Page 36 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“Joan, I will find the girls and put them to bed,” Leo said with a sigh. “Aaron and Theresa, you may retire to bed. Margaret, where are the girls hiding?”
“Have you checked Leo’s chambers?”
Joan shook her head. “I have never known the girls to hide in your private chambers, Your Grace.”
“Thank you.” Leo nodded curtly to Joan and motioned for Margaret to lead the way.
She practically skipped her way to the mansion and into the kitchen at the back. She checked the pantry and beneath the cook’s shelves on her way to the front of the house.
“I wonder where those naughty girls could be,” she sang out loud as she went.
She pulled open every door and ducked under every surface, including those that Leo did not even know existed. Finally, she walked into his chambers.
She peeked in the wardrobe, behind the bathtub, under the bed. The girls were nowhere to be seen.
“Joan told you they had never hidden here,” Leo reminded her.
“All the more reason to hide here now. You will never look in a place that you did not think to find them.” She shrugged and skipped out of the room. “My guess is that they are hiding in plain sight. Where is their room?”
Leo gestured down the stairs and led her to Joan’s quarters. Annie and Kitty were purposely kept close to their governess in the hope that she would have an easier time corralling them.
Margaret let herself into the room and looked around. “I wonder where those girls could be,” she mused again.
Except this time, she was met with laughter.
She opened the wardrobe and found Annie and Kitty sitting inside, surrounded by their fancy dresses. The girls broke into wide smiles at being found by their new favorite person. Anniecame tumbling out of the wardrobe first, followed closely by her sister.
“Girls,” Leo said sternly. “How many times have I told you not to hide from Joan?”
The girls bowed their heads. Kitty looked as if she were about to cry at the sharp reprimand.
Leo’s voice echoed in the cavernous chambers that the girls shared. It was the loudest he had yelled at them since he took over their care, in part because he was frustrated by how easily Margaret could deal with this.
What would he do when she returned to the convent?
“I have asked you again and againnotto hide from the servants. How hard is it for you to follow orders? What rules would deter you from these antics?”
Leo ran a frustrated hand through his dark hair. He did notwantto yell at the girls and become so frustrated with them, but he could not allow this to continue. They were running wild, and he knew they would not be doing this if his brother were still around.
“Perhaps we should increase your lessons,” he said sharply. “Or maybe you need a sterner governess.”
“Please do not send Joan away,” Annie begged, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I must do something, and you refuse to heed her. What other solution is there?” Leo pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to consider his options.
What he needed was a stiff drink and a good night’s sleep.
“I am certain the girls did not mean to be naughty. They were merely curious to hear about the opera. Isn’t that right, girls?” Margaret said, coming to stand between them and Leo. She bent down until she was at eye level with Annie and Kitty.
The two girls looked at her in amazement, as if she were the only one who could save them from their short-tempered uncle. Leo thought that they were likely right. Nobody else could cool his anger as much as she did.
“It was a lovely story,” Margaret said with a dreamy smile, detailing the parts of the play she had seen. “My favorite song went like this.”
With that, she opened her mouth and began to sing. It was more of a screech than a song.
Leo forced himself not to cover his ears. There had to be at least one flaw in a woman like Margaret.
He almost asked her to stop when the girls began to giggle. He had not anticipated that they would laugh so quickly after he yelled at them.
