Page 38 of A Duke Changes Everything
Mercy, the man was taciturn. Too unpredictable. If he’d been this moody as a boy, perhaps it was why he’d been sent away. She’d resolved to be kind, to show him Enderley’s charms, yet the two of them seemed to begin each day at odds.
“The maze has been maintained, I see.”
Mina followed the direction of his gaze toward the enormous hedge maze that had been laid out by his ancestor nearly a century before.
“I’m afraid it’s rarely used.” With no master in residence and no parties or social events at Enderley, the winding avenues of neatly trimmed shrubs stood empty, unless Mina or a servant decided to take a stroll.
“Why not cut it down?” the duke asked emotionlessly. “Seems to do nothing but create work for the gardener.”
Mina bit her tongue, but she couldn’t keep silent. “I believe the maze was quite beloved by your mother.” And by Mina too. She’d spent many a day wandering its paths, enjoying its shade. When her father became irritable because the duke was in one of his black moods, the hedge maze had been a safe, quiet place to retreat to. “Of course, it’s yours now to do with as you wish, Your Grace.”
When she glanced back, the man had the audacity to smirk.
“Is that the game now? I set off your short temper and you call meYour Graceas punishment?”
“I’m not short-tempered,” she said as blithely as one could past clenched teeth. Then she began thinking of far worse punishments than using his honorific. Maybe mucking out the stables. The image of him stripped to his shirtsleeves, his skin glistening with sweat as he worked, distracted her for several minutes.
Mina stopped and turned to face him. “Is there nothing about Enderley you approve of?”
The duke studied her intensely, searching her face as if she held the answer. “Why doyoulove it so much?” he finally asked.
Not at all the question she expected, and one she didn’t anticipate being so difficult to answer. “I’ve known Mr. Wilder and Mrs. Scribb since I was a child. My father loved Enderley.”
“I asked about you. Not them.”
“Enderley is what I know.” Mina looked out across the fields rather than into his watchful eyes. His gaze followed her movements, steady and curious.
“You’re young, Miss Thorne. I suspect you could set your mind toward any number of pursuits.”
Mina glanced back at him, shocked by the sincerity in his tone.
No, not today.She couldn’t let him fill her head with fanciful nonsense about her adventurous spirit. She was supposed to be convincing him to do his duty, not allowing him to persuade her to abandon hers.
“Enderley is all I have, Your Grace. Not good breeding or a title, nor a proper education. And I’ve no plans to marry.”No prospects either.
Her cheeks heated despite the chilling breeze. He was the last man with whom she should be discussing anything as personal as a lack of marriage prospects.
“My father taught me that devoting oneself to Enderley is a worthy endeavor.”
In fact, he’d been so devoted that at times Mina feared he cared for the estate more than her. But that wasn’t why she and the new duke were standing atop three stories of old stones as a brisk wind whined across the parapet.
“Also,” she added, remembering her purpose, “the house’s architecture is beautiful.”
He quirked his lips and crossed his arms. “There are far finer country estates in England.”
“Well, I’ve never seen them.”
That earned her another twitch of his broad mouth. Not quite a smile. “Have you ever been outside of Sussex?” The question amused him far too much.
“No. I’ve rarely had any reason to leave.” He didn’t need to know that the old atlas in the library had been one of her favorite books or that she’d occasionally entertained childhood fantasies of running away to the city. Now a London man of business turned miserable duke thought her a simple country miss, and she told herself not to care. But his opinion did matter.
Stupidly, she blurted, “I went to Brighton once.”
That earned her a smile, but it was such a brief flash of white Mina wondered if she’d imagined it. “Still in Sussex, but lovely seaside. No doubt you went to enhance your freckles.”
The dusting of spots along her nose and cheeks snagged his attention, and the longer he stared, the more potent the heat that spread from her face to her neck.
“How did you find the seaside, Miss Thorne?” He looked her up and down, one brow peaked in curiosity. “Was the sand warm under your feet? Were you daring enough to venture out into the icy water? Somehow I suspect you were.”
