Page 56 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“Margaret—” Leo started.
“Good night, Your Grace,” Margaret said, ducking her head and leaving the kitchens, feeling Leo’s eyes on her as she went.
CHAPTER 14
Margaret chose her path through Devishire Mansion carefully the following morning. She avoided the breakfast room, where she might see Leo again. She avoided the hall outside her chambers for fear that she would see the girls. It would break her heart to leave them, knowing that Leo still did not have any idea what to do with them.
She sighed and gave the room another once-over to ensure that she had packed all of her belongings. Theresa had been generous enough to give her the dresses she had borrowed, knowing that she had nothing else to wear to meet her potential husband.
Just as she was shutting and locking the trunk, someone knocked politely on her door. It could not have been Leo, who would have simply let himself into her room without regard for propriety.
“Margaret,” Theresa’s voice called. “Open up. You have been avoiding me all morning.”
The truth was, Margaret had been avoiding Theresa just as much as she had been avoiding Leo. Her friend had been very disapproving of her trip to Olympus yesterday, even if Margaret did not give her all the sordid details.
Being a married woman, Theresa surely had an idea of what they had done in that library without Margaret having to speak it aloud.
With a sigh, Margaret knew she would not be able to avoid their conversation forever. If she were to live here in London, Theresa would be her closest friend, the closest thing to a sister that she had in this world. She could not alienate her simply because she was ashamed.
Margaret opened the door, and Theresa stepped inside. She took in the trunk in the center of the room, shut and locked.
“It seems you have made your choice official,” Theresa said with a frown. She reached out and took Margaret’s hand. “You do not have to do this. We can protect you from whatever he has planned for you.”
“But Ihaveto do this,” Margaret countered. “This is my fate. My father told me to run, to hide myself. I was foolish and reckless, going on one last adventure before I took my vows. I should have known?—”
“There was no way you could have known,” Theresa said. She reached out and stroked Margaret’s hair, soothing her. “None of this is your fault. You just wanted to live your life.”
“I should go.” Margaret looked at the trunk and sighed. “Would you do me a favor and call for your carriage? I would not want to use Leo’s. He must be quite cross with me.”
“I imagine that ‘cross’ is not the right word for what he feels.” Theresa frowned, but nodded. “I will go to the stables while you find a servant to carry out your trunk.”
“You have been a dear friend to me,” Margaret said, with tears in her eyes.
She had no idea if this would be the last time she would see her friend. Suppose her new husband did not allow her to make social calls?
“You are my sister, always,” Theresa said with a smile. And then she disappeared out the door to do as Margaret had asked of her.
Margaret looked both ways in the hall to make sure it was clear and walked briskly until she found a footman. After asking him to carry her trunk to the stables, she hurried out the back door.
She would wait in the stables so that she did not have to worry any longer about crossing paths with Leo. What he had done to her the night before was the most pleasant goodbye she could have dreamed of. She would never forget it.
But that was all it was—a goodbye.
As the servants readied Aaron and Theresa’s carriage and loaded her trunk into it, she struggled to resign herself to the life that awaited her. The driver steered the carriage down the drive while Margaret watched from the window.
The buildings and streets blurred past as they rode to the outskirts of London. She looked at the ladies in their finery, bustling around town on errands and to see the dressmaker for the season’s latest fashions.
Soon, she would have a husband of her own, perhaps even a title. Her life could be just as charmed as Theresa’s, she tried to tell herself. A husband chosen by her grandfather might not be the worst thing.
As she had told Leo, the Lord worked in mysterious ways. If this was what He willed for her, she would not fight against it. She would be brave and face the situation she found herself in.
The carriage pulled up to the estate, and she looked at the statues that lined the drive. It felt like another lifetime when she had come up to the door and run her fingers along the cool stone. If she had not shown up here then, would any of this be happening?
She could not say for certain.
The stable hands directed her to the entrance of her grandfather’s estate. A footman walked with her, neither of them speaking. He did not seem to be thrilled about working for the Earl.
Margaret wondered how she would feel, being under his thumb after all these years. She had never truly known her grandfather. In truth, she knew only enough to be frightened of him and what he could do to her as he had done to her mother.
