Page 7

" V ictoria, over here!"

Victoria laughed, turning toward the voice that had called her name. She believed it to be Edwina, though she couldn't be sure. The blindfold over her eyes made it surprisingly difficult to distinguish between Edwina's voice and Lavinia's.

Cressida was always familiar. Victoria heard the sound of her giggle and knew that she was to the left, but she kept her focus on Edwina just the same. In games of Blind Man's Bluff, she liked to ignore her sister until the very end. Cressida was always the easiest person for her to find.

"Victoria!"

Victoria laughed and took a few cautious, stumbling steps.

The friends had cleared the furniture to the sides of the room so that there wouldn't be much chance of tripping, but even so, it was difficult not to be cautious when playing this game.

Victoria was someone who liked to see what was in front of her, and it made her uneasy to be blindfolded—but she wanted to be included. She wanted to be able to play.

The room now fell silent, and she supposed that they were moving around on tiptoe, trying to disorient her. She paused, listening, trying to detect the sound of footsteps.

There! Someone was right behind her. She whirled, arms out, and caught the person by the shoulders?—

But something wasn't right. Those shoulders were much too high, probably a foot above her own. None of Victoria's friends were so tall, and she froze in alarm.

"What's the meaning of this?" a gruff male voice demanded.

The next thing Victoria knew, the cloth had been torn from her eyes and she was staring the duke in the face.

His cheeks were red with anger, his eyebrows pulled together, and now she understood why the room had gone silent.

The others must have seen the duke come in looking angry like this.

They must have been intimidated by his presence.

Well, Victoria would not allow him to see that she was remotely intimidated. She took a step back and held out her hand for the cloth that had been over her eyes. "You're interrupting our game," she told him.

"I don't recall saying that you could bring guests to the house."

"I don't see why I would need your permission to visit with my sister."

"It's my home. You should ask me before you bring anyone into it," he said firmly. "That's what I expect you to do going forward."

"Well, they're here now," Victoria said.

"They'll have to take their leave. I've had a very long day, and I'm not in the mood to entertain anyone."

"You don't have to entertain them. I'm entertaining them. Go back to your office. You've been there all day anyway. We don't require anything from you."

"No," James said. "I'm finished with my work, and I wish to sit in my sitting room. It's not a good time for company to be here."

"Victoria, maybe we should just go," Lavinia said.

Victoria's frustration knew no bounds. That he could just come in here and interrupt her socialization, send her friends away—it was a level of control she hadn't experienced since she'd come to live in this house, and it was something she had allowed herself to believe that she would never experience again.

It was maddening to have to deal with it now.

Yet at the same time, she knew that he was right about what he was saying. He did have the right to determine who was in this house. There wasn't really anything she could do about it.

"We'll meet again soon," she told her friends and sister.

"I'm very sorry about the duke's rudeness.

" It gave her some satisfaction to comment on his inhospitality right in front of him, even though he was probably too callous to feel anything about what she had said.

She was sure he didn't care whether he was perceived as rude or not.

He only cared about himself and about what he wanted.

And he had the nerve to worry about her reputation! It occurred to her now that he had quite a bad reputation himself—but then, gentlemen could get away with more when it came to public perception.

She stood and watched as her friends filed out, casting glances at her over their shoulders. Cressida was the last to leave, and she appeared downright worried as she went, as though she thought something unpleasant might happen to Victoria in her absence.

Victoria wasn't worried about that. The duke couldn't force her to marry tonight, and anything else that he could do to her was a mere inconvenience, not a real problem.

Or so she believed until they were alone.

Once the others had gone, he turned to face her directly, and he got right to the point. "You've got cats," he said.

"Yes," she agreed. Then a thought occurred to her. "Did you just realize that?"

"One of them was in my study."

"I'm sure it was Hades. He's the more curious of the two."

"Yes, Maxwell told me that it was Hades."

"Well, I'm pleased you met him." She kept her voice cool. She wasn't honestly that pleased about it. It wasn't good for Hades to have met the duke, but perhaps being in the company of a cat would soften him slightly.

"You can't have cats in this house," he told her.

Victoria blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"I think you heard me. You can't have cats here. I don't want cats in my home. You'll have to get rid of them."

"Well, that's ridiculous," Victoria said. "I'm not going to get rid of my cats. I love them."

"You can't love cats ."

"Maybe you can't. I can, and I do."

