Page 59 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“It is time you do your duty to me,” he said, leading her toward one of the men in the corner. “Need I remind you of how unpleasant this could be for you and your friends?”
Margaret wondered if she would ever be free again.
Leo had known that Margaret was departing for the old Earl’s estate this morning, but he could not bring himself to say goodbye to her. Instead, he allowed silence to fester between them, driving her faster into the arms of her dastardly grandfather.
After everything he had shown her, after she had begged for his touch at Olympus, how could she simply leave him like this?
He paced up and down the endless rows of orange trees. Even this place held memories of the first time Margaret walked into his estate, how she had asked him if he would hold a book club meeting while she was here.
And indeed, he had held a veryprivatebook club with her, despite how he had chastised her for asking such a question. The little nun-to-be had been nothing but surprising from the moment he laid eyes on her.
He sat at the base of the nearest tree and propped his elbows on his knees, holding his head in his hands. How was he going to move on from Margaret and what she brought out in him?
He had told Aaron he wanted to break her, but it seemed thatshehad broken him.
Leo groaned into his hands as he tried to think of a way out of the situation. He wanted to get Margaret back, but he could not simply waltz into the Earl’s estate and stake his claim on her. He had no intention of marrying her, so perhaps it was best that she find someone worthy.
He heard the little girls playing before he saw them.
Annie and Kitty were giggling as they ran around the orangery. At a distance, he could not tell which girl was which, but one leaped and grabbed a low-hanging branch of the nearest tree. She came tumbling down with more laughter.
The girls eventually saw him sitting at the base of the tree, and the laughter died on their lips.
Annie cautiously drew closer to him, Kitty trailing behind her. She paused in front of him, the first time her small frame had ever towered over her uncle. A frown creased her features as she stared at him. Finally, she asked the question that he knew the girls would eventually come to him with.
“Where is Margaret?”
Leo did not look Annie in the eye, but he could not bring himself to answer her. The girls were too young to understandthe intricacies of the ton, the way marriages and alliances were forged between families.
Even if he could force the words out, they would clamor for him to force Margaret’s return.
“She is not in her chambers,” Kitty said, as if Leo did not know.
“Will she come back?” Annie asked.
It was the one question that Leo wished he had the answer to. Surely, he could find a way to hasten Margaret’s return to the estate.
He could not bring himself to answer the girls. He merely shook his head, hearing Margaret’s voice in the back of his mind. She chastised him for not engaging with Annie and Kitty, for not talking openly with them.
But she was not here any longer, and he could not be the man she wanted him to be.
The girls finally realized they would get no response from him and left. Leo watched them walk back to the mansion through the rows of orange trees. Gone were their antics before they had spotted him. There was no swinging from branches, no laughter.
They would be heartbroken that Margaret was gone. To them, she was another adult who had left them behind.
How would he manage to parent Annie and Kitty if he did not know the first thing about interacting with them? He did not know how he would explain Margaret’s predicament to them or the role that he had played in it.
He buried his face in his hands and let out a loud curse that caused the birds in the tree beside him to scatter.
“I wondered if I would find you here,” a woman’s voice came from somewhere behind him.
He did not have to look up to know that his friend’s wife had come to tell him how he had failed her.
Theresa would have expected him to protect Margaret.
When he did not say anything, she came to stand in front of him. He looked up to find her standing with her hands on her hips, the gentle swell of her belly poking out of her small frame. Her eyes narrowed, and her brow creased as she studied him.
“How could you let this happen to Margaret?”
