell from her hesitation and the way she did not answer his question.

And why should she trust him, of all the people in the ton?

“Hm,” he said, thinking of the opportunities he had at his fingertips. He settled on just the one he wanted and smiled at her. “Today is your lucky day.”

“I would not go quite so far, but do go on.”

“You are afraid of something. Or someone. I can make it go away until you return to the convent,” he promised.

Margaret’s eyes widened at the offer. Clearly, whatever she had been running from was scary enough that she would turn to him and consider his offer.

“How would you do that?” Her voice came out breathless, and he quite liked the sound of it.

“I will offer you my protection. There is just one tiny little thing I want in return.”

This was the sticking point of his offer, the thing that everything else hinged on. He would offer her protection, but only if she was willing to spend more time with him.

Leo told himself that he was being practical. But he did not entirely believe it.

He wanted to spend more time with this woman, who knew all the best places to hide in any estate, who had the red hair to match her defiant personality. He would have given anything for the right to run his fingers through those tousled waves and braids.

He wanted to know more about her: how she had learned to hide, whom she had hidden from. She was unlike any woman he had ever met, a woman who did not defer to him merely because he was a duke.

From the way her eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest, he knew his offer intrigued her.

“What is it?”

“Stay with me. Tell me all of your mischievous ways,” he said simply, gesturing toward the stairwell beside them. “As you can see, I have been having a difficult time with my nieces. It seems that you understand them better than I could ever hope to.”

“You must be out of your mind!” Her mouth hung open, her eyes wide with surprise at the implication that she might stay with him for even a brief period. “In a week, I will take my vows. I will belong to God! You cannot possibly think that—”

“And until then, you will belong to me.”