Page 20 of Her Duke Next Door
“I amnotyour wife!” she hissed. But then Hugh was on his feet just as a shadow fell over the door. He turned placid again.
“You are not, no, but you know my intentions, Mary. I would like to speak to you in private.”
Before she could react, he pulled her out of the open parlor and pulled her into another room that would have normally been a man’s study. He shut the door behind them and cornered her against the window. She struggled against him.
His smile grew. “You should stop resisting me, Mary. I shall leash your insolence into obedience when we marry. Until then, you will no longer ignore my advances.”
He came closer and closer, and Mary whimpered and tried to push him away.
* * *
“Whowasthat man?” Katie whispered as Eloise dragged her best friend out of the house and into the garden where they took up a spot beneath the oak tree. Katie had brought a ball with her and the two of them stood apart, throwing the ball back and forth.
“He claims to be my papa’s uncle,” she told Katie.
“Your papa?” she asked, her eyes widening. She missed the ball and it fell on her white buckled shoes. “Your…deadpapa?”
“Yes,” Eloise said, not feeling anything particularly horrible about the deceased part. She did not remember the man whom her mama had married. All she remembered was this house and its terribly empty hallways and her mama’s loneliness that she tried to hide. “I believe he wants to marry my mama.”
“No!” Katie cried. “Butmypapa is meant to be with your mama!”
“I know!” Eloise pouted. “Which is why we must save her. He is very cross with me, Katie. I was quite terrible to him.”
“Well, he looked nasty,” Katie muttered. “My papa would never be nasty with your mama.”
“I am quite sure he would treat her very well.” Eloise beckoned her friend closer, giggling. “I have already enacted one part of a plan but we must come up with something more.”
“What did you do?”
Eloise leaned in to whisper what she had done to her friend.
“Oh, Eloise! You are wickedandclever.” Katie giggled as she clasped a hand over her mouth. “Do you want to know what I did?”
“I do!”
“I was upset with my papa but I ignored him enough that he swore he would do anything to make amends with me. I told him the best thing he could do for me was let me visit you so he would be forced to spend time with your mama! He has been awfully distracted lately. I wonder if he is thinking of her.”
“My mama has been the same!”
“Do you think they are in love already?”
“That is definitely how it has worked.”
The two of them giggled before sitting down on the blanket. “I do think we are rather clever, aren’t we?” Eloise sighed. “And when they are married, and I have a new papa and you have a new mama, they will thank us. You know, they say adults can do everything on their own but I do not believe it. Without us helping, how would they have ever talked to each other? We are making their lives so much better!”
Katie clasped their hands together. “Not to mention that if they are married then my papa will never have to leave me again! He will stay to be with my new mama.”
“Agreed. Everybody shall be so happy and content.”
The two of them lay back on the ground.
“I have an idea,” Katie said. “We shall save your mama from that nasty man. I shall lead my father to the room where they are and have them be interrupted. My papa is strong. He shall fight him!”
The two of them giggled as they ran across the garden and scurried into the house, parting ways. Eloise went to hide while Katie went in search of her papa.
“Papa!” Katie cried, skidding into the room where Dominique waited to be greeted by Mary. He looked weary and smiled at his daughter.
“Yes, Katie? What is wrong?”
