Page 73 of A Virgin for the Duke of Depravity
“But Ihavefound you.” Margaret smiled, turning around to face the two girls. “You were too impatient for me to come find you, and nowyouhave come tome.”
She took a step closer to the girls with a mischievous smile on her face. They took a step back from her instinctively.
“So now, I am going to catch you!”
Margaret picked up her skirts, abandoning the fruit to the grass. She took off running after the girls, who squealed and took to the game just as quickly as she had hoped they would.
“You will never catch us,” Annie called from a few steps ahead of her.
Margaret quickened her pace and let her fingertips brush the back of the girl’s dress. “You are just out of my reach,” she laughed.
She knew she could catch the girls if she truly wanted to, but they were young enough not to realize it.
She let them run and frolic, swinging from the branches of the trees as they taunted her. They ran through the rows of the orange trees until Margaret was flushed and out of breath.
“I surrender,” she called to the girls. “You are simply too fast for me.”
Annie and Kitty laughed, but they slowed down. They, too, were out of breath from running. Margaret sank to her knees in the thick grass and lay on her back, giving herself a moment to catch her breath.
Annie sat on one side of her, resting her head on Margaret’s chest, while Kitty took the other side. The girls were so calm when someone was willing to pay attention to them. Margaret vowed to do just that.
If she were going to continue avoiding Leo, she would have ample time to tend to Annie and Kitty.
“Shall we head into the kitchen for some punch and juice?”
“Punch is only for parties,” Kitty said with a frown. “Joan never lets us have punch because we cannot attend parties.”
Margaret gave them a conspiratorial smile. “If your uncle can drink whiskey whenever he wants, it only seems fitting that his wife can have punch. And I am willing to share with my two favorite girls. Come, let’s go inside.”
That was all the girls needed to jump up from their resting spot on the lawn. They raced to the mansion and through the back door, just as Joan was coming out.
“I have told you girls a hundred times to play inside,” she chided.
“It is my fault,” Margaret said, coming up behind them. “I have asked them to entertain me this morning. And now, I have offered them a drink.”
“Do they bother you, Your Grace?” Joan frowned at the girls, who were racing around the kitchen to procure three cups. “I am certain you would like to settle into life here. I can keep an eye on them.”
“That will not be necessary today,” Margaret said easily. “There is nothing I would rather do than spend time with them.”
“As you wish, Your Grace,” Joan said, excusing herself from the kitchen.
Margaret took the punch bowl and juice from the servants and ladled the drinks into the cups the girls extended toward her. She poured herself a glass and took the girls to the front sitting room.
Annie and Kitty sat primly on the settee, and Margaret sat on the armchair across from them.
“What are you girls doing in here?”
Margaret tensed at the sound of Leo’s voice. He had not seen her, only his nieces, drinking strawberry juice in the middle ofhis formal sitting room. The girls froze with their cups halfway to their lips.
Leo stepped into the room. Margaret knew the exact moment he had spotted her sitting across from Annie and Kitty. He stopped in the doorway, his gaze lingering on her for a beat longer than she would have expected. Her heart fluttered at the look he gave her.
But then his eyes darted away, almost as quickly as they had found her.
Does he really find me so abhorrent that he will not even look at me?
“The girls are not allowed in the front sitting room,” he said, his voice commanding. “And especially not with juice.”
“I invited them. They are being very careful with their juice. Aren’t you, girls?” She sat up straighter and looked at Leo, challenging him before adding, “Unless this sitting room is off limits to me, too?”