"I'm sorry to hear it, because they're going to have to go," the duke said. "I've made up my mind about this. We're not going to have cats in this house, underfoot, tripping me and nipping at my toes when I'm trying to work. You'll just have to put them out."

"They'll never survive in the wild, Your Grace," Victoria said. "They're house cats. They're used to having their meals provided for them, and the biggest thing they've ever fought is the occasional mouse. The very first fox they met would finish them off, if they didn't starve first."

"That's what happens to cats who are kept indoors," the duke said coldly. "They become soft. It's your own fault for making them the way they are."

"Well, I don't care what you think," Victoria said. "I'm not going to let the cats go."

"If you don't, I will."

"You can't think that will work. They know where their meals come from.

They'll return to the house, and I'll always let them back in.

You can't be watching the doors all the time.

You might put them out again, but I'll let them in again.

And I believe the staff will do the same thing. They like my cats."

The duke said nothing, but Victoria could see that he was seething. His hands were clenched into fists and his lips were pressed together in a fine line.

"You're being ridiculous," she told him. "You didn't even know they were here until today, so you can't act as if they're bothering you too immensely. Just go back to ignoring them."

"One of them was in my way today."

"He can't have done anything too bad. Hades isn't that mischievous. I'm sure he just took you by surprise." Victoria did her best to make her voice as conciliatory as possible. "Your Grace, you know that I'll be gone soon. You're planning to marry me off, aren't you?"

"You know that I am."

"So why not just wait? There's no reason to do all this. Before long I'll be gone, and I'll take the cats with me. You won't have to worry about any of us anymore. That way they won't have to die just because you don't care for them—and isn't that a better solution?"

She held her breath, hoping that he would accept.

If he pressed the matter, Victoria didn't know what she would do.

The only thing she knew for sure was that she had no intention of putting her cats out of the house to meet whatever grim fate might await them in the wild.

She would never do that to Hades and Persephone, no matter what the duke might insist upon.

If that was what he wanted, she would have to find a way around it.

He let out a sigh. "You know what?" he said.

"I don't care what you do. You have been a thorn in my side since I learned of my inheritance.

You've made me feel as if I can't live in this house.

I haven't wanted to come here, because I knew that you were here, and I didn't want to share quarters with you.

But then, once I made my peace with the idea of staying away and giving up what was rightfully mine, news of your reputation reached me and I felt I could no longer ignore the situation.

How could I, when the things people say about you were starting to encroach upon my ability to practice business? "

Victoria stared. She had known he wasn't fond of her.

None of what he was saying now truly came as a surprise.

And yet, to hear it all spoken at once like this, she felt a little shocked.

It was as if he was letting out everything he had disliked about her right from the start—as if she was getting hit with a flood of complaints about herself.

But Victoria didn't take his words to heart.

She stood up straighter, letting the flood wash over her.

"You certainly have allowed me to become a big problem for you," she said.

"If I were you, I wouldn't let other people take up so much space in my mind, but maybe you can't help it.

Maybe you're so preoccupied with me that you haven't been able to think about anything else. "

It had been an idle accusation, intended to provoke him more than anything else, but as she said the words, she saw his gaze fall to her lips and his jaw tighten.

Her heart missed a beat. Why was he looking at her like that? Her face heated up, and she wanted nothing more than to turn away from him so he wouldn't see that she was blushing.

She needed to distract him. Is that why you're allowing yourself to worry about my cats so much?" she asked him. "You don't mind that they're cats. You just hate that they're mine ."

The duke cursed. "I don't care what you do with your cats," he said. "Do anything you want, but keep them out of my sight, because if I cross paths with them again, I will throw them out of the house."

"I'll keep them in my room," Victoria said.

"See that you do," the duke growled. Without another word, he turned and stormed from the room, leaving Victoria staring after him.

That had been too close for comfort. She had very nearly lost her cats to the duke's selfishness. And now…well, at least she was being allowed to keep them. At least there was that.

She would have to work hard to make sure they didn't get out of her room, but she could do that. She would do whatever it took to keep Hades and Persephone safe.

But what she had no intention of doing was going along with the Duke's plan of a marriage for her.

She had told him she would do it in order to pacify him in the moment, but her plans had not changed.

She wanted nothing more than to get rid of him as quickly as possible, and she was more determined than ever to do whatever it took to make that a reality.

Still irritated that he had sent Cressida and their friends away, she headed off to find Hades and Persephone. She no longer dared to give them the run of the house. They would have to stay in her room for the time being.

But in the end, she swore, the duke would be the one to leave this house.